“I didn’t realize you got hurt,” she says, wide eyed.
“See, it’s because you weren’t paying attention,” he teases.
Caelia giggles with a shrug, and Levon and I lean in to drink in the sound. It’s so carefree and light. I’m getting the impression that she doesn’t often get to feel like that.
“I have an odd question,” Levon grumbles suddenly. “Why do you smell funny?”
Miles smacks him behind the head as Caelia tries to figure out what he means.
“I can barely smell your scent,” I add on Levon’s behalf. “I think that’s what he means.”
“I wear a descenting spray,” she says, relaxing slightly. “It’s almost become my safety blanket. My dad says I’m hiding.”
“Do you feel as if you need to?” Miles asks, nudging her water in her direction.
Caelia gives him a bemused look, but cracks the bottle’s seal regardless and takes a sip from it.
“With my experience of what my scent does to alphas, yes,” she says.
“I feel like we can’t get to know each other without understanding your past,” I sigh.
“You didn’t tell them?” she asks Miles.
“It’s not my place to say anything,” Miles says.
“Oh.”
“I wasn’t there,” he reminds her. “I’d like to know so that I don’t have to speculate.”
Caelia worries at her bottom lip with her teeth, and I want to pull it away so she’ll stop torturing herself. I don’t know her well enough though, so I take a bite of my sweet treat so I’ll keep my hands to myself. Levon squeezes my thigh, making me realize he can probably feel some of my pain.
Caelia glances at the counter, but it’s currently empty when I twist my body to follow her field of vision. Turning back, I give her my full attention.
“I presented as an omega the night before a hockey game,” she says softly. “Everyone on the team could smell me, which is why they played like shit that night. I was eighteen, and I had talked through what that meant with my dad. We didn’t think about my scent.”
“You can’t make people play like shit,” Levon rumbles as we gaze at her. “We’re trained to play even when the entire stadium is empty or they’re all booing at us.”
“That’s what they told me, and they did play like shit. Sorry, Miles,” she says.
“No, it’s true. I heard them complaining as we were playing, but I was focused on what I was doing. I didn’t think anything of it, and ended up leaving in the middle of Coach yelling at us. My nose was a mess,” Miles says.
Caelia takes a deep breath, her eyes moving over each one of us as if she’s trying to commit what we look like to her memory. I want to tell her we aren’t going anywhere, no matter what she tells us.
It’s too soon for those types of declarations.She also likely won’t believe me.
“Anyway, while I was on my way to Dad’s office after the game, someone pulled me into a supply closet,” Caelia explains, her eyes on the table. Unthinkingly, I hold out my hand and she slips her much smaller one into mine. “There were two players waiting inside, and they… raped me.”
Even though my mind has been trying to figure out what happened to her without any further information, I still physically flinch as if she hit me. Levon growls under his breath, while Miles’ chest seems to vibrate to soothe our omega.
“One of them alpha barked me into not being able to speak,” she says, a tear sliding down her cheek. Her fingers tighten around mine, and she gasps in a breath.
“Easy, baby,” Miles whispers. “You’re not with them.”
I want to know who did this to her, but I have a feeling she’d have used names if she had wanted to.
“Your dad found you?” Miles asks. “Is that what happened?”
“I still don’t know how,” she rasps. “There was a player at the door, and he was supposed to distract everyone else from stopping. He tried to stop my dad, but that didn’t go well. Dad must have used the player’s head as a battering ram before tossing him away.”
