Ikick off my heels and stagger up the stairs, fall before the toilet and lose every single sip of champagne I swallowed. It burns up my throat and I cough until I cry, cry until I retch again.
Then Ian’s at my side, bergamot blotting out the scent of blood I can’t get out of my nose, the bitterness of the bile I’ve just thrown up. He strokes my back until I quiet and I fall into him, weeping when he takes me into his arms and rocks me softly.
“Oh, my darling,” he sighs.
“Rad was using blood magic.”
“Saints, that’s… blood magic hasn’t been used in hundreds of years.”
“The Soldiers are controlling omegas with it,” I say dully. “Through mating bonds. Rad was controlling everything Trinity did. I only… I only caught glimpses from him but the chaos in Trinity’s mind, the pain. It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt.”
“The ember must connect them,” he realizes with a shudder. “Fuck, I’ve been so blind. But, my darling, you were so brave.”
“I couldn’t save Trinity. I broke Rad’s control but… but…” I shake my head and nuzzle into his shirt, dragging soothing, spicy cedar into my lungs.
“You did that?” he breathes and every other emotion but his pride, his adoration, falls away. I let it lull me, let it wear down the sharp edges of my panic, my pain.
I nod against him. “I was in her mind, fighting against Rad’s magic. I broke his concentration just long enough to overpower him. To free Trinity. But she… she…”
I hiccup around a racking sob and then wail.
Because Trinity Wells killed herself and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
He holds me until I quiet once more, then helps me to my nest. He strips me of the foul, collared dress, disgust in his eyes.
“He made you wear this, didn’t he?”
I nod dully. “Under threat of Trinity’s death.”
“I wanted to rip it off you the moment I saw it,” he growls. “The thought that any alpha would darecollaryou…” Alpha power crackles through him, making his broad shoulders seem even broader, making him seem bigger, more powerful.
He helps me dress in a tee shirt and soft cotton shorts and then I’m in his arms. He bundles me into my nest, holding me as if he’s afraid I’ll disappear in a puff of smoke.
“Will you stay with me until Marcus gets back?” I ask, my voice small.
He holds me tighter, alpha instincts riding him hard. Protectiveness courses off him along with fear, pride, love. His purr roars to life and I feel his shock as much as I see it in his wide blue eyes.
“I’ve never…”
I nuzzle into his chest where his purr is the loudest, feeling the reverberations of it through my whole body. Saints, it’s like a drug, sending a calm numbness through every inch of my body.
Never mind that Ian said he couldn’t be my alpha; his purr is a claim of its own. It draws me out of my head, away from the sharp shards of panic and the dark morass of guilt that threatens to drown me. His purr washes it all away—for now.
“You may have trouble getting rid of me,” he admits. “I don’t think I could let go of you now, even if I wanted to.”
I curl closer. “You were hexed. I can look at it for you, bespell you to relieve some of the pain.”
“It smarts a bit, but I’ll be fine. It barely caught me.”
“It was chaos in there,” I murmur. “After… after Trinity shot herself. Saints, what does Radcliffe even have to gain from what happened tonight?”
Ian tucks my head beneath his chin. “That was a warning. A showing of what the Soldiers are capable of. Of what’s to come.”
“They want to crush omegas beneath their heels. Make us slaves and breeders once more.”
“That’s my fear.”
“And Rad wants to start with me.” I go still in Ian’s arms, though the predator who would hurt me, who would hunt me, is nowhere nearby. “He could control me, my affinity… With that he could… he could…”
