Safe?
“Safe,” I promise. “I know an omega healer who might be able to help you. Or maybe I could help train you to control your affinity. I know this is scary, and you’ve already had to be incredibly brave to make it this far on your own, but can you be brave for me just a bit longer?”
She hesitates and then finally nods.
Bind my wrists.
I startle. “No, we’re trying to free you, Cora.”
I can’t be safe if I’m hurting others. They… they retaliate.
“Just for now, then, okay? I’m going to draw my scribe and I’ll cast a binding spell. Then we’ll get you out of here. We’ll take you somewhere safe.”
She nods and I approach her slowly, pulling my scribe out of my pocket as she holds her hands out in front of her.
I cast the spell to bind her hands, and she lets out a relieved sigh, her shoulders slumping. Saints, I want to hug her, but I don’t know if it’d be safe—or welcome.
“You can ride with me and my pack to the safe house, okay? I’ll sit in the back with you.”
Thank you, Juniper.
I give her an encouraging smile, and together, we take the first step out of her cell. She looks around, wary but curious, and then falls in step beside me, and after that first step, we take another, and another, until we step out into the frigid February night.
Free. All the omegas in the facility are finally free.
Except for one.
Except for Blair.
But with the saints as my witness, we’ll free her too.
CHAPTER38
I’m half dead on my feet by the time we get Cora and nine other omegas settled into one of Graeme’s safe houses. It’s a tight fit—tighter still because Cora refuses to share a room with anyone—but there’s a sort of camaraderie developing between the omegas. Every omega the resistance rescued wears a collar, and while none of them are able to speak, they communicate well enough through tentative smiles.
I yawn and slump against Ian, who rejoined us outside the facility. A semi-mute Nathan Wickman sits at the dated laminate kitchen table, giving both Graeme and Jack helpless shrugs.
My alpha wraps his arm around me, and I nuzzle him, drawing his scent into my nose. It’s an immediate comfort, but not enough of one. I want, more than anything, to get my men home and into my nest so we can sleep away the rest of the weekend, but we have too much to do.
“I’ll work on figuring out what kind of spell is silencing him,” Ian tells the others with a yawn. “And I’ll see what I can do with what Juniper found out about the collars. Nathan doesn’t have the whole spell, which was a wise move on Radcliffe’s part. But it’s a start.”
“Remarkable work, Miss Rose,” Graeme says, putting the kettle on for tea, and I wonder, sleepily, if he keeps a kettle at every safe house.
“Truly,” Jack agrees. “Weird as hell only hearing half the conversation, but I think I caught the gist of it. Ah, and of course, your secret is safe with me.” He looks out to the living room where two omegas sleep side by side on an air mattress. “All of their secrets, too. I’m going to reveal the atrocities Radcliffe Industries has been committing to the world, but I’ll be leaving names, faces, and affinities out of it. These young women have suffered enough.”
Alena comes into the kitchen and swats Jack. “Keep it quiet, Jackie boy. The girls are trying to sleep.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the journalist says, giving the beta woman a cocky salute. “I should be going anyway. I’ve got footage to start splicing together.”
“Sleep first, for goodness’ sake,” Graeme insists.
Jack just gives him a good-natured shrug.
“I’ll get my footage uploaded for ya before I hit the sack,” Alena says. “I want to make sure all the girls are okay before I do, anyway.”
“You’re a very good and very scary woman, Alena,” Graeme says, but the beta just grins.
“World needs more good and scary women like us, huh Juniper?” She offers me her fist, and I give it a solid bump.
