When her chest finally expands with breath, I let out a choked sob.
“Oh, beloved. You didn’t think I’d kill one of my most promising test subjects, did you? But you see, she was trying to use her affinity against us. We haven’t perfected the collars yet, but we will. So much more elegant than blood magic, wouldn’t you say? Once the final spell is in place, the wearers will have to obey, unable to do anything but follow orders. Until then, omegas who disobey will be punished.”
“You electrocuted her!”
Rad looks at me, false sympathy lining his face. “It had to be done. When your kind only responds to pain and suffering, we must inflict pain and suffering upon you. How many times must I tell you? Omegas that don’t obey must be punished.”
Omegas like Blair.
Omegas like me.
* * *
I’mnumb the entire ride back to Fairhaven, too lost in the morass in my mind to try to remember the turns the limousine takes. I lose all track of time as we take winding turn after winding turn, before we’re ferried from the mainland back to Deer Island.
I don’t so much as stir until Rad helps me from the limousine, not even flinching when he presses a kiss to my cheek, his acrid scent stinging my nose. It clings to my skin, poisons my senses.
Willow takes my elbow and guides me through the academy’s gates to where Marcus is waiting for me.
She leans in close, and I just catch the way her scent sharpens—in fear? Concern?
“He’s showing results, Juniper,” she says. “I won’t be able to protect you for much longer.”
* * *
I don’t speakas Marcus escorts me back to my cottage. I can’t.
I’m numb and powerless, little more than a husk, like the demure omega I saw collared in her cell.
I trudge through the wards around the omega residences, feeling the warm buzz of them against my skin, and when my cottage comes into sight, the dam breaks and I let out a sob.
Ian, Luca, Simon and Cassian are all standing outside my cottage, waiting for me.
Ian takes one look at me and sweeps forward, enveloping me in his arms. “Oh, my darling. You’re safe now.”
“No one is safe,” I murmur, clinging to him as my knees give out. He picks me up and carries me bridal-style into my cottage.
Luca and Simon disappear up to my nest and grab everything from it they can, bringing even the massive mattress downstairs. They shove all the furniture out of the way and throw the nest’s mattress to the floor.
Ian carries me upstairs while they arrange blankets and pillows around the nest. He sets me down on the edge of the tub and starts the shower. “Let’s get that bastard’s scent off of you. He touched you, didn’t he?” He drops his face to my neck and sniffs, his nose wrinkling when he catches Rad’s scent. “Saints, he touched youhere?”
“He tore off my tracker charm,” I utter as he tests the heat of the spray before turning it hotter.
“Do you need my help?”
He hovers over me, unsure, and I shake my head.
“Just stay here with me?” I ask, standing. I turn, and he unzips my dress for me, helping me out of it. I strip slowly, still numb, and don’t feel a thing until I step under the shower’s hot water.
When the steaming water hits my skin, every terrible feeling comes crashing back to me, breaking me out of my numbness. I sob, throwing out a hand to catch myself against the stone wall of the shower before I collapse.
Ian swears, quickly undresses and joins me in the shower, wrapping his body around mine just as I crumble. He helps me down to the floor of the shower, cradling me in his arms as I weep.
The shower washes away my tears, but they keep coming, as hot as the shower spray against my cheeks.
“He’s succeeding,” I finally manage, my words all but swallowed up by the hiss of the shower. “He’s succeeding, and my father is going to let him mate me and when he does—when he does?—”
I let out a wail and then I hear boots on the stairs, and suddenly Luca is in the bathroom with us, kneeling in front of the shower, hand pressed to the glass door. He pulls it open and takes my hands in his, not caring that he’s getting soaked.
