“Sore,” the other omega admits.
“I’ve got a spell for that, if you’d like.”
She nods vigorously and pulls up her shirt just high enough to reveal the bruising. I cast a spell I’ve cast a hundred times since Doc taught it to me in Restorative Magic.
The moment Graeme and Jack burst into the room, Graeme drops to his knees beside Cora and takes her hand in his, not zapped by her out-of-control magic. Either her control has drastically improved, or she’s fond of the two alphas who crowd around her.
“Give her some air,” I admonish them. “She just woke up, and she’s still healing.”
“I need to explain and apologize,” Cora insists, sitting up with Jack’s help. “Juniper, I spied on you and your beta. I found the coordinates, got a map at a gas station and made for them. I knew I could search the area faster than Simon could do whatever it is he does with his computer. I found the facility and laid low. I saw people in masks coming and going from it, and then I saw your father, Juniper. I recognized him from an old TV interview. Like an idiot, I triggered the alarm after finding out it was a medical facility, so I can’t tell you what was going on in there, only that they had omegas in cages. They’ve taken them now,” she says quietly.
“I know,” I say softly. “But we’re going to find them. I promise you.”
“They had them collared, and the collars were active. None of them could escape or use their affinities when theywere loaded into vans. I… I wanted to follow the van, but the hex… And I didn’t dare come back to the castle for fear that I’d be followed somehow.”
“You did the right thing,” Jack assures her. “You stayed safe until we could find you.”
“I knew you would,” Cora admits, ducking her head. “I knew you’d do whatever it took.”
Jack strokes her cheek, and she looks up into his eyes, the smallest smile gracing her lips.
“Thank you, Jack. Graeme. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Marcus and I take that as our cue to leave. We gather my pack from the kitchen where they’d been taking turns catching a few minutes of sleep and make for the pack house.
When we finally get back to the pack house, I pause on the stairs up to my nest, looking down at Marcus. Should I invite him up with the pack? Would that be weird?
Ultimately, I bid him goodnight and disappear into my nest, going immediately into Luca’s arms, layering his scent over Marcus’ pine and winter winds.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Girl,go,” Aimee says to me as I’m helping Ian watch the omegas as they practice their casting. “We can all smell it on you. Your heat’s approaching, and you should be with your pack, not here with us.”
I shoot her a peevish glare. “I’m going to work until I can’t anymore, and I still have days before my heat.”
“You need what none of us can give you,” the blonde omega singsongs.
She means knots—and lots of them. I’m looking forward to my summer heat, to reconnecting with my pack, breath to breath and skin to skin, our scents melding into one that’s so perfectly pack.
“Unless you pass your heats like one of us,” Aimee says, scratching at the back of her neck. “I’m due for my first in a year, and I’m pretty nervous. I skipped them back in the collar facility because of all the stress, so I’m sure this one’s going to be a doozy.”
Many of the omegas are in a similar position, having heats for the first time since stress put them on pause. Finally, they have somewhere safe where they can nest andbe cared for—a must for a healthy heat. Mai’s been helping them through the worst of their heat symptoms with sedatives and pain-relieving spells, but the omegas have also been helping each other. They use their newfound magic to cool cloths to put on the feverish omegas in heat, soothing the fire coursing through them. Still, others prefer relative privacy, which I understand. The only people I want around during my heats is my pack, something most of these omegas lack. I don’t know if any of them were packed up prior to being trafficked into the collar facility or the Omega Rehabilitation Center, but it’s something most of them don’t talk about much. Their pasts are too painful to relive, the hopes of reconnecting with their packs too much of a long shot in this climate of war.
“Phew, your scent is strong, Junie,” Cora says, hobbling toward me. “What are you even still doing here? Go get laid. You’ve got the pack for it.”
I narrow my eyes at her, though I’m secretly glad to see her around the other omegas.
The only person I’m not glad to see around the other omegas? Ian.
Something about seeing him working with the omegas chafes in a way it hasn’t before. My own work forgotten, I watch him circulate among them, correcting their spellwork and commending them on jobs well done. It shouldn’t bother me. It really shouldn’t, and yet…
And yet I stomp from the great hall into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea, glaring into it as it steeps. I snap at anyone who comes close, and they all give me grace I don’t deserve.
Most of all, Ian.
“My darling? You’re troubled. What is it?” Ian asks, peering into the kitchen before coming to sit down across from me. He takes my hands in his, concern in his brightblue eyes. Of course, he felt my frustration and agony through the bond. He drops my hand and presses the back of one of his hands to my brow.
“Ah.”
