“You don’t think she left?”
I belt out a laugh. “Gage, that woman wouldn’t leave here just because you put your foot in your mouth. For one thing, we’ve given her the first real home she’s had in who knows how long. For another, Em’s still too injured to go fight Sneed, so she has no reason to run off there yet.” I pat his shoulder and help him up. “Come on. Most likely she’s in Grand Central Station.”
“Grand Central–?”
“The nest,jefe. That place gets more action these days than even the kitchen.”
Chapter 37
Auryn
I lay in my nest, basking in the warmth stoked between my alpha and my beta. Mine. The word feels strange, because nothing’s really ever been mine. I barely remember my life before the cell. Before Sneed took me and made me his.
But I was never his. He was never my alpha, just an alpha. A bad alpha.
He poisoned me in so many ways, not all of them just physically.
When I saw Gage, Olly, and Diego that day I’d managed to escape, something shifted. In me, in the natural order of things.
Because I’m not just an omega, like I thought.
I’m an alpha. Like Emmett and Diego. Like Gage.
But I’m not sure I know how to be an alpha. I was never very good at being an omega, either but…
Almost as if he can sense my turmoil, Olly pulls me against his chest. He mutters something under his breath that sounds like a bunch of words mashed together. “Love” is the one that stands out, next to “you.”
And then I hear voices outside the door. Outside my nest. My body stiffens, bracing for the terror I can’t quite escape, even though I thought I had.
They’re here. Sneed and his bastards are here to take you away. He’s come back to take what belongs to him…
Except when the door opens, it’s not Sneed or his knotless alphas. It’s Gage, being shoved in the room.
“Fix it,jefe.”
I sit up. Olly groans, his hand over my hip falling a fraction to my stomach.
“Gage…” I say his name carefully, feeling strangely apprehensive. Gage’s gaze roves over me, and I suddenly feel self-conscious as he trails it down over my breasts, down to where Olly’s hand rests.
“Are you okay?” Olly mutters sleepily.
“I’m not sure,” I whisper, unable to take my own gaze off the alpha in my doorway. There’s a conflict in me. I want to whine, but I also want to growl. Olly shifts beside me but otherwise doesn’t move.
“Can we…?” Gage’s voice warms the cold space between us, and I both hate and love how it sparks a fire in my soul. “Can we talk?” he asks carefully. I tense as insecurities I haven’t felt in a long time arise. Not since I started getting my shots from Sneed. The shots Olly says made the omega part of me and may never go away…
“Talk to him,” Olly murmurs against my back.
“I—” I try to speak, but it feels difficult. The way Gage is looking at me makes me feel on edge. I worry this is it. Now that he knows the truth I will no longer be allowed to be here. This is his pack. He and his pack may have saved me, but that save was dependent on me being an omega. Something less than an alpha. What will happen now that I’m not some frail, weak thing that he can order around and fuck until he’s content? What will—
Olly shoves me with one hand. “Go, Auryn.”
I turn to look at him, noting he is, indeed, awake. His clear, dark eyes find mine, and he nods.
“You can take him. You can take more than you think you can.”
Something about his words, whispered to me, settle something inside of me.
“Okay,” I say, my voice shaky. I’m not sure who I’m really answering. Olly. Myself. Gage. Perhaps all three of us.
