“It didn’t.” My hand holds her fingers in my hair, and a purr bubbles up from my chest. The sensation of her fingers combing through my hair is heavenly. My very tangled hair. But seriously, it could be on fire, and the only thing I’d notice was Tally’s consuming touch.
She stills. Her fingers come to a complete stop as she looks around, trying to figure out where she is. “Am I dreaming?” she asks after a few moments.
“No, Tally. You’re not dreaming, this is real. You’re home with us.”
“With you? You’re not making sense.” She goes to sit up, but her eyes bug out. A loud whimper of pain follows, and she starts to panic.
As Ronin sits up behind me, her eyes fly to him, and the panic in her eyes flares to all-out terror. She grits her teeth and sits up, which costs her dearly, judging by the sheen of fear coating her skin.
“Where am I?”
“Not Genoa,” Ronin says, moving me up to sitting too and shifting me out of the way. Carefully. “Slow down, Omega. You are safe. We won’t hurt you.”
His voice is heavily weighted by his dominance, making it impossible for her to ignore what he’s saying. And he keeps talking, explaining what’s going on. “You were working the event behind the bar. Do you remember that?”
She doesn’t move a muscle, but you can see she’s listening. He goes on. “You saw us there and recognized us too. Didn’t you?”
He’s being a little patronizing, but at the same time, he’s doing a great job giving her information, reminding her she’s safe. “You remember what happened after you saw us?”
A small nod.
“You risked your own safety to help those people escape from the back. And you rescued a little girl. Do you remember her? She has flame-red hair and crazy curls. Exactly like her sisters, and her mother. The family who got to see her again because you risked yourself to get her out.”
She swallows before taking a large, shaky inhale. She’s listening and aware, but I’m still not sure how much is actually registering.
“That was Daisy.”
“Named after Noinin,” she whispers. Her voice is so soft, you can barely hear it. It’s the exact moment I know Tally is aware.
“Do you remember what happened next?”
Without answering him, she roams her gaze all over my body, including all the places she can’t see.
Ronin keeps talking softly to her. “You apparently weren’t content with saving one of the most importantpeople to our pack and family, you had to save two.”
“Huh?”
“Daisy O’Connor is my niece.”
There’s a vacuum of noise before her eyes go impossibly bigger and her distress bubbles out of her as fast as her words. “Her guard! She said it was her guard! He took her…”
Ronin goes to reach for her. “We know who it was. He won’t live long once we’ve found him.” He stops moving and speaking when she starts to shrink in on herself.
Tally’s hands cover her face, like it’s all a bit too much. And it would be. She’s surrounded by people who feel like strangers to her, in my nest, hurt and completely at our mercy. Her movements stop when she’s looking down at herself.
I felt shit before, but the realization of what I must have insisted—bringing her in here—only exacerbates the feeling ten times over.
One of Ronin’s hands rubs over my shoulder. But my distress has Keegan moving, too, and Tally freezes when she realizes even more men surround her.
“You’ve still got your bra and panties on,” I say, watching her but not looking at her face.
Ronin takes over. “The doctor had to cut your top off, gave you seven stitches to your side too. The stab wound missed major organs but is going to take a while to heal. There’s medication for you, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory, on the island.”
Dropping her hands, she turns, and I thought she looked panicked before, but now more than ever, you can see she’s going to run.
And the way her fear and confusion twists through her peach scent makes my chest squeeze.
It takes a few moments that seem like hours, but after staring at Keegan, then Tynan, she finally looks back at us. I have to drop my eyes from hers; I can’t handle what I see in them.
