“We can talk about that another time, Tally. Have some water, sweetheart. Let’s focus on getting you better.”
I stare at him, Omega to Omega. “Please let me go. I’ll get better. You can’t let them do this. Please, Rafferty.”
“That’s enough for today, Tally!” Ronin’s bark is sudden and unexpected. He doesn’t deliver it with anger and volume, but it still needles me into submission.
I hate the way I respond. All my fight drains, and it’s completely overwhelming how one part of me feels so safe while the other part of me fights against the press of his designation.
In this strange space, my consciousness is altered, but my instincts to protect myself keep pushing on. After a few slow blinks, a little more of my awareness returns. It’s hard to properly describe how I feel. I’m still angry, furious, really, but I’m also okay being here. I definitely don’t remember unholstering Ronin’s guns or placing them in my lap. I’d never be so careless with weapons, and I know never to hold them as a threat. Guns aren’t a joke, they’re serious, and… I look up, and the room spins.
The more I focus on the room righting and stop freaking moving, the more my vision blurs on the periphery. I go to say something, but my words get lost when I realize my mouth feels dry like the desert.
Nothing makes sense until I look up again. Not at the room, at them.
Ronin doesn’t appear spooked by me having his guns in my lap, Tynan’s expression is guilty as shit, and Rafferty is back to appearing angelic, and apologetic. I twist to Keegan, and his arms are already outstretched.
“You drugged me?” My voice sounds weird, and my words come out slurring together.
“Had to, little wife,” Keegan says as I list to the side and slide right off the stool.
“Why?”
“Because we’re arseholes,” he says as he catches me.
I have to concentrate to form my next words. “Can see that.”
Keegan’s arms around me muddy my thoughts more, making me feel safe and secure. “Only because we care.”
When I try to answer, nothing comes out, but that doesn’t stop him from talking. “I know your bedroom is your special space, and I’m sorry I’m going to be in there with you, but it’s still happening. I’ll watch over you when you sleep, like a creeper. If you need anything, you can glare at me and I’ll get it for you, but your peachy arse is not getting out of that bed until I say so. And let's not pretend I won’t drug you again if need be.”
The rock of each step he takes makes me even sleepier, and my fight gets weaker and weaker too. Tynan joins us. Even though he doesn’t use words, I know it’s him. My traitorous mind relaxes even more, somehow knowing he’ll always be the one to make sure I don’t get waylaid by Alphas wanting their own way.
“Sssshh,” I tell myself, but my mouth doesn’t work, so it comes out like bubbles of air popping.
Tynan is instantly in my line of sight, his hands brushing the hair off my face, his eyes searching mine. Geez, he sure has pretty eyes when there’s no anger in them.
“You’re okay, firecracker.”
The last thing I remember is being snuggly warm, with my favorite blankets wrapped around me. Long, slow, lemon-scented tickles running up and down my face.
When I wake up, it’s clear I’ve been sleeping for a while. Stretching like a cat, I twist and turn, testing out if my aches and pains are deeper than the result of sleeping in one position for too long. The television is on in the lounge room, the flickering light and the sounds reminding me of when I used to live with Mom.
I know I’m not alone. And even though I’m very aware of the sneaky fuckers slipping something to knock me out, them being in my apartment doesn’t send my hackles up. Climbing out of bed, I pad quietly to the bathroom before brushing my teeth, that faintly tastes of chocolate and pepper. I pull on a hoodie, only realizing after the fact that it’s not mine, and then it stays on for the simple fact I like wearing it. If Tynan didn’t want me claiming his hoodie as mine, then he shouldn’t have left it here.
Pulling on a pair of my socks, I nearly leave until I see Ronin’s guns are on the dressing table, in full sight. As my fingers trail over them, I’m not shocked to also find the wedding ring they continue leaving out for me too. He keeps telling me he wants me to wear one or both of them, so all this is a reminder.
Picking up the ring is like the key to some part of my memories that have been locked up. I heard Ronin’s recount of us being married, but it’s quite different to remembering it myself. I sit on the bed and open myself to it all.
Nearly sixteen and ready for a summer of fun, we arrived at someone’s house, and Uncle Oscar laid down the rules—stay out of trouble and be ready to leave in twenty minutes, tops. Heleft me and my cousin, Liam, on the driveway while he had an “adults only” meeting inside.
Liam dropped me like a hot potato as soon as we stepped inside the back garden. His attention immediately went to the pretty girls gathered in a flock across the yard, and our promise of sticking together was forgotten. As soon as I was alone, she sprang her trap.
From literally thin air, she appeared. No doubt, I was impacted by the haunted house ghost tour Oscar took us on a few nights before. I took one look at her in her long white dress, and I decided she was either a ghost or worse, a wraith.
I couldn’t exactly pretend I didn’t see her, since she stepped into my path, tipping her head to the side, her voice high-pitched but her words slow, like she was trying to freak me out. “Would you be buried with my brother’s people?”
I dropped my phone, clutching my chest. She scooped my phone up, and instead of giving it back, she extended her hand. Which I wasn’t sure I wanted to touch. Oscar had gone into explicit detail about how some people get possessed, and this weird kid was creeping me out.
We stared each other down, me heaving like I’d run a marathon, her looking eerie and possessed. She won, and she bloody well knew it.
