CHAPTER 24
Jendra
I looked at Beta, blinking back tears. I felt so much, but I had nothing more to say: the feelings had stopped lining up, stopped making the kind of sense that could lead to intelligible words, let alone persuasive ones.
Let alone words that could persuade this gorgeous, caring blue man who had decided to save me.
Beta didn’t speak either. He just picked me up and cradled me against his chest, and carried me to bed. I had nothing left. No words, no defenses, no pretense. Just the overwhelming weight of everything that had happened, everything I’d done, everything I’d learned about myself.
The bed welcomed me with what felt like a forgiveness I didn’t deserve. Beta laid me down gently, then climbed in beside me, pulling me against his chest. His arms wrapped around me, holding me close but not confining. Protective, not possessive.
I started to cry again. Not the panicked sobs from before, but something quieter, deeper. The tears of someone who had finally stopped running, maybe.
“I’m here,” Beta murmured against my hair. “I’m not going anywhere.”
My fingers curled against his chest as I pressed my face into him. His skin was warm, and I could feel his heartbeat—steady, reliable, real. So wonderfully, undeniably real.
“I think…” I whispered, my voice muffled against him. “I think I understand now.”
“What do you understand?”
I took a shaking breath. “That I can submit to you. That I can need you. But that doesn’t mean you can satisfy everything inside me. No one can. Not you, not Omega, not anyone.”
His arms tightened around me slightly. “Go on.”
“The hunger doesn’t go away,” I continued, the words coming slowly as I worked through thoughts I’d never articulated before. “The need for more, for deeper, for things I can’t even name yet. It’s always going to be there. But…” I pulled back just enough to look up at his face. “But that doesn’t mean I have to let it consume me. Or create monsters to feed it.”
Beta’s blue eyes held mine with such tenderness it made my chest ache. “You’re learning,” he said softly.
“I want to understand it,” I said, hearing a note of urgency creep into my voice. “The quantum entanglement. How my consciousness could create something like Omega. The beings of the Collective—how they relate to human minds. I need to know, Beta. I need to understand what happened to me.”
“The relationship between human consciousness and the Collective,” Beta said thoughtfully. “That’s a vast subject, Jendra. One that my brothers and I have been studying since we arrived in this dimension.”
“Will you teach me?” The question came out small, hopeful. “Please?”
His hand moved to cup my cheek. “I want to help you,” he said. “I want to give you the knowledge you’re seeking. But first, you need rest. And tomorrow, you need to face your punishment.”
I nodded against his chest, fresh tears sliding down my cheeks. But these felt different—cleaner somehow. Like I was finally crying out all the darkness Omega had represented, making room for something better.
“Sleep now,” Beta murmured, his fingers stroking through my hair. “I’ve got you.”
I closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat, feeling the steady rise and fall of his chest. The weight of what awaited me tomorrow pressed down, but underneath it lay something else. Something that felt almost like peace.
My breathing gradually slowed, matching his rhythm. The tears stopped. My body relaxed completely against him, finally surrendering to the exhaustion that had been building since… powers, since that first day in the museum when I’d watched Sala submit to Alpha.
I fell asleep in Beta’s arms, and for the first time since I’d summoned Omega, I didn’t dream.
When I woke, I was alone.
I lay there for several moments, staring at the ceiling, feeling the empty space beside me where Beta had been. My hand moved across the sheets, finding them cool. He’d been gone for a while.
Then it all came rushing back. Everything. The laboratory. Freeing Omega. The gravitium mines. What he’d done to me there. Beta finding me. The realization about the quantum bond. Omega vanishing. Coming back here. Beta’s promise of punishment.
Tomorrow, he’d said. But… how long had I slept? Was it tomorrow already?
My heart began to race. I sat up quickly, looking around the bedroom. The lights were dim, set to what must be morning levels. Through the doorway, I could see into the living area, but Beta wasn’t there either.
“Master?” I called out, my voice hoarse.
