Plus, you really couldn’t go wrong with queso.
“I’ll take whatever you’ve got on draft,” Leon said.
“That sounds good to me, too,” Luca added.
“Whiskey on the rocks,” Ronan added with a smile that had the waiter blushing. I bit back a growl and from the smirk that flashed my way, he noticed. Luca was right, this alpha was a brat.
I looked at Nikolai, wondering if his stance on drinks had changed, but when he ordered a soda, I knew he was still the same Nikolai.
It was such a stupid, small thing, but somehow, it made him feel more real again. Like I knew him, not just the memory of him.
He must have felt something shifting in the bond. His eyes met mine and the smile on his lips was soft and inviting. My cheeks burned and warmth spread through my chest.
“Still haven’t touched a drop of alcohol?” I questioned, desperate to break the moment that felt too intense for dinner.
“Nope,” he said evenly.
I nodded, and his shoulders relaxed slightly, as if he’d been bracing for my judgment.
I’d say he should know me better than that, but obviously we knew nothing about each other these days.
“So, I’m going to start,” I said when his eyes finally let me go. “Because I’m not doing small talk all night.”
I took a breath.
“The night that I was taken, I was already weak from my mom beating the shit out of me for designating as an omega.When I went to take out the trash at the diner, I struggled to get it into the bin. When I finally turned around a group of alphas were already on me. I didn’t even have a chance to fight back before a needle was plunged into my neck.”
I toyed with the straw wrapper in my hand, not willing to look them in the eye for this. I was so damn tired of rehashing this story.
“The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a room. It was a concrete cell and two guards were with me. When I tried to fight them, they knocked me out again. They were angry and starting to take their punishment out on me. It would’ve turned out a lot worse if the others hadn’t come back, demanding that it was time. That we were supposed to be unharmed.”
“Time for what?” Ronan asked, his voice too calm, though his eyes were filled with fury.
I swallowed hard, laying it all out. What Gideon’s purpose was, what we endured, what we were trained to be.
Then I told them about our escape.
“We managed to make it here. It was a settlement that had started but never went through. It lost funding or something. Slowly, we built it up and made a community for omegas like us to escape from the rest of the world. It took a long ten years before it started to truly take shape.”
“That’s incredible,” Luca said. “I have a feeling that hacker friend of yours is who found me when I was asking around about it in the hidden parts of the internet.”
I smiled softly. “I’m sure it was Lark. She’s incredible, and thorough. I’m sure she also threatened you not to come here and start shit.”
“Within an inch of my life,” he confirmed with a small smile.
He was handsome. I’d noticed that before, but now there was something softer about him. Maybe this was who he was under all the flirting and jokes.
“I hated how defenseless I was,” I continued as I looked away. “I dedicated my life to opening a gym and making my body stronger, learning how to defend myself. And then when I perfected it, I started teaching others. Most of the omegas in town know how to take an alpha down if given half a chance.”
“That’s just like you,” Nikolai said. The pride in his voice made me flush all over again.
The way he smiled now was less broken and guarded. I could feel his appreciation through the bond.
“I’m hard just thinking about you taking down alphas,” Ronan groaned, adjusting himself.
“And there he goes ruining a sweet moment,” Luca said with a chuckle.
“Just making sure she knows where I’m at,” he pointed out.
