Page 96 of Awakened | AllFreeNovel

I don’t remember deciding to move, but I’m halfway across the room when my shaking legs give out, and I fall mid-step, landing in a heap on the floor with a strangled sob.

Daxen spins, whipping around on his heel and frowning when his eyes land on me. He reaches out, extending his hand for me like he can’t help himself. I jerk back, and he glances at his hand—red and shiny with new skin—grimaces, and lets it drop to his side.

He thinks I flinched because of his skin? His skin?! I just sat here for ten minutes watching him hold down an Alpha as he burned alive, and he thinks I’m reacting to his skin?

It’s absurd how little he knows me.

“Idril…?” Vae’s voice is hesitant as he inches his way across the room, and it’s only now that I realize I’ve backed all the way across the open area without realizing I was even moving.

Daxen takes a step forward, and even his voice is gentler than I’ve ever heard it before when he says, “I’m so sorry you had to see that. And I’m sorry if I hurt you when I knocked you out of the way. It wasn’t my intention.”

It wasn’t his intention?

What about all the other times he’s hurt me? Were those accidents, too?

Why? Why did he do that? Why did he save me? Why did he kill Cage? I just… I don’t understand. This doesn’t make any sense!

Everything that’s happened in the last hour finally catches up with me, and the room starts to spin. A strangled sob inches up my throat as my lungs tighten. I try to suck in a deep breath, but it gets caught in my throat.

My chest thrums with the pain of two partial Mate Bonds that know nothing outside of rejection and hope that’s only reinforced by the actions of the two Alphas standing in front of me. It’s suddenly too much—too painful—standing in the same room as my Fated Mates and pretending to ignore the way my soul feels like it’s ripping more with every second I’m forced to shoulder the weight of this secret.

I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for them.

“Omega...” Vaelenor cracks with pain, and my Omega surges forward, intent on soothing him. I have to shove down my whine. I refuse to beg for comfort from Alphas who have nothing to give.

The door swings open, cracking against the door and bouncing back. It’s prevented from hitting the person on the other side by a large tattooed hand—a hand with tattoos I’ve spent the last two days memorizing, following every swirl and line with my gaze so often I could draw them from memory.

“Soren…”

My lips have barely finished forming the shape of his name before he’s here, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close. I breathe in his scent, burying my nose in his chest and melting against him as the growl vibrating against my cheek turns into a purr.

“What the fuck is going on here? It’s been an hour and a half! Ninety godsdamned minutes!”

He doesn’t get an answer. In a repeat of Soren’s entrance, the door behind him once more swings open and slams into the wall. Soren snarls, sets me on my feet, ushering me behind him before turning to face the perceived threat.

The faint scent of rose water is as familiar to me as my own name after two weeks. What’s not familiar is how frazzled Lenora looks when I peek around Soren to see her standing in the doorway.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” she snaps, panting like she ran all the way from the compound.