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“Any trouble?” I call out, angling my head toward him.
He nudges the door closed. “Nothing. And either Sloane hasn’t been able to track them, or he’s busy trying to stay out of jail. There’s been no sign of him.”
I nod. If Everleigh had known Kylian was the one watching over her on the night she’d called, I’m not sure what she’d have thought. Or done.
Kylian said she’d sounded relieved and had taken the news well.
“She sent me a text.” Kylian halts at the foot of the staircase.
“Saying?” Rune is pulling on his tie so insistently, I don’t know why he bothers wearing one at all.
“Her mom has agreed to have Zoom sessions with the therapist. It’s going to be slow progress, but it’s happening,” Kylian says.
I doubt I’m the only one to get my hopes up about that. It’s a foolish hope to think that one day soon Everleigh’s mom will be comfortable around alphas.
The only way I see Everleigh agreeing to move in with us, and being our omega, is if her mom comes to live with us too. We all discussed it, and none of us has a problem with it.
But Everleigh’s mom would. Will she ever be comfortable enough to want to live under the same roof as an alpha after what Sloane did to her? He professed to love her, but Everleigh was right to say what he did was not love.
We haven’t spoken about what we’re going to do if Everleigh never comes back. I think we’re all afraid to in case we make such a terrifying thought a reality.
“The house doesn’t feel the same without her,” Rune admits softly.
And it never will.
“I keep expecting to walk into a room and find her there, and she’s not,” I say.
Even her buttery soft, vanilla-coconut scent is starting to fade around the house. It’s strongest in her room, but pushing open that door and not seeing Everleigh in it has become too painful to do too often. And movie nights? We haven’t stepped one foot into the home theater.
It took years to turn our house into a sanctuary. And it had felt like one before Everleigh. Now it feels like it’s missing its heart. Because it is.
We stand in the entryway, thinking of the woman who is ours, and who we gave up because we need her to be happy more than we need her to be ours. I never believed I would ever give up something—or someone—I loved after my mom walked out on me. But I couldn’t force Everleigh to stay, and I couldn’t trap her here. So we let her go.
“She could move on. Maybe forget all about us,” Rune says.
It’s something I’ve spent too much time considering. “She could.”
If you love someone, you don’t hold them back, and you don’t keep them in a cage. Even if it means when you let them go, they never come back to you.
“But she needs this,” Rune says quietly. “And if there’s anything she needs, we give it to her.”
His cell phone vibrates, and he pulls it from his pants pocket to glance at the screen.
“It’s Pack Lucas. Nothing to report on the hunt for Resa,” he says, tapping out a quick response. “It’s looking like whoever has her has her locked up tight.”
“They’ll find her.” There’s not an ounce of doubt in Kylian’s voice.
With little more than crumbs of information about the abuse going on in the heat clinics, Pack Lucas unearthed more security footage and photographs than anyone could. They’re the reason the investigative reporter Kylian had been talking with had enough proof to dig even deeper.
Wherever Resa is in the city, Pack Lucas won’t stop until they find her.
“Any news from the Omega Institute about Everleigh?” I ask Rune.
Rune slips his phone back in his pocket and shakes his head. “They have Lawrence’s declaration he gave up Everleigh as his omega. As far as the Institute is concerned, she disappeared. With all this mess in the city, I doubt they’d care to look for her.”
“Even without the mess, they wouldn’t have cared to look for her. They just plain don’t give a shit about anything besides themselves, their precious Haven Academy, and the rich families.” Kylian scowls.
A belief that’s becoming increasingly obvious. Not only to us, but to others in the city from the critical comments by reporters on TV. Comments they wouldn’t have voiced before.
