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She took a deep shuddering breath that tore through me, as I pictured her here with the weight of the world on her shoulders. I should have been here.
“I tried to run,” she said, “but there were too many of them. I yelled to Ben for help, but he was grinning at me. They held me down on this table and took blood while I screamed my head off and fought, but nobody came. They tested my blood on a device and they all smiled when they looked at the results.”
Lexie moved towards Maia and hugged her from behind. Maia smiled sadly at her over her shoulder. She looked back toward me though, when she uttered the words that gutted me.
“Ben already had paperwork in his hand, to declare me an omega and him the new owner of the farm. With me out of the way, and you gone, it all went to him. The Palace agents signed it and hauled me out the door. It was the last I ever saw of my baby brother.”
“He already had the paperwork before gramps died?” I ground out, even though I’d clenched my jaw so hard it surprised me I didn’t crack a tooth.That motherfucker was a dead man walking, even if he was my brother.
Maia just nodded and looked at me with so much sadness and anger, twisted up together, I wanted to rage. My beast was tearing at me, trying to break free and protect her, but it was far too late for that.
Lexie tried to step back, but Maia gripped her hand tightly. Leif stepped up behind the both of them and wrapped them up in one of his giant hugs.
“Why did you leave?” Maia asked me. The harsh words felt like physical blows. I had to grip the chair closest to me, so I didn’t stagger. I’d known this conversation was coming, but I was still unprepared.
“Gramps told me I had to go. He didn’t ask, and he didn’t give me a choice. He told me I was too dangerous and I would put you at risk. The thought of hurting you broke me. It was the one thing I could never do.”
“You hurt me when you left without a word. You tore a gaping hole in my world,” she replied, her anger outstripping her sadness for a moment.
Her words struck me deep. There was no defense, but I had to at least try to explain.
“He took me outside to the barn before he told me. Gramps said he needed help with something, but when we got out there, there was a group of betas waiting. They wouldn’t let me come back in and say goodbye, or even pack anything. Gramps said my emotions would make my dominance too volatile. They were all adults, and I was just a kid. I didn’t want to go, but I trusted gramps. I insisted they let me write you a letter, and I never for a moment thought that gramps wouldn’t give it to you.”
My voice broke, and I had to force out the words. “Maia, I’m so fucking sorry. If I could do it again, I never would have left you here alone. But back then, I was so scared of the rage building inside me, the power I could feel in my veins that I couldn’t control. I looked up what usually happens when an alpha presents and it wasn’t normal. For me, it burned. I tried to hide from you how much it hurt.”
The memory of the fear, pain and confusion I’d felt back then, but had tried to hide from Maia, had me shaking. I could see sympathy blooming in her eyes.
“Oh, Sam, you should have told me.” Her face fell, and she just looked saddened now, as if the sorrow for me had dissolved all her anger.
“Gramps already knew you were an omega, even though you were too young to present. He said he’d run a test. They convinced me it was the only way to keep us both safe. They said I was presenting too dominantly. That it would draw eyes to us and put you in danger. I never planned to stay away for good. In my letter, I confessed everything to you. I wrote that if I could get help and get it under control, I would come back.”
I took a shaky step towards her. Guilt, frustration and worry that we would never again have the closeness we once shared drove me forward. She had been the only bright spot in my world growing up, the reason I kept going every day. I felt a driving need to fix my mistake, but I knew I couldn’t.
“I didn’t know they had sent you to the Palace. If I’d known, I would have found a way to get you out. Even if I had to tear it down. Nobody told me until the Crash, when the world went to hell and I told them I was coming back for you. I headed straight for the Palace, but when I got there you were already gone.”
I reached out to her, my hand shaking despite my efforts to stop it, and stroked her hair. The same hair I’d spent years brushing every night before tucking her into bed. Everything else in the room disappeared as she stepped forward, out of the arms encircling her and into my own. Finally. It felt like coming home.
“Maia,” I said into her hair. “I don’t know everything that you went through, and how Ben could have betrayed you like that. I can’t ask you to forgive me when I know I’ll never be able to forgive myself. But you have to know, leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Maia was silently crying into my chest, and I gripped her tightly. “A part of me always believed you were coming back, Sam. I kept a place open for you in my heart, even if I buried it deep.”
“Love you, Mai Mai,” I whispered.
“Love you, Sam Sam,” she whispered back.
The words had been our nightly ritual for as far back as I could remember. I felt as though a shard of glass that had been rubbing inside an open wound for a decade suddenly fell away. We both still had a lot of healing to do. We’d both changed a lot, and we’d have to relearn each other as adults, but I finally had my little sister back.
There was only one more thing I needed to be whole. I looked at Lexie over Maia’s shoulder to find she was watching us with tears streaking down her face while Leif hugged her. Leif and Damon looked strained, clearly picking up on Maia’s emotions, but were holding back to give us a moment. Dio was looking torn, wanting to reach for both Lexie and me, but unable to hold either of us.
I was about to get us all back on task when a high-pitched giggle and a creaking noise overhead had us all freezing. A cracking sound followed it as the ceiling above us split apart. I threw myself over Maia as I dropped us both to the ground, shielding her with my body while I looked frantically for Lexie. Both Leif and Dio threw themselves over her as Damon dashed in between us. He had his arms in the air and he looked as though he was preparing to hold up the entire ceiling if needed.
An entire section in the middle collapsed before something big landed on the dining table with a thud, followed by someone gasping out a pained sound.
Maia’s scent turned acrid with fear underneath me, which made my beast rise to the surface. I growled darkly and the other three alphas joined me.
I checked Maia over quickly, trusting Damon to cover us for the moment. “I’m okay,” she whispered. “Help Damon.”
I trusted her to know her limits, so I jumped up and spun around to gauge the threat, pulling Maia up behind me and pushing her blindly towards Leif, Dio and Lexie, out of harm’s way.
