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A cheery voice on the other end of the line let me know that they’d had a cancellation and could actually get me in to speak with the counselor in two days. I booked the time, feeling relief mixed with anxiety. I knew I needed to talk to someone. Even though I’d thought I was doing well, the reaction I’d had to the nurse trying to put in an IV was enough to tell me that my subconscious didn’t seem to agree.
Crossing the hall, I stepped into Miles' office and leaned against the wall next to the door to soak in the sight of him. He was on a call, leaning back in his chair, head tipped back. I watched as he reached up to rub his beard absentmindedly and the muscles on his forearm flexed slightly. Whatever higher power or fate it was that made me part of this pack must love me because, damn. Miles wrapped up his call and turned to me with a grin. But I couldn’t quite work out the look on his face, so I reached into the bond to see what he was feeling. It was gratitude, love… and worry—so much of the latter that I was surprised I could feel anything else in the bond at all. I moved to stand in front of his chair, and he spread his thick thighs to make room for me as I draped my arms over his shoulders.
“I got an appointment with Ethan’s therapist for later this week.”
His hands came up and he gripped my hips, his thumb sliding under the edge of my shirt and brushing my skin with the lightest touch. The muscles contracted beneath his thumb and heat pooled in my core.
“That’s great, Sunshine. What day and what time? I’ll make sure I clear any meetings or calls from my schedule.”
The heat that had been building between us, making me want to straddle Miles and get him to distract me—the kind of distraction that would leave us sweaty and panting—completely snuffed out at his statement. I didn’t want anyone to come with me. Therapy wasn’t always pretty. Having someone waiting for me on the other side of the door, wondering about how broken I would be when I walked out, made my skin crawl.
“Don’t do that. You probably have a ton to catch up on. I can go alone.”
Miles' hands briefly tightened on my hips and his brows tilted downward before he spoke.
“No.”
It wasn’t a bark, but the tone he used clearly left no room for disagreeing with him. Was this going to be my life now? I loved my Alphas and my pack, but I had always been independent. I had always worked and contributed. Sure, I submitted to Jade in the bedroom, but I would never be fully submissive outside of it. I stepped back, out of his reach, and saw his jaw clench through his trimmed beard.
“Miles, this is silly. I am perfectly safe going from the house to the doctor's office.”
“You’re not going alone. We don’t know that you’re safe. That fucker is still out there! We don’t know anything about how they found you or why they took you or how they know so much. Ethan doesn’t complain about having us escort him, he?—”
“He is an Omega! I am just a Beta. They got what they wanted from me. They won’t come after me again. Why would they?”
“Shae, please, there are too many risks and?—”
I threw my arms up and let out a loud groan before stalking toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Downstairs, unless I’m not allowed to do that without an escort either?”
“That’s not fair?—”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest of his sentence, slamming the door to his office as I stomped down to the kitchen. I felt Jade send concern and questioning through our bond, while from Miles the emotion was near pleading, but he wisely didn’t follow me. By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs my phone began to vibrate. I saw Jade’s name light up the screen, but I rejected the call. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? Jade dropped the walls around her emotions long enough to send me a flash of fear, and guilt sunk its claws into my gut.
Jade had literally left a trail of bodies in her wake to get to me and she had to be going through something with Theo to keep her walls up. She didn’t deserve me scaring her or ignoring her. I breathed out, one long exhale to steady myself, and sent her back reassurance and affection. I could tell that had appeased her but then the wall went right back up on her side of our bond.
Feeling overwhelmed, I sank down onto the couch in the family room and leaned forward. My elbows on my knees, digging my fingers into my hair and squeezing my eyes shut. Then, somewhere outside there was the sound of door slamming, the metallic slide of a service van door, and that was enough to throw me back into that cell.
The sound of a sliding bar being slammed home against a solid metal door, like the one that had us trapped in this room, caused me to jump with nerves, and I reached over to check Cat’s pulse, just to distract myself. Cat’s marshmallow scent had been growing steadily stronger over what felt like hours since I’d woken up, but she was still unconscious. When I’d come to, I'd found they’d left us in the middle of the floor where we’d apparently fallen after they dosed us with whatever the fuck was in those syringes, like they didn’t care if we were even alive, let alone the excruciating pain I remembered feeling before I passed out. I’d moved Cat to the far corner of the room as carefully as I could, and I was monitoring her pulse and breathing as she slept.
I had no way of knowing exactly how long I’d been unconscious or how long I’d been awake. I squeezed my eyes shut and reached out to Miles again, needing that connection, no matter how volatile his emotions were. My Alphas had flooded me with emotions when I first came to. I’d nearly passed out again from the onslaught of fear and concern and rage that had poured through, alongside the love. Jade had put up a barrier between us in the bond, not enough though to stop me from feeling her, just enough that everything on her end of the bond was hazy and less overwhelming. Miles on the other hand was a hurricane of emotions and I wished I’d learned more about dampening the connection just to preserve some of my focus.
The grinding of metal on metal that I remembered from before when they came in with the injections was the only warning I had before the door was pushed open and a greasy looking Beta entered the room, sneering down at me. His expression was distorted into something more sinister by a scar that bisected his top lip and went on through the corner of his mouth.
“One of them’s awake.”
He walked into the room, hauling in the same red-haired Beta who’d seemed so apologetic right before he stuck the syringe in my arm.
“Check them. Scents are too fuckin’ thick to not have one of them change.”
The smaller man approached slowly, raising his hands, and speaking softly.
“My name is Dayton. I—I don’t want to be here either. But I need to check your friend. They won’t hurt you. I heard the Alpha warning them.”
What? Miles must have sensed my fear because he was reaching out in the bond trying to get me to send him something reassuring, but with the maelstrom of his emotions overruling everything else, his questioning probe was more like a battering ram. I shook my head trying to clear him from my thoughts and the Beta, Dayton, took the opportunity to reach around me to Cat and take her pulse.
