Page 26 of Mercy & Her Devils

Because I’m packless now.

I don’t belong with anyone or anywhere.

I bite my lip to hold in the whine of distress.

Cobwebs swing from the grimy ceiling, but the cell itself looks like someone has been doing their best to keep it clean.

Lark.

I keep my gaze half-hooded so that I can study him, before he can realize that I’m awake.

Or more likely, my Head Nurse, Millie.

Lark is sitting on the hard floor with his long legs pulled up underneath him. His daughter is cradled on his knee.

The only blanket in the room is draped snugly around Millie’s shoulders.

Lark is pale, and there are deep, purple circles underneath his eyes. He looks exhausted.

He’s shivering.

He tucks the blanket more securely around Millie. “Want to play another game, honey?”

She peers up at him. “Share blankie?”

Lark shakes his head. “I’m as hot as a volcano.”

He shakes her in his arms, making the noise of an exploding volcano, and she giggles.

“Silly daddy.”

“I am, aren’t I?”

My heart clenches, when I see the way that the dad and daughter interact.

I never had this closeness with my own dad. He was always too busy on Mayoral duties with intimidating bodyguards and staff around him.

He could barely look at Thomas and me because he blamed us for our mom’s death.

Did he ever hug us?

I don’t think so.

Yet it’s obvious how much Lark loves his daughter.

Fletcher told me that there was something special about the way that this Brok fought through his own broken bond to protect his child and now, I see it.

Lark would do anything for her.

He already has done.

Yet he’s also shown me the same protection.

I’ve never met an Omega like him. He’s everything that I found myself wanting to become, when I stood in that bedroom, defying my Alpha.

Simply seeing the love that’s possible in a pack and a family makes joy swell through me.

Lark picks up a steel plate with a single slice of bread on it.

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