“Is this all necessary?” I hiss at Flynn, who shrugs.
“It’s mafia and alpha bullshit,” he replies. “It’ll be fine.”
And then the door opens and Jasper pushes past Shaw, his eyes wild.
“Harley?” he whispers as he sees me, his eyes drinking me in.
I haven’t responded to that name without being half out of my mind in a long time.
Swallowing hard, it takes me several tries to get a word out.
“Hey, Jas,” I whisper back.
Surprisingly, the world goes black as my eyes roll back and I pass out.
Why can’t I just be normal?
14
EVEREST
“What the fuck is wrong with my sister?” Jasper snarls.
Shaw, Ambrose, and I made a wall between Jasper and Wren the second he walked in. We moved and stepped back in front of him as he attempted to break past us. Our omega is passed out in Flynn’s arms, her body overwhelmed by the sight of her brother.
It’s been ten years since she’s seen him and she’s dealing with some major trauma, I’m not surprised.
“Fuck, I don’t know, Jas. Shock, maybe? We didn’t have any time to ease her into meeting you,” I complain, pushing him back. I may be the easy going one, but I’m just as dangerous as Shaw and Ambrose.
“There are a lot of holes in her memory,” Flynn says sadly, holding her tightly to his chest. “We talk, and at one point she told me once that the name Harley is a dead name to her. She was ripped away from that life, and the memories of when she was happy and safe are really repressed. Her alpha wasn’t good to her. The things he’s done to her…”
“What?” Jasper rasps, eyes wide and tortured. “I didn’t know what they were going to do, but my parents acted really weird when Har… my sister presented as an omega on her birthday. We sang her happy birthday and forced her to stay inside. She sulked, stared out the window, and then went up to her room early. I shared a room with both my younger brothers, while she had an attic room.”
“I don’t imagine you all had heating,” Shaw mutters, thinking about how cold it must have gotten. “Look, she has nightmares, and I think her memories are crowding her mind, trying to get her to remember. This is an overload for her.”
“She screamed for hours when Shaw told her that you were looking for her,” Ambrose says sadly, looking over his shoulder at Wren. “Harley is dead to her, and she’s never going to be that girl again, Jas.”
“Why isn’t she seeing a professional? Instead you have her hidden in the middle of nowhere playing house when you have an omega,” Jasper says distastefully.
Oh fuck no. He is not acting as if he knows better than us right now.
“I’m her scent match,” Shaw reminds him. “Do you know how painful it would be for both of us to be apart? What exactly are you suggesting right now? Having two omegas in our pack isn’t traditional, but I know it happens.”
“I don’t know,” Jasper huffs, pushing his hand through his hair. His typically perfect bad boy look is a bit marred today as his hair sticks up in different directions from his fingers running through it. “I didn’t expect her to fucking pass out at the sight of me. I’m worried about her. My sister is fucking broken.”
“Wren isn’t broken,” Flynn growls. Moving back so we can flank our omegas, I send comforting thoughts through our bond. He is pissed, his body practically vibrating in anger. “She survived ten years of being raped, beaten, and emotionally abused. Anyone else would have killed themselves after that trauma. I can’t even imagine the emotional scars.”
“Scars are a reminder of what you’ve survived,” I grunt.
“Wren is one of the strongest people I know,” Shaw admits. “Flynn needed her after she had something traumatic happen to her, and he figured out how to help. Alphas scare her because she’s very susceptible to an alpha’s bark.”
Ambrose reaches out and wraps his hand around Jasper’s throat, pulling him close. “You will never use that against her, is that clear? We are careful with our bark around her, because we don’t want to accidentally force her to do something she doesn’t want to. Show me you understand!”
Ambrose’s hand is squeezing Jasper’s throat so tightly that I don’t think he could talk around it if he wanted to.
Don’t kill him. Amb glances at me as if the haze of anger begins to lift, and he throws Jasper away from him. Gasping in air, Jas rubs his neck, glaring at him before focusing on his sister who is stirring in Flynn’s arms.
“Understood,” he rasps. “I had no idea. I’ve been so focused on finding her and saving her, I didn’t think about what came next. I can’t imagine everything she’s gone through, nor do I know everything, but ten years is a long time to be in that situation. I hear the stories, even though Nathan isn’t involved in the omega trade.”