Page 33 of Captive Omega

Sadie clears her throat, capturing my focus. “I’ll swing by before work tomorrow morning with prenatal vitamins for Resa and painkillers for her feet.”

Vaughn joins us further down the hallway. “She won’t take the painkillers. Her reaction made me think someone drugged her before.”

“You didn’t say where you found her,” I say.

“At the bottom of an alley across from Ever Safe, afraid and trying not to show it. Two men had their guns pointed at her.”

Listening to Vaughn is a special torture. I can’t identify the source of the pain exactly, but it’s excruciating. Every time he tells me something new about Resa, I want to walk out of this house and gut someone.

No one speaks for several seconds.

“Let’s go downstairs.” I turn around and walk away, leaving everyone to follow while I take the opportunity to smooth the rage from my face.

By the time we’re in the kitchen, taking seats around the dining table, I have better control of myself.

“They won’t threaten her again,” Vaughn says

Sadie doesn’t ask for details. She might have voiced a complaint or had more of a problem listening to Vaughn as good as admitting he killed two men if she hadn’t been fresh from examining Resa.

She waits until she catches my eye. “I don’t know everything that happened to her tonight and even before now, but if you can, tread lightly around her pregnancy. She was showing a bit of panic when I brought it up. Leave it up to her to decide when and if she wants to talk.”

“Did she say something?” Blaine is at the kitchen island, as far away as he can get from Sadie.

“No.” Sadie pins us all with a look one by one. “What I’m about to say is coming from a place of love, but I need to say it.”

I gave her a quick rundown of Resa’s arrival and condition on the phone. Before I’d finished speaking, she was interrupting to say she was on her way. Now she’s looking at me with a blank expression, and something tells me I won’t like what she’s about to say. “Say what?”

“Maybe she shouldn’t stay here.”

Silence.

“I value your opinion, Sadie. You know that,” I begin.

“She’s your scent match,” Sadie says. “But she is also an abused woman who has escaped from hell. She doesn’t need scent matches or lovers. She needs a place to heal.”

“We can give her that,” I assure her.

“And when biology starts making that impossible? I’m talking about hers and yours. What then? What if you start wanting more from her than she is ready to give?”

Silence.

We can promise, but no one wins a battle with biology for long.

Sadie pushes herself to her feet. “Think about it. She can stay with me, or I can find her a women’s shelter. What she doesn’t need right now is surprises or being overwhelmed. She needs stability, reassurance, and to know that she is safe. If she escaped from abusive alphas, and if I believe everything I’ve been seeing on the news, she probably did. I’m not sure a house filled with alphas is the best place for her to be.”

“She needs us,” I say quietly. Sadie opens her mouth. I lift my hand, silencing her. “I hear you, and I am listening. I’m not the kind to do what I want, irrespective of what others might want or need. You know this.”

She nods.

“Resa would absolutely refuse to go to a women’s shelter. Two minutes with her told me that. And it’s not safe. We don’t know who was keeping her, but they will want her back if she knows who they are. There is no safer place for her to be in the city than here with us.”

She stares at me and blows out a heavy sigh. “I hate it when you use logic.”

“I know.”

She sighs again. “I’m still not sure this is the best thing for Resa, but I understand. No big elaborate gestures. She doesn’t need to be overwhelmed right now. I know what you alphas are like.” I lift a brow and she shakes her head. “Don’t ask. Let her take the lead and give her space.”

She gives Vaughn a pointed look.

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