Page 6 of Marigold Run

“Damn,” Dassy says, clearly struggling to believe it. Hell, I am too.

“Mari’s body will need time to get used to constant physical affection.” Tacken’s dark eyes move to each one of us, landing on me last. “She might be sore, swollen, and could experience pain after prolonged sexual activity. She’ll need some time to get used to you.”

I shift in my chair, not caring for this detail. My kind like to take our time with our lovers. We like to rut and fuck and thrust all night long. “How long will it take her body to acclimate?” I ask.

“Not long,” Tacken says. “Maybe a few weeks. She should be okay by the time the heat-suppressors wear off, but you’ll need to be very cautious at first.”

Hutch shifts outside of my periphery, and I look up at the alpha. He doesn't look happy, and I have to agree. While we weren’t exactly planning on fucking Mari’s brains out the second we walked in the door, I did expect to be able to let instinct drive us when it came to physical affection. Now it appears that we’ll have to take things much slower.

“Shall we begin?” Tacken opens the folder in front of her, reading the top line. “Marigold Doe.”

“Doe?” Dassy leans forward in his chair, and I realize for the first time that we don’t know her last name. We admittedly don’t know much about the omega, but she doesn’t like to talk about her life at Havenfield. She always says it’s too boring then she begs us to tell her stories about our family and home.

I guess we should have asked her more questions.

“I know you’ve been speaking with Mari for a few months now.” Tacken opens the file, and my heart pounds at the picture clipped inside. It’s at a weird angle and upside down, but I can clearly see that Mari has long blonde hair and a pale complexion.And those eyes.They look dark and mysterious. “Has she not mentioned her medical issues?”

“She hasn’t,” I answer politely, not pointing out that she knows exactly what we discuss with Mari. They monitor everything in this damn place, including the phone calls.

Tacken takes the glasses off of her head, sliding them on. The lenses magnify her blue eyes, making them look unusually wet. “Mari has amnesia caused by trauma she endured prior to coming here.”

“Trauma?” I lean forward, fighting the urge to snatch the chart out of the beta’s hand.Today is filled with all kinds of surprises.

“What kind of trauma?” Dassy asks as Hutch moves behind him. Both have the exact same expression: Angry with a cut of worry between their matching brows.

“We don’t know exactly.” Tacken looks up at me. “Mari was found at the base of a high cliff in the middle of the woods. She had a head injury and several broken bones. We have reason to believe she might have been thrown.”

My muscles tense and my fists curl around the arms of my chair. “Who hurt her?” I ask, wanting to destroy the piece of shit that touched my omega.

“We don’t know,” Tacken says with an annoying amount of restraint. “Mari has blocked all of those memories.”

“Why wasn’t she in an omega academy?” Dassy asks. “Did she run away from one or was she kidnapped?”

They’re both excellent questions, and I stare at Tacken, waiting for her to answer.

“We can’t find any paperwork on Mari being enrolled at the other academies, but we aren’t completely sure. She was only able to remember a few basic things about herself, like her age, but she couldn’t remember anything else before her injury. Not even her last name,” she says the fact like it’s simple.

“Omegas have to be enrolled in an academy by the age of sixteen,” I say, struggling to understand how Mari ended up in the wild. “If she was eighteen when you found her, that would mean she was lost in the woods for at least two years if not longer. How is that possible?”

“I don’t know.” Tacken lets out a sad sigh. “But it’s safe to say she survived for a long time out there all by herself.”

Hutch makes a noise as if impressed, and Dassy nods, agreeing with his twin. I have to admit, it’s wild to think of a lone omega living off the grid all by herself. How she managed for so long without being snatched or mated against her will is shocking.

“So you don’t know anything about her past life?” I ask.

“When she was brought in, one of the orderlies said that she was screaming for someone.” Tacken looks down at paperwork in front of her. “Steven or Griffin.” She squints at the scribbled handwriting, before shaking her head. “We’re not sure. And the second Mari came around, she claimed she had no idea who they were either.”

“Maybe she ran away with someone?” Dassy guesses. “Omegas mourn pretty intensely and for quite a while. Maybe she lost her lover and was devastated to admit it.”

“It’s possible.” Tacken shrugs.

“Or,” Hutch speaks up, “she was snatched up by someone who abused her.”

“And she doesn’t want to talk about it,” Dassy finishes his twin’s thought. Hutch’s dark suggestion makes me tense.They’re not wrong.

“That’s also possible,” Tacken says through a tight jaw. It’s clear she doesn’t want to agree. “But it’s also possible that Mari was hallucinating that someone was with her after she fell. She had been laying there for at least a few days, she was severely dehydrated, and had a very severe head injury.” Tacken turns the page on Mari’s chart, hiding the list of her injuries. “We simply don’t know.”

“What can we do to help her?” I ask. “Ongoing therapy? Medication? Tell me what she needs.”

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