Page 19 of Celestial Alphas

Chapter

Ten

“What happened?” I slam the dark wooden door open and look around the expensive, unfamiliar apartment where some of my mates are filling the living room couches. Hollis is leaning on the wall, Aleksander and Onyx are sitting down, but all three turn their eyes on me. I woke up on a bed that I don’t know, that smelled way too much like Onyx, and everything is a little fuzzy. I might still be in the dress Severi made me wear, but they are all changed into casual clothing. Alek pats his knees and rises up off the sofa. “Morning, Gwenieve. It’s late, you can rest more?—”

“I’m done resting. Where the hell are we?” I demand.

Onyx downs a glass of something orange and puts his glass on a side table before standing up. “You’re safe. You’re in Starlight.”

I walk through the room, past the dark blue couches and massive fireplace, to the floor-to-ceiling length windows and the view of the city beyond it. “Safe?” I mutter before turning on them. “Why would you bring me back here? I’m not going backto that trial, and I’m not being locked up again. He may be your father, Onyx, but?—”

“None of us are taking you back to his father.” Alek’s voice is soothing, like he is talking to a caged animal he just freed. It pisses me off.

“I might if she doesn’t?—”

“Hollis, shut the fuck up for once!” I snap at him.

He growls and takes a challenging step towards me. “Make me, Gwen. Fucking try it.”

I arch an eyebrow. Fine. Onyx blocks my view of him, and I’m forced to meet his eyes instead. “Listen. I’m not taking you back to the trial, and I am on your side. We all are. For fuck’s sake, if we wanted you gone for good, you would have been locked up and not here. This place is protected and a secret. It belongs to me and has magical wards that no one can enter unless I want them to. I don’t come here very often, but it belongs to my mother. She won’t come here either, though.” He rubs his face. “I’m betraying my family for you. I’m lying to everyone to keep you safe. I want to make up for everything we did and fix us. What more proof do you want that I’m on your side, Gwen?”

He doesn’t add in after everything I’ve lied about, but I hear it anyway.

Why would his mother have a secret, spelled apartment? “I’m leaving.”

I barely get two steps before Onyx grabs my arm, stopping me with gentle pressure. “I’m sorry about what my father did and the fact you think that we betrayed you and all that shit, but after everything that’s happened, surely it doesn’t matter right now. He won’t hurt you again, he won’t get a chance, and he will pay for what he has done. I told you once before that anyone in the middle of us is already dead, and the moment my father took you from me, he signed his own fate. I fight for you, and I need you to listen to me right now. I need you to trust me.Stop running from us. Have you learnt yet that we are stubborn fuckers, and we will follow you anywhere?” He lowers voice. “Please, stay.”

My heart flutters for a second, and my mouth feels dry when I can reply. Trust him? I can’t do that. I can’t forgive any of them either. “I’ve learnt that you get me in trouble and risk everything. Do you understand what I am? What you’re begging to stay?”

“We saw your Nexus and we saw you die,” Aleksander’s voice breaks. “We saw and we know we fucked up everything. Broke everything between us. None of us deserves to ask you for anything, but you do deserve our protection. Let us give you that. Let us help you find a way through this because you don’t deserve to live on the run.”

“You all have no idea what I deserve.” I rip my arm from Onyx. “And stop mansplaining what matters and what doesn’t matter to me. I’m leaving. I should have gone in the first place when I got here and not had to sign up to the academy to escape you.”

“Like fuck you are leaving,” Finnegan growls, standing by the front door. He leans his shoulder on it, crossing his thick arms in a tight black shirt. “I know that you don’t like being told what to do, but you are not walking out of that door without me. You’re done with the running shit, the doing it all on your own shit, and every other insane plan you’ve had that has no doubt ended in extreme pain for you. Hate me for it, Sun, but you’re not alone anymore.”

“Finn—”

“No.” He walks to me. “We just had to watch you die, and only Onyx knew you would come back. I had to watch as the only woman in the entire world for me died and I couldn’t stop it. I felt our mate bond crack and fade. I felt you die, and it was different than before. Before, it was like an echo, like a buzz down a distant bond in my heart, but now it’s like a roar. MyNexus isn’t hiding you from me anymore. There is zero chance we’ll send you back out there for the Vian to get their hands on you. My Nexus is losing his mind, and I’m right there with him. Don’t make me let him out again.”

I gulp as the sheer force of him stands in front of me, all muscles and bad moods. I have to change the subject. I can’t deal with this. “How long have you been able to do that?”

The cocky asshole knows I’m changing the subject and plays innocent. “What?”

“Shift, like you did in your Nexus. He spoke through you, not in your animal form. I thought I was the only one who could do that.”

Onyx watches me. Too closely. Too intently. It’s overwhelming. “We have all been able to do that since our first shift, and as far as we know, we are the only bonded group to be able to shift this way.”

Hollis, it seems, has had enough. I’ve had enough of him any time he opens his mouth at this point. Some men shouldn’t be allowed to talk…especially if they only talk shit. “She’s awake and fine. Badly dressed, but I don’t care. Let’s go and see if saving her was worth my time.”

“What are you talking about?” I demand. “I’m not going anywhere with you. Unless you’re offering a lift out of the city limits and then your car keys.”

“I didn’t go with you for no fucking reason,” Hollis snarls.

“Give her a second, we haven’t even told her about Rhodes and?—”

I cut Alek off. “Where is Rhodes? What about Rhodes?”

“He…” Alek looks away. “Maybe you should sit down.”

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