Page 20 of Celestial Alphas

“Stop treating her like a sensitive baby,” Hollis says. “We all watched the video footage of her, watched her take out Vian like she was bowling. She is a class A liar and good at deceiving. I trained her for ages, and never once did I have a suspicion shewas trained. None of us knew. We don’t have to be fragile around her. Just tell her the truth.”

“Who is the sensitive baby now?” I cock an eyebrow at Hollis and smirk. “It was almost funny letting you win over and over, knowing if I even tried a little bit, I could have beaten you. Do you want some training tips?”

“Bitch,” he snaps.

“Bastard,” I quip right back, glaring at him too.

“Let’s never leave you two alone.” Finnegan puts his hands on my shoulders and directs me away. “Rhodes is in a coma because of the bomb at the party.”

“You know, to capture you, and it was your fault.” Hollis’s words echo in my ear, but I don’t hear anything other than “Rhodes is in a coma.” Rhodes is hurt. That’s why he wasn’t there, why he didn’t come for me. Rhodes… “And he’s not waking up. You’ve got that bond with him, and the healers thought it might be possible for you to reach him. I can sneak you into the hospital. You owe me for coming after you. That’s why I came for you.”

“Oh, I thought you did it out of the goodness of your own heart,” I sarcastically whisper, because I can’t even wind Hollis up right now. It’s Rhodes. Rhodes, with his cheeky smiles and reassuring hugs and the promise of brownies when my world is falling apart. It’s Rhodes, who adopted the puppy of my dreams for me, knowing how much hard work would need to go into helping Nibbles’s foot, and he gave me a job so I could keep my independence. Rhodes. I wipe my eyes and turn away from all of them. “Where’s Annie?”

Hollis explodes on me. “Of course that’s all you care about is your goddamn friend! Not my twin brother, who could die!”

“I never said that I don’t care about Rhodes.” I curl my hands into fists. “I’m asking where Annie is because once I go to Rhodes, I’m not going to stop until he is awake and okay. Annielost her mate. She’s been kidnapped and held there with the Vian. I need to know that you didn’t just dump her somewhere. I don’t just instantly trust you all because you rescued me from the Vian. I would have gotten myself out either way, for the record.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” Finnegan answers flatly. “Your other mate is powerful and tested my limits. I will enjoy killing him, eventually.”

My Nexus whines in my chest, and I want to hit her. Hollis grumbles. “How the fuck is it possible a Vian has a Nexus mate?”

No one answers him, but Onyx comes closer to me. “I returned Annie to the city, with her mate’s body at her request. She is staying with her mate’s parents, who have taken her in and agreed to keep it quiet that she is there in the city, and we listened to Annie’s request to tell nothing of her mate’s betrayal. She doesn’t want his parents to suffer, which the truth would undoubtedly bring.”

“That’s kind. Very Annie.” I turn to Hollis. “Come on, then. Take me to Rhodes.”

Finnegan straightens up. “I’ll make sure you both don’t get caught. We are taking my car.”

“I’ll get food in and check out any news in the city.” Onyx touches my arm as the others go to the door, waiting for me, but Alek’s phone rings and he slips into another room. When we are alone, Onyx strokes my arm once, sending goose bumps and heat down my spine. “I’ll win you back. Be careful and don’t do anything risky.”

“Like trusting you not to give me to your father and let him draw runes on me that torture me for hours?” I deadpan. His eyes darken and he freezes…shocked, I think. I don’t have it in me to look at him for more than a second, mostly because I said that to hurt him, and I shouldn’t have done that. I’m mad, angry,and scared, but I don’t want to hurt my mates. I never wanted to hurt them, and this is all just fucked up.

The silence in the room becomes deafening before Onyx walks to the door of the bedroom I woke up in, nudging it open. “You need to change out of the dress. It will attract attention. Wear some of my clothes for now, and I’ll make sure to get you some of your own clothes before you’re back.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to say sorry to him as I pass, but I can’t, and I slip into the room, letting him shut the door behind me. I hear them talking in hushed whispers as I open the cabinets and find grey joggers with a drawstring and a dark grey shirt, carrying them into the attached bathroom. I don’t know what I thought I looked like, but as I turn on the bathroom lights, I wince. The midnight blue dress is torn, hanging off my lower arms, and is covered in blood, mud and fuck knows what. My hair is a rat nest of mess, and I’m paler than usual. Typical for me when I’ve died, but I hate seeing it.

I flick on the shower and rip what is left of the dress off me, chucking it into the bin before getting in. There is a mixture of women’s shampoos and conditioners and body washes that are pricey. I happily use them all. I don’t spend long in the shower though—I never do when water is involved—before getting out and getting dressed. The joggers are pretty long on me, but once I’ve rolled them up a little, I then pull the string tight until they fit. I tuck Onyx’s massive shirt into the joggers and find a brush to sort out my hair, which smells incredibly nice. I’m definitely stealing the good stuff in here before leaving.

I am leaving. When I’ve helped Rhodes…I’m getting my dog and leaving. How could I possibly stay when I’m still putting them in danger? Maybe my Nexus doesn’t want to kill them, but after what Severi said, what he has planned for my Nexus…I can’t risk staying in one place for too long. Even if Starlight is growing on me.

They all go silent, clearly stopping their conversation about me when I come out, and I roll my eyes. Being talked about is not new to me. “I’m ready.”

“Congrats,” Hollis sarcastically replies first. Finnegan punches his arm and Hollis winces. I never want to feel sorry for Hollis, but a small part of me does. He is an A-grade asshole, but he loves his brother and came to get me for Rhodes. It’s his twin. I couldn’t imagine having a connection to anyone like that. Finnegan walks over, holding up a pair of black boots. Designer boots in my size, and I’m sold.

He taunts me with them, lifting them a little higher than me for a second before snatching a kiss on my cheek and handing them to me as I stick my tongue out at him. I pull the boots on and walk to the door with Hollis and Finnegan. Hollis doesn’t bother holding the door open, but Finnegan does, letting me out. We both look at Hollis’s back as he storms down the corridor to the stairs, and Finnegan presses the button for the lift. “He doesn’t admit it, but he’s not okay. Hollis…he’s not sleeping, not eating, and acting stranger than I’m used to. Rhodes is his twin. After they lost their parents, Rhodes became kinder, and Hollis protected that kindness like a dog with a bone. Especially when the rejection happened. All of us had to defend each other, and Hollis took it personally anytime we lost.”

“Rhodes is his family, and I get why he hates me.” I clear my throat as the doors open. We step in and Finnegan presses the button for the bottom floor.

Finnegan moves swiftly, pushing my back into the lift wall, and kisses me. I moan as his tongue slides into my mouth, and his hands grab my hips, pulling me against his body. Seconds before the lift stops, he breaks away and goes back to waiting patiently, like nothing happened. “I told myself I hated you, but all I ever thought about was you. Hate and love are fine fucking lines, and it’s easy to slip between them both.” I’m flusteredwhen I peel myself off the wall and stand next to him. He smirks, looking proud of flustering me. “Hollis doesn’t hate you half as much as he pretends to. I know him, and right now, all he is thinking about is Rhodes. I get it. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for my sister. Nothing I haven’t already done.”

“Am I going to meet your sister some day?” I wonder what his sister is like. I saw her once and got pretty jealous, but I kind of wish I went in and met her.

Finnegan winks. “I have a feeling you’ll be an exceedingly bad influence on her.”

“Probably.” I wink right back. The lift door opens, and Hollis is waiting at the end of a corridor with a sign for the garage above him. The spotlights make the space too bright as we head towards Hollis, and he slips into the garage. “Where’s my dog?”

“At the academy, and she is being very well looked after,” Finnegan answers, holding the door to the garage open for me. It’s a room full of expensive cars, most of them names I wouldn’t know, and it makes my head swim thinking about how much all of this cost. Hollis sits in the driver seat of a black four-wheel Land Rover in front of us, and Finnegan opens the back door for me to get in. I slide in, followed by him, and he rests his hand over the top of mine, almost naturally, like we’ve done it a hundred times, and we haven’t. I don’t hate it. Hollis’s eyes flicker to our hands, and he clenches his jaw as he looks away and puts his foot down, speeding out of the garage and into the streets of Starlight.

The city is just like it was before, quiet at night and full of life at the same time. The restaurants that burst with warm lights and chatter of Nexus inside make me crave the normalcy. But there isn’t a curfew, and no one seems frightened. I feel like, if they knew about me, they wouldn’t look like this.

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