Page 89 of Silas's Sweetheart

“What is it? What’s happened?” he asked quietly, reaching to take Silas’s hand before he noticed how dirty his own hands were.

Silas didn’t seem to notice as he tugged Ziggy into his chest and wrapped his arms around his waist, burying his face into Ziggy’s neck. A shudder passed through him, then another as Silas sucked in greedy breaths.

Ziggy caught Jupiter’s worried gaze over Silas’s hunched shoulder. He ran a hand up Silas’s back, noting the tension beneath. “What is it? Talk to me.”

Jupiter slipped out of the stables, leaving them alone. Seconds ticked by as they stood in the middle of the empty stall.

“The omegas in Drinkwater… a couple of them went into heat,” Silas rasped in an unrecognizable voice.

Ziggy swallowed back the bitter taste that burned the back of his throat as he calculated how long it had been since the group of abused omegas had been freed by Silas’s brothers. The math left him with a dawning understanding that the alphas had to have drugged them or… something worse.

His brain shut down at the thought they’d gotten forced against their will and had surgery to prevent them from getting pregnant. The situation in Drinkwater was barbaric enough without thinking those thoughts.

Toby had Emmy, he reassured himself, so that had to mean it was just pills. Not that giving heat blockers was good, but the alternative was too cruel to even contemplate.

“Is the hotel equipped for that? To keep them safe?”

Silas’s next shudder left Ziggy drawing conclusions that made him heave in distress. Some hotels had special rooms to contain an omega’s scent during a heat. Ziggy did the math of how many omegas there were in Drinkwater and with it followed a sinking feeling that the hotel they were staying in would not have enough. Not only that, who was going to help them get through the heat? Would they want the help of an alpha after what they’d been through? God, could it be anymore fucked up?

“They have it in hand now.” Silas’s voice was flat, emotionless. Ziggy didn’t need to see his expression to feel his despair.

“What do you need from me?”

The arms wrapped around him squeezed harder. “Just this. Just need to hold you.”

“I won’t let go, I promise.”

Chapter Forty-One

Silas

He sat in front of his laptop, staring at his parents. Popi rocked Emmy in his arms as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Popi, please don’t cry,” Silas begged, his heart trembling in his chest at Popi’s sorrow.

Silas had leaned on Ziggy after the devastating morning of back and forth calls with Oakland. He’d spent his afternoon with Ziggy on a quad bike instead of a horse so that Ziggy could share the same experience as the others, just minus the horse. Taylin and Booker had fielded calls with him while they worked out how to protect the terrified omegas who had gone into heat.

In all the unraveling of the legal crap, freeing the omegas and housing them together, no one had given any hard thought on how to deal with their biological needs. They’d catered to their medical needs by hiring a team of doctors to give them the best medical treatment to heal their bodies. They also had counselors to aid them with the psychological damage.

With Toby’s death and Emmy’s birth, there’d been some tough questions around heats. The problem was, not all the omegas were willing to discuss it. Oakland had made his thoughts clear on this at the time, about how it put them and the omegas at risk in a hotel where they couldn’t mitigate all the risks.

Dad and Popi had stressed that the decision had to be up to the omegas and the fallout from that decision had come today. Four of the omegas had gone into their heat. Three were the ones who hadn’t wished to talk about it. One had trapped themselves in an air vent and had to be cut out, another had gone into a frenzy, resulting in him hurting not only himself but two alphas who had attempted to keep him from leaving the hotel floor. The third they had to hospitalize because he’d cut his wrists. His fear was so great that someone would touch him, he believed death was his only option.

Silas’s eyes ached, holding back his own tears at how the omega came to that decision.

“It’s my fault,” Popi sobbed. Dad growled, tugging him into his side, being careful of Emmy.

“It’s not. We gave those men the choice because every other fucker had taken away from them. We did what we thought was right. And the only asshole shitheads responsible for this are those who chained those omegas up and treated them like animals.”

The controlled way in which Dad spoke implied restraint, but his eyes were all wolf when he looked at the screen. “It’s contained. Now we need to figure out what comes next. Those three omegas can’t stay in the hotel.”

“What about here? They don’t want to go back to the factory, we already know that.”

Popi sniffed and wiped at his cheeks. “That’s a great idea. It’s so peaceful on the ranch and being out in all the open space, in the fresh air, would be good for them.”

Silas agreed. The ranch had been a salvation for him and for others so it could be for these omegas, too. “I’ll reach out to Oakland and get him to speak to the omegas once they’re better placed to make a decision on their future.”

“I’m sure he’ll be relieved we’ve come up with a possible solution.”

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