Page 32 of Saving Nevin
I reached over and patted Xan’s back, offering him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. The right Alpha will come along.”
Xan looked a little sad as he said, “I sure hope so... C’mon, let’s get out of here. This place is suddenly suffocating and I’m sure my brother can’t wait for you to be home and in his arms again.” He rolled his eyes with a soft scoff, but I had the feeling he was just trying to cover up for his moment of vulnerability.
We were nearly to the exit when I heard a familiar voice call my name. “Nevin?”
My blood ran cold. My heart kicked in my chest, threatening to stop entirely as a shiver ran through me from head to foot.Just keep walking. Ignore her. Pretend you didn’t hear her.Except Xan stopped and grabbed my arm. “Nev?” he asked, confused, and I knew I was screwed.
I slowly turned around to see one of my fellow Omegas from my familial pack, a sweet middle-aged woman named Kerri, staring at me as if she’d seen a ghost. When I faced her, her jaw dropped and her big eyes filled with tears. She rushed up to me, reaching out to cup my cheeks in both hands, as if to reassure herself that I wasn’t a dead man walking.
“It’s really you… You’re alive? But how?” she whispered. “Rex said that you were dead.”
“Almost,” I croaked out, my throat suddenly tight.
“Oh, honey!” Kerri threw her arms around me in a tight embrace, but quickly pulled back. Her brow furrowed. “You’re pregnant? I don’t understand. Nevin, I thought you were barren.”
“I was,” I said, but how did you even explain something like this? Especially to a woman who was essentially raised in a cult? “I… It’s a long story.”
She brightened and took my hands in her smaller ones. She gave my fingers a squeeze. “That’s wonderful news. Now you can come back and be a part of the pack again,” she exclaimed, and my stomach knotted, nausea roiling.No. Nonononono.
“No!” I barked, jerking out of her grasp. “Kerri, please, listen to me. Please, whatever you do, don’t tell Rex that I’m alive. Don’t tell him that you saw me. In fact, just pretend this never happened.”
She looked confused. “But… Your father?—”
“No.” I bit out the word on a sharp growl. She flinched back. “Ineverwant to go back there. Ever. You don’t understand. No one understands, and no one ever will, but I’m begging you, Kerri. Pretend you never saw me today. Please… I-I need to go.”
My heart hammering in my throat, threatening to choke me, I spun on my heel and took off running for the exit sign emblazoned in red above the double doors several yards away. I heard Xan’s voice call out after me, but panic clung to me like a second skin.
I couldn’t breathe, not even after I burst out into the fresh air and escaped into the parking lot. Not even as I made a beeline for Xan’s car and collapsed in the front seat. Not even as tears began to spill down my cheeks, as I hugged my bags of new maternity clothing to my chest.
I sobbed.
A minute later, the car rocked as Xan swung the driver’s side door open and got in. “Nevin? Hey. Hey, it’s gonna be okay—” he started, but I hissed at him, baring my fangs.
“No, it’s not!” I cried out. “If she tells Rex that I’m alive?—”
“She won’t,” he assured me, then blew out a sharp breath. “We should probably tell Kace, though, just in case.”
Alarm rang through me anew. “No!”
His eyes grew wide in surprise. “What? Why?”
“I-I don’t want to worry him more than I already have,” I mumbled, sniffling and wiping my nose with the back of my new shirtsleeve. “You’re right. It’s fine. It’s probably nothing. I’m probably just overreacting. Pregnancy hormones and all, you know?”
I forced out a laugh, then scrubbed both hands over my face. God, I probably looked like a hot mess. Kace would know something was up the minute he saw me, but maybe I could pass it off as a pregnant Omega thing. I hoped so, anyway.
“If you say so.” Xan didn’t sound so sure, but I was. I was scared—terrified, honestly, that Kerri would tell Rex that she’d seen meandthat I was pregnant—but I wasn’t going back. I was finally free of that monster and his abuse. I wasn’t spending the rest of my life in a cage. I had Kace now, and I would fight for my freedom, and my happiness. I didn’t want Kace to worry.
For now, I’d keep it tucked away inside my chest.
Hopefully, he’d never have to find out.
23
NEVIN
I woke before Kace.
For awhile, I just laid there and watched him slumber on. His dark hair sleep-tousled and his handsome face lax, he was oblivious to the thoughts swirling round and round my head.I listened to the birds sing their morning minstrel while my mind played snippets of the past few months of joy and love—and that one blip of fear that had been driving me crazy for two weeks.
