Page 12 of Petals and Strings
My fingers shook as I skimmed them over my collarbone. The soft ridges were still there, a tease of a life I had before yet couldn’t remember. God, I wanted to.
“Dinner,” Ledger called out as he walked out of his room, door slamming closed behind him. His voice was always a low rumble, like thunder creeping into the night, a warning of a storm that would never hit. He was too steady and in control. Unlike me.
It fit the alpha. He was subdued, yet still just as terrifying when he wanted. He made sure each of us were eating and attending what was required, keeping the staff from drugging us into oblivion.
They respected him, unlike the rest of us. I’d heard whispers of his last name. Apparently, D’Angelos held weight. Though, I had no idea why.
Ansel and I both stood, the omega casting his eyes at the floor as he walked past us both. His steps were hurried and the moment Rydell stepped into the hall I realized why.
The half-feral alpha had a snarl permanently on his face. His scent was sickly sweet and spicy, making my nose burn. Plum, violet, paper and ink. It was always laced with something dark and spiced… maybe the feral side of himself.
Even his voice was animalistic, a hard edge lacing every word, winding around it like a thorny vine and making it painful to hear. I couldn’t imagine how it felt to the alpha himself.
Rydell even looked intimidating, body covered in ink with those dark green eyes that saw too much and a shock of inky black hair. His face was permanently twisted into a scowl, as if it would be scarier than the dominance wafting off of him.
He was the last of our group, aside from me, that wore a bracelet still. It was too dangerous for him not to have one.
Me? I was too fucking lost, incompetent, to be trusted.
A disappointment to my medical team and myself.
Maybe evenher.
The sharp ache hit me, piercing through the fading bite. I wondered if she felt it too.
If so, why wasn’t she here?
Every so often there was a flicker of feeling, but it was a whisper that was gone like the wisps of smoke left behind when you blew out a candle. Tainting the air in its sulfuric scent, reminding you of the vibrance that it once had.
Then nothing.
Easily forgotten. Scent fading quickly.
“Hey.” The strong hand made me jump, jolting me out of my head. Ledger didn’t say another word or smile, he just nodded his head at the hall, urging me to move.
I started to walk, but he didn’t follow. He turned to the empty room.
It was then I realized it was no longer bare, but filled with the presence of another omega.
Her scent wafted into the hall. It was laced in fear, tainting the edges of the scent. An intoxicating mix of floral, citrus, and spice. Rainwater, cool and rejuvenating, the type of spring shower that seemed to wash all the bad away from the world, letting it have a fresh start. Then there was a delicious undertone of rose and sandalwood, that rounded out the freshness with a hint of natural, earthy spice.
She was nature personified.
Why did that send a sharp ache through me? A sense of wrong that I couldn’t explain?
Fuck.
Terror struck me enough I was rushing ahead to the dining room just to escape it.
She was new, a change, one I wasn’t prepared for.
Hell, would I even remember her tomorrow?
It took far too long for my brain to latch onto people and things. Another symptom of living a half-life.
No matter how many times the doctors reassured me my memory would fix itself when I let myself face what my brain hid away, it had never happened. It wasn’t for lack of trying. I wasn’t lazy.
Just lost.
