Page 51 of Petals and Strings
My pulse was thundering in my ears, making it impossible to hear the approaching footsteps until Ledger was there. His smokey, masculine scent surrounded me, pulsing at the edges of my psyche and coaxing my omega to calm.
It didn’t help until a rumbling purr echoed out.
“What happened, wildling?”
“H-he told me to get on my kn-knees for h-him,” I stuttered out on a sob before more took its place, the force of them wrecking me.
“Who?” The word was icy cold, a harsh burst of wind that frosted the air around us.
“Theo.” The name was an angry snarl that came from the depths of my soul, revenge the only thing sharp enough to cut through my tears. That poor excuse for a therapist’s deceptively cruel eyes were still sharp in my mind. The way he watched meand followed me, as if he thought he could own me with a single threat.
Before Ledger could speak, something shifted in the air. A swell of dominance. All wrapped in a loud warning growl. The power of it had my hair standing on end and a shiver running down my spine. I’d never felt anything like it.
Rydell was here.
No wonder people feared alphas like him. Though, I knew they were wrong about one thing. The way he stood there, making sure I was being taken care of, told me just how in control he was.
I could also read his intentions. He was going to make Theo pay and my omega was cheering already for what was to come.
He sounded like an animal. An angry bear ready to chase after its prey.
Rydell and I weren’t close yet, but he was always near. I’d seen him in the shadows of the conservatory, his dark, floral and plum scent hitting me, edged in ink and leather. Dangerous, alluring, intoxicating.
He never scared me, he was simply a silent protector and I had never been more grateful he was around.
“I’ve got her,” Ledger promised. Rydell’s power pulsed in the air as he nodded and stormed past at a full run as he moved down the corridor and out of sight.
It couldn’t be real. Because no one in my life had ever protected me. Fought for me.
Not even my own family.
I barely breathed, afraid to move and miss a single second.
“Is he going to kill him?” I whispered. The shock of it was chasing away my panic. The tears had come to an abrupt halt the moment he made that sound.
I started to scramble to my feet, ready to run after him and stop this. The thought of losing him was cracking me wide open.
“Don’t. Let him handle it,” Ledger argued, pulling me back down.
They weren’t going to just let him hurt Theo without consequences. Ones far worse than my own would have been. Seeing his feral side lash to the surface like a weapon, unleashing his fury on my behalf, was burned into my retinas. The scene replaying in my mind over and over.
I couldn’t let him go down for that.
“Wildling. Breathe. There’s no stopping what he’ll do now,” Ledger soothed. “You’d only get hurt and he would hate that.”
“Why?”
“You know why,” Ledger countered in a voice that was far too calm.
“I don’t,” I argued. Though, we both knew it was a lie. One so feeble it was crumbling before me. His blue eyes locked onto me, daring me to face this, to say it out loud.
To admit what was happening here.
I would be stupid to not notice the way they watched me, gravitated toward me like I did with them. The way we’d already all been changing since we grew closer.
Every therapy where we exchanged looks when Theo said something ridiculous. All those meals we sat side by side, sometimes in silence and sometimes not.
The nights they listened to me play.
