Page 18 of These Bonds that Unite Us
Now Playing: Give- Sleep Token
One long week of agony. Of wondering what happened to my omega, and reliving the horror we all witnessed every time I close my eyes. I’ve barely slept. My appetite is none existent. I can’t stomach the thought of caring for myself when my mind is haunted by the damning image of Omen lying on the church floor. So broken and lifeless. A shell of the woman I’ve fallen in love with.
We are due to go to the label today to work with our producer on another song for our upcoming album. At first, I didn't want to leave our apartment. Why force myself to go somewhere I have to pretend my heart isn’t slowly crumbling to dust? Then I remembered Bea might be at the Soulbound office, and there’s no way my girl’s best friend won’t have an update about what happened to her.
My knee bounces for the ride up the elevator to the executive offices where we’re supposed to check in with Brady. I don’t care about anything but finding Bea and getting answers. The rest ofmy pack can deal with our manager and anyone else at the label who tries to get in my way.
The doors are barely open before I’m rushing through them. It takes a lot of effort to not run from door to door yelling her name to get her attention. My spark of hope starts to diminish the further into the offices I get without seeing her. Maybe she isn’t here… I can’t think about why she wouldn’t be here or I’ll fall apart in the middle of this hallway.
I don’t hear a word Brady says when Callisto pulls me into the office. My mind is a vortex devouring the world around me and spitting reminders of my failure back at me. Cal’s hand is warm when it wraps in mine. I let him lead me back out of the office and downstairs to the recording studio where our producer is waiting for us.
We’re outside of the door when I hear the voice of my savior. Bea walks around the corner ahead of us with Joey, the bassist from Orbital Somatic. Shaking my hand from Cal’s grip, I beeline for her. Her eyes snap up to meet mine when she hears my hurried footsteps. Disdain twists her expression, her nose turning up in the air as if I’m beneath her.
I know what a piece of shit I am. I’m an alpha who abandoned his omega after her heat. The lowest of the low. But I need answers. I will lose my mind if I have to go another day without knowing Omen’s okay.
“How is she?”
Bea snorts derisively, her eyes narrowed on me. “Catch up with your bandmates, Joey. We can continue this conversation later.”
The bassist nods, watching me warily before stepping around me to head down the hallway. I can sense my mates hovering a few feet behind me, also hoping for some hint about the state of our omega’s health.
“As for you, Mr. Graves,” she sneers my pack name like it’s mud on her brand new heels, “unless you have a question pertaining to your career or the label, we have nothing to discuss.”
I slam my hand against the wall to block her path when she starts to move past me. Neither of us is leaving this hallway without her telling me Omen’s alive. “Please, Bea-”
“I warned you,” her finger digs into my chest. The malicious tone of her voice sends my instincts on high alert. “When I came to your apartment to tell you who Omen was to you. I told you I wasn’t going to let you get close enough to hurt her a second time. I almost lost her once because of your actions, I won’t risk her life again.”
A sliver of relief fills my soul with her unintentional admission Omen is still alive. As long as my girl is still here I can fix all of the pieces of her we’ve broken.
“You. Don’t. Deserve. Her.” She enunciates each word with a sharp poke to my chest. The blows have my jaw clenching. I know I don’t deserve Omen, but Fates dammit, I’m going to find a way to earn her back.
“You’d rather watch her slowly fade away from the ROS than let us fix our mistakes?” Nebula growls from behind me. Watching Omen face her father’s abuse helped my alpha mate have a change of heart. He’s all in now. Ready to do whatever it takes to ensure our girl recovers from the Rejected Omega Syndrome.
“She isn’t facing your rejection alone. She has me, our family, her sister, and our friends. Omen doesn’t need a bunch of worthless men who so easily tossed her aside.”
Nebula’s bond splinters with grief and regret, both emotions showing in his voice when he replies. “You might think your love will be strong enough to tether her here, but I’ve been there Bea. My family poured everything we had into saving my sisterand it didn’t work. The only thing that will save Omen from the rejection is us. All you are doing is hindering her chances of recovery.”
Bea shakes her head, ignoring my alpha’s warning. I can see in her eyes she isn’t going to listen to us. I step back, my arms falling to my sides in defeat. We aren’t going to change Bea’s mind, and cornering her in the hallway any longer could get us in trouble with the label.
Stepping into the sound booth, I let all of my built-up emotions bubble to the surface. I’m going to pour my heart and soul into this album. Hopefully one day my girl will listen to these tracks and hear exactly how much I regret not choosing her.
Titan’s phone rings as we are leaving the studio, so we pause in the lobby for him to take the call. The parking garage tends to have crappy signal and we don’t want him to lose the connection in case it’s related to Omen. He grunts and asks a few questions, each of which tells me the person on the other end is the general contractor we hired to fix up the new pack house we bought to share with our girl.
Cal came up with the idea after our show in Philadelphia. Our apartment here in Starburgh is too small for the five of us, especially when it doesn’t have a nest. Omegas need a nest, and our girl deserves the space of her dreams.
We’d poured over hundreds of real estate listings trying to find our perfect forever home. The massive stone lake house was a last-minute discovery during the time off before our show in Boston. Money moves mountains, so it took barely any effort to move the buying process along and get a contractor out to start making the changes we wanted.
The owner of the construction company had kept us updated with pictures while we did the West Coast portion of our tour, but we hadn’t let him touch the nest. Well, Nebula hadn’t. After learning Omen was born Sarah Montgomery his anger wouldn’t allow him to continue to build her nest. We reached out to the company a few days ago to have them start the renovations to prepare the space for our girl.
“They want us to swing by and check everything over,” Titan tells us after he ends the call.
Our general contractor, Tim, meets us out front. Seeing the pictures online hadn’t done this place justice. It feels like a tiny castle hidden in the trees with its multi-level roofs and whimsical back garden.
The perfect blend of modern and fairytale.
I follow behind my alphas, keeping Callisto tucked under my arm as we see the updated interior. A small, enclosed patio sits at the front with an intricately designed exterior door leading to a path down to the lake shore. Behind it is a large sunroom filled with empty bookshelves and cozy reading spots. I already know I’m going to spend a lot of time curled up in here devouring smutty romances with my omega.
As soon as I earn her forgiveness, that is.
