Page 24 of These Bonds that Unite Us
“Why didn’t you tell us then?” Cal asks.
“Fear.” Her shoulders lift as she shrugs, somehow curling in on herself more. “If my birth family found me and learned of my connection to you… What they do to alphas and omegas in New Hampshire makes the symptoms of my Rejected Omega Syndrome look like a bad flu.” Her gaze goes distant, her body shaking slightly as she gets lost in her own memories.
“We never would have allowed them to take any of us,” Nebula argues weakly, but he knows none of us could have guaranteed the others' safety forever.
“Growing up, my father was… controlling. And vocal. He loved to boast about how he and Doctor Harrison would ‘correct’ any alpha or omega who presented in the state. I didn’t realize the depth of his hatred toward the designations until my brother became an alpha. Ben had always worshiped our father. Following in his footsteps and becoming a bully at school, all in the name of his faith. When he presented, he willingly subjected himself to a public flogging at the church. Attendance was mandatory for anyone above the age of 12. We were forced to watch as they beat him bloody, scarring his back and thighs until his scent diminished. Only once he had control of his instincts did they stop. It nearly killed him.”
Nausea churns in my stomach hearing the violence my firefly was forced to endure. Benjamin Montgomery is six years older than her, so she would have been in her early teens when this happened. The horrors she must have witnessed growing up in that family… My parents may be judgmental assholes but they were never abusive or violent the way the Montgomerys are.
“But you’re an omega, surely they would not have-”
Omen’s snort interrupts Callisto. “They wouldn’t have beat me. No, my punishment would have been much worse.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Now Playing: Missing Limbs- Sleep Token
If I’d had any lingering doubts about who these men are to me, hearing their birth names would have been enough to convince me. C, R, W, B. The same initials they use in our Fated connection. I want to laugh, but I know the sound would come out hysterical. Titan has been visibly fighting the urge to touch me, and I don’t want to push him too far when I haven’t earned their comfort.
They deserve the whole truth, not the tidbits I’ve fed them so far.
“I don’t know how much you know about Doctor Harrison–probably only what they’ve released on the news–but he is more hate-filled than my father. Father dislikes alphas and loathes omegas, but the Doctor views everyone with designation DNA as an abomination. He wants to create a ‘cure’ and he will do anything to find it.”
One hand raises to brush over the top of my neck, below my ear. I turn, using one finger to point out the thin red scar I knowis visible there. “When I went to confront my father, he was there. He tried to remove my scent glands.”
Growls echo through the small room from all four of the men sitting before me. Even Callisto seems incensed to hear what I experienced after the live feed was cut.
I feel like I’m dreaming, being in the same room as them and not seeing hatred written on their faces. When they’d first walked in and Nebula had fallen to his knees, I was shaken by the regret in his expression. Then watching Nexus break down in the doorway… I’m overwhelmed. My instincts demand I crawl into their laps and allow them to ease the ache in my heart, but my mind sends signals to my nerves and sparks pain in my body as if to remind me how greatly I’ve suffered since they rejected me.
My arms squeeze tighter around my middle as another wave hits. This is agony. Even their scents aren’t enough to ease the ache anymore. The thought briefly crosses my mind that their scents aren’t working because my body has given in to the rejection, but I refuse to accept a doomed future. Not when I’m finally free of my father and can see my sister again.
“They weren’t successful?” Callisto finally asks when I don’t continue speaking.
“Lex stopped them before he could do more than make the cut to access them.”
They seem relieved to hear I wasn’t fully maimed, so I make a note to avoid telling them what happened next. I get the feeling these alphas would not react well hearing my heart stopped beating when I was lying there.
“We’ve heard stories…” Nebula starts to say but trails off.
Titan finishes his mate’s thought. “About what happens to newly presented omegas under your father’s reign. The things they told us… We never thought he would do those things to his own daughter.”
I shrug. “His punishment for me would have been worse because I am a child of his creation.”
We sit in silence long enough I can feel the haze of sleep starting to fall over my body. I can tell they are mulling over everything I’ve revealed tonight. Stretching my legs back out, I wonder again why they are here and what they want from me, aside from a chance to hear my story.
“Omen.” Titan’s steely voice speaks my name gently. His dark eyes pull me in, threatening to drag me into their embrace and never let me resurface. “I’m so fucking sorry.Weare sorry. For not giving you the benefit of the doubt, and leaving you to suffer through a hellacious induced heat. For every hurtful decision we’ve made since the moment you walked away from the stage in Boston.”
“Our apology won’t be enough to correct the mistakes we’ve made, or to heal the damage we’ve caused you,” Callisto adds.
Nebula speaks next. He’s still kneeling on the floor, but his body leans toward me now. As if he can barely resist the pull still pulsing between us. “No matter how long it takes, we’re going to make this right. Show you through our actions. We choose you.”
My heart pounds in my chest, the sound ringing in my ears as their words loop in my mind, but I still can’t seem to make sense of them. Nexus drops from the chair across from me to land on his hands and knees. He crawls across the floor toward me, so slowly it makes each second feel agonizing as I wait to see what he plans to do next.
When he reaches me, he drops his head to lay on my feet. “Sweet girl, I will never be able to atone for the harm I have caused you. Walking away after helping you through your heat. Choosing my bonded mates over you when I knew you had no one else to rely on. I’ve already shown you how incompetent I am as an alpha.”
My body is shaking from the adrenaline his touch brings. The small connection from his head to the exposed part of my ankle above my shoes feels like a live wire sending bursts of energy to every inch of my battered nervous system. I couldn’t refute his claim even if I wanted to, not with the amount of focus it is taking to stop myself from crying out. The dual sensations of my pain and the energy have my thoughts staggering to catch up to the present.
“Please, allow us the chance to earn your forgiveness,” he whispers. The words are barely a breath against my shoes but they land like a truck against my chest.
