Page 53 of Bound By Pain
“Because they kidnapped you, too?”
I grab her hips and scoot onto my back, pulling her to rest on my chest. “More than that. The man who escaped? He is my half-brother. A child I wasn’t aware my father had until he showed up at my parents’ funeral.”
Bea’s eyes are wide as she listens, hands clasped beneath her chin so she can see my face. “How old were you?”
“Seventeen. Our house had caught fire while I was at a friend’s for the night. Neither made it out in time. Marcus rolled into their funeral a week later, waving paternity papers around. My Alpha awoke then, and I lost control. If my uncles hadn’t been there to pull me away, I might have killed him.”
“Oh, Creed. That sounds incredibly stressful. I’m sorry he did that to you.”
“Interrupting my parents’ funeral is the least heinous of his crimes.”
A faraway look crosses her face for several seconds before she shakes it off.
“Have you spoken with anyone about what happened?” I ask.
“No one from the agency has reached out to me, no.”
Tilting my head, I study her expression. The way she carefully avoids meeting my eyes. “You know that isn’t what I meant, Omega.”
She sighs, head dropping, so her cheek rests over my heart. “Not yet. Aside from trying to go to work yesterday, I haven’t left the apartment since we got back.”
“You went to work? Less than a week after being rescued from that hellscape?”
I can practically hear her eyes roll as she raises one finger in my direction. Okay, I did the same thing. I have no ground to stand on in this argument.
“Touche. Is working how you aggravated the injury in your ankle?”
“Kind of? I didn’t actually get to work. Some HR bullshit kept me from accomplishing anything. Instead, I spent the day with one of my other Fate-matched mates, but because I left my brace at home, the small amount of walking we did led to this nonsense.”
She gestures to her feet, so I peer around her head to see the baseball-sized swollen lump on her ankle. The mottled bruising is dark against her golden-bronze skin.
“Looks like we’re having a lazy day, then.”
“I suppose so.”
The room is quiet for a few moments, then her head pops up. “Shit, what time is it?”
Dragging my cell out of my pocket, I let her see the screen.
“Oh no! I missed Ridley and Sage leaving for the airport!”
I cup my palm and run it over the top of her head, avoiding tangling my fingers in the tangled curls. “He wanted you to sleep, so he didn’t wake you. Orion, too.”
“Orion left?”
Nodding, I repeat what he told me about family errands and packing. “Speaking of packing, have you given any thought to how we are all going to fit into your apartment? Wherever you are is where I want to be, but if that could be somewhere with a nest that isn’t shorter than I am tall, that would be great.”
Bea glances down, noticing the way my knees are bent outward to fit my height into the tiny room. A giggle falls from her lips, turning into a full-on belly laugh. Each one jostles her against me, making her tighten her grip on my shirt to stop herself from sliding off.
“I hadn’t considered the logistics of having Alphas here. This is technically an Omega-only apartment, so we won’t be able to stay here long, anyway. We can speak with the other two at dinner tonight.”
Two? I thought there were five of us in total? Even with Lex still fighting off demons from his past, the older Alpha should be here, too.
My Omega scoots up my body when her laughter fades, nose pressing against my scent gland. “You smell amazing,” she breathes. “Like a late afternoon rainstorm in the middle of summer. The kind that brings cool breezes and double rainbows.”
“Double rainbows, huh?”
“Mhmm. They’re lucky. Just like meeting you was lucky.”
