Page 49 of Verses and Blooms
“Do you think she’ll be afraid of me?” Rydell’s deep voice interrupted. He was standing in the doorway now, likely coming to check in on us and hearing the last part of the conversation.
“I think she’ll be nervous around all of you in the beginning. Heck, she might even be weird around me. It’s been… God, it’s been so long,” Caspian said, his voice breaking. “I’ve missed so much.”
“It was stolen from you,” I said softly. “That rests fully on Malik’s shoulders. You can’t blame yourself for that.”
“I know that to some degree,” Caspian said. “But it hurts. I’m supposed to protect her. Yet, here I’ve been barely living for years.”
“You did protect her,” Rydell said firmly. “You protected her with your body and kept her alive.”
“He’s right,” I said, pulling Caspian close and hugging him tightly. “Lilly is here because of you. We’re going to get out of ARC so you can be a family again. Now that the heat is over, youcanbe reunited. She deserves to know her dad is alright now. Maybe consider telling her the truth about why you were gone so she doesn’t make up her own reasons.”
It might be overstepping, but I felt like I had to say it at least once. He said we were going to be a family and I hated the thought of her blaming him for what he couldn’t control all because she never knew the truth.
Lies always came out one day and the damage was worse the longer they dragged on.
“I told Sarah I wanted to tell her together. It shouldn’t rest on her shoulders, and I know she wanted to wait for me to handle it.”
“We’ll be there if you want us,” I told him. Rydell nodded along as he settled on the bed next to me, pulling me into his lap and out of Caspian’s. I guess he decided our alone time was over.
A wave of contentment echoed through the bond, Rydell’s reaction to simply touching me, likely a combination of his alpha being on edge during my heat and the fact that I was finally recovering.
“Do we have any updates?” I asked. “On anything really. What are they doing over there at ARC?”
“Ares has checked in a few times,” Rydell said before turning toward the door and calling out to the others. “She’s up and asking for updates.”
I burst out laughing when I saw the alpha walk in wearing a hot pink, polka-dot apron.
“The pink really complements your hair, alpha,” I teased. Ares tossed his red hair over his shoulder and gave me a look that said he was amused but fighting it.
“I’ll make sure when we have our own place to get a morealpha-worthyset of aprons, omega,” he shot back with a look that I could only call a promise.
Despite having more sex than I could imagine in the last few days, my scent swelled in the air, giving away my arousal. He chuckled, his voice low and husky.
“Noted, omega. For now, I’m making you some much-needed food. You need some protein in your life. I did a little research, and they said steak was ideal after a heat like this, so that’s what I’m having them bring me for dinner. The guards looked less than impressed, especially since the dining hall over there isn’t exactly fine dining, but I don’t care.”
“She was asking for updates from ARC and Malik,” Rydell said before he could go back to cooking whatever he had in mind for lunch. Ares had, apparently, taken over kitchen duties.
Ares lost every hint of amusement as he nodded, letting out a breath and running a hand over his face. “Malik is still in the wind. We’re looking, but it may take some time to drag him out. Don’t worry, though. Sanchez took this as a personal slight, and his pack is having to force him to stop working long enough to eat and sleep. It won’t be long before he finds him.
He shifted out of the way as Ansel, Ledger, and Kane joined us so my entire pack was here.
“As for ARC… it’s a little more complicated.”
I groaned. “And this conversation was going so well.”
“Don’t lose hope. I promised to get you out of there, and I’m going to follow through. The chief is fighting tooth and nail with the Alliance and Omega Network officials. The Network doesn’t want to let go of ARC completely. They’re taking it almost as a personal insult that this happened under their noses. But someone leaked it to the media. Word is out about what happened to all of you and now they’re focused on damage control. But the good news is, this officially can’t be swept under the rug. Which is exactly what they would’ve done if it hadn’t leaked.”
“Was it someone in the Alliance?” Kane asked as he settled on the end of the bed, facing me. “This feels a little too clean.”
My heart nearly exploded at the sight of my entire pack sitting together now. Ledger plopped down at the edge, stretching into the empty space without a care in the world. The rest of the pack shifted and allowed Ansel to join me, scooting right between me and Caspian and snuggling close. The sigh of contentment the moment he was touching me was adorable.
“To answer your question: no. It wasn’t someone within the Alliance,” Ledger said with a smirk that told me exactly who called and let the media know the truth. Good.
“Well, now that it’s out, surely they can’t make us stay,” I said, letting a trickle of hope creep in now. This was huge, Ledger was a genius for making sure that word got to the right people.
“You’d be surprised how the general public feels about anyone different,” Kane said. There was no hint of amusement in his tone, just brutal honesty.
“I could see that,” I admitted, hating his answer, but knowing it was true. “We’re definitely going to have to prove ourselves. Can we give some kind of statement instead of having them doing a bunch of invasive testing and stressful panels. Write down what we’ve been through?”
