Page 79 of Into the Fire: After
The screen went black for just a moment before looping back to the image of Taryn on the rooftop.
I looked below the video. Uploaded thirty-six minutes ago. Nearly a hundred thousand views.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Taryn’sbondfadedinas she approached the apartment. Giddiness and anxiety created a head-spinning mix. Underpinning it was a faint streak of rage, like a hot pepper in a fruit salsa.
Step by step, it grew stronger. Watching Lin’s and Caine’s faces, they felt her coming too.
They’d arrived home not long after Brooks and I stumbled on the video, so of course they’d then seen it. Their fruity scents had gone rotten, over-sweet, and they’d both gone quiet.
Like that, we’d been waiting for hours. The knob turned, and Lin immediately stood, arms crossed over his chest. Caine leaned on the back of the couch Brooks sat on, and I perched on the edge of the armchair.
As much as I didn’t want Taryn to walk into an ambush…well, she was walking into an ambush.
I swore I almost heard her heart pounding from my seat, and her scent was a strangling burnt and sweet combination. Her obvious exhilaration at what she’d done mixed and merged with—I assumed—the knowledge that her pack was about to skewer her for it.
Easing the door closed and dropping her bag to the ground, she took a deep breath and faced us. For a moment, no one spoke. Five hearts racing, five minds spinning.
“What,” Lin finally muttered, “the hell were you thinking?”
Alpha power exploded from him like a smoke bomb, everyone in the room shuddering against it. I’d never seen Lin this angry. His eyes were taut, the cords of his neck standing out. He’d been so unendingly gentle with all of us. Part of me had started to believe he couldn’t actuallygetangry.
I was wrong.
Taryn squared her shoulders. “I was thinking I wish someone had told my mother what she was actually signing up for.” She stepped further into the living room, meeting the lion with a chair and whip. “I was thinking about Nova, and the other omegas they’ve used up and thrown away. Maybe she’s content to crawl under a rock and hide, but I’m not.”
“Sweetness,” Brooks said, scooting forward on the couch cushion. “We’re on your side, you know we are. But, I mean, couldn’t you havetoldus?”
“You’d have tried to talk me out of it.”
“Really?” Brooks sniped back, a silver edge to his tone. “Iwould have?”
Taryn’s cheeks pinked and she averted her gaze, something like shame filtering down the bond.
“You’re damn right we’d have talked you out of it,” Caine said as he walked around the edge of the couch. “Taryn, sunshine, we just got out from under their thumb. Do you have any clue what something like this could do to us? All of us?”
“No, she doesn’t.” Lin paced, scowl so intense even I averted my gaze as he stepped closer. “Or maybe she doesn’t care.”
Goosebumps rose over my skin, my scalp tingling. I stood from the chair and inserted myself between Taryn and the rest of the group. “Okay. Let’s all take a breath here.” I turned to Taryn, my heart heavy. "We're just a little blind-sided here."
She crossed her arms across her chest, practically vibrating with the adrenaline that turned her normally sweet scent sour."I've said since the beginning that sitting back and just…letting all this happen again isn't an option for me. So if Gail is out, then Ihadto find another way, and that's what I did."
“Do you think, Taryn,” Lin bit out, every line of his body tense, “you were the only one who came home with scars?” The look he shot at her could've ignited a pyre. "You think you're the only one who gets a say in how we deal with this?"
Caine stepped before our head alpha, hand on his chest. “Easy there, Lin.”
“We put our lives at risk for you, Omega!” Lin pointed an accusing finger at Taryn over Caine's shoulder. “Every one of uswould carve out our hearts for you, and you just cut us out? How could you fuckingdothat, Taryn?”
Taryn swiped at the wetness on her cheeks. Brooks stood now, another body between our quickly fading omega and the increasingly irate alpha.
“Lin, baby, this is the alphadrenaline,” Brooks whispered, trying to cradle his alpha’s face in his hands. “Just close your eyes and breathe.”
“Yeah, and why’s that?” Lin snapped before aiming his furious attention back to Taryn. “They…that placebroke something in me.None of us left the same. But you don’t care. I amcrumblinginside and you don’t care!”
Lin’s face grew redder and redder, his voice louder with each word. Taryn trembled, her arms wrapped around herself.
Caine met my eye. “You three, go.”
