Page 81 of In Control

“What happened? What happened to your pack?”

“What do you mean?” Liam asks. But it’s clear from the tension in his voice that I’ve hit a raw nerve.

“I don’t know a huge amount about packs, but I’ve met a few now. I know one very well. Packs are solid, unbreakable things, bound together by their bonds. Yet yours … isn’t. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’ll tell me you’re rock solid. But I don’t think you are. Not with Esra acting like he is. I don’t think it was always like this. I think something happened.”

“You’re right,” he says wistfully. “A pack relationship is stronger than stone. Time and the tribulations of life don’t wear it down. It takes something more substantial to break a pack apart.”

“Like an earthquake,” I say softly.

His hands come to rest on my shoulder and I can feel his heartbeat slow against my back.

“An earthquake. Perhaps. It ripped us apart, shook the ground beneath our feet, and left everything changed. Nothing has been the same since.” He stills. “Not until you.”

I may not have a bond, but I can sense his sadness in the air.

“It was Esra, wasn’t it?” I ask.

“Esra and Gabe.”

“What happened?”

“Esra had this student. He was this bright, young thing. Very intelligent. Esra’s star student. His prodigy, I guess. He was an undergraduate, but he’d show up at Esra’s office with all these ideas and theories, and Esra loved his enthusiasm, his genius. He didn’t see it for what it was. Not at first anyway.”

“What do you mean?” I say.

“The boy was in love with Esra.” He sighs. “Infatuated. Esra didn’t feel the same way. When he realised the boy’s feelings for him were inappropriate, he tried to distance himself. He knew it didn’t matter that he’d never reciprocated those feelings, that he’d never laid a finger on the boy, never said anything to lead him on. The entire situation could be enough to end his career.”

“Surely people would have–”

“The truth gets twisted. Especially when you’re an alpha. Especially when you’re a pack alpha.”

I twist around and kiss his neck. I remember all the bullshit Rosie had to face when she'd joined her pack, all the prejudice and rumours. Even her own parents were against her decision. Liam, Gabe and Roman formed their pack even longer ago, when the world was even less accepting. I wonder what ugliness they’d faced.

“The boy didn’t take it well,” Liam continues. “He was convinced that Esra loved him back, that they were destined to be together, and it was only Gabe standing in their way.”

“Shit,” I whisper, shivering in the water as I start to see where the story is heading.

“The boy found Gabe and wormed his way into his life. Gabe thought he was his friend. When Esra found out, he warned Gabe the boy was bad news and Gabe cut him out.”

“Poor Gabe,” I whisper.

“That isn’t the end of this story, Sophia,” Liam says darkly and I peer into his eyes. “The boy started to harass Gabe. Letters, messages, videos. Esra told Gabe to ignore it. That the student would move on, get bored.” Liam’s jaw flexes. “He didn’t. He broke into Gabe’s dressing room after a show and attacked him.” Liam hesitates, swallowing down bile and I think I might vomit. “He tried to slit his throat.”

I gasp, grabbing onto Liam’s arm as if his words might send me spiralling away. Gabe attacked. Beautiful, graceful, magical Gabriel, attacked.

“We weren’t there that night. We weren’t there to protect our omega,” he says, and I can hear the pain in his voice, so raw it makes my heart ache for him. “Gabe managed to fight him off, called for help. But not before the fucker stabbed him in the gut. He was in hospital for two weeks. Took him another month before he could dance again.”

I remember the scar, the red line tracing over Gabe’s stomach. I never thought to ask how he got it.

“It was more than an earthquake,” Liam says. “We nearly lost our omega.”

And then I understand. Disbelief punches me in the gut.

“Esra, he thinks … he can’t think …”

Liam strokes his hands down my arms.

“No, he doesn’t. Of course, he doesn’t. But he blames himself for what happened. Gabe pulled away from us for some time. He was processing what happened. And Esra took that to heart.” He scrubs his hand down his face. “It’s complicated, Sophia.”

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