Page 81 of Scapegoat

Jayden

You can never go home. I’d heard that in some whiny human song and never understood it. By the time we got up after sleeping the day away, I was starting to realise why.

“How about we go down to the milk bar for burgers,” I suggested, hours after we’d gone to bed, when Kai’s eyes finally flicked open. She frowned slightly and then shook her head.

“I can’t eat anything. I feel sick.”

But when she went to turn away from me and bury her face into her pillow, I directed her back my way so I could pull her close.

“C’mon, a burger with the lot from Elsie’s kitchen?” I said.

“Milkshakes too.” Atlas yawned and then rolled over to wedge our mate between us. “Ice cream, donuts…”

“OK, OK!” That tiny little smile on her face? It lifted my spirits more than anything else today. I stroked her hair back, probably freaking her out with how intently I was staring, but… I loved this woman with my whole heart and all I wanted was for her to be happy.

But she’d been forced to kill someone, when protecting her was our job. And now we were back here, which was never part of the plan. I held her closer, feeling her breath on my neck, somehow feeling like if I just did this, everything would be OK.

“Fine.” Her voice was muffled by my shirt. “Burgers and milkshakes it is, but I need a shower first.”

“Well, I wasn’t gonna say anything, but, damn, girl…” Kai shot me a filthy look as she crawled off the bed, probably because I smacked her arse as she went. “I’ll get our bags from the car.”

But when the en suite door closed and I could hear the water from the shower running, Atlas turned to me.

“You know she’s going to go into heat soon.”

An omega always did after she accepted all of her mates’ claims. It could be instantaneous, resulting in the mated group spending many days in bed, affirming their bond, or it could happen sometime later. When the omega is ready, our biology teacher had informed us. But both Atlas and I had noted the ripening of her scent, growing particularly sweet right before… That fucking concert.

“I know,” I replied, rolling out of bed. “It’s why I suggested we come back here.”

“Not sure that was a smart move,” Atlas observed.

“No, but it’s a safe one. No one will find Kai, try to take advantage of her here. The whole pack will protect her through her heat. So let’s get her out of here, get her fed full and happy. Maybe then she can forget about what happened.”

Of course, shit didn’t work like that, but I had to hope, didn’t I? I walked out of the room only to run into Mum walking my way with a pile full of clothes.

“Kai’s gonna need these, right?” She handed me the lot of them. “She needs to get out of that blood stained dress.”

“She’s got clothes in the car,” I said, handing them back. “I’m gonna bring the bags in.”

“So we could have dinner?” She put a hand on my arm. “As a family. It’s been years—”

I cut her off with a shake of my head, cursing under my breath.

“Look, everything’s not gonna be happy families now, Mum. I know you want that, but…” I stared at her, willing to see it. Mum was like a damn perfumed steamroller when she got the wind up. “Most of the memories Kai has of this town are painful ones.”

“But we tried to provide a safe place for her.” Mum’s words came out rapidly, her tone rising. “We did our best to minimise what Abby did and —”

“Mum.” I didn’t use my alpha bark, just stared at her, waiting for her to understand. “This isn’t about you. It’s about Kai. No matter what anyone did, being here hurts her right when she’s already hurting enough.”

And with that, my input to the conversation was over. I walked away from Mum, ignoring her calling my name, because I’d brought my girl right back here. I was the one that had made her hurt more. I grabbed the keys to the truck, walking outside, but by the time I got there, Xavier was standing beside me.

“We need to be strong for Kai.”

“Well, that’s bullshit,” I said, shaking my head. “If we were strong, we would’ve never come here. We’d have holed up somewhere, then taken out any cops that might have approached us and anyone else that might try to take Kai. I never should’ve brought her here.”

When his hand landed on my shoulder, the weight was both oppressive and grounding.

“Here we’ve got the whole pack behind us,” he said.

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