Page 56 of Omega Hunted

I smiled, my eyes already half-closed. The last thing I remembered before sleep took me was Aldric standing in the kitchen of The Den, kissing Pip, and Cassian beside me in the nest, warm and careful and still, holding himself in place because I’d invited him in and he didn’t cross any boundaries.

Safe.

Chapter Eighteen

CASSIAN

I carried out perimeter checks twice daily, and the tree line was quiet. Whatever hunters were tracking Soren hadn’t followed him here yet. I reassured him each time that he was safe, and he just looked at me with all that hesitation and distrust of an alpha carved into every instinct he had.

The worst part was when he slept, and the nightmares happened. Every time they started, my wolf moved us toward the stairs, but I had control. Right?

The first night, I let my anxious wolf get to the bottom step before I pulled him back, and the second, I made it to the top of the stairs and sat in the hall waiting it out, and both mornings, I was in the kitchen before he came down.

Tonight they started earlier.

My wolf had been front and center all day, particularly since Soren had sat in my lap and snuggled in, and we’d shared space in his nest. Not even an after-dinner run had made him settle, so I was a long way past restless even in my fur, and just after midnight, I heard him call out.

Cry.

Sob.

I took the stairs at speed, skidding to a stop outside his door,

Go in, my wolf said

It’s not right, I told him in return, and he snarled

Despite the internal battle, I sat back on my haunches outside his door and listened. Soren’s voice came through low and frightened, and then the fearful cries I couldn’t catch clearly. I didn’t know what they’d done to him, but I’d already made a note of them and started a new file to track them down and remove their faces from this earth. It was easier when there were names. Easier when there was something I could do. Find them. Break them. Make sure they never touched another omega again. That was a problem I understood, and one my wolf wholeheartedly agreed with.

Go in, my wolf said again.

No. He won’t trust us if we do that.

You have to help; he snarled at me.

He had a point. I did have to help, because…

Fuck, I don’t know why.

Because I could? Because Raff would’ve kicked my ass if I hadn’t. Because it was what we did with the ORT.

I’m not ORT anymore.

We’re Alpha, my wolf insisted. It’s our job.

I stayed where I was, and my wolf paced inside me while the sounds went on; distress, broken breathing, and something underneath it that was worse than fear.

So much pain.

So. Much. Pain.

My wolf hated it. Fuck, I hated it. Because there was something unbearable about hearing fear and sitting outside a door while someone suffered and choosing not to go in, and every sound through the wood scraped at something raw inside me that I’d thought I’d buried deep enough to stay buried.

I fought my wolf, but in the end he won, and nosed at the door, and it swung open.

He didn’t lock us out, he said, sounding triumphant, as if this proved Soren wanted us to go in and check on him.

I guess it wouldn’t be wrong just to check on him.