Page 40 of The Gift
“Well, you left with one quarter of that equation.”
“Are you done?” Henley growls at Ashton.
“Sorry, alpha,” Ashton mumbles, winking at me as he pulls his chair closer. “You also smell incredible, even with Koda’s scent covering way too much of you,” he says quickly out the corner of his mouth, before replacing the harmless flirting with irrefutable evidence about their knowledge of the Regalo Project.
And they have clearly spent a lot of time uncovering what they could about the project. A lot of the information is not detail I was aware of, although they’re looking at everything so differently to how I was involved. Reading the headings of each columns is a bit fucking tragic, reading the columns underneath even worse.
“How did you get this information?” I ask after nearly five minutes studying it. They’ve been quiet as I have taken in all the detail, and it’s lucky they did because the information is overwhelming to say the least.
I turn to Henley, because I can feel his rising trepidation like I felt the cool wind rushing in the window earlier.
“It really is difficult putting all this in logical order, because the timeline is skewed and initially our involvement was too,” he says.
“And that means?”
Henley’s eyebrows pinch slightly, and he takes a deep breath before answering. “The alphas, well the majority of them, were mortified when the true nature of the project was uncovered.”
“Not all though.”
“No, sadly, not all. Which is on them. It’s fucking abhorrent that there are alphas, people in influence that held and probably still hold an omega as a commodity. One that they strongly believe they have a given right to own, irrespective of their own omega’s desire.” Henley’s angry disgust flares quickly, and for me, it says more than his words do.
He turns in his chair to watch me closer, and I have to lean back in mine to escape his intensity. But it is his emotion and interpretation, so he’s entitled to it, and I know I’m not in danger.
“I’ll reserve the right to comment until later.”
And then we fall into a session of Henley explaining in detail what they, his pack, along with select group of allies have spent a lot of time invested in over the past years. While he outlines their findings, Ashton gets more drinks and food, when Henley moves into the exhaustive reasons why he and his closest friends founded the new alpha alliance, Koda makes his way into the kitchen.
He hops up onto the island bench, observing me closely. I can feel his attention on me, sure as I know the sun rises in the morning.
By the time Henley is finished recounting a long drawn out, and pretty detailed evaluation of what they have uncovered, I look up to find Reno sitting at the table too.
What Henley and Ashton shared is overwhelming. Part of my reaction to the information is due to seeing it from a different perspective. As a participant, a lot of what happened might be my reality, though my memories have become distorted due to my age then the passing of time since. Another part of that is also based on the fact that when we were there, most of us were nothing more than drugged rats.
Certainly, there are repressed memories so real they steal my breath away; my body reacts like it has a mind of its own in the strangest of scenarios: the smell of ammonia and coffee are a couple, some music or more particularly musicals can send me into a meltdown, the biggest one though is some alphas. Not all, but some. Clearly.
“On your table there’s nothing mentioned about the other researchers or staff involved. Is that intentional?”
“How do you mean?” Reno asks, leaning his elbows on to the table.
I thought my question was obvious. Perhaps not. I mean my thoughts are crystal clear though but by the look on Reno’s face, I’m leaving out detail when I talk. I start again, being more succinct and articulate.
“The lead scientist is in jail, everyone knows that. The media every now and then jump on to try to raise awareness in case someone remembers something about the other research team, have you got anything on that?”
“Ah. You’re right about the media, but most of that stems from a well-timed prod from the team of alphas focused on that side of things. We can’t afford for people to forget,” Henley says, tension still in his voice and the way he sits.
“You’ve got teams?”
“Yes. There were a lot of packs incensed by the betrayal. Fuck, here I am spilling secrets, but a lot of alphas needed therapy after. The loss they felt, the inadequacy, a lot still do, has been a stubborn mistress, but one they now wear with pride in a sense.” He keeps talking, and the more he does the more he actually relaxes. It’s almost like he’s relieved to tell me some of what, by the sound of it, has been occupying his mind for a long time.
“How so?”
Ashton takes over from where Henley stopped talking. “The good guys, and sadly you know there’s still some scummy alphas and packs around, but the majority of those involved in the Alpha Alliance are vocal and active in ensuring something like that doesn’t ever happen again. Shit, that’s being hopeful that we somehow rebalance the world and get the chance to redeem ourselves. Though we’re all in agreement that to do that we need to sacrifice our expectations, which is an easier ask for some than others, but a lot of people spent a lot of time in reflection over our personal involvement plus our involvement as a collective.”
I look back to Henley since he’s the one that’s leading most of the conversation. “And the alphas involved at the lab?”
I can feel the heavy weight of the question. I get my answer from the disappointment and flagellation in their expressions and I can see the reluctance in Ashton’s eyes.
“Bailey, that’s a really hard one. None of the omegas we’ve been able to help have been able to provide any solid information, we’ve got barely anything to work with. It’s almost like they don’t remember, or they can’t.”
