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“Saint,” I whisper his name, putting all the longing I feel into it.
He buries his face in my hair and ever so gently pulls me into his embrace.
“What do you need?” Saint whispers. “I’ll give you anything.”
You, I need you. “This job, time to find a new life. Three weeks,” I say, settling on the number Ryn and I came up with. They have three weeks to prove themselves to me. That’s all I’m prepared to give.
“Okay, Bethany. You have the job, but only if you stay here with us until you’re back on your feet. You don’t need to put a timer on it.”
“Yes, I do. Three weeks is all I can commit to.”
His big hands stroke my back. “Hunter wants to know if you’ve eaten.”
“Not yet.”
“And Crow would really like to see you to make sure that you didn’t get hurt.”
I sniffle, and he lets go, stepping back. “And you? What do you want, Saint?”
“I want to know how you are. Have you been okay? Has this last month been terrible? Did you get hurt? Did…” he chokes on the words, “did I get you hurt?”
“I will be okay,” I promise. “And, yes, it’s been terrible.” I decide to risk it. “I missed you, and I know I shouldn’t. Because I know we’re strangers, and you don’t want an omega, but I missed you.”
Saint swallows hard, his hands clench into fists. He closes his eyes and tilts his head back, but his whole body looks pained.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Saint whispers. “You weren’t supposed to get hurt here.”
“I know that. I know you didn’t intend to hurt me. And you did tell me clearly what you could give me. I just misunderstood the situation. I thought you would be as happy to find me as I was to find you.”
Ryn and I talked at length about how to approach this situation. We got through my anger and hurt, and we looked at it from their side. I need to not turn this situation into a fight. I need to understand them because I’m playing to win.
“We are so happy to meet you, Bethany, so very happy. But…”
I smile up at him sadly. “Yeah. But.”
There’s a tense silence that fills with the bitter pain I can now see in his eyes.
“So, uh, take me to Crow, then.” It’s a lifeline I’m throwing him, but there’s a moment he hesitates where I think maybe he will ignore it.
He turns and goes to the door, ushering me out. I follow him down the maze of hallways until we get to a room I haven’t seen yet.
Saint nods at the door.
With trepidation, I knock on the wood. I gasp as it wrenches open in front of me.
“Bethany!” Crow says and glances past me to Saint.
“I’ll leave you to it. Hunter’s waiting to feed her.”
I hear him retreat, but Crow has my wrist and is towing me into the room. I barely get to glance around and take in the navy walls with stars painted on them.
“What is this place?”
“Sometimes I feel like the walls are closing in, so Saint and Hunter made this room and painted it so I would feel like there were no walls.”
He tugs me to the centre of the room where there are a few blankets and pillows, and to my utter consternation; I smell myself on them.
These were in the nest. He stole them. I don’t know why I love that so much. I guess I thought they would have burned all my nesting materials. It’s a relief to know that even in their stubbornness, they are still trying to keep me in some small way.
