54. Resa

Chapter 54

Resa

I fell asleep with an alpha's body curved around me. His lips were on the back of my right shoulder, his arm looped around my middle, and his knot…

I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and press my face into the pillow as I shove those thoughts aside because I don't need them.

My heat is over.

Whatever happened between Garrison and me never needs to happen again.

Even if there is a teeny tiny part of me that wouldn't mind if it did.

Waking up naked and alone after my heat isn't anything new. My nose twitches. I lift my face off the pillow to identify that clean linen scent because that is new.

I'm in the same bed I was in before. The soft white linen sheets are different though. That's not the biggest change. Or maybe not the biggest. The one that perks me up.

It's the blue Post-it note stuck on the bedside table lamp.

Someone has drawn an arrow using a thick black marker. No words. Just an arrow pointing to a closed door on the other side of the room.

There is absolutely no way I can go back to sleep without investigating this Post-it note arrow. I sit up, wincing when I pull sore muscles as I wrap a sheet around myself.

I make a brief detour to the window, pulling open the drapes to let in sunlight so bright it must be the middle of the day.

Ignoring my growling stomach, I pad across to the closed door, push it open and get smacked in the face with the scent of roses, vanilla, strawberry, and watermelon.

It's nice.

Nowhere near as nice as the sunken bath, near overflowing with bubbles. Or, when I walk inside, the white platter filled with cut up watermelon, strawberries, and apple.

It must be steamier in here than I thought, because my eyes are burning.

"It's the steam," I tell myself, "definitely the steam."

And I get into the bath and dunk my head under the hot fragrant water to get rid of that burning feeling.

I spend an inordinate time soaking in the bath and snacking on cut up fruit. My fingers are pruney, and my muscles so relaxed I'm not sure if my legs will support me when I get out, when a soft rap on the door makes my eyes snap open.

"Resa?"

Sadie?

"Was I supposed to be having a checkup I forgot about?" I call out.

"No," she says. "Garrison asked me to stop by and I'm a little early."

So what is she doing up here with me if Garrison wanted to see her?

"Uh, give me a minute." I stuff another strawberry in my mouth before I move to get out of a bath I'm not sure I want to leave yet.

"No need to rush. I can wait."

She's piqued my interest, so there's no relaxing now.

I get out, quickly dry myself and slip into a bathrobe I find hanging behind the door.

Sadie is at the window, peering out, when I close the bathroom door behind me.

Her bag is next to the bed, and I get a bad feeling this visit isn't a casual one. "Is something wrong?"

Sadie turns at the sound of my voice, and her expression is relaxed. Nothing to suggest she's here to deliver bad news. "No, I don't think anything is. You look rested."

"I was soaking in the bath."

"An excellent way to relax. And nothing is wrong."

I study her for a beat. "It feels like a but is coming."

"Only a small one." She crosses her arms over her chest and leans back against the window. "My father got the results back from the dart someone shot at you."

I had no intention of sitting down, but I'm across the room and perching on the edge of the bed in seconds, needing to be off my feet. Just in case.

"How much of what happened before your heat do you remember?" she asks.

"Not much." I was talking with Vaughn beside my nest. Then I thought a wasp stung me, which is when things are less clear. "Garrison…" My voice trails off as more memories trickle into my mind.

Us in this room. Him sitting on the edge of the bed, staring straight ahead as I cowered in the room's corner, terrified he would push me into something I didn't want. "He asked me if I wanted to go to a heat clinic."

Her eyes dart to the unmade bed I'm perched on. "You didn't want that."

A strange realization hits me between the eyes. "I told him I would rather die. I didn't trust them."

I still don't. Maybe I would have gone to Ever Safe if that had been an option. After I saw the love in Pack Ashe's eyes as they looked at Everleigh, I struggle to believe they would hurt an omega.

But you trusted Garrison.

"Resa?"

I blink, returning myself to the present. "Uh. I feel okay, though. Was the drug dangerous?"

"The drug wasn't like anything my dad had ever seen before. He's asked some of his friends about it and sent a sample to the Council. Someone has manufactured a drug that can trigger heat in a pregnant omega. That is disturbing in so many ways. They need to be stopped."

"What will happen now?"

Sadie crosses over to me. "The Council will investigate where it came from, so it's out of our hands. But I would like to give you a quick check up if I can."

"You said Garrison asked you to stop by," I recall.

"To see you." She smiles. "He was concerned about you and the baby, and wanted to make sure there was no lasting damage from the drug."

"Oh." There's no steam in the room, yet I get that same prickle behind my eyelids.

I lie down when Sadie asks me to so she can do the tests to make sure I'm okay.

Even after she's left with more blood and urine samples, I keep thinking about Garrison changing the sheets as I slept, running me a bath that eased all my sore muscles, and asking Sadie to come and check on me and my baby.

I think about how I trusted Garrison Brewster to help me through my heat. He did, and he didn't bite me because I didn't want it.

Knock, knock.

Thinking Sadie forgot something, I get up, cross over to the door and immediately open it.

It's not Sadie.

Garrison is in black pants and a smart white shirt with his sleeves rolled up to reveal muscled forearms.

I don't know what to say to him.

"How are you feeling?" His question is quiet but his gaze is probing. As if he's trying to peer through skin, blood, and bone to actually see for himself that I'm okay.

"Fine."

It doesn't feel like a good enough response. I'm struggling to think of what I'm supposed to say or do after we just spent the last four days well… fucking. Though that last time did not feel like fucking. It felt like something more.

He takes a step back. "I just wanted to let you know that Lex found your notebook and took it to your room."

I nod my thanks.

He swings away. Then he stops and peers over his shoulder. "The trial ends in two days. If you still want to speak, and you want to do something with that list, let me know and I will make it happen."

"Make what happen?"

"Change the world."

"And you can do that, can you?" I arch my brow, doing nothing to hide my disbelief.

"Not me." He points his chin at me. "But I think you can, Resa."

I watch him go, then I close the door behind me and cross the hallway, returning to the elegant and slightly boring gray room that has increasingly felt more like home with each passing day.

Just as Garrison said, my notebook is sitting on top of a dresser. Someone has made my bed and left a window opened to let fresh air blow through the room.

I spend an hour flipping through my notebook, absorbing all the names of alphas who belong to Asylum. Not all of them bought me, but I heard their names and saw their faces, and they are just as guilty as the ones who hurt me.

I didn't know all the names. Some, I wrote descriptions or sketched their faces from memory. This list is useless if I do nothing with it, just as the world will never change if I don't do something about it.

I slip into a pair of cozy sweats and walk downstairs with my notebook, terrified and nervous at what I'm about to do. Garrison is sitting in the kitchen with a file open in front of him.

He doesn't say a word as I walk over to him and hand him my notebook.

"These are the men who spent years selling me, trading me, and raping me. I think they did the same to other omegas for years."

His expression doesn't change as he takes the notebook from me. He doesn't look at it. Just draws it toward him. "And the heat clinic you used," he says quietly. "Do you have the name or address in here?"

I have fragments of that desperate search for a heat clinic, the relief I stumbled across one that had an empty suite, and the horror when I realized my door had another key someone used to enter. "I wrote down what I knew. It wasn't much."

I was not paying nearly as much attention to my surroundings as I should have.

"It will be enough."

Days or weeks ago, I'd have grabbed for a knife or run at the ferocity of Garrison's stare. More so when he pushes himself to his feet and bridges the inches between us.

I don't run, and I make no move to defend myself.

Garrison Brewster won't hurt me.

I hold Garrison's gaze as he slides a palm around the nape of my neck and presses a soft kiss on my forehead. "I think it's time they paid for their crimes. Don't you?"

I do.