Chapter 23 There’s my girl

The next morning, I’m still groggy from the migraine, the dull thud in my head doing nothing to help. My mouth is dry and cottony. My eyes feel gritty, like I didn’t get enough sleep. I’m also very warm, bundled up against a hard, hot chest that smells like driftwood and sea salt.

Soft fingers stroke over my hip, my stomach, the dip of my waist. Not sexually, just soothing, caring, like I’m precious. Jude’s breath puffs across my collarbone, his nose buried in the spot behind my ear.

I blink blearily and frown into the dark. The curtains are still closed. There isn’t a shred of light anywhere. It’s always a little disorienting after I have a migraine, but this is even more so, without a single shred of light to tell me what time it is. Still, I suppose I should be grateful that they took my directives so literally.

I shift, twisting my head a bit to see if my phone is somewhere nearby. The movement alerts the alpha wrapped around me that I’m awake. His head lifts from my neck, and I can feel him staring down at me, but I can’t see him in the dark. It’s frustrating.

“Button?” His voice is rough and low, intimate. “Do you need something?”

I shift again, stretching out toward the light on the bedside table to turn it on. Jude takes over for me, though, sliding most of his weight on top of me and flicking the switch. I wince against the sudden flare of light, but it’s not as bad as I would have thought. Just enough of a glow for me to make out his face.

When I look up at the lamp, I see that they’ve replaced the usual one with something much dimmer.

“We thought this would be better for after your migraine,” Jude says, dipping to brush his lips over my temple. “Hi, belly button.”

“Hi,” I whisper and Jude’s eyes close in bliss, a smile curling his lips.

“There’s my girl.” He nuzzles into me, brushes our noses together before he kisses my mouth softly. “Pretty gray eyes. Pretty pink mouth.” Another kiss. “Pretty flushed cheeks.” He trails kisses over my jaw. “Missed you so much.” His arms band around my back, arching me toward him as he nuzzles his face between my breasts, his ear resting over my heart.

I frown and lace my fingers through his hair, holding him against me since it seems like he needs it.

“I’m right here, Jude. I didn’t go anywhere.”

His chest moves with a deep inhale. “Will you say my name again for me, button?”

My frown melts and I smile softly, carding my fingers through his hair, scraping his scalp with my nails. “Jude.”

“Again.”

“Jude.”

“Mmm, one more time.”

I laugh and humor him. “Jude.”

He grins and rests his chin on my sternum, looking up at me with twinkling green eyes. “Maybe one more?”

“Seriously?”

He nods. “Yep. I haven’t heard you say my name for weeks, button. We have a lot of time to make up for.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re gorgeous.” His grin fades and his gaze turns worried, fingers reaching up to brush against my temple. “How’s your head feel?”

I tilt my face to kiss his palm before nuzzling my cheek against it. “Better. Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“That’s not true. You’re here with me right now. And having you near me always makes me feel better, Jude.” There’s a flicker of something in his eyes, there and gone again. I choose to ignore the unsettling feeling it gives me in my stomach. “How long was I out for?”

He drops a kiss to my collarbone. “Almost twenty-four hours.”

“What!” I try to sit up in shock, but Jude’s weight keeps me pinned to the mattress. “It’s never taken that long to recover. Ever.”

“You’ve also probably never broken through a command like that, angel,” Tic says from the door.

Jude groans and then snuggles between my breasts again. “Fair warning, Tic’s probably going to want to study you like a science project.” The alpha in question makes a disgruntled noise that Jude ignores. “He’s been pondering your ability to break through an alpha command the entire time you’ve been sleeping.”

“That’s not true,” Tic says, coming to a stop next to the bed. His fingers brush over my forehead. “You’re okay?”

I nod and it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it doesn’t hurt as badly as I feared. “Yeah, I think just a couple aspirin and I should be right as rain.”

He gives me a relieved smile. “Good. Love hearing your voice, angel.”

“I love being able to use it.”

Jude groans and presses a trail of kisses along my neck. “Wanna hear you scream for me like you did for Hale and Creed.”

Tic frowns and grips the back of Jude’s neck, hauling him back the slightest bit. “She’s been passed out for almost a full day, Jude. We need to feed our girl before we fuck her.”

I make a sound like maybe I don’t agree with that. “I’m fine,” I say, shifting under Jude as best as I can, bending my knees to bracket his hips. He settles more fully against me with a grunt and presses the hard ridge of his cock to my clit.

“Do not fuck her,” Creed orders from the door, and Jude hisses, literally hisses at him, like an angry cat.

I’m tempted to do the same.

“Why not?” I scowl at him. “If I want it, why can’t he fuck me?”

Creed chuckles. “Love hearing filthy words come from such a sweet mouth.” He nudges Tic out of the way and bends down to kiss me, long and slow and deep. If he’s trying to calm down my libido, this is really not the way to do it.

The cool rain flavor of him washes over my tongue and makes me roll my hips into Jude’s. I’m not wearing any panties, and he’s only in a pair of boxer briefs. It wouldn’t take all that much for him to slip inside me.

Creed nips at my lips. “Naughty fucking girl. No sex. Not until you’ve eaten.”

I want to protest, but my stomach takes that moment to growl, loudly. Protesting the lack of food over the last day.

The three of them laugh lightly. And I scowl at them. “It’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not funny.” Hale joins Tic and Creed at the side of my bed. “It’s not the least bit funny that you haven’t eaten because you’ve been in so much pain. It’s even less funny that your father is the one who gave you that pain.”

That seems to sober up the rest of them, even Jude, who grumbles, ‘cock blocker’ as he rolls off of me. Hale strokes his fingers through my hair gently, staring down at me in the low light. “Are you able to get up and come downstairs? Or should we do a breakfast in bed kind of thing?”

I watch as Jude rolls off the mattress, adjusting himself unapologetically. Apparently, I really won’t be having sex right now. “I can come down. Is it okay if I shower first?”

I’m covered in the slick and cum from sex and then the clammy sweat of getting sick.

Hale glances at Tic, who nods. Of course, Tic is the one that’s going to actually feed me. He’s been doing it since the first time I set foot in this house. “That’ll work.”

Jude claps his hands together. “Excellent. I’ll just stay with our girl, shall I? Make sure she does a very thorough cleaning.”

Creed growls and slaps a hand on his shoulder before forcibly dragging the other alpha out of the room. “No, you’ll end up fucking her in the shower and she’s not ready for that.”

Jude scowls. “Easy for you to say. You were just inside our omega yesterday.”

“I was, and she got a fucking migraine afterward that knocked her out for a day.”

I frown as Creed and Jude disappear before pushing to a sitting position and looking up at Tic and Hale. “He’s not feeling guilty because of that, is he? I didn’t get a migraine because we had sex.”

Hale smooths my hair back. “Logically, he knows that. But it was still scary as hell seeing you after, little mouse, watching all the color drain from your face. The amount of pain you were in. I just came on your tits and I was worried we’d somehow hurt you.”

I tilt my head to kiss his palm. “It wasn’t you. It was the command. Like you said. It was my father.”

Both alphas bristle at the reminder, and Hale drops his hand from my face. “Go get cleaned up, omega. There’s a bottle of ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet. Then come downstairs. We need to talk about what we’re going to do going forward.”

“We aren’t telling her,” Hale’s voice drifts up to me from the kitchen. I think he means for it to be quieter, but his emotions are making it hard for him to stay that way.

I pause midway down the stairs and tilt my head to listen, my damp hair soaking into the shoulder of Jude’s shirt. “Not yet,” Hale continues. “She just went through hell. We don’t need to add to it.”

I frown at that. I did just go through hell. Possibly the worst week I’ve ever had with my father, sans the ones after my mother left us. Left me. But if they have something they need to tell me, I rather they would just do it.

I descend the rest of the steps and stroll into the kitchen. All conversation abruptly stops as four sets of eyes turn to look at me.

“What do you need to tell me?” I ask, lingering at the entrance.

“We thought you’d take longer, angel,” Tic says, ignoring my question entirely.

I nod at him in acknowledgement. “Turns out as soon as I got in the shower, my stomach tried to eat itself.”

“I’ll have your food ready for you in a minute.”

I give him a small smile that he returns before he moves his attention to the stove, where something is heating in a pot.

“What do you need to tell me?”

The other three alphas exchange a look and Creed opens his mouth but Hale cuts him off with a sigh. “We didn’t want to upset you, but your father showed up here.”

I catch the look that Jude and Creed give each other, catch the way Tic’s shoulders tense, but I’m too busy feeling nauseous all over again to make sense of their reactions.

All the blood rushes from my face and I sway. In an instant, Creed is in front of me, pulling me against his chest, offering me his strength.

“He knows I’m here?” I whisper.

His big hand smooths down the back of my wet hair. “Yeah, baby girl, he does. But he won’t get anywhere near you. I promise.”

Jude’s palm slides up and down my spine in a soothing motion. “None of us will. You’re okay, button. You’re safe.”

I shake my head. “He won’t just let this go.”

They exchange another look before Jude and Creed guide me over to the island, lifting me to sit on a chair. “He won’t,” Hale agrees. “Which is why we need to talk, to come up with a plan.”

I wrinkle my brow. “A plan for what?”

“For how to keep you safe.”

My heart thunders in my chest, and I can’t stop the flutter of hope there. Is this where they offer to bond me? Officially make me pack me? If they do, I’d be safe. My father would have no claim over me. The law always sides with the bonded pack over familial ties. Unless the omega speaks out against their pack. Unless they say the bond was forced.

Basically, if they bond me, I will have all the power. The power to choose what happens to me, who I live with. And I would choose them.

Over and over again. I would choose them.

“You can stay here,” Hale says, folding his arms over his chest. And that little flutter of hope in my chest dies. Because that was an offer, a question. Not a foregone conclusion.

“Of course, she’ll stay here,” Jude says, still stroking his hand up and down my spine. “We have the best security system in the city. You’ll be safe here.”

“And if I wanted to leave?” I ask slowly. “Stay with Ren instead of here with you?”

Hale’s jaw ticks. “I really wish you wouldn’t. But if that’s what you want to do.”

“What?” Creed hisses. “No.”

Hale sighs and shakes his head. “It’s up to her, Creed.”

A choice. He’s giving me a choice about what happens to me. Not a great one, not an equal one. But it’s still a choice. If I stay with Ren and her family, I won’t be safe. He knows that. I know that. We all know that. It wouldn’t take much for my father to get control of me again. Staying here, it’s improbable that he’d ever even see me. They have a fence and a gate and enough security cameras on the property that he’d have a hard time getting to me.

Tears prick my eyes. Hale’s arms drop by his sides when he sees moisture flood the bottom of my lashes. “Shit, little mouse. Don’t cry.”

I swipe at my cheeks and shake my head. “I’m sorry. It’s just… You’re giving me a choice. I haven’t had many of those in my life.”

Jude curses and wraps himself around my back, while Creed and Tic bristle with anger on my behalf. Hale gives me a soft, knowing smile. “I know, little mouse. That’s why I’m fighting every instinct I have to lock you up in here. I don’t want to be like him. So I’m gonna let you choose to keep yourself safe.”

Tic chuckles and shakes his head. “It’s not much of a choice, though, is it?” Echoing my own thoughts.

“Honestly, bellybutton, if you decide to go stay with Ren, I have a feeling all of us are going, too.”

I snort. It’s wet with tears, but I pretend like it isn’t. “I don’t think you’d all fit in their tiny three-bedroom townhouse.”

“Probably not,” Tic says, grabbing a bowl and ladling some soup into it.

“We’d make it work, though, if we had to.”

“It’ll be better if we can all just stay here.” Creed slips his hand onto my thigh and squeezes. “But it’s your choice. We staying here? Or are we all going to stay with Ren?”

Tic slides the bowl in front of me, and I look down at it. Chicken soup. He made me chicken soup with some buttery crusty bread, because I told him it’s what my mother used to make for me when I was sick.

Being with the Calloway pack is like this bowl of soup. Warm and hearty and healing. They’re healing me. And I didn’t realize just how much I needed that.

I sigh. “I suppose it wouldn’t be fair of me to inflict you on my best friend.”

“Inflict?”

I nod and pick up the spoon. “Yep. Our friendship might not survive her having to live with your surly butts.”

“I beg your pardon, I am not surly,” Jude protests, still draped over my back like a blanket. “I’m a fucking cinnamon roll. The rest of these assholes, though…”

I laugh. The rest of them laugh too.

“Eat your soup, angel.”

I do. And it’s delicious. They all eat with me, Jude groaning as he slides off my back to perch on the stool next to me. While Tic and Hale eat standing up.

I’m tempted to ask for another bowl, but my stomach is always a little iffy for a while after one of my migraines, so I refrain.

“Finished, little mouse?”

I nod and move to take my bowl to the sink, but Creed whisks it away with his own before I have the chance. I would protest, but Jude is already urging me out of the kitchen and into the living room, where he stretches out on the couch with me draped over his chest, arms wrapped tight around me.

Hale drapes a blanket over the both of us and then takes the spot near our feet, sliding his hand onto my ankle, then up my calf and back.

I thought we were going to talk about a plan, but maybe the only plan they really have is to keep me here with them, safe behind their fence and security system. It’ll work for the short term, but eventually I’ll need to come up with something else. I don’t want to be stuck here. I want to live a normal life, go out and see the world.

But when Tic and Creed join us after tidying the kitchen, Tic plops onto the floor in front of us, and flicks on the TV, turning it to a reality TV show that I’m sure none of them actually watches. But I do.

It’s not Alpha Love Getaway. But it’s pretty close.

A deep feeling of contentment has me sighing and snuggling closer to Jude. Tic tips his head back to eye me from where he’s sitting on the floor in front of the couch, a soft smile on his face. “Everything good, angel?”

Another contented sigh as I nod. “This is nice. Really nice.”

Hale squeezes my calf before his thumb strokes soft circles into my skin. “That’s good, little mouse,” he murmurs.

“No, really. It’s the best. The last few weeks have been… hard.”

Jude strokes a hand up and down my spine as his lips find the top of my head. “I’m sorry, button.”

I snort and shake my head. “Don’t be. It’s not you guys. You’re perfect.” I think I might be a little loopy, a little over excited from being able to talk to them again, because I just keep going. “It’s the thousands of commands my father’s put on me over the years. “

Hale’s thumb stops tracing circles. Underneath me, Jude goes still, his hand pressed between my shoulder blades. Tic’s soft gaze goes hard, and across the room where he’s seated in an armchair watching the rest of us, Creed shifts forward. “What?”

“ Thousands ?”

Shit. Shit.

I’m not supposed to say anything about that. I have no idea how it even snuck out. Yesterday I broke through the command about not talking to them, but everything else is still firmly in place. The telltale ache behind my eyes is letting me know I just fucked up.

It’s so stupid. It shouldn’t hurt. They already know he’s commanded me to do things, controlled my every action. They know , but I didn’t tell them. Until now.

I’ve never told anyone about what my father does to me. Not even Ren knows the extent. She suspects. I know she does because we’ve known each other for years. But I’m not supposed to tell anyone anything about it. It’s one of the standing commands, just like his ‘do not embarrass me’ command.

I need to take the words back, to make them somehow unsaid, but I can’t. I can’t. They’re out there now and they know and oh god. My chest tightens, my lungs struggle to take a full breath. I bolt upright, making Hale and Jude’s hands fall from my body.

“It’s nothing,” I say with a laugh, trying to cover it up, like it’s not a big deal, but it is a big fucking deal. How could thousands of alpha commands not be a big deal? “It’s nothing,” I repeat as I scramble off Jude, dodging hands, unable to bear the feel of them at the moment.

I hurry across the room, the farthest point from all of them. “It’s normal. Alphas, sometimes they just… It needs to be done to keep omegas under control. I-I need help to keep my instincts under control.”

I wince as I say the words, spouting the same bullshit my father does. I hate the words. Hate that I just uttered them. I don’t believe them. From the glares coming from the four alphas around me, they don’t like them either. But I can’t stop the absolute shit flowing from my mouth in a desperate attempt to keep the migraine at bay.

Having another one right now, so close on the heels of breaking through one of my father’s commands? It never happened before and I don’t want to see how long it’ll knock me on my ass for.

I’m pacing now, unable to look at them, not able to meet their eyes. “He just… he just does it to keep me safe.” I choke on the words. Literally choke. I can’t get enough air. Everything I’m saying right now is because of the commands my father has given me. This is me scrambling to fix it.

It doesn’t help the fresh migraine building behind my eyes, rattling my skull.

My hand slams into my forehead, like that will make the burgeoning headache dislodge, make the commands that put me into this state to dislodge. It doesn’t. Of course it doesn’t. The only thing it serves to accomplish is making me hiss in pain. I do it again anyway. And again. Because I fucking hate every single one of his commands, there has never been one that was actually for my safety.

A warm hand curls around my wrist, stopping me from smacking my forehead again. “Stop, omega,” Hale says gently, no bark in the command. “Stop. Don’t hurt yourself.”

I look up at him with wide eyes, tears streaming down my cheeks, and the migraine building and building and building. “It hurts,” I whisper. “When I go against one of his commands, it hurts.”

He nods, sliding his hand to the back of my neck. “I know, little mouse.” He glances up, looking at his pack mates, before he looks back at me in determination. “I can help, if you’ll let me.”

My brow furrows. As far as I know, there isn’t a way for him to help. I just have to get through it. His fingers knead into the tight muscles of my neck. Waiting for me to give my approval.

“How?” I ask instead.

He meets my gaze steadily. “I’d need to bark at you.”

“What?”

I recoil from him at the same time that Creed protests with a loud, “fuck no. We agreed we wouldn’t do that to her.”

Hale’s palm on the back of my neck holds me in place, not letting me move away from him, keeping my eyes on him. It should make me feel unsafe, like prey in a hunter’s trap, but I just feel calm.

“Listen to me, little mouse,” he says soothingly. “I can bark at you to ignore all of your father’s commands. I can take away their burden, so there is only the burden of my command. That would be better, right?”

“I swear to fuck if you bark at her, I will end you,” Creed growls, stalking closer.

Hale meets him with a growl of his own. “I’m not doing it to control her, I’m doing it to free her. You want to be free, don’t you, little mouse?”

“Hale,” Tic says, sounding uncertain. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I think it’s a great fucking idea. We saw what breaking through just one command did to her, didn’t we? Knocked her out for a full day. I don’t want you to have to go through that for every one he’s given you, mouse. Thousands.”

I think about that, about trying to do that just to be free, about having a migraine every time I’m successful. Just the idea of it is draining, makes my stomach recoil and my head ache.

“I don’t want that either. He’s… I think there might be closer to hundreds. But it’s still… It would be years of fighting them, breaking them.” All four alphas growl at that.

Hale’s eyes darken with rage. “I can only imagine what he’s put you through, Haven. I can only imagine the ways he’s bound you. But I can free you. Please let me.”

I want to be free, more than anything, I want that. More than a pack or a career I love or a family. I want my freedom, want to be fully in control of my body, my mind. I want my choices to be driven by what I want, not what my father does. I want it.

But if the only way for me to do that is for another command to be laid out on top of them, smothering all the rest, is that really freedom? Or is it just transferring ownership from one person to another?

“You won’t do it again?” I whisper. “You won’t bark at me again to get me to do something you want? None of you will?”

“Never,” Creed spits out immediately. “I will never bark at you, baby girl. I promise.”

“I won’t bark at you, button,” Jude says, sounding uncharacteristically subdued, like the reality of my life has sucked the joy right out of him. It makes my heart clench with guilt. Jude should always be smiling, laughing, flirting, winking. He shouldn’t be sad, not for me.

“I promise, angel,” Tic adds. They’re all closer to where Hale and I are standing, like they can’t keep away from us.

I look up at Hale, wait for him to give his agreement. He doesn’t really have to. But then he didn’t have to ask for my permission in the first place. He could have just done it, taken away my choice, but he didn’t. He asked, he waited.

“Hale?”

His brow furrows. “Do you trust me, mouse?”

The others around us suck in sharp breaths like the question has weight to it, like they can’t believe he just asked it. But to me it makes sense, and my answer is immediate.

“Yes. I trust you.”

There’s a flicker of something in his eyes, something like guilt, but it chased away with relief. “Good. That’s good.” He nods, his mouth pulling into a small smile. “Trust that I will only ever bark at you to keep you safe. Actually safe. Never for whatever bullshit lie your father has given you.” His brow furrows again. “I don’t want to make that promise and then have to break it because your father does something fucked up to you.” His thumb presses into my pulse point, stroking it gently. “Because I can promise you, I would break it in a heartbeat to free you from him again.”

He’s not giving me the reassurance I was looking for, but he’s giving me something else, a promise to only use this power that alphas have over omegas for my benefit, to keep me safe from the man who I shouldn’t need saving from.

Licking my bottom lip, I consider what he’s saying. “I believe you,” I say finally. The four of them shift closer. “I trust you.” I repeat the sentiment, so he knows I mean it. There’s that same flicker of guilt when I say it, followed this time by pride.

“Good girl,” he murmurs, bending to press a soft kiss to my mouth.

“If we’re doing this, we’re only doing it once,” Tic says, moving closer to lace his fingers with mine. “Not multiple commands. So let’s figure out the exact wording we want to use to make sure we cover all our bases.”

Jude nods and moves to my other side while Creed steps up behind me, his body tense with unease. He relaxes the tiniest bit when I lean into him, but I can tell he’s still uncomfortable with the situation. I tip my head back to meet his worried gaze. “It’ll be okay,” I reassure him.

His brow furrows, blue eyes intense. “You shouldn’t give your trust so easily, baby girl.”

“You think that was easy? No Creed, I don’t trust easily. Before I met you, your pack, I trusted exactly one person. Ren. Three if I count her mother and sister, but… even then… It’s something I’ve built with them over years.”

“So, why do you trust us? Why do you trust Hale? You’ve only known us for a few months, Haven. You don’t know-” He cuts off and shakes his head. A muscles tics in his jaw and I resist the urge to kiss it. “You shouldn’t trust us.”

I shrug. “But I do. You’ve earned it. Everything you’ve shown me, getting me away from my father. Creed… you’ve earned it.”

He opens his mouth like he’s going to deny it, but Hale cuts him off. “Okay, I think we’ve worked it out. We should be able to negate all of your existing commands and any new ones going forward… unless he figures out that another alpha barked at you.”

I sway on my feet. “Did you say any going forward? As in, I won’t-he won’t be able to bark at me anymore?”

Hale grins. “That’s right. We might need to reinforce it every so often to keep it from fading, but it should hold for a while. I’ll keep my control over it on my side. You just need to not fight it.”

Fight it? He has to be joking, right? The idea of fighting a command that would keep me free of my father’s influence is laughable.

But he’s looking at me seriously and so I nod. “I won’t fight it.”

“What’s the command?” Creed demands to know before Hale can open his mouth to bark at me. The alpha behind me is bristling with protective energy. It’s sweet and makes my chest feel all warm and fuzzy, even if it is a little unnecessary at this moment.

Hale’s his pack member, his pack lead. Creed should trust him wholeheartedly.

It’s Jude that answers. “You will disregard any and all commands your father, Frederick Bell, has given or will give you in the future.”

I tip my head back to watch as Creed rolls the phrase over in his mind, searching for loopholes my father’s commands could wiggle through. There aren’t any I can see, unless, like Hale said, my father realizes I’ve been commanded to ignore any new commands given by another alpha.

“Well,” Hale prompts, jaw tight with frustration. “Does it meet your standards?”

Creed glares at him, but eventually he nods, pulling me tight against his body. “Yeah, it’ll work.”

Hale holds Creed’s gaze for a moment longer, and I get the impression that they’re having some kind of conversation… No, more like an argument, a battle of wills. One alpha against another.

Tic clears his throat pointedly, and Hale blinks, dropping his gaze down to me. His expression instantly softens. I can’t help preening just a bit that I have that effect on him. Hales mouth curves into a smile, like he knows what I’m thinking. “Ready, little mouse?”

A giddy feeling thrums through my chest, anticipation singing through my veins. In less than a minute, I’ll be free of my father. In less than a minute, I’ll be in control of my own actions and thoughts. All of them. Everything I do will be because I want to do it. No one else.

“Yes,” I whisper breathlessly.

Hale takes a deep breath in through his nose. Jude and Tic reach out to touch me during this momentous occasion. Hale’s palm slides along my cheek, holding my gaze steady as he repeats the command, “ You will disregard any and all commands your father, Frederick Bell, has given or will give you in the future. ”

The bark shivers over me, settles on my skin, in my chest and my brain. The migraine that I’d been fighting evaporates, the heaviness, the weight of every single one of my father’s commands lifts. I feel so fucking light I could float away, right up to the clouds, up to the heavens. Because this has to be what that would feel like. Heaven.

Hale’s command is still there. I can feel it, but it’s a million times lighter, barely an ounce of weight on my psyche. I stare up at the alpha who freed me. Love for him swells in my chest. Actual love. True and abiding love. It hits so hard and fast that tears form in my eyes, spill down my cheeks.

“Shit,” Hale growls, swiping his thumbs to capture the moisture. “Did it not work? Did he command you to ignore all other alpha barks?”

I shake my head, still in awe of the feeling of freedom. A tentative smile curls my lips. “It worked, Hale,” I whisper. “It fucking worked. These are happy tears.”

“Happy tears,” Jude echoes.

I nod and laugh. Its wet and full of disbelief. “So fucking happy. I can’t… I can’t even feel them anymore.” Another giggle bubbles up.

Jude laughs along with me, bringing my hand up to his mouth so I feel it rumble across my skin. Creed presses his face into my hair, taking long inhales of my scent, and I wonder if I smell different somehow. If my scent has changed without the overbearing command to be less omega and more beta stifling it.

Tic is studying me, his gaze running over my body, like he’s seeing an actual physical change. And I don’t know, maybe he is. Maybe this new lightness I feel is reflected in the straightening of my spine, the lifting of my shoulders.

“My father, Frederick Bell is a fucking misogynistic asshole who should never be allowed to be in control of anyone’s rights or future,” I say, testing out my freedom from the commands, the one that has kept my tongue tangled in lies. I haven’t been able to voice my real thoughts about him not since I once slipped at a party and said my father’s views on pack life were archaic. “He’s an abusive bastard who has had control over me my entire life. Fuck him.”

Hale’s fingers twitch on my cheeks, and a smile curls his lips.

“Don’t hold back, angel,” Tic chuckles. “Tell us how you really feel.”

I laugh again. I can’t help it. My entire chest is so much lighter.

Hale strokes a knuckle down my cheek, laughing with me, eyes soft. The happiness in my chest swells and burst in a flurry of movement. I throw myself at the alpha in front of me, climbing him like a tree, like I wanted to do the first time he talked to me. He helps, his hands scooping under my thighs to hold me while my arms wrap around his neck and shoulders. I meet his icy blue gaze with my own, intent on making sure he knows I mean my next words. “Thank you, Hale. Thank you for freeing me.”

And then, before he can say anything else, I kiss him.