3. Jade

three

Iturn my head with a grimace and smile at the woman who walks into the room. For a moment, I forget where I am and what happened. I"m in a strange bed, and the only plausible answer is I'm back at the Omega Meet because this is far too nice for where I've been living and doesn't have the oppressive doomed feeling of home. My mother would not approve, she enjoys wielding the chains of expectation that was slowly killing me. Except, that doesn't feel right, either.

But I know this person.

"Onyx?"

The woman looks up, and a moment later, her scent hits me. Omega. No, this isn't Onyx, this is the twin; Silver.

"No, I"m Silver Davies, and I live and work here. Remember, I introduced myself three days ago when you first came in."

"Oh, I"m sorry. Far out. I don"t even know where my brains are at, I"m really sorry, Silver. Of course, it's you." My attention is pinned to this woman. I can't believe I"m finally seeing her again. Here. This is incredible. I didn't let myself think about it earlier, but my brain is less foggy now.

Silver shrugs, her eyes downcast. She puts a tray on the table beside my bed and indicates for me to sit down.

I hobble to the seat and sit down. She gently unwraps my hand and checks over the injuries.

"I didn't realise you were working here. Has it been long?" I'm almost desperate for a conversation with her.

"You've been here three days. They thought it best to allow only Dr. Shultz and Jenny Lathem, the manager of the refuge, to see you. I came to see you the morning after you arrived. I helped move you to the visitor room."

"Yes, I remember that. I mean, have you been working here for a long time? Do you enjoy it?"

Silver blushes, turning bright red, and I wonder at her sudden lack of confidence.

"Two years now. I love it, I love my work and this place. I didn't at first, but now I do. They do amazing things here."

I can see on her face that she's telling the truth.

I"m not sure how to take this omega. She's a shadow of the woman I remember at the Omega Meet that Pack Treyfield hosted. I"d heard about how this all went down, and at the time, I hadn't taken sides. I don't know what happened, but Silver has not come out of this in a good position. Life has been hard on the omega.

"Do you remember me?" I ask her gently.

She looks up and narrows her eyes. She is really beautiful in a classic way. Her bone structure is fine, her eyes deep and blue, her hair glossy and black.

"No, I don't think so."

I smile slightly. "Which is good. I was at the Omega Meet. I had light brown hair down to my ass, and, oh, I wore these awful dresses that covered me from my neck to my toes and to the tips of my fingers. I was meek and mild. An invisible omega who trembled under the weight of disappointing my mother. You were the reason I changed. The reason I found my strength."

Silver's eyes widen as she looks me over. "I"m sorry to be blunt, but no one should be inspired by me."

I laugh and shake my head. "Silver, you were so full of life, confident in who you were, you didn't back down to those alphas, you didn't change. Neither did you let them push you around or insult you. You were my inspiration to change. Take it however you want. But I don"t regret what happened to me."

Silver reaches for the new bandage and accidentally drops it. "You could have been killed. You shouldn't emulate me. Honestly, find someone more worthy, someone like Onyx."

"If he'd have killed me, I would have been me instead of my mother's puppet. It was worth it," I say with conviction.

Silver looks up, her eyes wide and full of something so raw that my chest aches for her. What happened to this omega? She's been to hell and back. The fires in her eyes are doused, and sadness is a blanket weighing her down.

"Look, we're two omegas who met at the Omega Meet. I don"t have any friends, and you don"t seem to, either. I"d like to be your friend."

Silver looks away. "I don"t know."

"Think about it. You're the reason I"m free. The reason that I"m able to be the person who I want to be. That means something. I could use a friend. After this," I lift my fingers to my cheek, "happened, I realised that I truly had no one to talk to, nowhere to go."

"Except here," Silver says like she's answering an echo and not me.

"Well, the man who gave me a lift didn't tell me where he was dropping me." I shrug. "We were having such a pleasant conversation, and then I wake up in the icy rain."

"He left you in the rain. Like that?" Silver has stilled, her mouth open in shock.

"People aren't terribly kind, I've found," I whisper.

"No," Silver whispers back, her eyes huge. "Friends?"

"Yes," I shrug. "Let"s be friends."

She nods her head in a stiff jerk. "Okay. I"m just going to go…" She trails off and winces. She picks up the tray and walks to the door. She glances back at me, her face tight in confusion.

I wave at her, and with incredible skill, she balances the tray on her hip and ducks out of the room.

I sit back on the bed. Adrian must be coming today. I know he's worried about the cut on my wrist; he mentioned infection several times. I will bet anything he's told them to come and change this bandage every couple of hours.

Throwing out a hand of friendship to Silver had been impulsive and out of character for me, but I"m doing something new. Perhaps it's the pain. Perhaps it's the shock of what I went through.

Maybe it's seeing a familiar face in this sea of strangers.

I think of the doctor, his image exploding onto my eyelids in incredible definition.

I miss him. I don't know him.

He's beautiful. Everything about him. That icy aura, the dark hair and cold eyes. He'd burn you with icy disdain if you let him. There's something so sad about him, though. Like he's really, truly lonely. It's hard not to reach out to him, hard not to curl up against him.

He's a stranger. It doesn't matter how many times I repeat the words. They feel like a lie.

He's mine. Those two foreign words chime like bells inside me, peeling the truth, my truth.

I lay down, carefully turning until I find a spot that doesn't hurt too much.

I hadn't told Silver much at all about who I used to be, I wish I could explain it to someone. My transformation from ugly duckling to bitey little swan was nothing short of explosive. My mother drummed it into me with almost constant supervision that I needed to not speak. Sit and be silent in front of the alphas. Keep my hair long and neat. Wear modest clothes. Failure to adhere to these rules got me locked in my bedroom for days on end.

My freedom came at a cost. My mother's love.

It shouldn't have. I"d been under the impression that she'd love me forever. But maybe if she didn't love me, then she wasn't right about everything else. I've been living out of home for over a year, since she very publicly called me a whore and told me I was not a daughter of hers.

The four months leading up to my public exorcism from my family was painful. My mother hated my hair. She hated my clothes, then locked me in my room whenever she got mad; she withheld food. Her words were merciless as she constantly accused me of being fat and ungrateful. My mother paraded me in front of the alphas. Dragging me out of my room only long enough to sit stiffly in our formal room. I had to learn to get my head around the hostile tones of the men meeting my mother and manipulate my way to freedom with honesty and humour that rankled.

A few of them stayed long enough to get to know me. Pack Lovehard were the most ardent courtiers, but the offer they made was, well, no one would accept that. My mother's screech of rage still wakes me up some nights. That was the first night she struck me.

Things got worse. Until him. He had a thick charm that oozed off him, the way I imagine mucous oozes off a frog's back. He said all the right things, all the words to get my mother to agree. I felt like I was the only one who could see what he was!

I sit up, breathing hard. The betrayal and the memory of that moment when she'd told me she was giving me to him, pushes into my mind. I"d run. I"d run so far, and I"d felt safe. Shit, I was safe. It'd been twelve months. Who would have thought he'd still be searching?

I went to a carnival.

So stupid.

I stand up and hobble across the room and back again. The door opens, and Jenny Lathem walks in with a soft smile.

"I"m sorry to disturb you, Jade, but I wanted to have a discussion about where you want to go from here."

I blink at her, my mind flipping into a blaze of panic.

"I have to leave?"

"Oh, no, dear. Not yet. I just want to find out if you are looking at staying here on a more permanent basis or if you think you'll be leaving."

I sit heavily on the bed, my trembling legs refusing to support me anymore.

She reaches out and puts her hand on my forearm. "Relax, Jade. I"m just asking if you have somewhere safe you want to go?"

I purse my lips. "I don"t, but I can't stay here forever."

Jenny peers at me with eyes that have seen and know too much. "I need a brief description. So we know who to report if he starts hanging around."

"He's a tall man but wide. The alpha," I duck my head nervously, "he's got a bit of a stomach. He looks charming and nice. The kind of man who doesn't stand out in a bad way. He smiles, and people trust him. Light brown hair, brown eyes." I picture him in my head. "He jitters his fingers a lot like a nervous tic."

Jenny nods and pulls out a notepad and starts recording the information.

"He'll go by the name Trevor or Travers," I barely whisper the words, my airway closing as I remember his hand around my throat.

"Okay. Does he have a pack?"

"He says he does, but I never met them." I look away from her, and I"m suddenly so glad this room doesn't have windows. I"d feel too unsafe if there was a piece of glass between me and the rest of the world right now.

My bruises throb, and the aches intensify until I want to cry.

"Do you want me to call the police? There's Detective Montford-"

"No!" I almost shout. "No, because then things would get worse. Please, no, I have no proof, it's his word against mine."

"You have all your injuries!" Jenny protests.

"No one saw him do it. He could say it was the driver who got me out of there. My mother would back him."

Jenny closes her eyes. I think she's about my mother's age. The silver in her hair is prominent but regal. "Your mother?"

I dip my head.

"Do you have anything you want me to send someone to pick up?"

I consider my few belongings on the wooden floor, the ratty blanket and threadbare clothes. "No. I don"t need anything."

"Okay. So, I"m going to put you here as a semi-permanent stay. We might have to move you to a different room and walk you through the process of filling out the forms, but it will be okay. We won't let anyone in to see you, and if anyone sees a man fitting this description, we'll watch him and notify someone who can do something about it."

"Who is that?" I ask curiously.

"Oh, well. Sven Mortenson, he used to be a soldier but works in security. He and Pack Raptore have taken an interest in you. If anyone comes at you, Sven will be notified, and he'll take care of it."

"Sven?" I murmur.

The alpha, the other one. Licorice dreams. His strength isn't just in his muscles, it's in his aura, his eyes. You can see his smile would be dreamy, but he saves it for those he cares about.

My alpha.

I rub my cheek and look away. Like they'd want a broken, beaten up omega like me.

I pull myself up short and growl. That's my mother speaking. I have skills. I"m useful. They'd be lucky to have someone like me, and they're going to be.

Those are my alphas. My pack, and I"m going to shoot my shot.

A nightmare brought me here to where this rainbow has given me a pot of gold. A chance that maybe I don't deserve, but by all that's beautiful in this world, I"m going to take it.

"Sven will take care of you."

I smile softly, repeating those words long after Jenny's gone. I put my hand over my heart, feeling it thump, thump, thump. Just thinking about them makes me giddy. My doctor and my soldier.

Surely, they will want me. No, they will want me. They will see me, and they will love me, and I will have my pack. My alphas.

I turn on my side, curling up on the bed as I wait. Time passes so slowly, but my doctor is coming. With each second gone, I"m closer to his arrival.

I need to see him. I need to smell him again.

While I wait, I plan the seduction of my pack.