5. Mine

Deciding boredom was overrated and their cabin was now my cabin, I moved over to the smaller couch where the remote to the large TV was resting after rinsing both my glasses and depositing them into the dishwasher as Cy had done with my bowl earlier. I glanced at the hallway entrance, wondering if anyone was going to appear and disturb the strangely welcomed silence. When no one did, I clicked the power button, bringing the large screen to life.

If I had access to food, a TV, and a few other necessities, they could ignore me the entire time. That was perfectly fine with me. I didn't need or want constant interaction or attention. This was my normal, and I would like a little bit of normal after the last half day sent my world into a spiral.

Flipping through the channels, I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but something I could space out to would do the trick. I landed on Discovery Channelwhere Shark Week was in full swing. This episode was all about sharks with interesting features, like the cookiecutter shark who was aptly named and one of my favorites. It was small but fierce and had an adorable name. What wasn't there to love about it?

Time passed, and after about thirty minutes of watching, Ellie came running out of the hall. Her head swiveled across the room, searching for something. When her eyes landed on me, a large smile crossed her face, and she charged for me, throwing herself on the cushion next to mine.

"Have they been nice?"

I scrunched my brows. That wasn't what I expected her to ask; perhaps I thought she would ask how I was dealing with things so far, but maybe that was a much more obvious answer than whether the Alphas were nice or not. I shrugged in response. Nice was too strong of a word. Indifferent to my presence was better suited besides the small act of kindness of the smoothie. I would consider that a fluke, an out-of-character experience, for now.

She hmmed before turning and glaring at Odie who had followed her out of the hall and was now getting water from the kitchen. With how loud the cabinets and ice dispenser sounded from here, no wonder Cy lost her cool earlier. I had no doubt I would have done the same if the circumstances were switched. A stranger in my home causing a ruckus? Not on my watch.

"I picked my room and demanded that yours be next to mine. I hope you don't mind. Oh, and I will be buying us all sorts of new things to decorate them. I have my dad's card info memorized; even if I didn't, I'd find a way. I don't know how long we will be here, but I don't really care. Here's one big fuck you to dear old dad for putting us in this mess." Her grin was devious, but there was no chance I'd say no to that. It was the least Gerard could do after falsely accusing and imprisoning me. I matched her grin and laughed maniacally, and she continued, "And their rooms are on the opposite side of the hall. We both have bathrooms attached to ours, so they won't ruin it with their gross habits." She made a faux gagging sound, which devolved into laughter.

"We do not have gross habits," Odie grumbled as she came over and leaned against the back of one of the wingback chairs with the glass of water in one hand. "You haven't lived with us in years anyway. What would you know?"

"Well, you're an Alpha, and from experience, you're inherently gross."

I chuckled. With how much Ellie was making me laugh, I was glad the curse hadn't taken that ability from us. We could laugh, sigh, whistle, and so on. Anything to do with our mouths and vocal cords besides talk and sing. Even humming was on the list for some. I couldn't force it, but I found myself doing it every now and then when I spaced out and had a song in my head.

"I will believe that until proven otherwise." Ellie turned away from her and smiled at me. "Hopefully, this won't be as bad as you were expecting. They are dicks, but they aren't mean, I guess." Her face fell a little as she said it.

I laughed again and covered my mouth with my hand as I made eye contact with Odie, who was turning a lovely shade of red while trying to hold her stern expression. So far, them being dicks but not being mean made perfect sense. Odie and Cy had been just that. They helped and explained but clearly wanted me to leave so they could be left alone. I wondered if that was why they quit being whatever they were for Gerard.

"Ellie, knock it off," Odie finally said from her position behind the chair.

"Nah," she responded. "Mine needs to know all the juicy details. Like how until a year ago, you were basically my sisters and had been near-mother figures my entire life, then you vanished to retire." She did air quotes around the word retire. Did that not mean the same thing in the Primarchy? The issues between her and her family were definitely deeper than I thought. Not only was her father dismissive, her sisters left without explanation, and I haven't heard about her other parent if they were even in the picture.

"Ellery Lorey."

"Fine. I will keep it to the important parts, but I'm still salty about it." Odie sighed but didn't protest. "And yes, one day soon, I will be getting the explanation I deserve for that backstab." This time, she groaned.

I signed to Ellie, asking her to focus before Odie got too angry.

She paused for a second, thinking about what I said before responding. "Like I said, they aren't… cruel. Standoffish, scowly, so on, depending on the day, but despite what my father made it sound like, you're actually safe here. Well, as long as you don't try to run. They have a near-perfect track record in whatever it was they used to do."

What did they do?

"Odie will yell at me again if I tell you what they did in detail, but—"

"Ellie." Her scolding came right on cue, which made us giggle.

"See? But as my father already insinuated, they used to be guards-ish for him. Like Oliver but a million times better." She rolled her eyes. Even with the limited time I had spent with any of them, I would have to agree that Oliver was horrible. I could get behind the whole not speaking thing, the strong silent type, for clear reasons, but something was off-putting about him. Something wasn't right with that Beta.

They were around a lot, then?

"Um, yeah, if they weren't on a job." Ellie glanced back at Odie who gave her a reassuring nod. Turning back to me, she continued, "When I said they were basically my sisters, what I actually meant was Cy was basically an older sister, but Odie really is." My eyebrows shot up at the reveal, but it didn't stop there. "I don't want to explain all the stupid details, but Odie refused to follow in our dad's footsteps, so here I am, trial number two." She awkwardly laughed, and Odie sat down in the wing-backed chair and placed her free hand on Ellie's shoulder. Ellie let it sit there for a moment before shrugging it off.

"I figured it out when I was old enough to question why I was being trained for everything when Odie was clearly the better option. Anyway, Odie ended up doing the guard stuff, and so did Cy, and here I am, making a mess, finding my long-lost sister who abandoned me and dragging a new friend into this…" She flipped her hands into the air, referring to the entire situation. Truthfully, I thought she was just trying to not cuss because that was the only thing that came to mind when she started that sentence, which cleared up my thought from earlier.

She felt comfortable cussing around me, but she didn't do it around them. I smirked and kept the thought to myself, enjoying the fact that I could pull this out on a rainy day if I needed a little blackmail to use against her. I wasn't a monster who would fully blackmail a kid, but using it as a way to not have to get my own snacks in the future on a really lazy day? That's totally my style.

Her eyes drifted to the TV, which was now on a scene about basking and whale sharks who were gentle giants. I could use a bit of that in my life.

As quickly as that thought came, it was gone. They were giants in my world now, but gentle wasn't something I would use to describe them.

The room fell into an okay silence as Ellie and I sat back into our designated seats and Odie vanished to the kitchen again. It wasn't comfortable, but it was more so than if I were here without Ellie, at least with Odie lurking nearby.

Ellie leaned in, whispering as quietly as possible so Odie couldn't hear us, even though she was distracted with whatever she was doing back there. "That didn't hurt me, finding out I was a final shot at having an heir. Well, it did a little at first, but I understood it. The council and my father needed someone to take over his position as aid to the council, and what better person than his child? But them leaving me like that, even if they weren't working for our father and the council anymore, stung. It's been a year, and I'm still not over it. I don't think I ever will be. Who does that to their sister?"

I couldn't imagine having two people who were constants in my life leave me at sixteen with no explanation, no words of comfort to hold on to. I knew what it felt like to have someone ripped away, but to leave on purpose? Unthinkable.

I'm sorry they did that to you.

She leaned away, speaking at a normal volume again. Ellie pulled a throw pillow over and wrapped her arms around it for comfort. "It's okay. Like I said, I will get answers now that they are stuck with me. I know it wasn't about me, but I can't help but feel like it was in some way."

I reached out and gripped her wrist, soothingly rubbing my thumb across the back of her hand. There wasn't much I could say about this. It sucked, but I would back her up the best I could. If she was right, they wouldn't do anything besides walk away and ignore her. Too bad that stung more than a yelling contest at times.

Pulling away, I said, Don't blame yourself for their actions. You were sixteen. They need to Alpha the fuck up.

Ellie burst into laughter, drawing the attention of said Alpha. Her brows scrunched in confusion as she eyed us, trying to figure out what I had said to get such a reaction.

"I know that sign! Cy taught it to me."

"Cy taught you what?" Odie boomed from right over us. When did she move from the kitchen?

I squealed, flailed, and promptly fell off the couch in a heap of pillows and a blanket tangled around my legs. My head missed the corner of the table by an inch, but the floor was solid and did nothing to cushion my fall. That wasn't a normal reaction, but I blamed it on the day I had had.

The entire room fell into a range of laughter at my expense, not that I minded. I untangled myself and stood up, staring at each of them with a faux glare.

Cy taught her how to sign F-U-C-K.

"Oh, did she now?" Odie side-eyed Ellie, who was looking anywhere except at her with a guilty look on her face.

With timing that couldn't have been more perfect, Cy stepped out of the hall with her face in her phone again.

"Well, isn't it the Alpha we were just talking about."

Cy came to a screeching halt, slowly looking up from her phone, and glanced around the room.

"What are you blaming me for?"

Odie smirked, then looked down at Ellie. "Go on. Remind her."

Ellie grimaced but spun around enough so Cy could see her sign fuck.

"Oh, and?"

Odie facepalmed while the rest of us laughed.

"You should see what else I taught her to sign." Cy shrugged. "Besides, you can't tell me she doesn't know how to sneak around or bark orders like you, so fuck you." Cy signed the last part, then took off running around the wingback chairs and flung herself onto the large couch when Odie lunged for her with a smile on her face. Alphas, man.

Time went on, Odie disappeared a few times but always popped back in, Ellie and I learned more about sharks, and Cy, although physically present, was ignoring us. All in all, it had been a peaceful and slightly amusing—I looked over the back of the couch, checking the time on the clock—two hours, meaning I had at least eight hours before it was appropriate to bitch about needing breakfast. That small snack was well gone from my stomach. The only thing keeping me from getting hangry was the protein I assumed Cy put in the smoothie.

Ellie beat me to the whining though, refusing to wait until morning. Her stomach growled loudly enough for me to hear it, and she kneeled on the couch, half hanging off the back, and complained. "I'm starving. Feed me."

I raised my hand enough to half-assedly sign, Me too.

"You two are in luck," Odie started. "I have been smoking some salmon and brisket and have some sides cooking on the grill out back."

My mouth watered at the mention of smoked salmon. I hoped she made enough because I could devour one all by myself.

"But—" There it was. "It won't be done for another hour or so because someone was late getting back from the store." Odie gave Cy a pointed look, but she ignored it.

Alphas. No matter the sex, they forgot to not let the Omegas in their lives move into hangry territory.

"Who doesn't like a midnight snack?" Cy said as if it was the most logical thing in the world.

"Someone who never had dinner in the first place. Feed me now."

"Ellie—" Odie said, exasperation filling her voice.

"Don't ‘Ellie' me. I haven't eaten since yesterday! Lucinda didn't keep edible food in the house." I snorted, knowing that she had downed her fair share of snack food this afternoon, but I wasn't going to burst the food bubble if I could get in on being fed as well.

I leaned up enough to see the frowns on their faces. It didn't mean they didn't believe Lucinda and Gerard, but it gave me hope that someone besides Ellie was on my side, even a little.

I can make a snack.

"Don't you dare," Cy nearly growled from her spot on the couch, which was only a few feet away from me.

"What's that about?" Ellie asked me with her face scrunched up in annoyance.

I'm not allowed to put carrots in my mouth.

"I don't know what you just said, but I'm hoping it's not how it looked."

I turned bright red and slapped my hand over my face.

I take it all back. Having a teenager around was going to be the death of me.