38. Emmett

38

EMMETT

I 'm going to be sick .

Shoving away from the kitchen table, I run to the bathroom and barely make it before my vomit collides with the toilet water. I groan, and bang my head on the rim of the toilet, not giving a shit about how nasty it is. Nothing is fucking worse than the images I just saw.

Dirty, dank underground cells where omegas were held for days at a time to teach them a lesson. I don't think I could manage the isolation they were put through. Sight, food and fluid deprivation. How many times was Amaya left in one of those hell holes?

Then there were photos of the “clinic” rooms. At a glance, they looked like a normal hospital room, but the chains attached to the walls stripped away any sense of normalcy. Was Amaya chained to those during her heats?

The white mattresses had no fucking bedding, or pillows, but maybe they were just stripped when the photos were taken. The optimism has literally no place to build when it's pretty fucking clear my mate was deprived of everything she needed for years. YEARS!

Bile rushes up one final time when I think about the sex toys in some of the photos. Many trays were lined with syringes too. Remembering the cameras in every corner of the rooms has my stomach twisting again, but I shove the feeling away and climb to the sink.

"Em?" Oli's hesitant voice breaks through the fog as I swish water through my mouth.

Between my minty scent turning bitter and my bloodshot eyes, it's impossible to hide my distress. Drying my face, I take a moment to breathe before turning to my beta. "Yeah?"

He shifts uncomfortably, and peeks over his shoulder. "You left your laptop open."

"Fuck," I grumble. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Oh, I already researched on my own. That's not the problem.” He waves my concern for him away but still looks scared. "Sam..."

I frown while drying my hands. "So?"

"Uuhh, just come look."

Now rightfully worried about what has my fun-loving mate so freaked out, I follow him to the kitchen. I'm not surprised to see Samuel hunched over my laptop, but his frantic mutterings are definitely shocking .

"No, no, no. Please, fuck no," Sam rambles as his fingers keep scrolling through the images I had left open.

My fellow alpha's horror doesn't fill me with satisfaction like it should have if I truly blamed him for what happened to her. I do blame him for keeping us from seeing her.

"NO!" he bellows, making Oli flinch beside me.

Samuel's loud panic, and my beta's anxious energy sets me on edge and there's only one fucking thing that will settle the alpha instinct to kill someone.

"Let’s go," I growl to Oliver, who follows me to the front door, leaving his brother behind.

Just before the door slams closed behind us, I hear my laptop shatter and the most gut-wrenching roar.

My breaths are shaky as I walk away from the man I once considered my best friend. Sam has to figure his own shit out right now. What he did was wrong; my alpha feels like it was a betrayal.

And now he has to buy me a new laptop.

"Are you going to ring the doorbell?" Oliver whispers. I can feel his wary eyes on me, but the hint of teasing in his tone helps to loosen my shoulders.

He's shaken off his brother’s behavior pretty fast, and I can't help but wonder if it was for my benefit. Guilt has been eating at me for days knowing my beta is struggling, and his mask of happiness is fading, but I can't seem to figure out what I'm supposed to do. Or how I'm supposed to feel.

There are so many emotions and thoughts racing through my veins and mind constantly that I haven't been able to focus on Oli. And for that, I really need to apologize and try to do better. I need to be better for him and Amaya.

So I ring the doorbell despite feeling like I might puke again.

My sensitive hearing picks up on some shuffling and a deep sigh combined with heavy footsteps. I have moments to prepare myself for the hulking alpha that was here the other night, but it doesn't do me any good because the door is thrown wide in the next second, slamming me with his angry pheromones.

"Ah shit," Oliver mutters, backing up.

The alpha with the backwards hat and black attire snarls and advances on us. I step in front of Oliver immediately and throw my hands up in surrender. "We didn't know! I swear!"

The scary dude’s fists clench and his shoulders square like he's ready to bust my lip open again. "Didn't know what?" he grits out.

"Any of it!" Oliver rushes out, but to me he murmurs, "What was his name again?"

"Vincent?" I whisper back without taking my eyes off of the alpha.

Oli hums thoughtfully, but the man in front of us growls out his annoyance and takes another step forward. "Yes, my fucking name is Vincent. And I know all about you, Oliver. You're the bubbly one, aren’t you? The one who should be helping me put a smile on my omega's face?"

My beta heaves in a choked gasp, Vincent’s words hitting their painful mark. My mouth opens to defend him, but the alpha cuts me off with a withering glare.

"And you, Emmett. You should be helping me soothe Amaya with the calming energy she says you're known for, shouldn't you?" he accuses, making my throat clench up tight because there really is no excuse to absolve Oli and me from this man’s wrath and loathing.

Vincent's head cocks, looking over our shoulders. "Seems like Samuel has changed the most, huh? What with him being her childhood protector, and now she needs protection from him ."

"My brother would never hurt her!"

Like ice, Vincent slides his gaze to Oliver. "He already has." I think those are meant to be his parting words as he steps back into the threshold of Amaya's house.

"You don't understand," I blurt, panic that this might be my only chance to get this guy to understand and maybe help us fix our wrongs seizes me. "We had no idea she was sent to the academy. Sam didn't know either. Believe me, we would have torn the world apart looking for her if we knew."

"And what did you think you knew?" Vincent's tone is hard-core accusatory, and by the way my tongue refuses to unfuse itself from the roof of my mouth, he should be.

Oliver takes a shuddering breath and steps up beside me. "Her mom told us she skipped town to live with her rich dad. That she left us behind."

Vincent is quiet for a few moments, but the pure rage he's been riding simmers into sadness. He nods like a disappointed father. "You know, the way Amaya has spoken of your past together, if the roles were reversed, she never would have believed the word of an emotionally abusive alcoholic. She loved you as friends before biology revealed itself. You built a childhood of trust and when it mattered most, you didn't believe in her love and devotion to you."

Tears cloud my vision, but I catch the little form inching her way down the staircase and sitting halfway from the bottom. I want to shove past the alpha and make Amaya listen to me, but I don't because what Vincent is saying is true.

We don't deserve her.

We don't even deserve to ask her to listen to our side of the story because we should have been reading hers. How could I have been so blind to the chapters leading up to our devastating ending?

"She trusted you to save her," Vincent continues, pain for Amaya lacing his words. "And over four years of abuse and loneliness, that trust frayed. Now? After how that sorry excuse for an alpha showed her nothing but disrespect and hatred? Learning that you've been just down the road for weeks and didn't come to see your scent match ? That frail link of trust holding you to her snapped."

"We didn't kno?—"

Vincent waves Oliver off and shakes his head. "Your word means shit to me. I follow my omega, and if she doesn't want you here, then neither do I."

"Can we see her? Please ," Oli pleads, his voice wavering enough I know he's crying without having to look at him.

I'm shaking, and I swear my tongue is swelling, making me feel like my body is trying to strangle me. All the alpha rage I've harbored not only for Sam but for myself morphs into utter disappointment. My alpha retreats in my mind and soul, making me deal with the fallout of my actions on my own.

Vincent glances over his shoulder, but I shouldn't be surprised that he knew Amaya was there. Turning back to us after having a silent conversation with my mate, he shakes his head. "I'm not the boss of her, or this home. If Amaya wants to talk to you, then that's up to her."

He grips the door and I can't help but step forward, freaking the fuck out that I'll never get to see my omega again. "Please?"

"It's time for you to leave," Vincent growls, his hackles rising at my persistence.

Gripping Oliver's wrist, I take a step back, but pause when I see something in Vincent's gaze that tells me to shut up and listen.

"Do yourselves a favor," he says in a hushed voice, "stop trying to get on my good side." With that piece of advice, he closes the door, leaving us on Amaya's porch once again.

"What did he mean?" Oliver mutters.

Squaring my shoulders and yanking on my unruly alpha, I reply, "We need to grovel."

And grovel we will.