Page 10 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter eight

Mael

I fairly float over the ground as I cross from her house to ours. Edric and Kingston are flanking me, one on either side. No one is going to get close to her. This shouldn’t have happened. We were right here!

I’m more angry than I’ve ever been in my life. There are only two questions that are pulsing through my mind. She’s got bruises all over her.

Who did this to her?

And where are they because I’m going to kill them.

I get her inside and take her straight to the bedroom. Edric rips back the quilt, and I carefully lay her down. She looks tiny in the bed.

Fragile.

Our Selene. She never looks fragile. Strong, fierce, wild, untamable. But never fragile, never broken.

I’m angry at myself that it took so long to realise she was in trouble. We waited like idiots for her to come to us, and, all the while, she was in her bed, alone, hurt.

The door bursts open, and Bailey shoves into the room, almost tripping over a silent Kingston. His blue-green eyes are wild and focus on her with an intensity that makes me want to purr.

“What happened?”

“No idea,” Edric says tersely.

Bailey closes the distance, and, surprisingly, none of us make any sound of protest. He hovers his hand over her black sports bra, looking at the mottled purple and black bruises. Some of the bruises clearly look like hand prints, I think, on her back, I saw the outline of a shoe.

“How long has she been like this?” Edric asks and starts picking at the seam of his jeans absently.

“Luna said she came back early in the morning. Yesterday.” Bailey sits on the edge of the bed but withdraws his hands. I don’t know if he’s afraid to touch her or if he’s worried he will hurt her.

I move in close to her and brush her hair back. Surprisingly, her face is very unmarked. Only slight swelling on her cheekbones. That means what was done to her was done on purpose.

“Did she get jumped?” Kingston growls.

I shake my head. “Not sure, but look at her knuckles. She fought back.”

Bailey is silent, staring at her with an expression that has me wanting to shake him.

“What is it?” I ask instead.

“Luna says that this happens once a month or so. She comes home late and sleeps for a couple of days.” Bailey gets up and paces away, putting distance between us, physical and emotional.

I sit on the edge of the bed and turn her hand over so I can stroke her palm. The skin has callous’. Her fingers are dry, and, around her cuticles, the skin is split. There’s blood encrusted under her nails.

I smile and shake my head.

“What?” Edric demands.

“It’s like it’s always been with her. Look at her hands. All of her can change, but look, her hands are exactly the same.”

Edric pauses and shakes his head. “You’re losing it, Mael.”

I’m not, but they don’t need to understand it. I see it. Selene is the same. She’s not lost.

And if she’s not lost, we can find her again.

I lean down and press a kiss to her palm. It’s the first time I’ve kissed her. My whole life she was there, standing beside us, and we never saw.

The dark past flickers at my mind, and I struggle to remain here, present with her.

“Do you remember the time she beat up Murphy?” I ask instead.

“She had him on his knees begging in ten minutes,” Kingston says with a chortle. “I was so damn proud.”

“She’s our little fighter.”

“So, I don’t understand. How do you all know each other?”

Bailey is cautious of us. He’s not happy about being an omega. We got that loud and clear from his very vocal and offensive rejection earlier. I’m too stunned that he’s our…well, I don’t know what he is, but another one? It’s so ironic that this one, too, rejected us out of hand.

Should I have a complex from it?

“We all lived in this neighbourhood. Selene was a couple of years younger and used to follow us around everywhere,” I say fondly. “She was ours.”

“She was one of us,” Kingston says softly.

Shade bounces up on the bed and sniffs her face. His enormous eyes stare at me, and then he turns very slowly and carefully in a circle and lays down, purring like the little wannabe freight train he is.

“Yeah. Selene was special. She was made for great things,” Kingston says and strokes her hair from her face.

“I don’t understand why she’s still here,” Edric growls.

“You guys love her,” Bailey whispers. He sounds appalled, and I immediately turn cold eyes on him. He’s gotten even closer to the door, like he’s going to run at any moment.

Of course, we love her. We figured it out five minutes after we left, but, by then, it was too late.

I don’t say anything, though, I just stare down at her bruised and broken form.

“I’m going to kill whoever did this to her,” I promise.

“I’m going to find out now,” Kingston says and vanishes out of the house.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Bailey turn, following Kingston’s path until he’s gone.

“So, how did you meet her?” Edric asks in a soft and unthreatening tone.

It seems to work, Bailey answers without thinking.

“At her job. It was just chance.”

“People say there’s no such thing as chance.”

“What do you say?”

Edric looks down at her. “I say if you were there, and she was, then it was probably one of those cosmic forces people talk about. It was meant to be.”

“She’s not mine.”

“She’s not ours either,” I reply.

But that’s not true, and it’s never been true.

She’s been ours since the first time she appeared in that oversized jumper with an ice block dripping down her fingers.

I think she was six. I remember looking at her and smiling.

Her eyes had gotten so big. She had marched up to Kingston, who was holding a baseball bat, and smiled.

All gap-toothed and black messy hair that looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in a year.

I’d been entranced.

We all had .

Not that it was romantic, it was just…she was ours.

“But she’s always been ours,” I murmur. “We just refused to see it until it was too late. I’m not walking away again.”

Bailey shifts uncomfortably. “I can’t be around you people. You destabilise everything.”

I peer up at him. “What are you scared of?”

Bailey’s face shutters, closing off. “I’m not scared.”

“Okay,” Edric says, clearly not believing him. “You’re like your sister. A switch. It’s nothing to be ashamed of-”

Edric barely gets the words out before Bailey has him up against a wall, his forearm pressed against his throat. “Shut the hell up.”

“Because that’s going to magically change what you are?” Edric teases, sending Bailey into a vicious temper.

“I am an alpha.”

“Who stinks of omega?”

“Edric,” I say, silencing my pack mate.

I haven’t taken my eyes off Selene, and, if I’m right, she’s awake and just pretending to sleep.

I cover my mouth with my hand so she doesn’t see my smile when she does open her eyes.

“I am an alpha,” Bailey hisses again.

“Okay,” Edric says and shoves him off.

“I’m leaving.”

“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass,” Selene growls.

Bailey pauses. His face crumpling before he can smooth it all away. “I didn’t know.”

“I don’t care.”

Selene opens her eyes. She’s not surprised to find her new location, but she’s not happy. She sweeps a seething glare in my direction and then refocuses on Bailey.

“You led me on. You had a girlfriend. And, apparently, a pack. Still, you sought me out. You’re a piece of shit, Bailey Raines. In fact, alpha, beta, or omega, you fit this pack perfectly.”

“Fuck, I missed your filthy mouth,” Edric says in a delighted purr.

She visibly prickles, drawing up and glancing around the room.

“Go get my clothes,” she growls at me.

“No.”

“Mael!”

“Selene. ”

She slides off the bed in just her underwear and stands up, wincing.

“What happened to you?” Bailey asks harshly. “Who attacked you?”

She gives him that cool expression I’m so familiar with. “No one attacked me. Don’t be dense.”

My attention sharpens. “Selene.”

She tosses her hair and glances at me and away.

“Were you fighting? In one of those illegal fight rings?” Bailey is aghast. “You could have been killed.”

“I wouldn’t have died.”

“You are tenderised black and blue, look at you!” Bailey shouts. “How could you be so stupid, so selfish, what about Lu-”

Selene punches him in the face. She moves so fluidly, so aggressively, that I find myself frozen, staring at her in awe.

Bailey catches her second punch and holds her fist. “You don’t want to start something with me, Selene. You’d have to pull down all your preconceived beliefs and actually face the fact you’re not upset I hurt your sister. You’re upset I wanted her and not you.”

I move, but Selene is quicker. Her knee goes up, and the thud makes me wonder if Bailey is going to need to go to the hospital. If he keeps running his mouth, and she keeps reacting, he might need a testicle retrieval.

“He’s just digging himself a hole he’s never going to get out of,” Edric murmurs, but I catch sight of the shine in her eyes.

She really likes him, and his words hurt her. Badly.

I remember the way she screamed at us when we left.

The fury in her little body when we told her she didn’t understand.

I thought it was just our little sister furious at being left behind.

No, I didn’t think that; I told myself over and over until I thought I believed it. That I should think like that.

Maybe…it would explain why she’s so angry at us.

I reach for her hand, ignoring the way she pulls away. “Come on, let’s get some ice on this.”

I drag her out of the bedroom and lift her so she’s sitting on the laminate kitchen counter. She closes her eyes. I can see the pain in the way her eyes crinkle at the sides and how her fingers turn white at the knuckles.

“I was thinking about what we were like when we were growing up and how mean we were to you.”

“Mean?” She scowls at me. “You were only mean when you decided to leave.”

“We expected you to keep up with us, to be as vicious and violent as us.”

“You taught me to be strong, it wasn’t mean, it was practical. ”

I snort and fold the ice in a tea towel and hold it to her knuckles.

“I wonder about that. Does anyone look after you, Selene? Does anyone take care of you?”

“No one needs to.”

“Everyone needs someone to look after them occasionally.”

“You used to. You were the people I could go to, to talk to, to vent, to cry to. You were my friends.”

I stare at her, wishing I could undo the past.

“But you left.”

She doesn’t even sound angry about it, just so sad. I adjust my hold on the ice so I’m holding her hand.

“It was a mistake.”

My confession is met by silence and huge blue eyes that stare at me with a vulnerability that makes me want to take her in my arms.

Instead, she pulls free, slipping off the counter, and crossing to the front door.

Kingston pulls it open before she can and smiles at her. “Good morning, my adorable little porcupine.”

Predictably, Selene bristles, but Kingston won’t be deterred. He comes in with food and a bag of clothes.

“I have supplies for you.”

“No, I-”

“I looked in your fridge when I went through your room. You have no food, and you need to get dressed and have a shower. You smell.”

I catch her before she can swing. “Uh, come on. I’ll get him later. Let’s protect those cute little bruised knuckles for a few more days. Come and use the bathroom, it has everything you need, and join us for food.”’

“Why the hell would I do that?” she asks bitterly.

“Because I’m asking you to, for old times’ sake?”

She stares up at me. “You don’t fight fair.”

“I know, but I missed you.”

She drops her head, biting her lip. “On one condition.”

“Anything.”

“Stop trying to make it how it was. It’s never going to be like that again.”

I watch her stalk into the bathroom and turn back to Edric and Kingston with a wide grin.

“Really?” Edric asks. “Isn’t it too soon? You’re pushing her too hard.”

“Oh, yeah, it’s fast. I’m not passing this up. ”

Bailey is watching from the bedroom doorway. “She’s going to kill all of you before she touches you.”

“Naw, she’s just cranky. She’ll forgive us,” Kingston says and dishes up the food he’s bought.

“Do you have a name?”

Kingston pauses and meets my eye. It’s like he’s a different alpha. One who is hard. A killer. This is who we are beneath our human masks.

“I do.”

“Excellent. Let's enjoy breakfast, then. Sit down, Bailey.”

I don’t give him an opportunity to refuse. He walks stiffly over, fighting the bark but unable to.

When Selene comes out, I pass her a plate. She walks while she eats, her eyes roving over every detail in our home. The sight of it is so familiar.

Bailey eats in sullen silence.

Edric and Kingston chat and ask the other two questions, but I watch. I watch how Bailey watches her. I see how she looks at us and him.

And I decide what the future is going to look like. An hour later, I sneak out of the house and go somewhere I won’t be overheard.

“Your son is fine, but he’s pissed off a lot of people here. And he knows me and my pack by name.”

On the other end of the line, I hear a deep rumble from an alpha I deeply respect and admire.

“Can you help him? Is it going to be a problem?”

I hesitate over the answer. “We can,” I assure him. “We can still guarantee his safety.”

“Call me if you have any problems.”

I hang up and turn back to face the house.

We have so many problems we’re getting buried under them, but it’s nothing we can’t handle.