Page 2 of Let It Snow (Eden’s Omegaverse #7)

"It’s okay, Summer. We’re out!" My brother’s voice breaks through the haze, trying to calm me, trying to pull me back. But I’m too far away…

Flashes. Words. Faces. A car pulls up.

Moments later, I’m inside.

We’re driving.

Time stops and speeds. I drift in and out. Eyes open, then close. Drifting again.

They try to feed me, but I only sip a little juice. Awareness creeps back, then slips away. Then again it returns, but not much else.

Silence.

The hum of the engine fills the air.

Finally, my eyes stay open longer. The glucose from the juice helps. I blink and stare blankly.

The world slides past the windows: fields, colorful meadows, houses.

But inside my head there’s just… this void.

My whole body is numb, indifferent. I only know we escaped, but all my memories from this place are like distant dreams, the kind you wake from only to feel them dissolve with every heartbeat.

Or maybe I don’t want to remember them, for a simple reason: I hate horror movies. And what surfaces now and then, faint shadows of the past, feels exactly like that: horrifying. Pain. Fear. Terror.

I shift my gaze to the two escapees with me in the car.

One of them is Ragnar, my older brother. That I know. But his twin, Moon, is missing.

Where is he?

Ragnar is the one who came into that hell and pulled me out of the fortress during the FBI raid, and… he also saved another prisoner.

My eyes land on him. It’s another alpha, but not like a typical one. He’s beautiful. His golden hair shines in the flickering light. It’s Sun, and I know he’s my brother’s fated mate.

We’re going to Sun’s home now.

The knowledge feels implanted in me, but I have no recollection of a situation where somebody actually told me all this.

They don’t talk much.

They’re tired too. Well, no one escapes hell looking rested and happy, right?

Their bodies show bruises, their clothes are ripped, their hair is tangled.

I’m no better. I’m in a filthy, torn T-shirt, and dirty shorts.

I clutch the blanket tighter around me, trying to hide it all.

My hair hangs in limp, sad strands around my face.

Will it all ever make sense?

Who knows. For now, I don’t even want to start remembering, because everything seems to hurt. Light, voices, touch, trying to speak. Ragnar and Sun have already asked me questions, but I can’t… I just can’t answer.

About half an hour before we reach our destination, we stop at a gas station.

When Sun heads to the bathroom, Ragnar turns to me and says, with a serious, worried face,

"Summer, I know you’re in shock right now. You’ve been hit with a heavy dose of some drug meant to mess with your memory, but there’s one thing you need to hold on to: safety. Because of what you can do, because of your power, you have to stay low-key. Do you understand?"

I stare at him. What? So who am I? Am I dangerous?

Ragnar lets out a breath. "Please, Summer. Don’t show people you can’t trust what you’re capable of. If it gets out, it could lead the mafia straight to us again."

I stare at him wide-eyed. His words try to scratch at my memory, but it barely works. Still just faint flashes.

A shadow of a family home.

A lonely life, being homeschooled, endless secrets.

The secret.

My power.

And what comes with it…

Isolation.

The worried faces of my parents lean in, and I hear similar words that were drilled into me: Never reveal your power to anyone!

Because they’ll come. They’ll take you. They’ll treat you like a freak, a monster.

The military. The government. And then the experiments will start.

They’ll never let someone like you live free…

Ragnar studies my confused face, then takes a deep breath.

"It’s a miracle we made it out, Summer. If it wasn’t for the FBI raid, it would’ve been a lot harder. Ferros are powerful, and vengeful. We’ve got to keep our heads down."

Sun comes walking back from the gas station, and Ragnar just stares at him with that soft, dreamy expression… probably without even realizing he resembles some lovesick teenager.

A slight pang of jealousy hits me.

No one looks at me like that, no one waits for me with that kind of longing.

In their eyes, when they glance at each other, is the promise of a life I never had. And maybe never will.

Because I’m different. Obviously. Who could handle that? They could only use me, force my power to serve them.

Living a normal life? That feels unfathomable.

Sun gets back in the car, and off we go.

Present day

I open my eyes. I’m still on my knees in the grass near a fallen tree where Snow sits.

He’s playing the harmonica, but the notes keep fading while the ringing in my head only gets louder. I want to ask him to continue, but he lowers the instrument from his lips and looks at me.

"Not everything’s back yet, is it?"

I shake my head, feeling stupid. I don’t know this man, or what kind of trick he just pulled, whether it was magic, some kind of hypnotic trance, or something else. I want to ask who he is, but I’m suddenly feeling shy and skittish, so I push myself up slowly.

My throat is still clamped shut, and when I try to speak, only a few gasps come out. It’s humiliating; a normal conversation is impossible.

On top of that, I’m drenched. The thin T-shirt sticks to my skin, and I catch the quick glance Snow slides over my chest and then… lower. It looks casual, almost accidental, but I know how the light hits me; the wet fabric might be almost see-through.

When an omega is standing nearly naked in front of an attractive alpha, awkward things can happen, so I'd better leave.

The room where I woke up… I should get back there and look for answers. So I make some clumsy, awkward gesture and turn away without a word. Someone might read that as rude, but I hope the violet-eyed Snow understands my situation.

As I start to walk away, a cringy thought comes to mind. What if he’s checking out my ass now, the wet fabric clinging to every curve?

Gosh, I’m ridiculous. Rushing, I cut across the meadow that borders the property, haul myself over the fence, and land in the grass on the other side.

The house comes into view as I step out from behind a row of fig trees. It’s a white, Southern-style mansion, two stories tall. The room I climbed down from has a dormer, which means it’s in the attic.

I use the ladder again, planning to change quickly, but the moment I step inside, leaving wet prints across the floor, I hear footsteps on the stairs.

My heart kicks up. I don’t know what to expect or who’s coming for me.

Instinct makes me press my wet back to the wall. A soft knock comes at the door. I don’t answer. The knock comes again. I stay frozen, so maybe the person assumes no one’s inside, because the door opens.

A beautiful omega with a long pale-gold braid steps in. His surprised look travels over me from head to toe, and the shy smile he walked in with fades into worry.

I can’t blame him. I’m pressed flat against the wall, fingers spread wide like claws, stiff as a deer cornered and scared.

"Easy, Summer," he says in a gentle voice. "You’re safe here. This is your room. We prepared it for you yesterday so you could rest, recover, get your strength back after… what happened."

He probably isn’t expecting an answer. Maybe he realized yesterday that I can’t speak, but seeing me frozen like this, lips trembling and eyes wide, he adds,

"I’m Lake. Do you remember me? I’m Sun and Snow’s dad," and then with a small, almost apologetic gesture, he adds, "Ragnar and Sun are downstairs in the dining room. If you want to talk to them, you can come join us."

Ragnar is here?

That's comforting, but not so much the idea of coming down and… what? Talk? I can't talk! I’m broken.

The omega raises his eyebrows quizzically, but since I don’t move, he gestures toward the tray in his hands. "Just in case you’re not up for that, I brought breakfast up for you."

Steam curls from the food and my mouth waters. His eyes flick over my clothes and then down to the puddle around my feet. Water is still dripping off me.

"You went for a swim?" he asks lightly, then points to the closet.

"Yesterday I put some of Nathaniel’s old clothes here.

He’s our adopted son, my husband’s nephew.

He used to live in this room before you, but he moved out a few years back.

The room’s yours now. Most of his things are way too big for you anyway," he says with a wide gesture almost like mimicking the shape of my oversized T-shirts, then grins warmly. "If you’d like, we can go shopping today or… tomorrow? Right now you don’t really have anything.

Everything was left behind at… the fortress. "

The word fortress comes out in a soft, almost consoling tone, like saying it alone might split open my trauma. But I’m still too deep in the fog of memory loss to respond.

He sets the tray on the nightstand and exhales.

"Enjoy, Summer. Take things at your own pace, okay?"

For a few seconds, I study him. His face doesn’t look older than thirty-five.

How can he be Sun and Snow’s dad? Maybe there’s magic involved.

My own parents are True Mates, so I know a little about the healing and rejuvenating effect those bonds bring.

But I don’t ask. Words cost me too much right now, so I choose silence.

Lake nods slowly, almost like answering himself. With a sunny smile, he leaves the room, and I’m alone again.

So this is my host.

Apparently we met yesterday, but I’ve been ‘reset’.

Short-term memory damage, or the lingering effect of whatever drugs they dosed me with? No idea.

There’s another immediate problem. A puddle spreads under my feet, and I need to do something about it, so I open the closet.

Like he said, it’s filled with neatly folded T-shirts, shorts, and other clothes, and they’re all huge. The shirts would all hang like dresses on me, but oh well, I guess oversized clothes will have to do.

Then I dig into the food.