Page 40 of Petals and Strings (Broken Melodies #1)

Chapter Thirty-Three

Kane

T he smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke was so strong in the air it made me want to gag. It chased away the scent of the omega I’d called mine.

It had been a long fucking time since I’d truly scented her.

Outside of her heat, at least, when I became even more of a servant.

The moment she met these alphas, it was like I no longer had a place in her life. They barged in, made demands, and turned me into their personal butler.

Our omega couldn’t possibly lift a finger, and I guess they were exempt as well. That left me to handle the rest.

According to them, that was my duty. My only place here.

“I can’t do this anymore,” I’d cried to my best friend Paul on the phone. He’d tried for years to tell me to leave, but this bond meant something to me.

Society acts like a bite between an omega and a beta didn’t mean the same as it did between omegas and their alphas. To an extent, it was true. It wasn’t as deep. But once you committed, built a bond for years, there was no going back.

At least not easily.

To make matters worse, she’d insisted he bite me, too. The alphas did because she begged, teeth marring the perfect small bite she gave me and inflicting maximum pain as they did.

It was another testament to their constant cruelty.

“You need to get out of the house,” he urged. “Clear your head and consider your options.”

“Okay,” I whispered. “They’re going to leave around ten.”

“I’ll be there right after,” he promised. Paul was always there for me. Though, he had his own battles to fight.

He was the only one who knew my shame. That I’d let this pack treat me like garbage and cast me aside.

I waited in my room, the hours ticking by until they finally left. There were no goodbyes, no texts, just their presence, then sudden absence as if I were a ghost here.

An observer in my own fucking life.

The engine roared to life, drawing the attention of everyone within a mile. They loved the attention, though I doubted it was the kind they wanted it to be.

Then it rumbled down the street.

Silence surrounded me, now. An oasis among the chaos.

I hurried to get ready, pulling on clean clothes and grabbing my things, my skin crawling with the need to get out of the house.

The apartment was in disarray when I walked out. My brows furrowed as I took it all in. Cupboards hanging open, TV gone, furniture shifted haphazardly.

I walked through the house that used to be calm and beautiful. Now it was constantly littered in filth, that I was blamed for not keeping up with. Cans, trash, clothes… the alphas lived like pigs.

How the omega could stand this was insane.

No… wait. This was different. Something was off.

The mess was there as usual… but signs of them were not. The TV was gone, that was a prized possession here. No game systems or books. Just furniture and the mess.

Were we robbed? What the hell?

I opened the front door to realize it wasn’t just the truck gone, but both vehicles. They took my car, too.

“Hey, you ready?” Paul called out. I glanced over, shock settling in as I shook my head and stepped back inside. The door hung open behind me as I ran toward the master.

Dread was heavy in my gut. I knew damn well what I would find as I twisted the knob and pushed.

The door swung open with a creak, the bed bare of blankets and the drawers and closet hanging open.

All of it was empty.

I hadn’t set foot in this room in ages. Her nest was no longer an oasis she invited me into, their bed was for the alphas and her, not the beta.

My hands shook as I reached for the doorknob of the nest. I could vividly remember every detail of it.

The barren empty hole that greeted me was what brought me to my knees.

I woke with a loud gasp, tears streaming down my face and body covered in sweat. My covers were wrapped around me like a vise and I had to fight my way out of it.

My feet hit the tile and I rushed to the door, fingers fumbling with the lock. I was desperate to get out, to take a shower and pretend the crushing reality of my past wasn’t tearing me into fucking pieces.

“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Ares’s voice echoed out before his arms wrapped around me, turning me away from the door and holding tight. “Talk to me, Kane.”

“They left,” I choked out, my voice going from a whisper to a guttural scream. “They fucking left me behind! After all I put up with, all I took, they left without a word.”

“Kane.” Audrey’s raspy voice had me turning, trying to make sense of the devastation I was feeling and the contrasting feelings she evoked.

Audrey brought peace. Calm amidst the storm. Kindness.

They all did.

What I had before paled in comparison.

“They left me, Audrey. I walked out of my room and they’d quietly moved out, leaving me alone with a mess and a broken heart that was already fracturing to fucking pieces.

That was after casting me aside time and time again.

Telling me I was useless, never meant to be anything more than a servant. And she let it happen.”

“They’re monsters. All of them. I told you it wasn’t you,” she said, pulling me out of Ares’s arms and into her own. I breathed in deep, soaking in her fresh, floral and spice scent. “If they could leave someone as good as you, they weren’t worthy.”

“I was going to leave, but I desperately wanted our bond to mean something. It did before they came into the picture. I kept trying to stick it out. My friend was there to pick me up when I realized what was happening. Everything was gone. Nest empty, clothes gone, nothing left behind… not even my fucking car. No goodbye, no note… nothing. As if I wasn’t worth the effort. ”

“I’m so fucking sorry,” she whispered, holding me tighter yet.

“Paul tried to drag me out anyway, we thought it was fine. Then I felt it an hour or so later. The pain. My chest cracked open, like someone broke my ribcage and poured lava into the cavity. Then my head burst with pain. Blinding. I screamed like a psycho… then broke.”

“They forcibly broke the bond,” Ares summarized in horror.

That’s fucking barbaric. It takes an insane amount of willpower and an entire pack cutting off the bond. Hell, sometimes even medical intervention. No one escapes unscathed.

“How is that even possible?” Audrey asked, glancing at him. “With mine, they started a new bond, but we weren’t pack. It was single alphas. And one sided. I never bit anyone.”

“They would all have to collectively move on, cut off the bond mentally and let it snap. It was an active, intentional decision,” he said. Even he was affected. I could see the moisture in his eyes. The compassion.

How could I not trust him now? In one fucking session he achieved what I’d avoided. Sure, it took my willingness to go there, forcing myself deeper, fighting past the meds that dulled the pain, but he was there. Leading me. Guiding me.

“You know who you are now,” Audrey said, voice firm. “You get to decide now what to let go of and who you’re going to be from here on out.”

“Yours. I’m going to be yours,” I told her. Nothing and no one had made me feel the things she did. Not even my ex-omega. I loved my ex in my own way, but I realize now how superficial that love was. Na?ve and hopeful at best.

“I’m yours and so is our pack,” she promised. “We don’t need bites to be strong, Kane.”

“That’s an issue for when we get out of here,” I said. “We won’t know how we feel until we experience the world without these walls.”

Oddly enough, the idea of her bite on me, or theirs, didn’t scare me. This group had been different from the start. When the other pack ran, they helped me find my way, held my hand and kept me centered.

They were my future.

“I also want to be mine,” I admitted. “To find out what made me tick. Maybe reach out to Paul again. Figure out who I am.”

“I want that, too,” she said. “That’s why we’re doing this.”

I was glad she understood. Our relationship wouldn’t be conventional, but after everything we’d seen and been through, it couldn’t be. We needed something different.

“What does my file say about the pack? Are there any notes about what they said when I was brought in?” I asked.

Ares’s expression darkened and he let out a breath. “Truth?”

“Yes,” I said firmly. I needed to know. How could I heal and truly let all that go if I was hung up on the details, wondering if they’d ever come around to try and yank it all away?

“When new patients come in, they check in with their support system at the one month mark. They discuss ways to bring them in to visit, treatment plans, all that to keep you connected to your family and for them to know you’re alright.”

He shifted on his feet, but didn’t look away from my eyes as he finished. Ares was a strong alpha, a kind one. He was ready to catch me if I broke.

I couldn’t let that pack have any more of me. They’d taken and taken until I was wrung dry.

“What did it say?”

“That an alpha answered. Kevin, was the name. He said that the pack didn’t have need of a beta and if you broke it was because you were weak.

They said the payment ended then and so did their obligation.

That the pack rejected you and it was their legal right.

Followed by some legal papers showing a formal rejection that was, apparently, left behind when they moved. ”

“They fucking took everything from me. Left me without a goddamn word. Empty apartment, bills, then they closed off the bond and broke me. Then they want to act like they bear no blame?!”

“Use that anger,” Ares suggested. “It’s a great motivator. If used right, anger is not an unhealthy emotion. It’s a realistic one. Something that reminds you that you were wronged and won’t let it happen again. It’s when you use it to lock yourself off of true connections that it becomes an issue.”

“This guy’s good,” Ledger said with a chuckle. I snorted, then all of us lost it, the tension breaking as we used dark humor to cope.

“I think my mind has been trying to heal for so long,” I admitted. “Her face came out in art therapy, dreams, feelings. I just needed to accept it. Allow myself to face it.”

“That’s the first step. We’ll dive deeper in our sessions on how to cope with that. To truly understand that you were never at fault.” Ares gave my shoulder a squeeze. “That’s enough for today.”

“What’s on the itinerary for the rest of the day?” Audrey asked as we all went to grab our clothes for shower time.

“Art therapy, free period lasts a bit longer today, just don’t run from me again.”

“Sorry,” Audrey muttered. “We had to know we could trust you.”

“I get it. I do. Just not again,” he said, giving her no blame. I respected him more for that.

My fingers twitched, ready to hold a paintbrush and get my feelings out on canvas. I hurried through my routine, and the rest of my pack did, too, as if they sensed my urgency.

The therapist smiled as we entered, waving me over to my usual easel. “You look eager today.”

“Breakthrough in therapy. My mind needs this,” I admitted. Her expression softened.

“That’s what I’m here for. Stay as long as you need today. If you’re up for discussing after, you know I’m here.”

“Thank you,” I said as I filled my palette with colors and dipped my brush.

The image started to form, the moment frozen in time showcasing the disheveled, messy apartment and the empty nest.

Black was next, a fissure forming down the middle, as if the building itself was breaking part. Dark hands reached out from the crevice, curling up into the sky as if trying to escape.

In the doorway, was warm light. A promise.

Hope.

I knew on the other side was the future I was building now. When I let all of that go, sending those memories to hell right along with any blame I’d tried to hold onto, I’d be able to embrace it.

Whether it was Ledger or the universe that gave them karma, I knew it would reach them one day.

I, on the other hand, would be thriving.

Just as I put the finishing touches on the art, the world came rushing back in. Audrey was in front of me, holding out her hand.

But it was the look on her face that sent fear slicing through me.

“We’ve been summoned to the clinic for a medicine check. It seems Dr. Malik isn’t happy about our new arrangement.”

No. I couldn't be set back right when I just now found my way.

Where the hell was Ares?!