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Chapter Ten

Emma

S loane called, and we went to pick her up, but it quickly became apparent that all was not well. I didn’t think it was the alpha, Jace, although she glossed over that with a little color in her cheeks.

No, there was something else wrong, and as the master of disguising my emotions, the signs were all too clear to me.

Jude was being, well, Jude and pumping her for information. But all that went out the window when Sloane’s face turned a deathly pale, and she sprinted from the room. The noisy sounds of her retching followed.

Sloane was never sick, and the sounds freaked me out.

She waved us away when we went to check on her. “She’s hungover. Sloane, I’ll get you some ibuprofen and water.” Only I didn’t think she was hungover

When I returned, she hadn’t moved. “Here, you look terrible.” Maybe she’d had something to drink after I saw her? I had a terrible cold prickling sensation that something was terribly off. “How much did you drink last night?”

She didn’t answer, just took the tablets and glugged back the water.

“You’re dehydrated,” I said. “Come on, let’s get you into bed.

” I helped her up, worried and anxious, and yet this was Sloane.

Maybe she’d finally let her hair down? The way she was squinting at the light had all the earmarks of being hungover.

She’d cared for me enough times, so it was time for me to return the favor.

I pulled the curtains across the windows, and she settled straight away.

“Sleep, Sloane,” I said. “And thanks for last night. It was…wild.”

She would feel better after a rest. I wanted to tell her about Ryder and my own adventure. My conversation with Jude played in my mind as I shut the door on her.

Last night had been quite the night for both of us.

* * *

Jude left with the promise to check in on us later. I took my cell with me and went to bed. Like Sloane, I was exhausted, and I fell straight asleep.

The beeping of my cell roused me, only this time when I looked, it was Jude…and he hadn’t come alone. He had muffins and coffee.

“Sloane still out for the count?”

“Yep,” I said. I inhaled the scent of coffee before tucking into the muffin, then padded over to Sloane’s bedroom door. “Sloane, are you okay?” Nothing. I shrugged as I went to join Jude on the couch. “She was pretty wiped out.”

My cell began ringing. Freaking hell, it was Ryder again. My heart rate shot through the roof, and I nearly spilled my coffee.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?” Jude said. “I don’t know why you’re playing hard to get. We both know you want him.”

“It’s not that,” I replied. “I just?—”

“What?” Jude demanded. “Girlfriend, he’s been wearing out that ringtone all day long. Why don’t you put it on mute?”

The ringing stopped. Thank god, because I was tense. I knew I needed to answer him, if only to tell him no thank you , only I didn’t know what to say. It was one thing to be with him in the moment. Now, in the cold light of day, everything felt both clearer and more confusing at the same time.

“I’m going to head off,” Jude said. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll go and check on her in a minute.”

“Good,” Jude replied. “Maybe take some more water.”

“I will,” I said. “I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

As the door clicked shut on Jude, my cell began beeping again. Great!

Sloane emerged from her room, looking like a freaking train wreck. Her eyes lowered to my cell, so I reached down and hit the button to turn it off.

She narrowed her eyes, because it was Sloane and even wrecked, she had a nose for trouble.

“Who’s calling?” she asked, voice a hoarse croak.

“Nobody,” I said evasively.

Shuffling over, she dropped down on the couch opposite. “Who is it?”

“It’s just a guy I met last night. You know, the one I was with…

I’ll get you some water.” Needing some breathing space before we had that conversation, I clattered around in the kitchen, taking longer than I needed to before handing her a drink.

I sat opposite, and that sharp sense of wrongness hit me again, only this time, it was closer to malaise. “You seem different.”

“I’m an omega,” she replied.

I actually felt my blood pressure drop, it happened so fast. “What? How can you be an omega? Are you sure?”

“I’m very sure,” she said. “I’ve just built a nest.”

A nervous giggle escaped my lips. Freaking hell!

Sloane laughed too, but it faded as fast. “I need to get some suppressants.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Okay, how do we do…that?” I picked up my cell, which immediately started beeping. I frowned, fingers hovering over the keys. He was an alpha. Maybe he would know where to get suppressants? “Do you have other omega urges?”

“Yeah, and I wish I bloody didn’t.” She gave me a look. “Em, you used protection, didn’t you?”

I stopped my frantic typing, feeling my face heat.

“We didn’t,” I said. “We talked. We fooled around for a while, and he kept his pants on the whole time. I’ve never been so frustrated in all my life.

Well, not that frustrated. But yeah, I wanted it, and he wouldn’t let me have it… I think he’s a Dom.”

“A what?”

“A Dom, like you read about in the books? BDSM. I think that’s him in a nutshell.”

“He’s not a Dom,” Sloane said like she was an authority on such things.

“Well, he’s got some very Dom-like tendencies,” I said, using a hand to fan myself. “I’ve never been so desperate to get into a man’s pants in my life, and he was having none of it. That’s iron control if ever I saw it.” I nod my head toward Sloane. “So did you… Did you…with the other one?”

“Yeah,” she said miserably. “That’s what triggered me.”

Freaking hell!

“I’m glad you’re not an omega,” she replied. “Because everything is hell.”

“I thought it would be hot, you know, to be that into a man.”

She suddenly groaned and pressed her hand to her belly. “Emma, I need those suppressants.” Her face turned waxy, and she emitted a deep, guttural moan that sounded like she was freaking dying.

“Sloane?”

She staggered from the couch, heading back into her bedroom.

I followed her into her room…and found she’d emptied her wardrobe and the clothes were scattered all over the floor. A great mountain of them had been piled up in the bed, and she crawled into it, moaning piteously.

Suppressants, she needed some freaking suppressants.

I went back to my cell, vision coming through a tunnel.

Somehow, I found the number for the Dawn Agency, and they answered on the first ring.

I didn’t remember what they said. My mind wasn’t processing any of this.

I’d been with an alpha too, only I couldn’t think about that while Sloane was in so much pain.

I paced, occasionally checking on Sloane, who had buried herself in the nest. When the people from the agency arrived, all I cared about was helping her with the pain.

“Sloane? Oh shit?—!”

“Just leave it to us, ma’am. You said she was with an alpha last night?”

“Ah…yeah, but what does that?—”

“No way he’d leave a tasty little morsel like this alone. He’s rutted her, sent her into a frenzy. She’s one step away from her heat.”

“Yes, that. She said she needed suppressants, like right now.”

“We’ll need to get her down to the center. At her age, fucking around with an alpha so soon after discovering her true nature… It complicates things.”

“What? But I thought?—”

“Please, let us do our job. You’ll be able to come and see your sister once we’ve got her settled and sedated. Damn omegas! When they get fixated on something, they can be a bloody nightmare to deal with.”

I felt like I’d been slapped. The way he was talking about Sloane like she was a fucking animal… The malaise I’d first felt when Sloane returned ramped up to a roar.

“Jace…” Her whisper captured all our attention, and she started to thrash.

“Jesus fucking Christ, the little bitch has gone deep! Shoot her up with something to calm her the fuck down!”

“No!”

I screamed, Sloane screamed, and the sense of malaise rose to a fever pitch. Someone had a needle. I made to dart for the bed, only to be cut off when the burly beta guard the orderlies had brought with them threw his arm out to cut me off. “What the hell did you do? I asked for suppressants!”

“You don’t get to make the choices now. She’s an omega. She belongs in the Dawn Agency until a suitable alpha can be found for her.”

“You’re banishing her to an alpha zone? Who the hell do you think you are?

She’s not going to live in some slum, popping out alpha babies!

Sloane is independently wealthy.” The strip might be nice, but the rest…

the rest I sensed was considerably worse.

The thought of Sloane being tossed in there, or whatever they were going to do, made me break out in a cold sweat.

She already had an alpha. Well, she’d picked one, and from what I could discern from her tight lips and heated cheeks, it had all gone well. Maybe too well!

“Not any more, she’s not. The assets of omegas are seized by the state until a family member is approved to transfer them to. You’ll need to put in an application with the Office of Omega Affairs.”

“I don’t want her ‘assets,’ I want my sister! Where the hell are you taking her? Sloane? Sloane!”

But it was too late. They lifted her limp body up and carried her off, while the beta guard took me by the arm and frog-marched me out.

“What the hell!” I snatched up my cell from the coffee table and snagged my sneakers from beside the front door.

I was still in my sleeping clothes, for goodness’ sake!

Where were they taking Sloane? Where were they taking me?

As I stood in the hall, the guard pulled out a roll of bright orange tape with Dawn Agency splattered all over it and taped up the door. “You have somewhere to go? If not, you’ll be given state housing until the case comes to court.”