Page 66 of The Runaway
Two days later, Gabriel rode Crimson into the Calvet estate’s main yard, surprised to find himself smiling. It was good to be back. He hadn’t been sure how he’d feel about it, when he and Connor had packed up their campsite late this morning. Days of freedom and an escape from his persistent worries had convinced him to relax – not to mention the decadent indulgence of sharing his body with Connor – but would that relaxation persist after they got back to the real world?
As Cirroc came forward to take Crimson’s reins, Gabriel found that he actually didn’t mind so much. Even if the stress returned, even if there were more dramas from the surrounding estates, the break had done him good. And the reluctant conclusion he’d come to about his dilemmas regarding the treatment of omegas was that there was no real conclusion. Life was complicated, mistakes were made and events happened that were beyond his control. All he could hope to do was make the best decision in any given circumstances.
“Welcome back,” Antoine greeted them, as he crossed the yard towards the horses. “How did everything go?”
“Better than I could have hoped for,” Gabriel said, swinging his leg over the horse and landing on the ground. “Perfect weather, good company. I think a bit of peace and quiet does the world of good.” It was an indirect way of telling Antoine that he was over his minor crisis and could return to business as usual.
A little more cautiously than Gabriel, given his inexperience with horses, Connor dismounted. He stumbled slightly, and Max caught his elbow to steady him before untethering Pearl from Gabriel’s saddle and tying him to the fence so they could unpack.
“Any news?” Gabriel asked Antoine, as Cirroc led Crimson over to the fence. He expected a short no, followed by a slightly longer list of minor concerns – a broken fence, perhaps, or a fox getting into the chicken pen. The beautiful thing about living on a country estate was that for the most part, nothing of significance ever happened.
But the look on Antoine’s face was troubled. “First and foremost, I should let you know that Dante went into heat a few days ago. He is now presumed to be pregnant until or unless we find out otherwise.”
Gabriel nodded. “Good to know,” he said simply. There were a number of rules and customs surrounding a pregnant omega, most notable of which was that no one on the estate other than Antoine, as the child’s sire, was permitted to touch Dante until after he gave birth. Gabriel had never quite figured out whether the restriction was designed to protect the omega in question or to cater for an unhealthy possessiveness in the alpha who sired the child, but he figured that in this case, if Dante truly had any objection to the rule, then he was capable of saying so himself. As far as Gabriel was concerned, he would respectfully follow the rules and not interfere in things that weren’t his business.
But Antoine wasn’t done. “There is another piece of news. And you should come into the house to hear about this one. Henry and Max can see to your horses and unpack your things. I know you’re probably tired, but I’m afraid this can’t wait.” As he spoke, Antoine gave a stray glance towards Connor, which raised a question in Gabriel’s mind.
“Does Connor need to come?” he asked. That look had seemed to say that Connor would somehow be affected by the news, but also that Antoine didn’t want him involved in it.
Antoine was silent for a moment. “Connor needs to hear this,” Max spoke up, when the silence dragged on. “Everyone else on the estate knows. No reason why he shouldn’t hear it as well.”
Antoine nodded, completely ignoring the notion that Max might have been overstepping by saying so. “Both of you, then, come inside. But I have to warn you, this is not going to be pleasant.”
“Is this about the Martins?” Gabriel asked, as he followed Antoine towards the house.
“Not at all. It’s something far bigger than any chaos they could create.”
Inside the sitting room, Gabriel sat down on the sofa, Connor gingerly taking a seat beside him when no one said anything. Niles had met them in the hallway and was now loitering by the window, while Antoine paced the room.
After a few aborted attempts at speaking, Antoine finally stopped and turned to face them, though he didn’t sit down. “This isn’t going to be easy to hear,” he said, his eyes fixed on Gabriel. “In a way, it’s distant news. It’s nothing that directly relates to you or me or anyone on this estate, but at the same time, given your experiences in the military, I’m expecting that you’re going to care about this a great deal. I suppose I’m asking you to brace yourself for a whole world of bad news, even though none of it’s strictly personal.”
It was going to be awful then, if Antoine felt the need to give it such a grim preamble. And the mention of the military, with all its cruelty, sent a shiver down Gabriel’s spine. His mind started racing, even though he knew speculation was useless. Could it be a new war breaking out? Some high ranking officer doing something dark and twisted? “All right,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s hear it, then.” He was as ready as he was likely to get.
“News came through from Baron Bardet two days ago. He received a letter from an earl in Paris, an old friend of his, apparently. This is not official news, but it’s leaked its way out of Paris by multiple routes, and half the country is now up in arms about it.
“After the war ended, there were a large number of omegas who’d served in the army who were injured. A lot of them ended up with permanent disabilities. For the last eight months, the army has been quietly selling them off to whoever would take them in. There were a few factories that could make use of omegas who were missing a leg, for example, and a number of taverns or farms where the work could be adapted to suit them.”
Gabriel tried to concentrate on what Antoine was saying, at the same time as his mind was reeling from one of the details he’d mentioned. Had it really beeneight monthssince the war had ended? It felt like far less. He could remember his slow walk down the road to the Calvet estate like it had happened yesterday, his trepidation at not knowing what sort of man Antoine would be and whether it would ever be a place he could call home.
“The problem,” Antoine went on, “is that there werehundredsof omegas left needing new masters and only a few dozen places for them to go. The army has been providing basic food and accommodation for them for the last few months, but they’ve finally decided it’s costing too much time and money to keep looking after them if no one’s going to buy them.”
“They’re abandoning them?” Gabriel growled, his eyes narrowed. It was the only logical conclusion. “Heartless fucking assholes. Those omegas risked their lives to defend France and now we’re just dumping them in the gutter?”
“I’m afraid it’s worse than that,” Antoine said, which made Gabriel pause. What could be worse than casting them out on the street with nothing but the clothes on their backs?
“They’ve decided to shoot them.”
Gabriel felt his blood turn to ice in his veins, at the same time as he heard Connor’s sharp gasp beside him. “They fucking what?”
“Riots have started up in Paris,” Antoine said, not bothering to repeat the news. “Word spread quickly to the surrounding towns, and omegas have been running away from their masters en mass. They’re congregating in Paris, outside military headquarters. They’re protesting against what amounts to mass murder. There’s a number of betas who’ve joined the protests as well. The military has been deployed to control the uprising. People are talking about another revolution. It’s an absolute mess.”
Gabriel sat rigidly, trying to process the news. Beside him, Connor hadn’t made a sound, after that first heartfelt gasp, but his hand was clamped over his mouth like he was struggling not to throw up.
But Antoine wasn’t finished yet. “Now that the news is traveling to other towns, there’s been civil unrest across half the country. There was a protest yesterday in our local town, outside the courthouse. People are turning to the local nobles to try and get them to take action. As Felix pointed out, there’s not much he can do aside from write a strongly worded letter, but he’s had nine different estates knocking on his door. Some of them want to save the omegas, others want the runaways to be sent home or shot for deserting their masters. Some people just want the protests to stop so they can get on with business as usual. Felix has been calling for calm, but unless the situation in Paris is resolved fairly quickly, I can’t imagine it’s going to get any better in the short term.”
Gabriel was unable to find words to describe how he felt, or vehement enough curses to denounce the brutes in the military who had decided on this course of action. From the look in Antoine’s eyes, he understood just how bad this news was, and how badly Gabriel was taking it. In that regard, then, there was no need to beat a dead horse.
“So what do we do now?” Gabriel asked woodenly.