Page 71 of The Runaway
“We will,” Gabriel promised him, though they both knew that the actual outcome would be far beyond his control. He would do his best. God willing, it would be enough.
Niles ignored Antoine’s offered hand and hugged him instead. Legally, the two men were brothers, but after Christophe’s death, Niles had looked to Antoine as more of a father figure, and despite their frequent differences of opinion, Gabriel knew they were close. Antoine hugged him back just as fiercely. “Take care,” he said, as he let Niles go, and Gabriel thought perhaps there was a tear in his eye.
Then, breaking a dozen different social customs, Antoine hugged Adalene and shook Connor’s hand. “Be careful,” he said to them both. “I know you’re going there to make a point, but try to avoid any heroics. I want you both back here alive.”
Connor nodded, while Adalene muttered a promise to be careful. Then they were all climbing into the carriage. “Where’s Lucas?” Niles asked, just before he stepped inside. They hadn’t seen the young man since breakfast.
“Sulking somewhere, I believe,” Antoine said. “I think he’s upset about missing out on the adventure. No doubt he’ll be glad he stayed after you get back and he hears all the grizzly details.”
Gabriel, for one, wouldn’t be regaling anyone with stories of their ‘adventures’. He had plenty of those already from the war and had no desire to traumatise anyone by rehashing them.
Niles climbed inside the carriage and shut the door, then the horses moved off, the carriage lurching into motion. They drove slowly out the gate and up the hill, then picked up the pace once they were on level ground.
Gabriel waited until they were well clear of the yard, then turned to Adalene, a canny look in his eye. “So why do you really want to come to Paris?” he asked her. “Because I don’t believe this is just about making a stand for disadvantaged omegas.”
Adalene scowled, but made no attempt to avoid the question. “You must have heard the way the other omegas talk about me. They think that I think I’m some kind of princess, that I expect to be pampered or that I’m not tough enough for the real world. We’re protected here from the worst of what the world has to offer, and I’m grateful for it, but it’s not enough. I want more out of life. I want tobemore than a sheltered omega. I want to give something to the world, not just take from it.”
They’d reached the end of the laneway, where the Calvet’s estate ended and they joined the main road into town. As they turned the corner, the carriage jolted a little. A pothole, probably. With all the rain they’d had, keeping the road in decent repair was a never-ending project.
“Are you actually prepared for the amount of violence we’re going to see?” Gabriel asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Adalene replied, with refreshing honesty. “I’ve tried to imagine it, and the pictures in my head are pretty terrible, but I can only expect it’s going to be worse than that. But this isn’t all about me wanting to fill myself up with new experiences. I meant what I said to Antoine; omegas are being slaughtered and I genuinely believe we should do something about it. I probably wouldn’t have been brave enough to ever go on my own, but with you all going, it made sense to join in.”
“I’m not trying to stop you,” Gabriel said. “I’m just making sure that coming along is actually what you want.”
Adalene nodded. She glanced at Connor. “Do you think I should come?” she asked him, and it was interesting that she’d take more advice from a former runaway than from a trained solder. Then again, Connor probably had a better idea of the difficulties and dangers to an omega even than Gabriel did. He’d lived through a vast number of them, after all.
Connor regarded Adalene seriously. “Once we get there, absolutely no one is going to give a shit who you are,” he said, a deep frown on his face. “They don’t care if you were high-born, they don’t care if you were raised on good food and kind words, they don’t care what ideals or grand notions you have. We are all going to be dogs to the slaughter, just the same.
“And its not just the physical danger. There’s the potential for a lot of humiliation. What if someone cuts all your hair off? What if someone strips you naked and makes you march down the road in front of a crowd? You’ll be called a whore, you’ll be told you’re worthless, you’ll be told you’re a waste of space on this planet. And if you start listening to any of that shit, it can break you really easily. You’ve got to know that you’re worth something, and to jam that belief in hard right here” – he thumped his fist against his own chest – “and never let go of it. You have to believe that yourself, because no one else will.”
“How do I know if I am worth something?” Adalene asked. Gabriel thought he saw her blue eyes shining a little brighter than usual.
“Did you wake up this morning and draw breath?”
Adalene looked confused for a moment. “Yes.”
“Then you’re worth something.”
Gabriel couldn’t help but smile at that. He looked over at Connor, sitting beside him, feeling more proud of the young man than he ever had before. It was one of the things he’d come to treasure about Connor; his sense of self worth didn’t depend on anyone else, not on his station in life, or the opinions of the rest of the world, or even what Gabriel thought of him. He was his own man, marching to the beat of his own drum, no matter how crazy the rest of the world thought that was. And here he was, spreading that infectious conviction to other omegas. Fairly soon, Gabriel was sure, the consequences of his beliefs would begin to ripple throughout the world.
Adalene smiled at Connor’s response. “Good to know,” she said, looking bashful but pleased at the same time. “We are worth something. And so are all the omegas they’re trying to kill.”
“Damn right,” Connor muttered, shifting his attention to the paddocks outside the window. He was tense and anxious, and he had every right to be, but he was determined to see this through.
“So I never really got the chance to ask,” Adalene said, a few minutes later. “How did your camping trip go? You came back and suddenly it was all panic stations and you never said much about it.” She was looking at Connor, rather than Gabriel, so he sat quietly, letting Connor answer the question.
“Really good,” Connor said. “Peaceful. Relaxing. Gabriel let me drink some wine.” He glanced Gabriel’s way, a sassy smirk on his lips. “And we had lots of really good sex.”
Gabriel choked on his next breath, feeling his face flush red. Fucking hell, had Connor really just blurted that out in front of Niles and Adalene?
Adalene, though, didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised or embarrassed by the announcement. Was this normal, for omegas to share the intimate details of their sex lives with each other? Then again, it was quite common for alphas to share stories on who was the better lay among the available omegas. Gabriel had heard plenty of stories during his time in the military, though he’d tried to avoid joining in the gossip himself.
“I thought you might have,” Adalene said. She gave a sly glance Gabriel’s way. “So are you on the road to bonding now, or is this just a passing fancy?”
“Bonding?” Connor and Gabriel both spoke at once, both sounding equally shocked by the idea.
“No, I don’t… No, that’s not the intention,” Connor said, frowning. “Why would you think that?”