Page 80 of The Runaway
“It looks worse than it is,” he said to her, at her pained expression. “The cuts are all shallow. And once they’re wrapped they stop bleeding pretty quickly.” The bandages were all stained red, so Adalene wasn’t sure she believed him about that last part.
“What about your ribs?”
“It doesn’t hurt too much, so long as I don’t move.” He peered up at her, his gaze roaming over her face. “Come and sit down,” he said, and Adalene was about to protest until he continued. “You’ve got a cut above your eye. Let me look at it and make sure there’s no glass in it.”
She hadn’t even realised she was injured. She reached up, and sure enough, there was a sore spot above her left eye and her fingers came away stained red.
She sat down, holding still so that Niles could probe the wound gently. “It looks okay,” he said, after checking it thoroughly. “We’ll need to clean it, once we catch up with the others, but it’s not too serious.”
“I won’t end up with a heroic scar, then?” she asked, only half joking. “Something to show off to the other omegas when we get home.”
Niles drew back, and for a moment, Adalene thought she’d done something wrong. He shook his head slowly. “Flaming hell, Adalene… you killed a soldier, you saved my life, you dragged me halfway through Paris to get us to safety and you survived an exploding shop. You’re amazing.” He cupped her face in his bloody hands and kissed her, fervently and desperately, more passionately than he ever had before. He pulled back, a smirk on his lips. “You’ve got nothing to prove to the omegas back home. And if anyone dares call you a princess again, you have my permission to kick their asses.”
She surely didn’t look a princess now, with dirt and soot smeared over her, blood on her face, her hair coming loose from its braid, and her clothes torn and stained. A slow smile crept over her face. For all the chaos, it felt good to be here, making their mark on the world. But then another idea occurred to her. “You’re not angry? Or jealous? I mean, if you didn’t want to tell anyone I saved your life, that would be okay.”
Niles actually laughed at that. “What, because I’m too much of a big, strong alpha man to need a weak little omega to save me?” He snorted. “The truth is, I did need you to save me. And I’m damn proud of you for standing up to those soldiers the way you did. So screw the rest of the world. You tell your story just the way it happened, and if anyone calls you a liar, send them to me and I’ll set them straight.”
“Adalene! Niles! Oh, thank God!” Lucas came tearing around the corner, panting for breath and wilting with relief as he saw them. Then he stopped dead in his tracks. “Holy shit, what happened to you?” he asked Niles, seeing the bloody bandages all up and down his arms.
“We had a brief altercation with an exploding window,” Niles said, with a wince. “I’ll tell you the whole story once we’re somewhere safe. Where are the others?”
“Gabriel saved a group of omegas from a soldier, so they took us to a stable they rented, and they’re all there treating the wounded. Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
“Uh, perhaps a little more slowly than you arrived?” Niles said, wincing as he stood up. “Not all of us have your youthful exuberance.”
Lucas raised a crafty eyebrow. “Are you turning into an old man already? I’ll have to tell Antoine. Maybe he’ll have to promotemeto first alpha, instead.”
???
Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief as Lucas led Niles and Adalene into the stable, followed by a brief panic when he saw the amount of blood covering Niles and the way he was walking, slowly and hunched over. An explanation of what had happened to them followed quickly, along with Gabriel’s own story of how they’d ended up here. He checked Niles over, but his conclusion was much the same as Niles’s – a broken rib or two, shallow cuts that needed cleaning, and a couple of bruises.
Half an hour later, all the injuries had been treated and everyone had been introduced to each other. By now, it was getting on for dinnertime, and Gabriel was considering heading out to see if he could find any open shops where he could by some bread or vegetables for dinner. But as he was heading out of the stable to see if the streets were safe to explore, Adalene followed him out, looking more tense than he would have expected, now that they were safe and settled for the night.
“Gabriel? Can I talk to you for a minute? Privately?”
“Of course,” Gabriel said. “Something in particular on your mind?”
“Yes,” she said, chewing on her lip. “Something happened today while I was out with Niles. Something I didn’t mention when I was telling you about it.”
“But you’d like to tell me now?” he guessed. Interesting that she’d specifically want to tellhim, especially when she’d kept it from him before.
“I killed a soldier.”
The news came out blunt and unadorned, and Gabriel’s face creased into a deep frown. “Are you okay?”
“Physically or mentally?” Adalene asked.
“Either, I suppose.”
“Physically, I’m fine. He didn’t get a chance to hit me back. Mentally, though… The weird thing is I feel totally fine about killing him. The other soldiers killed two other people right in front of me, and he was going to kill me. So I don’t actually feel guilty about it at all. But then I have to wonder what that says about me. I killed someone and I don’t care. Does that make me a terrible person? Am Isupposedto be feeling guilty?”
Gabriel considered the question carefully. “There’s no hard and fast rules about how you’re supposed to feel. We saw a lot of that in the army, the first time a soldier killed someone in battle. Some people are angry. Some are sad. Some feel guilty. Some people feel nothing much of anything. Are you happy about killing him?” he asked, probing her feelings a little deeper. “Do you feel there was some glory in it? Did youenjoyit?”
“No,” Adalene said, her lip curling in disgust. “Not at all. Like I said, if I didn’t do it, he would have killed me. That’s the only reason I did it.”
Gabriel offered her a reassuring smile. “Then I’d say you’ve got nothing to worry about. Over the next few days, you’ll probably get a strange mix of emotions at odd times – regret, guilt, satisfaction, fear. It’s just your mind’s way of processing what happened. So feel free to come and talk to me again, if something in particular is bothering you. But are you a terrible person? No. You’re just an ordinary person making the best you can of extraordinary circumstances.”
Two hours later, they were all finishing dinner, Gabriel having successfully tracked down an inn that had been prepared to open its doors in exchange for a sizable handful of coin. He’d returned to the stable with four loaves of bread, two smoked sausages, a bunch of carrots and a bag of tomatoes. It was a bit of an odd mix for an evening meal, but everyone had been grateful enough, eager to share the supplies.