Page 10 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Nine

TALIA

I woke up to a body that was far too warm beneath sixteen layers of pillows, blankets, and alphas. I was sweaty and could barely move with how the men were curled up on either side of me, limbs on top of mine.

As happy as I was to have them back, they needed to get off me.

Poking West in the stomach, I cleared my throat. “Guys? Can you wake up?”

He grumbled, using one arm to tug me closer to him.

I poked Mercer next. He groaned, but his eyes opened a slit. “Sweetheart? Need something?”

“You’re too hot.”

His lips turned up into what I assumed was meant to be a smirk but ended up being more of a dopey grin. “Hot, huh? Love to hear you say that.”

Rolling my eyes, I pushed at his shoulder and he rolled away from me. With one of the alphas awake and freeing my limbs, I was able to shimmy out from beneath West. He reached out to pull me back, but Mercer smacked his hand.

That was enough to pull West from sleep.

“Hey! The fuck was that for?”

“Talia wants to get up, and you were trying to keep using her as a pillow.”

Yawning, West glared at his packmate. He pushed himself up to a seated position, back resting against the head of the bed.

Well, against the six pillows that cushioned the head of the bed.

“Thanks for freeing me.” I sat cross-legged in the centre of the nest, looking around. “You were way too warm. It was like a freaking sauna down there.”

“Guess that means you’re well and truly out of heat,” West said. “You were all for the sauna the last few times we napped.”

Stretching my arms over my head, I noted the aches and pains that still existed.

My neck reminded me of the ragged bondmark any time I moved my head, and my scrapes and muscle strain certainly hadn’t healed.

But there wasn’t a debilitating ache in my core anymore, and I was able to keep Benjamin’s black hole emotions locked away despite how they tried to harass me.

“My heat is done,” I confirmed.

Which meant I had more to deal with now.

What if I just kept hiding away in this nesting room forever? Wouldn’t that be nice?

My family would be insane with worry if I didn’t show back up soon, though. Chewing on my bottom lip, I looked at Mercer. “How did you get here, anyway? I never asked.”

“Your sister bailed us out of jail.”

Well, shit. Jail?

They’d been involved with a shooting, so it made sense they’d gone to jail instead of just being detained and kicked out of the hospital. And with Conrad feral… Yeah, jail was the best place they could have ended up in that situation.

Emilia must have found them. I’d known she would, which was why I’d only given their first names and hadn’t mentioned they were part of a Villem motorcycle club.

With enough time, she didn’t need more information than that.

“But how did you find us here?” I asked. “Did Emilia figure out where I’d been dropped off?”

“We gave Violet your phone,” West explained. “So she could answer it if anyone called, since you didn’t need the stress of that.”

I bit my lip. Violet—the sister he’d never told me about. I didn’t have any right to be upset by the secret, considering I’d had more secrets myself. But it felt like he didn’t trust me.

“She got Lavinia and I to come here.” Mercer brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “And she brought Conrad with us, of course. He hadn’t woken up yet, last I was updated. They tranquilized him at the hospital.”

My heart ached. How long had it been since the hospital? It seemed like a long time for him to not have woken up.

“I want to see him.”

West swung his legs off the bed, standing up. “Of course. I’ll go find out where he’s staying.”

He snagged a pair of grey sweats and a basic black t-shirt from a pile of folded clothes by the door. Tugging them on over the boxers he’d been wearing to cuddle me through my heat, he left the nesting room.

I deflated, frowning and trying to ignore how much I felt abandoned. Heat emotions were still holding the reins, because I’d never before been this upset by an alpha simply leaving the room.

There was no abandoning. I’d see him in fifteen minutes.

My chest tightened anyway.

“Hey, sweetheart. Do you want to shower? Or just throw on clothes?” Mercer grabbed my chin, gently tilting my head so I was forced to look at him.

I didn’t want to do either.

All I wanted was for all my alphas to be plastered to my side constantly, and then maybe I could forget about how Benjamin was my real alpha. My real bondmate. Chained to me, forever.

A tear dripped down my cheek, and Mercer gave me a sweet kiss. “I’ll choose for you. Let’s go to the bathroom. I’ll brush out your hair and we can both take a quick rinse before we get dressed.”

“You aren’t going to ask why I’m crying?” I sniffled.

“You’ll tell me when you’re ready. I’m not going to push you.”

“What about questioning how I’m bonded to Benjamin?”

“The doctor and West gave me all the details they knew, and that’s all I need to know. He assaulted you, and I would never leave you because of a bond that isn’t your fault.”

I let him help me out of bed, hugging myself as we padded into the bathroom.

“But it is my fault,” I whispered. “I claimed him first. I made it possible for him to complete the bond.”

“You made a mistake. He’s the one who committed a fucking crime.”

Stepping out of my underwear and stripping off the t-shirt, I sat down on the stool in the shower. Mercer found a brush in the drawers and started carefully working through my tangled mess of hair.

The brush tugged painfully every once in a while, but he was careful to be gentle with me. By the time he’d finished, my limbs were noodly and relaxed, stress drained from my body.

“Turning on the shower,” he warned.

I stood up, stealing the warm flow of water from him with a sigh. He grinned, despite being left out on the cold, no-water side of the shower.

“I want to wash my hair, too,” I said.

I managed to do more on my own than I’d expected. I washed my body while he worked shampoo through my hair and carefully rinsed it out. He did his own hair and body while I conditioned and rinsed off.

Feeling clean and refreshed, my sense of abandonment had dwindled.

The gnawing concern over Conrad’s state was still driving me forward, though. I needed to see him, and I wouldn’t be comfortable until I did.

With his bed surrounded by my family’s hired muscle, I’d never seen Conrad look so small. So weak and pale. I froze in the doorway, eyes brimming with tears.

Mercer’s hand landed on the small of my back, and his voice was a whisper, a futile attempt to keep our conversation private from the bodyguards. “No one would blame you for leaving. We can come see him again once you’ve had something to eat and are a bit more settled post-heat.”

I swallowed.

It wasn’t right to leave Conrad when he was like this. He was my alpha; the first one who’d decided he wanted me too much to stay away.

He would never leave me if I was the one lying unconscious in that bed.

Looking at him upset me, though. And the emotional pain of seeing him hurt gave Benjamin opportunities to poke and prod at my mind. He would take any chance to harass me, and the more I felt his emotions, the more unsettled I was.

“I can’t leave him,” I whispered. “But Benjamin… he…”

My throat closed, and I couldn’t finish.

Mercer rubbed his chin across the top of my head, bathing me in sandalwood and brown sugar.

West slipped past us and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need a minute with our packmate,” he commanded with a fierce glare at the bodyguards.

They remained still and impassive. “We’ve been instructed to stay with him at all times,” one said.

“He’s my packmate, and I’m telling you to fuck off.”

The bodyguards looked affronted. I managed a small, teary smile—it wasn’t often someone challenged an order given by Lavinia. Everyone knew her wrath wasn’t something you wanted to face.

“Please leave,” I said. “You can stay right outside.”

“Miss Talia, your sister?—”

“Will be very upset if you don’t listen to me.”

The head guard closed his mouth, glancing between me and West with a deep frown. He hesitantly brought a hand down to his baton. “I’ve been told this alpha could be dangerous to Miss Talia,” he said. “I can’t allow her to be in here with him alone.”

“Does she look alone to you?”

I’d expected Mercer or West to answer, but the booming voice came from behind me. I spun around with wide eyes to find James, looking me up and down with relief in his kind eyes.

“Sir, Miss Lavinia?—”

“Let her be alone with her unconscious mate,” James said firmly. “The other two will protect her if he wakes up and is a threat, and none of us will be far.”

The head guard wanted to argue; it was obvious from the way he flexed his grip on the baton.

James was his superior, though. Our personal bodyguards ranked above all the other guards our fathers employed.

He’d shown up just in time to avoid West giving those men a beating they may not have been able to survive.

All three guards filed out of the room, leaving only James behind. He bowed his head to me. “I’m glad to see you’re alright.”

“Who are you?” Mercer asked. “One of her fathers?”

James laughed. “Of course not. I’m her bodyguard.

The one she’s gotten far too good at avoiding recently.

I hope you’ll allow me to guard you properly again once this is said and done, Miss Talia.

For now, I’ll be outside with the others.

Miss Mira stepped out to check in with Miss Lavinia and greet the family doctor when he arrives, but she should return soon. ”

He closed the door behind him, leaving only me and my alphas in the dimly lit bedroom. Conrad still looked small, even without the direct comparison, and I whined when I noticed he was hooked up to a few machines that beeped occasionally.

My legs threatened to give out beneath me, but Mercer kept me upright. “Come sit, sweetheart.”

West shoved an armchair over until it was directly beside Conrad’s bed, and I collapsed down into it. This close, Conrad’s scent was off. Slightly soured, a sign of his distress. His pain.

Benjamin’s feelings shoved past my defences and I doubled over with a sob. West stood at the foot of Conrad’s bed, but Mercer crouched beside me, his hand on my thigh. “He’s going to wake up. They fixed the injury at the hospital. He’ll be fine.”

Tears dripped onto my hands, and I shook my head. “It’s not that. I know he’ll wake up; I see him breathing, but Benjamin… He’s sensing my weakness. He’s using the bond to hurt me, just like he did when he first marked me.”

“He can do that?” West asked through gritted teeth. “Was he doing it during your heat?”

Reaching out, I grabbed Conrad’s hand and pulled it toward me, clutching it. His scent adjusted to the normal aroma of autumn leaves, no sour edge, as if he’d sensed my presence and calmed in his sleep.

“The nurses gave me medication to block out the pain,” I whispered. “I think it blocked him out too. That’s worn off now.”

“I’ll get more.” West stalked to the door, his hand on the knob before I could stop him.

“Wait, no. I can’t rely on that.”

Growling under his breath, West turned to me and crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s in your head. If medication keeps him out, then you should have access to it.”

“I can keep him out on my own.” My claim sounded more confident than I truly was.

Honestly, I didn’t know if I could.

But I had to learn how to build mental barricades to keep him out, or what then? I wouldn’t always have medication to help me. I didn’t want to leave myself in a position where I broke the second a prescription ran out.

“If he’s causing you pain?—”

West was poised to argue some more, but I shook my head.

“It’s his emotions that hurt me,” I explained. “He’s not a good person, and being filled with his hatred, his envy, and his resentment is too much. My heart throbs every time he gets past my barriers. It’s not physical pain, though. Long term… their medication would stop working.”

Long term.

Benjamin’s emotions battered me some more, sensing the weakness that thought brought.

I didn’t want to consider that I would be stuck with this poisoned bond far beyond the short term, but I would. How was I supposed to get out of it? How was I supposed to banish Benjamin from my head and heart, when any attempt to get rid of him would kill me too?

Winding my fingers through Mercer’s, I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. West was fuming by the door, probably considering going to get the nurses for me despite my refusal.

I wouldn’t take anything else they brought me. This was my burden to bear. My sin to suffer.

“How can we help you, then?” Mercer asked softly. “We want to help.”

“Distract me. Not having time to think about him is the best way to keep him out.”

“If you need a distraction, why don’t you tell us about your family?”

My cheeks went pink. They knew all about my family now. The weight of that had been lost in the chaos of my forced bond and ill-timed heat, but I owed them an explanation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t?—”

“That’s not what I meant.” Mercer stopped me, squeezing my hand. “I want to know what your family means to you. You don’t need to apologize for who they are.”

“As much as I wish you’d fucking told us,” West muttered, “I agree.”

He tore himself away from the door, coming to sit at the foot of Conrad’s bed. I glanced down at my unconscious mate, knowing he would kill to be able to hear me talk about myself. Maybe he could hear me? They’d tranquilized him, so his rest wasn’t exactly typical right now.

Either way, I’d repeat some of the stories to him later.

“Well, as annoying as my fathers are, they’re the best dads I could have ended up with,” I said with a smile. Then, I launched into all my favourite stories from my childhood, the weight of reality slowly lifting off my chest.