CHAPTER FIVE
CAILYN
Cailyn tensed as the door to her room burst open.
"Your Alpha is here," Victoya said breathlessly, her blond hair slightly askew, her hazel eyes wide.
Cailyn's heart nearly jumped her mouth and she stood slowly, the book in her hands dropping to the floor. "What?"
"Your Alpha is here in the compound."
Cailyn's mouth fell open. "How? How could he be here?"
Victoya shook her head. "I don't know. He just appeared in the compound and started making his way here, to this building. A number of spies attacked him trying to slow him down but he has magic protecting him."
"Is he all right?" Cailyn's heart pounded in her chest, both excitement and nervousness fought for dominance in her stomach.
"I don't know," Victoya said. "The Mothers came."
Cailyn stepped toward Victoya and grabbed her arm in panic. "What happened? What did they do to him?"
"I don't know," Victoya repeated. "As soon as they appeared, I ran here to warn you. He has come for you."
Cailyn let her hand drop from Victoya's arm, her head swimming with relief. The previous two nights without Drocco had been absolute hell. None of the Mothers had been able to recreate the Alpha purr. And she had craved it so much, she hadn’t been able to sleep at all. She worried about the baby, but the vibration within her stomach had remained strong so far.
"Cailyn," Victoya said, a frown appearing on her face as she watched Cailyn closely. "You do know that they will not let—"
"Victoya," a stern voice came from the door. "What are you doing in here?"
Both girls started and straightened, turning to face the door.
"Mother Orlee," Victoya greeted, dipping her head. "I came to warn Cailyn that she could be in danger of the Alpha that has arrived in the compound."
"There is no need for that," Mother Orlee said calmly. "He has been contained."
"Contained?" Cailyn said, alarmed. "What do you—"
"Victoya," Mother Orlee interrupted. "There are a number of spies that are being briefed about how to reassure the Omegas that witnessed the Alpha. Some of them are distressed, particularly the younger children, and others are curious and have questions. Since you are no longer on assignment, you are required to help with this task. Please go now."
Victoya nodded and headed to the door, glancing at Cailyn before she left.
"What have you done with Drocco?" Cailyn asked, agitated.
"He has been contained in a training room," Mother Orlee said, watching her carefully. "He is asking for you."
Cailyn eyed her warily. "Would you let me see him?"
"Yes, but you must persuade him to take off your charm chain. It is the easiest way to resolve everything. If he takes it off, both of your memories will be modified and you will both be able to leave without any further harm to anyone."
Cailyn shook her head in disbelief, unable to fathom that Drocco had come to the compound. He had found his way in. "How did he get here?"
Mother Orlee's mouth tightened. "That is a concern the Mothers will have to address, Cailyn. You don't need to worry about that. The main concern for you is to get him to take the charm chain off."
Cailyn nodded. Whatever concerns she had, she was eager to see Drocco, and even more eager to go with him. But the memory of her conversation with Mother Naysa made her hesitate. Was there a way she could unite Alphas and Omegas again?
"We need to go now, Cailyn," Mother Orlee urged. "Prepare yourself. He is quite… upset."
Cailyn almost rolled her eyes at what she knew was an understatement. "Yes," she said firmly. "I'm ready."
But as she entered the room, and stepped through the Mothers gathered by the entrance, the gust of shock that embraced her told her she had not been ready. Magic pinned Drocco against the wall; his thick arms rippling as he strained against it, his face contorted in anger, his hair wild, his eyes hard. Her heart pounded at the sight of him, and she inched forward slowly taking in how he had been imprisoned. It looked as though they had used strong filtered magic to keep him bound.
"Drocco," she breathed, approaching him cautiously. Drocco's eyes snapped to hers at the same time numerous hands gripped her arms and pulled her back. She smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. His eyes didn't even soften, and suddenly a fear crept into her. "What have you done to him?" she asked, not taking her eyes from him.
"We have done nothing," snapped Mother Freya. "He has broken into the compound with the intention of hurting us all."
"He has demanded to see you," Mother Fern said calmly, although pointedly. "And we are honoring his request with the hope that he will honor ours."
"Drocco," Cailyn whispered. She opened her mouth to say something else but had no idea what. She had caused this. She left his palace after promising that she would stay.
"Did you choose to leave?" Drocco asked, his voice a low growl, his entire body tense.
"Drocco, I—"
"Just answer the question!" he bellowed.
"Yes," she said, lowering her eyes. "I just wanted to find out more information." When he was silent for a long moment, she glanced back up at him, but his eyes had changed. A hard, fierce resignation there that she had only seen once before. "Drocco, I'm sorry. I needed to find out more about my mother, and if what you said was true."
"So you still didn't believe me," Drocco snarled. "You still did not believe my word when I told you that I had met your family. You told me you would wait in our bedroom. You told me you wouldn’t go anywhere," he said, his voice rising as his eyes flashed. "You lied!"
Cailyn forced herself not to flinch. "I needed a chance to find out more."
"And did you?" Drocco snapped. "Do you have your answers?"
Cailyn opened her mouth only to realize that she couldn't answer. The Mothers had indeed given her answers, but they had only raised more questions.
"And even if you do, how can you believe anything they say?" Drocco continued, not even giving her chance to answer. "They are liars. They are mind twisters. They have declared war on all Alphas by their actions. And I will not sit aside and let them continue to poison your mind, Cailyn. They already did that once before, and even now you still feel like they are worthy of your consideration. Your loyalty to them must end, and it will end by my sword."
A harsh dread and panic rose in Cailyn as he spoke. It was clear he firmly believed every word he said, but that would bring down the entire Omega Compound. It would put her sisters at risk; he would put everything she had ever known on the line. And she knew he would do it. The conviction in his face, in his eyes, told her so. Her mind spun and she placed a hand on her stomach, steadying herself.
The arms around her tightened.
"You may threaten us all you wish," Mother Azia said. "It is pointless to do so when your child's future is in the balance."
"So you say," Drocco spat. "There is nothing to prove that is the case."
"Why would we lie?"
Drocco didn’t respond. He turned his eyes to Cailyn, and she hated the way they looked upon her. Hard and unyielding, nothing like the Drocco that had comforted her in her lodge. She had disappointed him, angered him, and broken her word. But she was still his mate, and she knew he would always accept that.
"They say that the charm chain is harming the baby," she said quietly. "They say you need to take it off to help her develop."
Drocco's gaze remained unchanged. "And you believe them? Just like that?"
Cailyn hesitated. She turned to look at the Mothers who all gazed back at her. She had taken everything they’d said as truth because why would they lie? What would be the point of giving her back the ability to use magic when she planned to go back to him anyway. But of course, there were things he didn’t know.
She turned back to him. "We are having an Omega child, Drocco," she said gently. "A girl."
The hardness drained from Drocco's eyes. His entire expression softened, his brows drawing together, his mouth dropping open. It was the first time that she had ever seen such wonder and surprise on his face. She smiled, a warm relief blooming within her. She was unable to resist stepping forward to go to him, but the Mothers held her back.
"We are having a girl?" Drocco repeated, his body relaxing somewhat. "You are sure? A girl? An Omega?"
She nodded, but as she could not bring herself to hold his gaze knowing the implication of that fact.
A moment of awkward silence descended on the room, and she could almost hear him working it out.
"You intend to take her?" Drocco growl, the harsh edge in his voice unable to hide his shock. "That is what this is about? You want to take my child when she is born?"
"We protect all Omegas," Mother Orlee said.
Drocco sucked in a breath and roared with all his might. The sound reverberated throughout the room, blasting past Cailyn and the Mothers and echoed around the rest of the nearby rooms. In his tone, Cailyn could hear his anguish and his anger and his determination. Tears sprang to her eyes.
He arched himself forward, lunging at Cailyn and the Mothers, and Cailyn gasped as he stepped, his bunched muscles fighting against magic that held him. He lurched again taking another step toward them, his face twisted and deepening with exertion, fists clenched as tight as they could go. Cailyn stood rooted to the spot, staring at him as he came toward her, his eyes trained on her. The Mothers, however, were suddenly moving and talking frantically among themselves.
Drocco took another step, his foot landing so heavily Cailyn could almost feel the impact trembling through her body. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Even though fear had risen at his actions, deep down she wanted him to get to her. She wanted him to take her, to pull her to him, and feel contented he had her while coming to terms with what she had done. Although she never intended to be away for more than an hour, she knew he would consider it a broken promise. And she had to come to terms with what that would mean to him. It was who he was.
Before she realized it, he had taken another two steps and had reached close enough that she could scent his aggression. She generally disliked it, but found herself breathing it in anyway. At least it came from him—it was better than nothing.
She was so transfixed on Drocco, she didn’t realize until the last moment that the Mothers had let her go and made a semicircle behind her.
Suddenly new threads of magic twisted into the air to create glistening cords that began to entwine around Drocco. He stilled and shuddered at the feel of it, but then took another step. The cords of magic tore into his skin as it wrapped around him and a low, rumbling growl began in his throat as he fought against it, taking yet another step toward her and their child.
"How is he doing this?" shouted Mother Freya. "This is strong magic. How is he fighting it?"
"They are true mates," Mother Naysa shouted back. "He's highly motivated to protect her and his child."
"And not only that," Mother Azia shouted, “he is a true Alpha.”
Cailyn dragged her eyes away from Drocco, her eyes widening in surprise. "What did you say?"
"We established that earlier," Mother Orlee called back. “The magic used should have held him.”
"How do you know that term?" Cailyn asked Mother Azia.
"He has new motivation," Mother Orlee shouted.
“How old is he, Cailyn?” Mother Azia called to her.
Just as Cailyn opened her mouth to protest, Mother Azia spoke again. “Don’t waste time with questions we can answer later. Tell me his age now, if you know it, and we can stop harming him.”
Cailyn glanced back at Drocco, who powered forward.
His entire torso dripped with blood from his wounds, and it ran from his fists where his fingers were digging into his palms. He was hurting. She had to stop it, but had no access to magic to assist him.
"Yes," she said, miserably, thinking back to a conversation they had in her lodge. "Thirty-eight. He is thirty-eight."
“Purer,” called Mother Azia. “We need to go raw, and solid.”
Mothers Fern and Freya leapt for each other and clasped both hands together before turning to Drocco. The cords of magic flattened out to encase his entire body, and finally, he stilled.
His dark eyes moved to look at all of them and then rested on Cailyn, dipped to her stomach and then back to her eyes.
"Why are you doing this to him?" Cailyn cried, unable to hold out against the horror of what had just happened before her. The sight of her Alpha bleeding and in pain was just unbearable, and that intense fear for him she had experienced back in Malloron’s castle slammed into her full force. She couldn’t stop the tears. "This is cruel!"
The Mothers gathered around her as she wept, encasing her in a hug, all five of them crowded around her offering the support of touch that she only really wanted from her Alpha.
"I'm sorry, Cailyn," Mother Naysa murmured. "I'm sorry that it has gone this way. We did not expect to have to tell him that he would lose his child one way or another."
"What did you expect," Cailyn said, through tears. "You expected him to simply remove the chain without knowing why?"
"There is no threat to him if he removed the chain," Mother Fern said softly. "It was a reasonable request."
Cailyn laughed, humorlessly. "He is not reasonable."
"There are two ways we can go from here," Mother Azia said, pulling away from them.
Cailyn stilled, apprehensive at what she meant by that.
"Either we modify his memory now," she began. "Get him to remove the chain and then modify it again before returning him to the palace. Or we try to persuade him to remove it."
"You cannot amend his memory twice," Cailyn said, sharply. It was bad enough that they intended to do it to her, but if Drocco lost all sense of who she was, he would go back to how he had been when she first met him. Everything he had learned about her would be lost. "No," she said firmly. "I will fight until my dying breath for that not to happen."
Mother Azia nodded. "All right. Then you must tell us how to persuade him."
"He will not listen to you," Cailyn said miserably. "He will not believe anything you say. He believes you have turned Omegas against Alphas and that you have alienated us from our families. He believes that you have made Alphas enemies because of the actions of Alphas of times past."
"It sounds like he is not the only one who believes that," Mother Fern said cautiously.
"In truth, I have no idea if what you told me is true," Cailyn said, embracing the anger descending on her. "I came here to ask about my mother and I barely got any answers from you about that. Instead you have drugged me, told me stories about protecting my child that may or may not be true, and you have forced me to stay here against my will. I cannot say that I truly trust your every word."
"Then through you, we will persuade him," Mother Azia said.
Cailyn wasn't the only one to turn to her with a confused expression.
"If he truly cares about your well-being, it will be possible to persuade him," Mother Azia said.
"We do not have that much time," Mother Naysa warned. "She is nearly too far in her pregnancy for any of this to make any difference. We cannot spend days or weeks trying to persuade this Alpha when there is a baby at risk."
"There is the way we could start to get the child to absorb magic now," Mother Fern said thoughtfully, her eyes lingering on Drocco. "If Freya and I begin to trickle magic into the baby on a daily basis, then she should have absorbed enough by the time the chain is removed."
“You know I already tried,” Mother Freya said. “It didn’t work.”
“Both of you together might,” Mother Orlee said, nodding at Fern. “It is worth a try.”
Mother Naysa did not look convinced. "It is delicate work and it would need to be consistent and daily."
The twins nodded. "You can be on hand to make sure everything is well before and after."
The Mothers seem to all agree in silence, sharing looks and nodding. Cailyn glanced at them confused. "Why is this so important to you?" she asked. "Why is this baby so important?"
"All Omegas are important, Cailyn," Mother Orlee said. She turned to face Drocco, his eyes boring into Cailyn. "Before you start doing that," she said to the twins, eyeing Drocco, "you need to create a cell for him."
***
Cailyn paced in her room, anxious about what was happening with Drocco. It had been more than an hour since she last saw him, trapped by magic, his gaze fierce and unyielding, much like the Drocco she had first met. She tried to question the Mothers about what kind of cell they were creating for him, but she knew it had to be a magic one. Nothing else would hold him, since he’d proven able to fight against some types of pure magic. In fact, she had always known this. When she had created the spear that had pinned him to the wall, she had used pure magic then. However, his ability to fight against any magic that the Mothers themselves created, especially in unison, stunned her.
Seeing Drocco again, reminded her of the reason why she had come to the compound in the first place. She needed to get the answers she wanted, but there was a lot of truth to what he said. Even if the Mothers did give her some answers, she had to ensure they were telling the truth, and deep down, she felt they were. But she had an inkling that they only told her enough to satisfy her; they did not tell her everything, which was what she needed—the full truth, once and for all. Ensuring they actually gave that to her was the problem. She only trusted Mother Naysa to any degree, so maybe she would be the best person to start with, but Cailyn had to be sure she’d help her, and be truthful.
That evening, Fern and Freya began their treatment. They laid her down the bed, placed both of their hands on her stomach, and directed magic into her. It felt strange at first, and the baby’s vibration jumped and jittered, however it soon became soothing to have the core energy flowing into her and swirling around her stomach area. The baby’s vibration soon settled too
Naysa, who had arrived with the twins, sat at the top of the bed, holding her hand, and assuring her that everything would be fine. Cailyn barely heard her. Her mind spun with everything that happened with Drocco and she realized she had to be smart. The Mothers’ treatment of Drocco had been appalling—she couldn’t let anything happen to him and yet she was powerless here. She needed an ally; someone who could make sure things didn’t go too far.
When the twin Mothers finished their treatment, Cailyn held on to Mother Naysa's hand until they left the room.
"How important am I to you, Mother?" she asked.
Mother Naysa frowned and then smiled. "You must know, Cailyn, that all Omegas are important to all the Mothers."
Cailyn held her eye. "Mother Freya suggested otherwise," she said. "She claims that you and the other Mothers pander to me and a few select others. Why is that?"
Mother Naysa sighed. "I'm sure Mother Freya did not mean it that way."
"My earliest memory of this compound is playing in the dusty ground by the water fountain in the nursery region. You were the first Mother I saw. You are the first Omega I ever remember. You took me to the nursery where I met Amara and I saw you frequently until I started training in the Talent." Mother Naysa's eyes lowered but Cailyn kept going. "What has to go so wrong with your intentions to protect Omegas, if you are capable of taking a five-year-old and lying to her until she is about to have her own child."
Mother Naysa shook her head. "You insist on seeing the worst, Cailyn. I don't know how I can persuade you that we are telling the truth." She leaned toward Cailyn, her eyes roaming her face. "One of the ways in which dictators justify their actions is to select which truth they believe. By claiming that others lie, these people convince themselves of whatever twisted truth that justifies their true desires and conduct themselves accordingly. If you believe that everything that we’re saying are lies, nothing I say now will satisfy you. Whether you agree with our decisions or not, you have to decide whether you are going to believe that we are telling the truth."
Cailyn found herself breathing heavily at Mother Naysa's words. Of course, she was right. If she was always going to be doubtful of the Mothers’ words and explanations, then it didn't matter what they said. She had come here to find the truth, and she would have it. She couldn't let Drocco's suspicion of everything and everyone get in the way of that, otherwise she would have left for nothing. She would have earned his distrust and anger for nothing.
She lifted her eyes to Mother Naysa's. “Everything you said to me in the hidden region,” she said, quietly, “you still believe that?”
“Passionately.”
“It is something you really care about. Why?”
Mother Naysa smiled. “Because I agree with your Alpha. We are meant to be with our Alphas. This existence is pale in comparison.”
“Is that why you encouraged me to go back to him?”
“Yes,” Mother Naysa said, her voice becoming quiet. “And I prayed you would not get pregnant too soon or at least that you would not have an Omega for now.”
Cailyn inclined her head. Something in her tone seemed odd. “And the other Mothers encouraged me to go back to him…”
Mother Naysa’s gaze remained steady on her. “Because they prayed that you would.”
Cailyn stared at her for a long moment, trying to decipher the meaning behind her words and the disturbed expression on her face. Why would the Mothers want her to become pregnant and have an Omega? Just so they could take it? Not only was that a really cruel position to take with someone you supposedly cared for, but Omegas were born all over the Lands every day.
“How far will you let this go?” she asked, deciding the change the topic until she could think it through.
“What do you mean?”
“To what extent will you allow me and my Alpha to suffer while we are here?”
Mother Naysa leaned back, a serious expression embracing her face. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt, Cailyn. The Mothers will do what they feel is necessary for the survival of our Omega sisters—I will do what is necessary for our development.”
Cailyn squeezed her hand, a confusion seeping into her. “So you’re on my side?”
Naysa tilted her head to one side. “No. I am on the side of Omegas.”