Chapter Nine
Jethro
Miles sat next to me on Heath’s couch while Heath went to let his wife know they had visitors. I felt bad for landing in on top of them, given our circumstances and theirs. Miles and I weren’t going to get those few days of peace I’d been hoping for. At least, not how I’d planned them. But I had a Plan B. It wasn’t perfect but it would buy us some time.
Sophie came through the doorway, eying us like we were potentially venomous snakes.
“Jethro, we weren’t expecting to see you so soon.”
I stood. “I know, Sophie. And I’m really sorry to drop in on you like this. Congratulations about Evie.”
She hesitated. “Thanks. She’s upstairs napping. I don’t like to disturb her.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. We’re disturbing you enough as it is.”
Her gaze was on Miles, who was sitting still, head down.
“Sophie, this is my Omega, Miles. Miles, this is Sophie.”
Miles didn’t react to the introduction.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sophie asked. I knew from Heath that she wasn’t a fan of the whole Omega thing. The idea that someday, somewhere, a stranger could become one of the most important people in your partner’s life with zero warning wasn’t a concept that sat well with most people. But that was the risk you took when you fell in love with an Alpha.
A risk that, admittedly, had been negligible for Heath before I found Miles. And now it had slid firmly into the realm of possibility. But only if I could hold onto Miles for long enough that we formed a connection to each other.
Speaking of connections, that part was beginning to worry me. It was supposed to be instinctive, a need, a drive, to be together. But in that case, Miles shouldn’t be recoiling from my touch and I shouldn’t have been hesitant to touch him. Maybe it was whatever they’d been doing to him in the South.
I needed to talk to someone about it. Blaise, if I could get him. He knew more about the South and their Omegas than anyone I knew. A fascination borne of the fact that he’d grown up right on the border, in a zone where the vast majority Omega mates, over ninety-percent, came online in the South. Those were long odds.
While Miles showered and changed in the main bathroom, I used the en suite attached to the guest room. As I was toweling off, I heard the sound of a motorcycle engine approaching.
Dressing quickly, I jogged downstairs. It wasn’t law enforcement coming out way. Not with a single, solitary motorcycle. I went outside to find Heath on the porch and Blaise climbing off his bike.
“You got here okay then,” he said to me, looking relieved.
“They did,” Heath answered for me. “What were you thinking sending them here?”
“I was thinking he’s our friend, he’s the head of our clan, and we owe him our help at the very least.
Heath glanced over at me. “There is no clan. Not yet.”
“But there will be,” Blaise said, looking to me. “Right?”
“That’s the plan,” I said. “But I need the one thing we’re most short of right now. Time.”
“I hope you have a plan. Because you can’t stay here.”
Heath’s words were sharp and both I and Blaise turned to stare at him.
“Look, I have sympathy for you, Jet, I do. But I don’t want a tactical team landing in on us with my wife and newborn daughter in the house.”
“No, you’re right. We shouldn’t have come here.”
Heath shook his head. “You’re here now. So what can we do to help?”
I outlined my plan. Blaise was aware of some of it but not the sum total.
“It’s not exactly a master plan,” Heath said.
“It doesn’t need to be. We just need enough time to stay the hand of the law. Anything more would see us literally on the run or having to leave the country. We can’t set up a clan in exile. And that’s the endgame. A clan. I know it doesn’t matter much to you, Heath. But there are so many Alphas and Omegas out there to which this will mean a great deal.”
Heath went to check on Sophie leaving Blaise and me alone in the living room.
“How is Miles?”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
I explained the conditions I’d found him in, hoping Blaise could provide some clarity.
“It’s by the book how to break someone down. Sensory deprivation; make it dark, cold, restrict food and water, disorientate so they don’t know if it’s day or night.”
“But why? They need their Omegas, they’re desperate for them. Why tear them down like that?”
“So they accept the Alpha teams they force-bond to them. The Alphas bring food and warmth. At first, their touch is abhorrent, but the basic drive for survival eventually overrides that. It’s a really horrible technique but they have very high success rates. By the end of processing, one Omega can ‘power’ a six-man team of Alphas.”
As he spoke, I could feel the anger bubbling up inside me. How dare they treat my Omega like that.
“You could have told me this before I left.”
“I didn’t want you going in there blinded by anger. You needed a level head if you were going to get him out. Which you’ve done. Now all you have to do is work out a way to hold on to him.”
Easier said than done.
“What do I do about the stuff they did to him? Is it permanent, will it affect our bond?”
“They only had him for four days. Processing takes a minimum of ten. I don’t know the ins and out, but there’s no way they forced him into a bond after only four days.”
I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Miles had the scents of half a dozen different Alphas all over him.”
“Yeah, they start the desensitization early. Get the scents on him, leave them as long as possible so his body curtails the negative reactions. It’s to prevent him going into bond shock when they make their first attempt.”
Shocked was a good way to describe Miles when I found him. Even now that the sedatives had worn off, he still had a haunted look in his eyes.
“What would bond shock look like?”
“Withdrawn, cold and shivering, easily startled.”
Miles ticked all those boxes and then some.
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for this.”
“For what, being Alpha Prime? You were born to do this.”
“No, not that part. What if I can’t coax him and me into what we need to be? He doesn’t want me to touch him and I’m not exactly feeling that Alpha-Omega attraction everyone talks about.”
It was meant to be immediate, to be the strongest attraction you’d ever felt to another person. While Miles’ scent told me he was mine, it didn’t sing to my soul in the way I’d anticipated. Maybe I’d been expecting too much.
“He’s traumatized, Jet. And you’re being too hard on yourself. On both of you. You’re reacting to his fear and to those scents on him. Try again once he’s scent free and tell me you don’t notice a difference.”
He sat forward, holding my gaze.
“Please, Jet. Don’t give up on this before you’ve even started. You are our last hope for a clan in this generation. There are no more Alpha Primes. If you and he don’t bond, there’s no hope for the clan and no hope for the rest of us.”
I was all too aware of the stark truth, the pressure heavy on my shoulders. But I’d be damned if I was putting that responsibility on Miles.