I couldn’t help the cruel smile that formed. “Oh, I plan to. It’ll definitely be a lot longer than your husband or your kids lasted.”
Norma’s face twisted and she lunged for me, fingers curved into claws as she went for my face.
I easily knocked her arms away and threw a right hook that snapped her head back. She howled in pain, cupping her bloody nose with both hands.
“Wolf pile,” I snapped, watching Alexei drag her away.
Remy looked over at me, his expression a perplexed mix of concern and pride. I winked so he knew I was okay. He grinned and went back to discussing his plans with Dante and Dimitri.
“They were taken a few weeks ago,” the next voice said, soft and timid.
I glanced down to see a girl who had graduated a few years ahead of me. Her face was a mottled mess of bruises and she looked way too thin except for the bulging stomach she protectively wrapped an arm around.
“It’s Bria, isn’t it?” I said, remembering her name. I tilted my head to the side as a memory hit me.
She had snuck me a sandwich when she stumbled on me picking through the dumpster behind the school one blisteringly hot afternoon a few years earlier. She’d simply set it down next to me and kept walking away, never making eye contact.
She nodded and dropped her eyes. “Yes.”
“Do you know where they were taken?” I asked, softening my voice. She looked ready to pass out or bolt at the first chance.
Bria pulled a thin sweater up over a bony shoulder. “I’m not sure. I asked but …” She touched the side of her face where the bruising was the worst.
“They took most of the girls and a few boys. All of the babies,” she added. “Some of the younger women who hadn’t had a fertility cycle yet also went. They put them on a bus in the middle of the night. I couldn’t sleep because I was hungry. The baby wouldn’t stop kicking.”
“Who’s the father?” Mom asked gently, reaching for Bria’s hand.
Bria swallowed audibly. “I’m not sure. It happened a few months ago. The night of the burnings.”
“Burnings?” I echoed.
She nodded sadly. “The night they burned the two omegas that were left after you two both …”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Maisie and Shane. The night they killed Maisie and Shane.
“You were there when they died?” Mom whispered, clearly as distraught as I was.
“After some of the council took their turns, “ Bria shuddered, “they tied them down. Threw gasoline on them. They took bets as they tossed matches to see whose would catch first.”
My stomach cramped painfully. It physically hurt to remember Maisie and Shane. I could only imagine how terrified they must have been. How much pain and humiliation they endured before they died.
Guilt smothered me in a suffocating embrace. We should have gone back for them or figured out a way to bring them with us. I could feel the press of Remy’s gaze on me, trying to figure out what was wrong with me.
I held as still as possible. If I looked at him, even for a second, I would crack and shatter. I would fall apart like the fountain. If I started crying now, I might never stop.
“After they burned the bodies, the men, and some of the women, were in a frenzy. I should have stayed home, but we were all Commanded to attend. I tried to get away, but I wasn’t strong enough. Several other women and a man were killed that night. It was too much for their bodies to take.”
Mom was openly weeping beside me, enough so that Nikolai was headed our way. His expression was fierce and terrifying.
“Bria, would you like to come with us to Blackwater?” I asked her, working around the swelling knot of emotion in my chest.
Bria’s head lifted. Her greasy, brown hair hung in limp streaks over her face, but there was a flicker of hope in her blue eyes.
“We have a medical center there that can help you when it’s time to deliver your baby,” I added, ignoring my father as he pulled Mom to the side, crushing her to his chest in a hug after a pause.
“You’ll be safe,” I promised her.
Tears filled her eyes and spilled over as she nodded. “Yes. Yes, please.”
“Katy,” I called, looking for my friend.
Katy’s red hair caught in the sunlight as she looked up with a smile that slowly melted. She walked towards me cautiously.
“Katy, this is Bria. She’s coming back with us,” I said firmly.
Katy immediately stepped forward. “Hey, Bria. Why don’t you come with me? We’ve set up an area with some food and water until we can work out the logistics of getting people home.”
Bria started to turn, but at the last second closed the distance between us and hugged me. Her arms squeezed me as a soft kick from the baby landed against my flat stomach.
“Thank you,” Bria whispered. “You saved my baby’s life.”
I nodded as Katy led her away, shooting me a worried look.
“Honey,” Mom said, coming up behind me and sliding a hand along my shoulders. Nikolai stood beside her, his worried eyes studying me.
“Can you … I need a minute,” I mumbled, stumbling back a step.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Nikolai offered, his worried gaze making me self-conscious.
“No,” I said quickly, shaking my head. I met his eyes. “I just need a few minutes.”
I turned away and headed down the road, not entirely sure where I was going.
“Babe.” Remy’s hand reached for mine and caught it, falling into step with me.
“I can’t talk about this right now, Remy,” I told him, staring straight ahead. “I just … I need a minute.”
“Do you want me to leave you alone?”
He was worried and frustrated, but he would do as I asked if needed.
I started to choke on a laugh. All I could do was tighten my hand around his. Words stuck in my throat like the desert dust to my sweaty skin.
He would leave me to wander the streets of Long Mesa because I actually could now without worrying about being grabbed or taunted or chased.
Cassian was dead. He had finally gasped out his last breath an hour earlier. Preston had been dead for over a week. Marc was still alive, but in an indescribable amount of agony while being watched by an elemental who had zero issues with breakin more bones if he considered moving.
Allan was dead. Linden was dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
They were all dead. Just like Maisie and Shane and so many others. Like Bria had almost been. And her baby …
“Baby, you’re scaring us,” he said softly.
Us.
I could hear the footsteps behind me and could only imagine the line of my friends currently trailing us. Rhodes and Larkin. Katy. Dante, Tate, and Ryder.
People who loved me too much to let me suffer on my own.
“I’m okay,” I whispered back, still moving forward as I walked away from the heart of town and down a barely used side street.
“Stay,” I told Remy quietly as my feet turned down another road.
His hand squeezed around mine as he silently walked beside me.
Muscle memory led me back before I truly realized where I was. It wasn’t until the charred husk of the omega house came into view that I knew where I was going.
I freed my hand from Remy’s. “Give me a second.”