by Layla Heart
“We already knew that.” I shrug, but he points to his phone again, and I read on as he slowly scrolls down.
‘... parents confirm in preview for exclusive interview. Revealing that they have been living in fear for years, ever since the Omega went missing. They were fearful she’d been taken and bred against her will, but never dared to speak out in case it could put their Omega child in danger. Watch the whole interview live in an hour.’
“Oh, fuck.” I nearly crush the empty mug in my hand as I try to not believe what I just read. That... Oh, crap. “How the fuck are they going to spin that?”
“You think they need a spin?” Max’ voice is cold. “Who is going to go against a pair of rich, half-phoenix parents, who are going to be ‘overwhelmed with happiness’ they ‘found’ their ‘long lost’ Omega daughter again?”
“What?” Cyra steps between us as she takes Max’ phone to read it herself. As her eyes go over the lines her jaw sets and her eyes flare. “Oh, hell no. Fucking no. They’re not... Hell.”
One hour. We’ll find out whatever lies her parents are going to spin in one hour. That is... This is not good.
Footsteps thunder through the house as Zack and Spence appear in the doorway.
“Did you see?” Spence manages to get out of the house first. We all nod. “This was a scenario we didn’t consider.”
“No, we didn’t.” Max sighs. “Let’s go inside. I suddenly don’t feel so safe out here. Whatever they’re going to say, it won’t change much from the scenarios we already thought up. Just, maybe the arguments will be different.”
I look at Cyra, but she’s still frowning as things are running through her head. How I wish I could look inside her head right now, maybe make her feel safe. Anything to take that frown away.
My phone rings and I see it’s Mummy, my Omega parent. Ehh... “I’ll be right with you guys, need to take this.” I walk in the direction where Max and Cyra came from as I answer the phone, trying to get some privacy. “Hi.”
“Hey.” Mummy doesn’t sound very happy. “The news, is it true? That girl you were spotted with, is she the Omega they’re talking about, this Cyra girl?”
“Yes. That’s her.”
She lets out a disbelieving sound. “You snuck off with a kidnapped Omega? What the hell? Did you know?”
“She wasn’t kidnapped. Her parents knew where she was all this time.” At least, that’s what I’ve understood from Cyra’s fear of her parents taking her from her apartment.
“That’s what she’s saying, but to stay hidden for that long, you need to be able to lie very well. Don’t believe anything she says, son. If she’s been able to evade her parents for years, then she must have gotten really great at lying. How else can an Omega survive out there on her own? No. I’d never trust an Omega like that, ever. I’d always be worried what else she’s lying about.”
Mummy sounds so convinced and I realise with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that whatever Cyra’s parents are going to tell in the interview doesn’t have to be the truth. It just has to play into a couple of horrid stereotypes that some people believe so easily about Omegas, and then just spin enough of the truth into it that it’s easy for people to accept the parts that are lies.
We’re not just fighting Cyra’s parents, we’re going to be fighting the perception of a lot of people, people we depend on for our jobs. Oh, crap.
This move is even more ingenious than bringing out a ‘rightful mate’, which would mostly become a game of ‘who can convince the public who’s more worthy to mate her’ but this way anything Cyra says will be questioned and doubted and if we fight for her, anything we say will be distrusted too. Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
25
Cyra
I can’t help but stare at Liam as he stands at the end of the terrace, right where it changes into dunes. First, his back is straight, but as time passes, his shoulders slump and his body fills with tension. Whatever he’s talking about on the phone, it’s not good. It’s definitely not good.
Then Liam spins around and stalks over, his long strides taking him through the living room and into one of the side rooms. A room I haven’t checked out yet, much too busy with getting some food into me before exploring the rest of the house.
He comes out with the laptop, cursing under his breath. “They’re not doing this. They’re not going to get away with this. Not on my watch.” He looks up, thinking for a moment before he speaks again. “I’m gonna need some help. Who knows the numbers and emails of some people in high places at these ‘magazines’ that Cyra’s parents keep talking to? And I could use someone with connections to some organisations to do with Omega rights. Fuck being on the defence, they’re attacking us, we’re going to be doing our own attack.”
Max is at his side in moments. “What do you need?”
“We need to move as fast as possible to find everything that could disprove any claims that Cyra’s parents make.” He looks up at me, his eyes softening. “We’re going to be diving into some real private areas, are you up for it?”
I shrug. “I don’t have a choice, do I?” It’s not like I can just run off and hide away for the rest of my life, that way my parents get to control what’s going on, and I’m done with that. I’m done letting them control me.
He shakes his head slowly. “All of this will come out at some point. We just need to be ahead of your parents, make sure they can’t ‘alter’ anything, that they can’t change your story with their own ‘proof’.”
I know that my parents will try to create their own ‘truth’, they’ve got enough money, but even with everything going on, it’s hard to think of my parents stooping that low. Especially after all they’ve let me do for these last years. But I also didn’t expect them to play the victims once they spotted me on the news, claiming that I’m ‘missing’ or whatever, just to get more people on their side, to control the story.
I glare at Max, for good measure. “I could have brought everything with me, had I known that I needed to pack them.”
Zack stands up from the couch, holding up his hands in a sign of defence. “Don’t kill the messenger, but I might know someone who can retrieve the items you need from your apartment.”
I shoot him a look. “You call that being the messenger? Pretty sure you’re the culprit and enabler in this situation.”
He gives me a quick smirk. “Messenger sounded better in my head. But the offer still stands. We sometimes have to find information about clients or potential clients, things they might try to hide from us. Or, in some cases, there might be a dispute about a building and we need to get inside to make sure that we don’t lose our property. We’ve got people who can do things like that. I can get someone into your apartment to retrieve things. Just let me know.”
I open my mouth. It feels wrong to have a random person go through my stuff, for someone to break into my apartment, even when I’m the one giving the okay to do so.
Zack lets out a slow breath. “I might not have agreed with you hiding who you are. And I’ve said some... harsh... things to you because of it. But what your parents are trying to pull is not okay. It’s wrong. What you do is your thing, but they should not be allowed to drag you through the mud because it fits some egotistic plan they have. Simple as that.”
I stare at him, that’s probably as much of an apology as I’m going to get from him. “I don’t...” I sigh. “Some things will be online, I can get to those from here, but others...” I eye Liam. “You said you need everything?”
Liam nods. “As much as possible. Anything you have. We need to make sure we have proof. Hard copies are the best, signed and full of crusty bits, just to show it’s the real deal. Digital is too easy to fake. We need to have the facts of your life on our side, and we can work from that, plan our own attack.”
“Liam...” An attack on my parents doesn’t sound like it’s a good idea, but the rest of his plan sounds sensible enough. “Zack, you have my consent. I
don’t like it. I don’t want to agree to it. But I don’t think I’ve got a real choice here.” I lean against the back of a couch. “What do you need?”
Zack appears in front of me, his eyes serious, as he holds out his phone. “I just need your address. The rest will be taken care of. I will also need to know where the files or folders are stored. But you seem like someone who keeps those in a sensible place.”
I nod, putting my address into his phone. “Everything’s in a folder located on the middle shelf of my bookcase. It’s easy to spot. I don’t... I don’t think I’ve got anything else than what’s in there.” He’s kind of right, I do keep all of it together, since it’s not much anyway and I’ll always know where things are. “Do you... Do you also need stuff like bills or something? Like, the ones I get in the mail?”
He pulls up a shoulder, eyeing Liam, before nodding. “Worth a try?”
“Those are in folders in a box under my bed.” Sorted by year, yes... Anything to have a trail of proof that I’m able to handle my own finances and that I’m responsible at taking care of myself.
Zack carefully takes the phone back, his voice soft. “I’ll take care of it. These people are dependable. They won’t go snooping. In and out, that’s it.” He turns around. “I’m going to make that call now.”
He walks out the back door, closing it behind him, as he puts his phone to his ear. Suddenly I’m looking at Zack-the-businessman, not Zack-the-player, and he’s a totally different person. If he’s serious, he might actually be responsible, instead of the silly character he always puts on.
“And now?” I look at the other three men. “What are we going to do now?”
Liam sighs. “We’re going to have to go through your whole life and find anything we might need to disprove whatever they say, no matter how small.”
Spence comes around the couch, his gaze guarded. “We’ll probably want to start from the moment they let you take medication when you were young. Unless something important happened before that?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what you’re making up in your head, but my childhood was pretty normal, if a little sheltered.” I eye Liam. “What do you need first, the documents from my computer, phone records or my life story?”
“Let’s start with the documents you’ve got handy. That way, we’ve got that out of the way, in case we find more that we need. Do you have your laptop with you?”
I nod. Max told me to grab what I needed and my laptop is pretty damn important to me. “I’ll go get it.”
I turn around and feel their gazes on me as I make my way to the outbuilding. I knew that things were going to go bad, but it always surprises me how wrong things with my parents can get.
My laptop is in the bag with my clothes and I carefully take out the beast of a machine, ancient in comparison to the one Liam is using. I so obviously have been living in a different world, so different from them, and my parents are going to destroy all of it. Anything they can get their hands on... My life, their life, all of it.
For a moment I wonder if all of this could have been avoided if I’d just taken that first call last night. If I’d just answered the call and spoken to them. Whatever they would have said to me, it can’t be worse than this. It can’t be worse than them destroying everything I’ve fought for for years. It just... can’t.
Zack’s voice startles me. “Cyra.”
I nearly drop my laptop as I spin around and he quickly grabs it before it can fall to its death.
“Whoops, let’s not break anything important.” He puts the laptop on the dresser behind me, which makes him come even closer to me than before. Only, he doesn’t move away once he’s put it down, his hot body pressing me back against the dresser. Fuck. This guy is... He feels good against me, making my insides squirm even though I try to ignore it.
I glance up at him, not sure what’s going on. He looks down at me, his eyes filled with something I don’t know how to read.
“I’m sorry, really. I sometimes act in ways, or say things, that hurt others. Sometimes this is on purpose, usually, it isn’t. I get this weird rush when people get angry with me. My mouth gets ahead of my brain and once the downward spiral starts, I don’t know how to get out of it. It’s a flaw, big one.”
He’s vulnerable, and I don’t know if it’s real or if he’s just pretending, but I still reach up, running my fingers over his jaw, to his lips. “We all accidentally hurt people sometimes. The best we can do is make sure it doesn’t happen again and somehow make up for what we did.”
He slowly nods as his eyes fill with a totally different emotion, his dick poking me in my hip, and he opens his mouth to suck on my finger for a moment. “I know a great way to make up for any pain I might have caused.”
Fuck. There’s a small part of me that’s tempted to take him up on his offer even though I shouldn’t. These guys are messing with my mind. Then Zack’s head jerks forward, and he lets out a harsh curse.
“No jumping the girl.” Spence is standing behind Zack, not looking very impressed, but also not looking very surprised. Like he’s one to talk, I’m pretty sure that what Spence did to me this morning was a lot more ‘jumping the girl’ than what Zack is doing right now.
Catching my gaze, Spence smirks and winks, sticking his tongue out for a moment. He’s very aware of his own hypocrisy. “Watch out with him. If you give him a finger, he’ll take all of you.”
Zack spins to face Spence, back straight, hands balled into fists, making himself as tall as possible. “Are you talking about me or you?”
These two... Always bickering, always. Spence pretending to be the sensible one while Zack is the one with the wild hairs, but knowing both of them a little better... Spence is just better at controlling his surroundings, making him appear more moral than Zack. But I’ve got a feeling he really isn’t, and that’s a little sexy.
Fuck...
26
Zack
I finally get some time on my own with Cyra, and for once she doesn’t seem to be two seconds away from bashing my brain in, and Spence gets in the way. He’s never been that much of a cockblock before, he usually leaves me be when I’ve got my eyes on a girl, but he seems to be enjoying getting between Cyra and me. Asshole.
Cyra’s room doesn’t smell of her very strongly, but what slivers of her fiery scent do linger are putting every part of me on high alert. She smells like lava, like I’m standing right next to a freshly erupted volcano and the lava is eating its way through everything on its path. It’s primal, powerful, making my mouth water and my cock ache. Hell, if this is how I react to her now, when she’s suppressing her scent and well before she goes into heat, I’m not looking forward to when she doesn’t suppress the pheromones. Still, this constant buzz in my body is fun and annoying at the same time. There’s something about knowing that I feel this way because she’s my mate that makes me enjoy the feeling more than I’d normally do.
Before I can try to charm Cyra into a kiss, which seemed so close to happening before we got so rudely interrupted, she’s already grabbed her laptop and on her way to the door.
“I’d appreciate it if you two wouldn’t snoop through my things. Thanks.” She looks at us, giving a quick smile, and then leaves.
I raise an eyebrow at Spence, we could definitely snoop, I’d be up for some snooping, but he shakes his head sternly and pulls me along, closing the door behind us. “You heard her. And you might want to focus on other things.”
When we reach the living room, Liam and Cyra are on their laptops while Max is frowning at something on his phone. The big TV over the fireplace is set to silent, but it’s showing one of those ridiculous gossip ‘news’ channels. There’s text running along the bottom of the screen: ‘30 minutes until the interview with the Fireborn Alpha pairing, the missing Omega’s parents.’
Fucking hell. They don’t even name Cyra, just her Alpha... How is it that they manage to make a story about Cyra all about her parents and especially her Alpha parent
?
My stomach twists. I need to protect Cyra. I need to be there for her. I might not really know her yet, but everything in me screams that I need to protect her and take out anyone who might harm her. “Are we going to watch the clock count down the whole time?”
Max glances up, frowning as he looks from me to the TV and back. “You got something else you want to put up on there? Be my guest, but I think it’s a good idea if we at least try to watch some of the interview. So, whatever it is, you’ve got about thirty minutes.”
A snarky comment is on the tip of my tongue, before I shake my head. “Nah, tis fine. Just not the biggest fan of watching these ‘news’ channels. I can get my gossip anywhere, why would I watch a channel full of it?”
“Maybe you can,” Liam grumbles and glares at me. “But there are a lot of people who do believe what’s said on them. And if we want to know how to protect Cyra, we need to know what we’re up against.”
He’s got a point, even if I don’t like it. “Okay, what can I do until the timer runs out?”
“Ehh...” Max looks at Spence and me. “Any chance you two can pick up a couple of things? Maybe find a printer somewhere? Food? Clothes?”
I sigh. “I’m not your nanny. But I think I can try to get us a printer and a few more laptops. Plus food, hopefully.”
It’s better than nothing and definitely better than sitting around, waiting. It feels like I’m at least doing something. Even if it something stupid like being an errand boy...
Spence turns onto the parking lot of a big ‘all in one’ store. He parks the car on the fairly empty parking lot, and then turns to me, his eyes serious. “We’re just picking up some laptops and a printer. Don’t go be difficult about the specs of them. We just need a couple to use right now.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I look at him. “Don’t you trust me? How long have you known me?”
