Omega Phoenix: Pursued

Chapter 4

4

Cyra

I have no idea what’s going on. One moment, Spence and Liam were sitting in the doorway, then Spence was gone and suddenly Owen rushed over and Liam left with him in a hurry. I wanted to get up, but if it was something I needed to worry about, Liam would have told me.

Maybe Spence caught some animal that he couldn’t drag here on his own. Or Owen found something that he needed Liam’s help with. That has happened before.

But when Owen and Harper walk around the corner of Maeve’s house, in their centaur forms, flanking Spence and Liam, who are both in their human forms and naked, my heart starts racing and my head spins for a moment. No. Something bad happened. The look on Spence’s face, that haunted look he’s been having in the last week, it’s worse than before.

I stand up, smiling at everyone, before I rush over to the four Alphas. “Spence?” I wrap my arms around my mate, pulling him against me as closely as I can. “What’s going on?”

He clings to me, his grip a little too tight, but he feels desperate, his breathing hard, his body like it’s made from stone, his muscles tense under my hands.

“Spence?”

“I love you.” His words almost disappear into my neck. His words are sweet, but the tone of his voice is off.

“I love you too. I love you so much.” I try to soothe him with my voice and by running my hands over his shoulders, over his back. Something is wrong, something is really wrong. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“I think it’s better if we go inside, not out in the open.” Liam’s hand on my back is steady, but there’s also a tension in his body and I let him guide us to the house, and then into the bedroom, where he closes the door.

“Liam?” I look at my other Alpha. “What’s going on?”

Liam looks at me and then at Spence, his eyes sad, pained. “We need to do something, this can’t keep going for much longer.”

“What can’t?” I look from my one Alpha to the other.

“Spence’s griffin pulled back while he was in the air. He almost fell to his death.” Liam’s voice is calm but Spence moves in my arms like he’s stung by a bee and breaks from my embrace, turning to Liam and stalking over to him threateningly.

My heart feels like it misses a beat and I feel faint. He almost fell to his death?

“You said you weren’t going to tell her.” My skin crawls at the tone in Spence’s voice, threatening, ready to kill.

“No!” I jump up, getting between my two Alphas. Though, the moment I do, I feel faint again and the next moment, Spence and Liam are helping me to the floor carefully. “Don’t fight, please.”

“Let’s get you to bed.” Liam starts carrying me, but I don’t let go of Spence, so he can’t suddenly leave, like he seems to want to.

What happened? What happened to my beautiful Alphas? It must be bad for them to act like that. They’re acting scared, really scared.

As Spence turns to grab some pillows, I spot the red marks on his back. They’ve nearly faded, but are still visible, just like the way his muscles on his back are much too tense.

I reach up, running my fingers over the quickly fading red marks, they’re warm, slightly raised and I realise what they are. It’s where Spence’s wings come from when he pulls them out. I carefully sit up and focus on my hands, trying to warm them up slightly as I put them over his back, trying to soothe the tense muscles. Hell, what did he do? His muscles are so tense that they almost feel like beams of steel.

At first, he leans into my touch, then he slowly moves away and turns around, taking my hands in his. “Thank you.” He kisses my hands, before pulling on some blankets and pillows. “It’s not something you need to worry about. Let’s just... Let’s just stay here for a while.”

I stare at him for a long moment, wanting to tell him that he needs to explain himself already, but the exhaustion in his voice stops me and I slip under the blankets, Liam at my back and Spence at my front, facing me. He looks at me, his gaze filled with many conflicting emotions, and holds my hands between us, his grip tight, tense.

Did he really nearly fall to his death? Is that why he’s looking like that? No. He’s been having that haunted look in his eyes for days now, but something is still different. I’m not sure I want to know, but I have to know, I have to find out.

He’s my Alpha, my mate, and I can’t lose him. Ever.

It’s late, the stars overhead are bright, and I’m sitting at the edge of the little centaur town with Spence and Liam. The town is quiet, it’s around dinner time, but it seemed to be the only time that we’re able to sneak away today.

Spence is sitting behind me and I’m leaning back against him, as Liam is sprawled out on the moss in front of us. It’s nice, we’re here in our own little bubble, while we can still hear the others in the town, part of them, but also our own little world for a while.

I tighten my hands on Spence’s arms and he tenses behind me. “What did Liam mean when he said you nearly fell to your death?” I force the words out. I need to know, I really need to know, even if the answer is painful.

Spence tries to escape from my grip, but with the suppressants having left my body and me coming back into my shifter side, I’m much stronger now. So it’s not as easy for him to get away anymore. Though, he’d still be able to, if he really wanted it, if he really meant it.

He stops struggling and puts his head on my shoulder, taking a slow breath. “As I was flying, I imagined what it would be like to just escape. Fly away. Escape from all the mess we’re in. My griffin liked the idea for a moment. Until he suddenly imagined that that life should still include you, and Max too. The thought of losing you and never seeing Max again, living without you...” He swallows hard, his breath coming out choppy until he has himself back under control. “My griffin didn’t like that, it frightened him. So, he pulled back, pained, scared.”

I nod slightly, loosening my grip as I know that fear all too well. It’s why I don’t sleep at night. It’s what my mind keeps coming up with in my dreams, losing my Alphas, losing any of them, or all of them, turning dreams into nightmares. The fear of never seeing Zack or Max again, of somehow losing Spence and Liam. My throat tightens, but I try to put it from my mind. This is about Spence, not about me. “So, you shifted back?”

“Like you did when we fled from the apartment. Sometimes, we can’t control when we shift.” His voice is soft, careful. “I was able to pull out my wings at the last moment and break my fall that way. I didn’t crash, I landed.”

“That’s why your back is so tense...” Hell, I can’t imagine what it feels like to suddenly have that much air under your wings, I’m surprised it didn’t do more damage to his back than just some over-stretched muscles.

Liam turns to his back, looking up at the sky. He looks almost ethereal like this, if it wasn’t for the tense look on his face. “Owen saw Spence fly away and then fall down. He hadn’t seen that Spence had been able to break his fall at the last moment. That’s why we went looking for him.” Then Liam turns to us, his eyes harder. “We need to do something to make this pain less intense, for both of you. This can’t keep going like this for much longer without something going seriously wrong.”

“But we still have no idea where Zack and Max are...” My heart hurts and tears threaten to spill from my eyes. “How are we going to find them when we still have no idea where they might be?”

“I wasn’t...” Liam sits up as Spence’s arms tighten around me, I feel the tension run through his body.

“No.” Spence’s voice is just a whisper, but the pain in it is intense, making me hurt on the inside too.

“We have to. You know that we have to.” Liam pulls a face. “We might have to resort to medication or something like that. To make this easier on you two until we’ve found them again.”

“No.” My heart races. “No! I’m not letting you break my bond with Zack and Max. We’ll find them. We’ll find them on time. You can’t break it. Please...” Now tears really are sliding down my cheeks and I feel a sob well up in me.

“It’s not to break the bond, just something to lessen the pain you’re feeling right now.” Liam comes closer, his hands on my shoulders, gripping me, but not tightly. “I can’t watch you be in pain constantly. It’s like you’re withering away, like I’m losing you more every day. I can’t...” His voice breaks. “I can’t watch you be in pain like that.”

I shake my head. No. No matter how much pain I’m in right now. I can’t do that. What if things go wrong and it does break my bond with them. Then what? No. I can’t risk it. I can’t. There has to be another way.