I open my mouth, but Cyra glares at all of us, before answering. “Yes, please.
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.” Julie thinks for a moment. “Please stay safe. I’ll email Max the info. And I’ll be in touch soon, once I know more. Talk to you soon.” And she disconnects the call.
Zack jumps up, rounding on Cyra. “Why would you—” But he stops when she glares at him, fury in her eyes, and he nearly cowers. Which, I don’t blame him, she’s scary when she’s angry.
“Why would I get the Omega Association involved? Maybe because you have no idea what you’re up against. Sure, you can throw your money around, have some creep get stuff from my apartment. But do you have any idea of what’s going to happen next? What my parents can do because I’m an Omega? An unmated Omega? I still ‘belong’ to my Alpha father, and that brings a lot of danger with it. The organisation can open doors that you don’t even know exist.” She stands up, her jaw set.
Zack takes a step back when it’s obvious how angry she is.
“You have no idea what my life’s like, what my life has been like, how little control I’ve had over anything in my life. And as long as you’re simply the four Alphas who reacted to me, to my scent, but not my official and true mates, then I still live by whatever my parents allow me to do. Allow, as in, they’ve already revoked my work permit, I saw the email from the cafe earlier.”
I stare at Liam and then at Spence. How did we not find out about that yet?
She’s almost shaking as she continues talking. “They’ll probably revoke the lease at my apartment soon. And I don’t have any form of ID apart from my driver’s licence, which in the case of Omegas is worth shit. I don’t have my birth certificate. I don’t have access to my medical records unless my parents sign for it first. I can’t even go see a doctor without my parents there. And, guess what?” She now turns to all of us, looking at each of us separately, before her eyes go back to Zack, but her flood of words stop, the fight leaving her as her shoulders slump.
I carefully get up, reaching out to her, but not touching her yet. “Cyra?”
Her voice is sad, broken. “We can’t even get our mating validated without my parents’ approval. If I’d been a wolf shifter, or a panther, I don’t know, anything but a phoenix, the doctors wouldn’t blink and they’d just accept whatever we say. But I’m a phoenix, this means that every time I even reach out to any organisation at all, they’ll call my parents, get their input, ‘check’ with them. Every damn time.” She snorts, her eyes filling with tears. “Yes. I know you all care. You all want to do what’s best for me. But we can’t do this on our own, not without help.”
After one last glance around, fear and anger and sadness in her gaze, she storms out of the room, down the hallway and out the front door.
Liam eyes me, then Spence and Zack, his voice low, tentative. “You felt it too, right?”
We all nod. Yeah. No matter what’s going on with Cyra and her parents and all that shit, something else is happening too. Something much more pressing.
Because I have a feeling that if we can’t get Cyra her heat suppressants today, we won’t be needing them this mating season.
Just... Just a hunch.
36 Liam
It should be too early for Cyra to go into heat, but I can’t explain what’s going on in any other way. This is her first year around her mates and we’ve been reacting to her since Saturday evening, even though she’s been taking her meds and using everything else she always does. We should not be reacting to her, we shouldn’t be able to scent her, but we are reacting to something, even if it’s not exactly her scent. Something is happening and it got much stronger today.
When I woke up, I could scent her, like a campfire which had been burning all night but was finally done. It wasn’t very strong, but I still scented her, her Omega scent, and it made my whole body thrum, making me want her so badly. I could control it today, barely, but I’m not sure how many more times I’ll be able to do that if she keeps smelling so good first thing in the morning.
And if I react like that, then the others must have too, right?
Fucking hell. How are we going to survive this whole mess? Because the problems just keep growing, somehow getting bigger every time I look up. From meeting Cyra, to taking her to the Gala, to fleeing to the coast, to fleeing to this place, and her parents who keep spreading lies about it all.
I step out the front of the house, rolling my shoulders as I look out at the forest. Cyra barged out half an hour ago, and she’s not returned yet. I can’t spot her around here, so she must have gone into the forest.
While I understand that she’s upset, I don’t like that she’s out there on her own. It doesn’t feel safe, at all.
I take my clothes off and transform into a centaur. It feels better to be in this form when I’m walking through the forests, and like Cyra said before, it’s not like I can’t speak to her like this, unlike the others... Like this, I feel more relaxed, less stressed, more like myself, and I need that right now.
Glancing at the ground, I try to spot where she went. Cyra is good at hiding her scent, a little too good at times, especially right after she’s showered. The stuff she uses removes
