They fucking better be.
31
VANDLE
I followed Tyler into the library stacks.
He plucked books off shelves, handing them to me to hold. A lot of the covers were couples embracing, or a flower given a place of honour in the middle of the title. Same as Phantom, I couldn’t tell the damn difference.
I peered across the shelves, squinting a bit at the few titles that blended with the spines in my colourless world. There seemed to be a huge variety in here. I doubt I’d ever visited—the Archiva pack seemed quite protective over the space. They wouldn’t have let in a feral alpha.
Phantom continued to chat with the rest of the Archiva pack in the central area. When we got far enough away that I didn’t think they would be listening in, I cleared my throat.
Tyler looked at me with a lifted eyebrow. “What?”
“How’s the non-fiction selection?”
“We have a disproportionate number of books about dolphins and a ton of outdated GPRE handbooks.” He nodded to the stack of books that seemed to make up a large, bookish sculpture of a middle finger in the corner. I chuckled. Okay, well, that was a lot of extra. Seemed the guards upstairs had got us mixed up with the dump.
“Not helpful.”
“If you want help, I need specifics. You’ve been feral for a while, but surely you remember how broad a category ‘non-fiction’ is.” His tone was dry.
He slipped another book off the shelf and put it on the pile. This one looked newer, in pristine condition with a cover that featured illustrated flowery art, instead of photographed flowers.
I needed a book about Arkology—on alphas and omegas.
Every time I tried to peel back the veil on one of my many repressed memories, my head exploded in pain. My body didn’t want to remember before.
But I needed to. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have been fucking dreaming about it.
Sin had been a victim of experiments, like I had, and it’s possible his eyes were a result of that, but gold pack omegas were known for their eye colour, so something nagged at me that there was more to it.
I’d never heard of a red-eyed omega before, though, so I wasn’t sure where to start. Well, I’dalsonever heard of an omega who could dark bond command alphas—but I certainly hadn’t barked by fucking choice.
At the edge of my conscious thoughts, the memory reached out for me—Icouldremember. With help, I thought.
One or two pieces of information. Maybe even just seeing the word written out.
I didn’t want to be too specific—didn’t want to risk giving anyone leverage over us. Yet the library was the only place that had come to mind that might have something to help me.
“Arkology.” I grunted. “Books on designations. Anything that goes into unusual alphas or omegas. Gold packs, experiments. That sort of thing.”
“You looking more for alphas or omegas?”
“Both. Either. But maybe errant experiments. Stuff out of the ordinary.”
“Experiments?”That had Tyler turning to face me, giving me a slow once-over. He hummed. “You might be in luck. We get castoff books down here. Banned or confiscated from prisoners, by the looks of it—but not fit to be read by the Vault’s staff. Some are very strange.” He scratched his chin, pacing down the aisle, almost talking to himself. “No point in not sending them down, I suppose, if they were going to be trash anyway. I bet they think they’re doing us a huge favour. And on the off chance we got out and talked about the material, who’s going to believe a near-feral alpha spouting nonsense?” He snorted.
Seemed cocky of them to not burn the books outright, but that was typical for these organizations. They think they’re untouchable.
“Aha.” I watched as he pulled a worn black book from the shelf and leaned over to hand it to me. I took it, cracking it open to find wavy paper and smeared ink. I frowned as Tyler chuckled. “Utterly ruined—but it does have some strange things in there, if you can decipher what’s left of it. Then let’s see… I have a few more that might be helpful…”
CRESCENT
I settled back into what was becoming a super cozy nest.
Sometimes my alphas gave it side eyes as if they felt it wasn’t good enough, but they didn’t know the bland place I’d come from.