Joker looks up at our prime alpha with his jaw hanging open in angry disbelief.
“Are you taking the fucking piss?” he asks, his accent coming out stronger than before. “She needs our help.”
“I don’t care. No one touches her, no one gives her anything. She has to earn her keep here, the same as all of us,” Bones says, louder still.
“So what? She’s got to go ‘round with those fugly ass sweats from the facility? Not bathe? Not eat? Because I don’t think you get it. She has nothing to her name,” Joker counters heatedly.
Bones growls, his gold eyes flashing at the challenge in Joker’s voice. I clear my throat slightly, shifting in my seat. He turns his amber gaze on me, but I see the warning.
“I think we can be a little less…cruel about this. I agree that we shouldn’t treat her like pack, because she’s not. But we should also try to treat her like a human being, at the minimum,” I say, treading the line of neutrality very carefully.
Because despite what might be coming out of my mouth, I tend to agree with Joker on this. After everything Delilah has been through, ostracizing her will ultimately do more harm than good. If our goal is to get her to a place where she can go her own way, then we should focus on helping her heal and relearn how to be an omega, not further punishing her for simply existing in a place she never chose to be.
“She can’t be trusted. We know nothing about her,” Siren interjects.
“You literally have her entire file from the facility. I’ve seen it. I don’t know what your fucking problem with her is, but it needs to stop,” Phantom says, his voice rising.
“My problem? I don’t have a problem,” Siren says sarcastically.
“You’ve been a raging bitch to Delilah since the moment you laid eyes on her. She’s done nothing to you!”
“Not that you know of!”
“What is that—”
“Enough!” Bones roars, cutting off the argument before it escalates any further.
Siren and Phantom glare at each other, a silent stand off that fills the room with the scents of rust and smoke. I try to push out more of my own calming scent, but it seems to have very little effect.
“She stays. But no one touches her. Get her the bare minimum, but no one is allowed to treat her like anything except the unwelcome guest that she is. And if you have a problem following those orders, we will have a much less pleasant conversation about it.”
Bones’s voice resonates with his bark, the compulsion to obey falling over me despite only being a beta. Poor Joker visibly sinks in his chair, all the fight leaving him. Siren’s shoulders drop, their face relaxing slightly, but the fire in their eyes doesn’t dim in the slightest. Phantom appears to be the least affected, though that doesn’t surprise me. He’s second in command for a reason.
“Rest up, team. We debrief in a few hours.”
Bones stands up and stomps down the hallway, leaving the rest of us to sit in silence for several long heartbeats, waiting for the door to his room to close. When it does, Siren stands so suddenly that their chair falls backwards, but Siren is halfway across the room before it even hits the floor. Joker isn’t far behind, heading back to his nest, shoulders slumped and head bowed.
When Phantom and I are alone again, we share an almost identical sigh of frustration.
“What’re we gonna do, Con?” I ask, rubbing my face.
“I don’t know, Silas. I don’t know. But I do know that I won’t be able to sit around and watch Mav and Rin act like they did today for very long.”
With that, he pushes up from the table and walks off, back down the hallway toward his room. I linger long enough to hear his door close before getting up and cleaning up the remnants of the snacks. Exhaustion tugs at my eyes, but I know I won’t be able to sleep. Not until I check in on her.
My footsteps are silent as I make my way to the end of the hall, any creaks covered by the white noise machine blaring from Siren’s room. I crack the door quietly to the storage room, grateful that the hinges glide open silently this time. The strip of light coming from the hallway lands perfectly across Delilah’s sleepingform, and my shoulders relax slightly. At least someone was decent enough to give her a blanket. I step into the room, walking carefully until I’m close enough to adjust the edges of the blanket until all of Delilah’s curled form is covered and cozy.
I let out a silent sigh, shaking my head. When she’s asleep and all the trouble she carries isn’t pulling her features down, it’s easy to see what Joker sees. But I pull myself away before I get lost staring at her.
Once I’ve closed the door to my room, I rub my face with one hand. Yeah, it’s going to be tough following orders this time.
Chapter twenty-one
Iawakenmuchlater,stretching my back. My brow furrows as I sit up, looking at the soft blanket that falls from my shoulders into my lap. I must have been really asleep if someone could sneak up on me like that. But I feel more rested than I have in a while, so I probably needed it. I sniff the blanket tentatively, but all I get back are notes of plastic-y scent blockers.
I get to my feet and stretch more before tip-toeing out of my room and to the bathroom. The house is silent, and if I couldn’t hear snoring coming from down the hall, I would almost believe I was alone.
My eyes adjust to the low light as I make my way down the hall, avoiding any creaking floorboards as I enter the common area. Pre-dawn lightfilters through the windows, and I blink in surprise. I must have slept through the entire day yesterday. Though that does explain why I’m starving. I poke around through the kitchen cabinets, trying to assess what sort of food I could make, though I’m not surprised when most of what I find is pre-packaged heat-and-eat stuff. This group doesn’t seem like the type to have the time to cook full meals.