Page 5 of Dragon's Surprise
Fallon gently took the angelic omega by the hand and tugged him forward. “He needs immediate medical attention. His name is Oliver.”
Oliver. Even his name tasted sweet as nectar on Adar’s lips.
“Who did this to him?” Renee asked Fallon while Sivney raised the clinic on his com.
“Dempsey.”
“He’s mated to Dempsey?”
Adar’s heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be. Oliver was his. He couldn’t belong to another man. Especially not to that asshole. Adar had met him when the Murphys had come to train the dragons, and every word out of the man’s mouth had been an insult. Adar had wanted to wring his neck there and then, and now he wished he had.
“Oliver isn’t mated to anyone, but that doesn’t stop Dempsey from using him whenever he wants. Two days ago, he was pissed off about something and beat the crap out of him.”
Adar barely registered Rhene’s response through the buzz in his head. Dempsey had done this to Oliver? Dempsey was an alpha. Granted, not even close to Adar’s size, but still. He was a trained fighter, and he’d taken on this tiny waif of an omega? What kind of man did that? Even as a kid, Adar had known not to fight kids smaller than him. Not unless he had no other choice. It was dishonorable.
Oliver stood quietly beside Fallon while he talked to Rhene and Sivney, who told him the pack had built new cabins for the dragon omegas. Of course they had. They couldn’t let those poor dragons sleep on the floor, now could they?
“We’ll never be able to repay you,” Fallon said, trembling. What was he scared of?
“We don’t expect anything in return, least of all sexual favors,” Rhene said firmly. “I need you to understand that you’re safe in this pack and no one will touch you against your will. As pack alpha, I give you my solemn vow.”
Ah, Rhene had grasped the source of Fallon’s fear. That was what Fallon and the other omegas had been worried about, that they would have to pay off their supposed debt in sexual favors. Even the thought made Adar sick to his stomach, and his heart ached as a few of the dragons sobbed. What had these omegas been through? What horrors had they experienced at the hands of the Murphy alphas?
Maz arrived, and Sivney pointed at Oliver. “He needs immediate medical attention.”
Without conscious thought, Adar stepped closer to Oliver. He liked Maz, and the guy had never been anything but friendly toward him, but he’d better be careful how he treated Oliver. The last thing the dragon needed was to be further traumatized.
“Oliver doesn’t talk,” Fallon said softly. “He used to, but he stopped about a year ago.”
He didn’t talk. Whatever his angel had suffered through had been so bad that he’d lost the ability to speak. A quiet, cold rage filled Adar, which only abated a little when Enar showed up and, with his calm, sweet demeanor, managed to get Fallon to trust him. Even more miraculous was that Fallon sensed Enar wasn’t an alpha despite looking like one.
“Oliver,” Fallon whispered. “You can trust him. There’s no deceit in him. He’s pure.”
Pure. What a beautiful way to describe Enar. Adar would never have come up with that word himself, but it fit Enar. The man had such a big, kind heart, and his innate goodness radiated from his eyes and every cell of his being.
Enar examined Oliver, explaining everything he was doing in a calm, almost soothing voice. Oliver stood there, letting it all happen, as if he had mentally checked out. Maybe he had. Maybe that had been his way of surviving the hell he’d been trapped in.
“I suspect you might have a bruised or broken rib, and I’d like you to come to the clinic to get some X-rays,” Enar said to Oliver.
Fallon asked for permission to stay with Oliver, which he got, of course. Adar’s heart was heavy as he watched them get into the truck, joined by two pregnant dragons. He had to fight the strong urge to climb in after them, to stay with his angel, to ensure nothing happened to him. But he couldn’t. He didn’t have a reason to, and his job was to protect everyone else.
Once they had left, Rhene and Adar were the only two alphas among all the omegas—whose fear was palpable. Rhene put a hand on Sivney’s shoulder. “Adar and I need to leave. I assume you’ve got this. If you need help, let me know, and I’ll send one of the other omegas.”
Sivney nodded. “Can you ask Finlay and Gael to come to the new cabins so they can help them settle in?”
That was smart, asking the two dragon omegas who were already part of the pack to welcome them. That would hopefully help in making the new dragons feel safe.
“That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever seen,” Adar said as he and Rhene walked away.
“Yeah, no kidding.” Rhene’s eyes sparked with anger, and his whole body was tense. “I want to pay that Dempsey guy a visit and beat the ever-loving shit out of him.”
A new swell of fury thundered through Adar’s veins. “An alpha beating up an omega… It’s despicable. They’re half our size and so much weaker physically. That man had better hope he never runs into me because I swear to the earth and moon it won’t end well for him.”
With a smile, Rhene slapped Adar’s back. “You and me both, my man.”
Adar halted. “No, Dempsey is all mine. Promise me I’ll be the one who gets to teach him how it feels to go up against someone his own size.”
A satisfied smile spread across Rhene’s face. “I promise.”