“I’ll take her up, Gabe. You go ahead and make sure no one uses this hallway or the elevator.”
“Is she staying in your room? She’s been very vocal about not doing that.”
North’s arms are tight around me as he lifts me up, and Gabe rolls up onto his feet, immediately grabbing the sweater to cover my back up. I tuck my face into the column of North’s neck and breathe him in, taking in everything I could ever need from him as well.
I just need Atlas back, and then maybe I’ll be whole again.
“I’ll kill my assistant if I have to, no one is going to burst into any room in this house going forward. We’re on a security lockdown, and if Oleander wants to sleep somewhere else, she can when she wakes up. Until then, she’s staying with me.”
Oh, I like that too. I like that a lot.
Chapter Ten
Oli
My eyes flutter open at the sound of the shower turning on, and North’s arms tense around me as he readjusts his hold to stick his hand under the stream of water, checking the temperature. I’m still wearing Nox’s sweater but my pants have been stripped off, leaving me in my underwear, and my face is pressed into his neck so that I’m surrounded by his scent once again.
I clear my throat and try not to sound like an embarrassed child as I say, “I’m awake. You can just put me down.”
He doesn’t answer me as he steps fully into the shower stall and then sits down on the built-in marble bench that runs along one of the walls, still holding me close to his chest. I really should get my face out of the crook of his shoulder and face the man, but we’re in a shower stall together and I feel a little light-headed at what’s happening here right now.
Especially the part where I have no fucking idea of what that is.
I clear my throat again and finally he says, “Do you need something to drink? When did you last have something? Your bond wouldn’t accept anything from us while it was in control.”
Holy shit.
How long was my bond in control, and what the hell did it do if he’s in here cuddling up to me and pulling me into a shower?
“This morning… or how long was I asleep? Maybe yesterday.”
He nods and starts to tug at the sweater to get it off of my body. “This morning. You’ve only been asleep for an hour. I thought you might sleep through the shower.”
The moment he gets the sweater over my head, I realize I have nothing on underneath the damned thing. I finally sit up a little in his lap to unwind myself from him and freak out about this, wrapping my arms around my chest and shooting him a very scandalized look.
His face doesn’t change, and his tone is kind but also very matter-of-fact as he says, “There isn’t a single one of your Bonds who hasn’t seen you bare to the waist, Oleander. We all held you while you healed.”
I groan and shove my face into my hands, desperate to pass out again and forget that the conversation is even happening. “Is there anything else entirely shameful I did? Did my bond attempt to assault any of you again, or am I going to be spared that particular horror this time around?”
“Whatever you need, it’s our duty and honor to provide.”
I have no words to even attempt to answer that, and it doesn’t really answer anything for me anyway. “What the hell happened while I was gone? Where is all of this coming from? The last I knew, you didn’t trust me. Now, you’re in here with soft words and offering me whatever I want… I’m so fucking confused right now. Which one of us has a head injury I need to freak out about right now?”
He’s way too calm about my rambled word vomit. So calm that he doesn’t react at all, except to shift his grip on me to my hips to hold me steady, and once he has a good grip, he opens his mouth and all of my secrets come out of it. “You were kidnapped from the hospital. You were held in a Resistance camp for two years while they tortured you for information about your gift and your Bonds. You gave them nothing. You escaped when Silas Davies left, and your bond took over to get you out. You then spent three years on the run to lead them away from us. You slept in halfway homes, sublets, and the streets while you were barely more than a kid because you didn’t want them to get access to us… or your gift. That’s what’s changed.”
My mouth opens and then closes with a snap, because that’s a whole lot more information than I was expecting him to have. That’s a lot more than knowing my Resistance code name would have gotten him, but I guess it was a good enough starting point for him to hunt down the rest.