Omega (Alpha & Omega #1)

{Chapter Fifty Five}

My first thought was how the actual fuck am I alive? One of those bullets had ripped through my heart - or, at least, it felt like it did. The other definitely went through a lung. The third went straight through my sternum.

I opened my eyes to a familiar room. The room I shared with Keon and Cayson.

"Good," a familiar voice said. When I turned my head, I saw Teo standing by the bed, his arms crossed over his chest. The window behind him was open, making it too bright to see much of anything except for those eyes that always had that slight glow.

"What," I croaked, turning my face away from the harsh light.

He walked over and shut the blinds. "Best you don't know. But you're alive, and that's all that matters."

"Fuck your secrets." I forced myself up into a seated position and fixed him with a glare. "I swear, you're the most secretive asshole I've ever known."

He raised an eyebrow, challenging me to say more.

"You're secretive about literally everything." I threw my hands up and slammed them back onto the bed. "It's utter bullshit. I was dead. I know I was dead."

He shook his head. "No, you were dying."

I narrowed my eyes further. "You fucking-"

He was in front of me, his hands on either side of my body, his face mere centimeters away from my own. His expression remained stoic, even as I flinched away. He didn't allow me to move far, though. Hands, that weren't his, gripped my shoulders. When I looked down, there was nothing. But I could feel the hands, see the pressure of their grip in my shirt.

I let out a breath, that came out more like a slight whine of fear.

"You are the single most infuriating woman I've ever met," he whispered. "I stitched you together. Healed you. That's it."

He was losing his cool. He never lost his cool. Even behind that stoic expression, I saw the anger and felt its heat in the air around us.

"How," I asked.

The fingers on my arms tapped once, twice, three times, even as his actual hands remained motionless on the bed.

I understood without him telling me. He used whatever abilities he had and literally went inside of me and healed me from the inside out. The three bullet wounds were just scars on my skin. Ugly, puckered scars, but they were healed.

"Thank you," I finally said.

He pulled away from me, and those hands gripping me fell away. "Quit asking what I am, Phoenix. No good will come to you by knowing."

Before I could say anything more, the door opened and Keon and Cayson stepped in. They looked from Teo, to me, then stared. They hadn't expected me to come out of it alive. Even I expected to die.

"She's fine now," Teo said. He patted the two men's shoulders as he walked past, then glanced over his shoulder at me. There was no smile. No real emotion. Just a glance, and he was gone.

Keon and Cayson slid into the bed on either side of me and both wrapped me in their arms. They didn't say anything, but they didn't need to. Their short bursts of breath let me know how they were feeling.

They damn near almost lost me, and I them. I hoped I never had to go through the pain of either one of them dying, because it looked like it had been torture for them. I wasn't sure what happened after I passed out, nor did I know how long I was actually out for. However long, whether that be a mere few hours to a month, they felt every minute of it.

A person feels when their mate dies. They experience pain almost as bad as the one dying, but it was all centered around their heart. People say it's like having a massive heart attack, with lightning bolts of pain shooting throughout your body from your heart. I guessed I was so close to death that they felt it.

"Please tell me you're okay," Keon finally whispered into my neck.

Teo had just told them that I was fine, but they wanted to hear it from me. They wanted to make sure I didn't have any lasting effects that could cause problems later on. Other than the visible scars, that is.

I reached up and ran my hands through their hair. "I'm okay."

Cayson let out a breath.

I remembered everything clearly. I remembered the pain, even though I didn't feel it anymore. I remembered how my body seemed to act on its own, moving and breaking someone else's bones like it was nothing but a twig.

I also remembered how Tracy looked as I shot her. She'd fallen to the ground after I pushed her, and attempted to get back up. But the moment her eyes met mine, I pulled the trigger and just like that...she wasn't alive anymore.

Keon didn't seem to hate me, like I worried he would. He held me close, just like any other day.

Could I finally be happy? Finally allow myself the time to learn how to love, or if I'm even capable of it? Or would I always be looking over my shoulder, wondering who was going to come after my life next?

Is this what being with an alpha was like? Always worrying, yet never expecting someone to try to kill you just because of your rank?

It didn't matter my rank. Didn't matter that I had alpha within me. My body was an omega's. And the population at large hated my kind.

Was mating with them a mistake? I wouldn't take it back, but I did wonder. If I had left after that month, like I originally planned, where would I be? Would I have gone to the slums to work? Or would I have been sold off to someone else?

Did it even matter?

"How long have I been out," I finally asked.

"Nine hours." Cayson reached over and grasped my hand in his. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" They had nothing to be sorry for.

"You got shot three times and we couldn't do anything," Keon whispered. "It was like a bad dream. Everything was slow motion and I couldn't figure out what to do. My mind completely blanked."

Cayson nodded his agreement, his eyes downcast. They really did feel like it was their fault, when I was the one who jumped in front of the bullet. I was the one who let her shoot me.

"It's okay," I said.

"I don't want to hear you say that ever again," Cayson said, finally lifting his face to look at me. His eyes, normally so clear, were bloodshot and filled with tears.

I leaned forward and placed my lips gently over his.

When I pulled away, I immediately turned my face and kissed Keon. It was becoming a habit, making sure both of them felt equally important in my life. And I guess they were.

It had become so normal for me to be around them, and for me to touch them casually and joke with them. I'd come such a long way, from absolutely hating them in the beginning to liking them in a way I never thought possible.

I pulled away from Keon.

No, not like.

With them sitting on either side of me, looking down at me with worry and care, I realized it wasn't just a general like. We may have had some problems in the beginning, and they had done some things to piss me off. But they were learning, as well as I was.

Them, learning how I operated. How my mind worked, and how being mated with an omega changed a lot of things in their life.

Me, learning to accept alphas. To allow myself to be around them and allow myself to lean on them.

And to allow myself to love them.

I let out a long breath and closed my eyes. When the hell did that happen?

Before they could ask what was wrong, my mother burst through the door looking horrified and worried. She looked between the three of us, then her eyes landed on me.

"It's a good thing we're clothed," I murmured.

She shot me a look of incredulity, and I smiled.

Saved by my mother. That was a new one.