Page 108 of Mask and the Magnolia
Well, that answers a question I don’t have to ask.
This isn’t a professional courtesy. Eve is here to tell Magnolia’s mates what happened to her because Maggie told her about us. Most likely in great detail if I know our girl.
“What did you come home to, Eve?” My chest tightens again and I lift my hand, my fingers digging into the wool of my vest right over my thundering heart.
Eve takes a deep breath and pushes her hair behind her ears. “Maggie was unconscious on the bathroom floor, and everything around her was straight out of a true crime documentary.” She uses her sleeve to wipe away her tears, stealing herself before she continues. “From what I could gather, she was pushed or thrown through the shower door, she was severely beaten, strangled repeatedly until she blacked out, and…” Eve’s eyes wander to somewhere over my shoulder before she whispers, “She was raped.”
Trying as hard as humanly possible to keep my composure for both myself and Eve, I speak slowly when I ask, “Do you know who did it?”
“Yes.” She turns to face me fully, hesitantly taking my hand in hers. “Before I tell you, I need you to understand that who he is, is why I didn’t call the police or report what happened. It’s why I called my cousins and we took her to a hospital three counties over, and it’s why I’m taking care of her at our apartment now.”
“Okay…” I already know where this is going and I don’t like it one fucking bit. I can’t behave like that, though. No, I have to keep my shit in check and remain calm because when I tell our pack what happened, all hell will break loose if I can’t get a handle on my own emotions.
“It was Camden,” Eve says as she swallows down a sob. “That bastard hurt Maggie, he almost killed my best friend, and there’s not one goddamn thing anyone can do about it because my dadand Dean Reynolds will cover it up so fucking fast it’ll be like it never even happened.”
I open my mouth, unsure of the words I was about to say but Eve falls apart and starts crying before I have it figured out.
I comfort her the best I can as my omega’s friend blames herself for what happened, as she apologizes for it as if she had any say in the matter. Eve explains Magnolia’s injuries more specifically; the fractured jaw and dislocated shoulder, the hundreds of stitches that litter the right side of her body and the bruises on her throat that were clearly made by hands. Further still, she explains that Camden has been tampering with Magnolia’s medications, targeting her heat suppressants and the IV drip to get her through when it hits, then attempting to put a stop to the prescriptions entirely. And while Eve was able to intervene the first time, she’s afraid he went through a back door to make sure she couldn’t do it again. A wave of nausea rolls through me as Eve tells me about the fire in the bathroom, how her brother torched our clothes that he found in Maggie’s nest before he completely destroyed it. How he let them burn while he hurt our girl, seemingly tempting fate and winning when it managed to extinguish on its own just as the flames started reaching up the walls.
Camden didn’t just attack her, he truly did try to kill Magnolia, twice in one night, and I am beyond grateful that he didn’t succeed.
He should thank his lucky fucking stars he didn’t succeed, too.
He’s been a walking target ever since we witnessed their first interaction and once they find out what happened to our girl, our pack will label him a dead man walking. But had he actually murdered our omega and successfully taken her from us? I can say with full confidence, Camden Blackhurst would be nothingbut a blood stain on the concrete and no one would ever find his body.
EIGHTEEN
THE WEAKEST LINK
CALIX
Ilook up at the back of Maggie’s building as I take a few steps to the left, smiling as she blows me a kiss from her window.
Gingerly.
Everything she does, she has to do gingerly.
It almost looked like it hurt to smile but our girl was doing a lot of that whether it did or not. I know it was genuine, that Maggie was beyond happy to see us, but I think she was covering up how much pain she’s actually in. Not because she doesn’t want us to see her hurting, but because she doesn’t want us to worry more than we already are.
Putting on a brave face or whatever the saying is. Our girl did that for us, just like she made sure we were able to touch her, to hold her and get her surgery floral scent all over us in the only way we could.
Maggie said it was for her. Said she didn’t care how it happened, we were all bunking with her in Evie’s room so she could soak up as much of our scents as possible. Our girl wanted that, all the hands on and scenting, especially after finding out what happened to her nest, but it felt more like she pushed through her pain extra hard forus.
I love her so goddamn much for that.
For everything. It may not seem like a big deal to some people but for me, for our alphas, it was huge.
It was like a balm on our frayed nerves, honestly, because walking through the sliding doors and seeing how Maggie looked, it gutted us.
I felt it. Felt it from our alphas on top of my own feelings.
My anger and hurt, the fear that had been running through me since Isaak sat us down to tell us what happened. It was all there, swirling right under the surface, and it almost exploded when I finally set sights on her.
Then it disappeared just as quickly as it came.
The relief that flooded through me when I heard her voice, the sense of doom that lifted when she said my name, it replaced everything I’d been struggling with all day and I think I fell a little more in love with her at that moment.
Which I didn’t think was possible but it’s the only way to describe what happened.
