Chapter 16
Olly
I stare at the bodies that Diego and Gage dropped off, an ominous feeling in my gut. It isn’t the first time, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
I look between the one on my slab and the one crumpled on the floor, trying to discern which is best to start with.
Well, I suppose I’ll have to heft this headless body at my feet onto the other table myself, lest I want to run after Gage, but he didn’t seem particularly in the best of moods. I’m betting whatever brought these specimens to me is something that is of the utmost importance.
So, with a sigh, I set my samples of Auryn’s blood on the counter next to mine, roll up my sleeves, and lift with all my might. Blood smears from his neck on my lab coat, and I groan in dissatisfaction. Thankfully, I have a locker full, but at the rate I’m losing coats, I’ll be lucky to get through the rest of the week unscathed.
This alpha isn’t as heavy as he looks, which is a blessing. It helps that he's, er, ten pounds lighter above the neck. Gage’s doing, I bet.
Though I do respect the dead, sometimes you just have to haul ass and throw a body because there’s no graceful way to get them on the table.
I’m just glad Auryn isn’t here to see my struggle.
The thought lands, and I stop, the body halfway onto the table.
Why would I care if she were to watch me lift a body?
I’ve never given a thought to anyone watching me do…well, anything.
“You’re just out of sorts because she was in your lab, that’s all,”
I say to the dead man and myself as I resume my struggle and use my hip to hoist up the dead man’s legs.
They clang against the table, and when I’m done, I catch my breath.
Alright, he might not have been all that heavy, but he’s still heavier than what I have to lift on a normal basis, so…
I get to work, cutting the clothes off him first. His body looks like a typical alpha—muscled in the right places, solid. Though he seems to be lacking in some departments, which makes me snicker.
I guess it’s not true that all alphas have sizeable dicks, or—
A second glance piques my interest as I move down the table to his dick. It doesn’t look…right. I mean, sure, it looks normal, if only a bit shriveled, but it looks more like a slender, thinner version of a normal alpha one, and there’s no ring around the base that would indicate a knot. All alphas have them; it’s what inflates once an alpha is ready to breed his omega. It’s the very mechanism that keeps them locked together until the breeding or mating has concluded.
That’s…odd.
Alpha doesn’t have a ring.
I’ll note it in my findings, compare it with any other information I might discover. I don’t want to stare at a dead man’s dick too long. It makes me uncomfortable.
Well, if I’m being honest, all dicks make me uncomfortable, even my own.
And that’s on a normal day.
But ever since Auryn showed up… my dick’s been acting weird. Well, weirder than usual.
Beta probably needs to service himself, but can’t focus on sexual needs. There is work to be done.
I let out a grunt as I turn to the other body on the opposite slab. It’s smaller, leaner. Wrapped—no swaddled—in a blanket. I know that wrapping anywhere. Diego prepared this body.
Which means however they found it must have been under harsh conditions. And it must be an omega.
Work, indeed.
I shove all thoughts of Auryn and her warm, soothing touch from my thoughts. Thinking about Auryn is a distraction. Well, at least the thoughts I’ve been having are most certainly distractions.
Thoughts of how soft her lips felt against mine. The smooth, warm wetness of her tongue. Her fingertips against my cheek.
I shove the thoughts away. My focus needs to be on the task at hand and not on the omega down the hall with Emmett.
Thoughts of Emmett and Auryn only make my blood pressure rise, and I know it shouldn’t. Emmett is a viable alpha. Yes, they seem to butt heads a bit, but when he’d taken her out of my lab earlier, he’d seemed…docile.
I shake the thoughts out, trying to focus.
Usually, Beta is more focused than this.
I carefully untuck the folds and unwrap the blanket, gasping when I see the body beneath. I stumble back, crashing into the table behind me.
She’s small. Barely five foot three with long, thin, dark hair. At least, it’s dark on top, but it lightens the further down it goes. Likely because it’s dyed, and hasn’t been touched in a while.
My gaze settles on her pale skin. The pallor tells me she’s been dead for a bit, but not long enough that samples will be obsolete.
Which is good, but…
I can’t take my eyes off the scars that mark her body. They start at her throat, speckling her arms and thighs. Her breasts and torso are free of marks, though, which makes me think whatever was done to her, the person who did this valued those parts of her, which makes me sick.
What kind of sick bastard would do this?
I turn to look at the dead man behind me, wondering if he was responsible. The ringless alpha.
Pushing off of the table, I decide against showing this asshole more attention than the bare minimum. As enticing as it is to have a ringless alpha on my table, something tells me he is responsible.
I turn back my attention to the omega. I approach her with caution, almost as if she may rise at any moment like Frankenstein’s monster and tell me it’s all some cruel joke.
Her facial features are soft. Like Auryn’s.
Pain strikes me in my chest.
These scars…
Auryn has similar scars on her arm. I saw them. When I’d administered her suppressant and taken her blood. Is the rest of her body like this? Marled and marked? Are her breasts and torso free of scars, too?
I try to shove the thought of Auryn’s breasts and naked body out of my brain, digging the heel of my hands into my eyes. Stupidly, my cock twitches, and I growl in response. Now is certainly not the time for an erection, Olly!
I remove one hand to adjust my stupid dick with a mind of its own.
I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to think about that.
About someone else valuing Auryn for…
For being an omega.
I was there, the night we found her. I saw the fear etched in her eyes, and now…
Fuck.
Some puzzle pieces are falling into place, and I don’t like them.
A tortured sound leaves my throat. I don’t want to see the pain etched on her skin. It hurts to think about, to know she’s endured such torture as the omega before me.
Because I know without a doubt, that’s what this is.
Torture.
This body on my table could have been her. Auryn.
We’d been tasked by Orion to find her. That was the job. It wasn’t any different than any other job, but—
What if we’d found her this same way?
Bile rises into my throat at that thought.
No. Absolutely not.
I can’t think about such things, but…
Beta feels angry.
I try to shake off the strange thoughts, but they don’t leave me. I try my hardest, but it’s no use.
The tears flood me without warning, and my heart aches.
But I do what I must and move. I force myself, through the tears.
This omega deserves answers.
And so does my commander.
So that’s what I focus on.
I move through the motions, all the while my heart is in my throat, and I feel like I could throw up.
I remove everything I can. Tissue. Blood. The scrapings underneath her fingernails. Hair. Processing the dead is my least favorite part of this job. But it’s a part of my job, nonetheless, because even in death, bodies talk. The injuries they sustain, the scars on their skin. All of it tells a story; you just need to know how to listen.
My hands shake as I bite my lip behind my surgical mask. One look at her genitalia makes my stomach twist. I don’t have to swab her to know she was force bred. I’ve seen it a dozen times over the course of my studies.
I have to step away, because I can’t contain my sickness. I find the nearest trash can and vomit my anger, my disgust, and my pain.
My entire body shakes, and I brush the tears from my eyes.
This could have been her.
This could’ve been Auryn.
Beta is upset and agitated.
Beta feels like he’s going to throw up again.
Two more times I expel my guts before I’m certain there’s nothing left in my stomach.
I take my samples from her cavity, swabbing gently to collect what I can. I know she can’t feel this; after all, she’s dead. But in death, I hope she can feel that she’s safe here. I hope she knows I won’t hurt her, and I will take the utmost care of what she’s given us.
When I am done, I brush her hair, freeing it of tangles, and I wrap her back in her blanket before draping a sheet over her. Though I can’t see her anymore, I can still see her behind my eyes, even when I close them.
I arrange my samples, sucking in a breath as I ready myself for the ringless alpha in my presence.
It takes everything I have inside of me to push away the desire to cut him to pieces. His findings are just as important, I tell myself. Perhaps they will shed some light on what the Orion pack is really up to.
Perhaps they will give me—us—answers that we need.
I do not process him gently. I can’t. I hope he feels in death the pain I inflict, and I hope he knows it’s because he’s a ringless piece of shit.
When I’ve thrown the sheet over his body, only then do I breathe.
I tear off my gloves and mask, sucking in the air, before glancing at the clock. Two a.m. I’m not getting any sleep tonight. The door opens, and I tense.
“You’re still here, amigo?”
Diego’s voice pulls my attention, and I let out a heavy sigh. I turn to stare at the body before me, the man beneath the sheet.
“Yeah,”
I say, my voice tired.
“You should be in bed,”
he says carefully. I note he’s standing in the doorway, almost as if he’s afraid to move.
But why on earth would an alpha be afraid of a little beta like me? Especially Diego. He could eat me for breakfast, but something about his demeanor right now feels different. Not threatening or angry, almost…
Understanding?
“Can’t sleep. Work to do,”
I say as I push off of the table to grab the omega’s blood samples from the processor.
“Olly—”
“Just leave me alone!”
I yell. I’ve never yelled. At any of them. My voice echoes through the room, and I can see something pass in Diego’s eyes. Something like pity.
“Pobrecito. Cálmate. Estoy aquí.”
And then before I know it, he’s in front of me.
He grabs my wrists, and I growl, yanking them out of his grip.
“I said I’m fine!”
Beta is not fine. Beta feels like he’s going to explode.
The tears come again without warning, and I growl in frustration. Now is the time to cry! Not in front of—
Warmth surrounds me as my head hits something solid, and I don’t realize until I smell the faintest hint of spice that Diego is hugging me.
He’s hugging me. But why? I move to push him away, but he tightens his grip, and the sobs come harder. I don’t like this.
I’m hot, uncomfortable, my chest hurts, and—
“It’s okay,”
he says, his voice bordering a thick purr. It rumbles against me, and I suck in a breath.
After a moment he pushes me away, capturing my gaze with his.
“Sleep, Olivander. You need sleep.”
He’s right. I hate that he’s right.
“That’s an order,” he says.
I know technically I don’t have to listen to him. He’s an alpha, but he’s not my alpha.
Gage is the leader. Gage is the one who calls the shots here.
But Diego is also sort of his right-hand man, and he’s never given me a direct order before, so something about that feels monumental. Like he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t think the reason was just.
So, instead of fighting him like I want, I nod. I let out a choked whimper, wiping my eyes.
“Okay,” I say.
He gently guides me out of my office, shutting off the light. “Sí.”
And then I let him guide me down the hall to my quarters, and when I find my bed, I collapse, letting the darkness take me under.