Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
~Harlow~
I swallow the bile that threatens to creep up my throat and spill onto the plate in front of me.
My eyes are glued to the bag that contains every belonging I have left in this world as well as the diary where I keep the only photo I have of my twin sister.
A diary filled with my darkest secrets, the only one I hadn't lost over the years.
"The key you had cut?" Thane says, and I blink at him. The key? Who gives a fuck about a key? He holds my entire world with that bag.
"Where did you get that?" I blurt, even though I already know. It’s a dumb question, yet it’s the only one my mind can conjure at this exact moment.
My brain has turned to mush and threatens to melt out my damn ears as I try to come up with something, anything that will dig me out of the crater that has opened up at my feet, trying to suck me in.
Thane growls, annoyed, and starts ripping stuff out of the bag.
I shriek, lurching across the table to snatch the bag from him.
My heart thuds against my chest when Thane leans forward, plucking the bag effortlessly from my grip. My fingers desperately cling to the fabric of the handle. I don't know if I will throw up or pass out. Either way, with how fast my heart is beating, I am dangerously at risk of a heart attack.
"What the fuck, Zara?" Thane bellows as he glares down at me. It’s only then that I realize everyone is standing, and I notice the fork embedded in the webbing between my thumb and index finger.
Staring down, the plates and cutlery are on the ground, the table is a mess, and my hand is bleeding as I try to figure out how I stabbed myself with a fork.
Still, I feel nothing except dread and panic. No pain. Nothing. I pull the fork out, drop it on the table, and look up. I’m an idiot. I should have remained calm, because now, Thane’s looking at the bag he’s holding as if it contains a bomb, or something equally dangerous.
I realize my mistake too late. He may have grabbed all of my stuff from the storage locker, but he didn’t go through it.
He rips everything out of the bag, and my eyes widen in horror when I see the diary fall onto the table.
My hands snatch it before he does, and he growls.
His aura washes over me with the weight of a damn elephant, and I am the peanut beneath its foot, about to be crushed to smithereens.
"Hand it over," Thane snarls. Yet, in my panic, I refuse and keep a death grip on the diary as he tries to pry it from my fingers. His command is excruciating, but I would rather his command kill me than hand it over. Either way: I’ll be dead if he opens it, dead if he doesn't.
"Zara!" he bellows, yanking it out of my hands. He snarls, wiping it on his pants to clean my blood from the cover. The moment his aura drops, I lunge, trying to tackle him. Only he is quicker and swats me away.
Raidon grips my arm before I hit the ground.
Thane is furious. Fuck him. Fuck my job.
I couldn't care less. All I care about is that diary and the photo inside it.
It is the only photo I have. Zara and I took it in one of those photo booths in a shopping center, the one time we were able to sneak out of that horrible place.
"We try to help you, and you carry on like this?" he snarls, his teeth turning to sharp points as his canines extend. Seeing his face half-morphed into a monster is terrifying. He looks demonic, his black eyes so dark they look like the bottomless pits of hell.
"Please," I beg, my eyes on the diary, and he looks at it in his hand.
"I didn't read it, but by your desperate attempt to keep it from me, I probably should," he snaps, gripping it in both hands, about to open it. I step forward, about to snatch it back, when Raidon yanks me away.
"Are you insane?" he growls at me as Thane opens it. The photo slips out from between the pages, falling to the floor. He moves to grab it, and I shake out of Raidon's grip. My knee lifts as Thane bends down to pick it up and connects with his face, hard.
I honestly didn't mean to do that, but the sickening crunch is loud. I hear them gasp before Thane clutches his face and roars. He drops the diary. I snatch it and the photo, bolting out of there while Rhen, Leon, and Raidon stand stunned.
I catch a glimpse of them as I slide on the tiles in the hall, before careening into the wall. My bare feet grab traction, and I run for the front doors. My hand twists on the handle. I yank it, but it’s locked. I fumble with the locking system when I hear the table getting upended.
The loud bang makes the door rattle. I finally get it open and rip it wide, only for his hands to grip my hair and pull me back. My feet are yanked out from under me. I hit the ground hard, staring up at Thane, whose feet are now on either side of my head.
I blink up at him. He snatches the diary from my hands, only for it to be ripped out of his. Rhen backs away from him, holding the diary, until his back hits the open door.
"Calm down, Thane," Rhen murmurs.
"Give me the damn thing," Thane snarls, holding out his hand. Rhen's eyes dart to mine as I sit up.
"She has a right to privacy."
"Not in my house, she doesn't," Thane says, his voice ice cold.
Rhen swallows and looks down at me. I shake my head, pleading with him not to hand it over.
"Choose Rhen: her or me," Thane snarls. Rhen sighs, handing him the diary.
"Sorry, Zara, he's my mate," Rhen says. I see Raidon place a hand on Rhen's shoulder, as if he is about to pull him back, worried Thane will attack him. Leon stands in the doorway, looking at everyone, horrified.
"Thane, please. It isn't yours," I murmur as a last-ditch attempt. He growls.
"You attacked me over this!" he roars. I flinch and drop my gaze to the floor.
"We know nothing about you. Your landlord knew nothing about you!
Talon and Bree, also nothing. What are you hiding?
Are the answers in here?" he asks. I look up, only for him to crouch down beside me, shaking the diary in my face.
I blink back tears, knowing if he opens it, my real identity will no longer be that of a presumed dead girl, but a real one.
I was so stupid to put my thoughts where anyone can read them.
"Answer me. Give us something, Zara. If not, I will read it," he growls, gripping my chin. His fingers dig into my cheeks.
"What are you running from?" he asks.
"Everyone," I whisper. His brows furrow before going to the photo in my hands.
"What is that?" he asks, letting go of my face. I look down at the photo clutched in my hand, now crumpled.
"A photo," I answer. The Omega facility didn’t take photos of us for their records.
We were underage, and it wasn't allowed without either our permission or that of a parent.
Omegas are rare, and the risk of any photos being leaked could result in our kidnapping.
There are enough attacks on facilities. No way would they risk a photo circulating to the wrong types of people.
It would put both the staff and the residents at risk.
It helps bring in more money at the auctions too.
The bidders can't be too picky or judge us on our looks.
Only our numbers matter. Still, a photo of me did leak: the grainy footage from the restaurant.
So, technically Thane seeing this picture won't hurt, unless he knows the Omega he bought was a twin.
"Of whom?" Thane snatches it from me and turns it over. Zara and I are thirteen in the picture.
"You're a twin?" he asks, clearly shocked by that information. I nod when he hands the photo to Rhen. He looks down at the diary in his hand.
"Where is she now?"
"Dead," I tell him, and he bites the inside of his cheek.
"I'm sorry," Thane whispers. He holds his hand out for the photo. Rhen returns it to him, and he passes it back to me.
"And this?" Thane asks, holding the diary up.
"If I give this to you; then you need to give me something, Zara. Are you running from the authorities?"
I stare at him.
"Yes," I admit.
"For what? Robbery, murder, not registering? If I let you stay, I need assurances that you aren't a risk to my mates. Are you muddled up in that vamp business you used to work for?"
"No. I just didn't want to join a pack. I never have. So, I didn’t register, and I don’t have ID."
"And you can't afford the fines," he sighs, knowing full well what that means. Thane pinches the bridge of his nose and slowly exhales. I’ve given him enough information to stop his questions. I’m not going to add that I’m also running from him and the Obsidian Pack.
Thane hands me the diary, and I hesitantly take it back. "I'll fix your fines. Have you got a birth certificate?" I shake my head.
"Fine, we will order you one tomorrow at work, then we’ll get you registered."
"You can't register me. I have no pack links," I tell him. Once registered, every Alpha in the city will be aware of my existence, and I will be hounded relentlessly. All because of my DNA. I’ll be forced to hand it over to the council so they have my numbers.
Thane curses and looks over his shoulder before dropping his head, his shoulders slumping. He presses his lips in a line and rises to his feet.
"I'll register you with our pack," he sighs before turning on his heel and heading for the stairs. "And I want the master key you had cut!" he says, leaving no room for argument; not that I have one. I won’t need the key when I go on the run.
I can’t let Thane register me, with his pack or otherwise.
My DNA is already in the system, and one cross reference is all it will take for them to find out who I really am.
I have time though. He will have to wait for my birth certificate before getting me registered.
I can give him a fake name and buy myself a few days to escape the city.
Either way, by the end of the week, he will have figured out who I am, and I don’t want to be around when he does.
I look up to see Leon practically bouncing on his heels. Raidon gives me a wink, a smirk on his lips.
"We get to keep her!" Leon nearly squeals with excitement.
"It appears so," Rhen says, smiling down at me. I gulp. They think Harlow destroyed them last time, and I’m about to do it all over again, as soon as they figure out that she and I are one and the same.