Chapter 36 #4
“Chill the fuck out, Daxen.” He snarls.
“I am chill—“
“No, you fucking aren’t!” He slams his palm into the wall beside my head and levels me with a glare. “I need to finish telling you what happened when I brought her that blanket.”
I groan and try to push past him. “Can’t this wait? I need to get up there.”
“No, damnit. It can’t wait,” he shoots back.
“When I went up there, I said some shit that I probably shouldn’t have.
She was going on about the Bond again. Said something about our threads being dark green.
And it just pissed me off so fucking bad because everyone knows pack Bond threads are green.
” He hesitates, then turns his wide eyes to me with a hollow sort of confusion.
“Don’t they?”
I swallow thickly, unsure of what to say. I assumed everyone knew. Just like everyone knows, Scent Match threads are gold.
“Yes,” I answer carefully. “Everyone knows that.”
He nods, “Right. Yeah. Everyone knows that. Anyways, I said some really mean shit, and she just kind of… gave up.”
He looks gutted, like he actually feels bad for the girl.
“It was just like earlier when you were an asshole, she just… shrunk down. Went still.”
“Get on with it.” I don’t mean to snap, but Fates, I need to move. I don’t care if the Omega got sad. I need to speak to her. Find out what she’s been hiding and why.
“She was staring at the floor, and I kept lobbing insults at her. I was so fucking mad. Then the air got all charged. Full of static. And the whole room started to shake.”
He swallows.
“Like an earthquake, you know?”
I nod, but his eyes are unfocused, and I’m not sure he is even paying attention to me anymore.
“The overhead beams. They exploded.”
I take a step forward and grip him by the shoulders. “What do you mean they exploded?”
”I mean KABOOM, Dax.” He flings out his arms. “They were in one piece, and then it was like my Bone Curse, but with wood. Tiny pieces of shrapnel flew through the air like little bombs.”
My pulse spikes, and my anger flares hotter. “Like… wooden stakes? For killing vampires?”
He actually has the balls to roll his eyes. ”No, not like that at all. They were splinters. And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. None of it hit me. Or her.” He says it sheepishly, like he is embarrassed that he wasn’t impaled by magic debris.
“And you’re just now telling me?”
”I was telling you, then Whitetail called!” His gaze flicks toward the attic door, expression full of longing. That just pisses me off more.
“I was always going to tell you, I just needed some time to process it myself. I think she did it, Dax, but I also think she protected me. And I also think she had no idea what was happening. Her face…” his tone is gentle, like he is trying to get me to see reason when I am so fucking far past that, it is in another state.
“She’s not hiding magic. Not purposely. I don’t think she has any idea what she is, or what’s happening to her. I’m telling you, she looked just as shocked as I was.”
“Great.” I jerk out of his grasp and storm toward the door. “She can explain what she does know, then. All of it. Who she is. What she is. Who her father really is. What he’s doing with the Severed. Where the missing Omegas are, and why her blood is full of fucking magic.”
I thunder up the stairs, and Vae curses, falling into step behind me. When we reach the top, I don’t even bother knocking.
Vae lets out a strangled sound. “Dax, wait!”
I don’t wait. The moment I step through the doorway, I stutter to a stop, and Vae slams into my back.
He grunts at the impact, then peeks around me. “Damn. I didn’t get a good look before I bolted.”
I want to go in, but neither of us is wearing shoes. The floor is littered with splinters. Sharp pieces of broken wood that are long enough to pierce skin.
At the back of the room, in a circle completely free of debris, is the omega.
She obviously passed out because her body is slumped to the side.
Her head rests on an arm flung haphazardly above her, and the other arm lies motionless across her stomach.
Her eyes are closed, a furrow between her brows.
All that gorgeous silver hair that I couldn’t stop thinking about—couldn’t stop hating myself for wanting to touch—is fanned out around her. Such an unnatural color. One I never thought to question.
Now I know why. Because she isn’t natural. She’s an unknown.
A threat.
To me, to my brothers, to my friends, and to my home.
Just as I open my mouth to demand she wake up, she shoots up and gasps like she had been drowning and is coming up for air. Then she screams. It is the most piercing, ear-splitting scream I’ve ever heard. Vae curses, I wince, and we both back up a step by reflex.
Her eyes fly open, and she sits up, but it is clear she isn’t really seeing anything. She wipes her hands on her shirt, and black smudges streak the fabric in long lines.
When she thrusts her shaking hands out in front of her, her breathing turns panicked. Her eyes are wild and unfocused as she stares at her hands like she’s never seen them before.
I have to do something before she loses her shit. I can’t wait, can’t risk it. Not in this house.
So I do the one thing I told myself this morning I wouldn’t do to her again. A part of me hates myself for doing it, but I fear what will happen if I don’t.
I open my mouth and use my Alpha Command on her.