Chapter 37 #4
“A few months ago,” I whisper, wishing they’d both just leave me alone. “He used to take me to a family doctor. He said because I was an Omega, I had to go to someone private.” I shrug, twisting my fingers in the hem of my shirt.
“I had no reason not to believe him. It was the same doctor I’d seen since I was a little girl.”
“What was his name?” Dax asks.
“Dr. Albertson.”
Vae draws in a sharp breath, and Dax nods. He doesn’t look surprised, though. He looks like he already knew.
“He took so much it made me light-headed. Then he got angry with my father. He had me lie down on the exam table and went out into the hallway. I could hear them arguing. He said something about not doing it anymore if my father couldn’t keep me healthy.”
“You never thought to ask what the hell was going on?” Dax’s voice is gruff and accusatory.
“I was an Omega with no way to defend myself.” I can nearly taste the exhaustion in my own voice. “My Alpha father was the only man I’d ever spent any time around, and he controlled everything. All of it. Do you understand?”
I look between the two of them. Dax with his dark, cold good looks and Vae with his royal demeanor.
Both strong. Both capable. Both supernatural.
Neither male has ever been powerless.
I sniff and laugh sadly, shaking my head. “Of course not. How could you? You have no idea what it’s like to live in fear every day of your life. To be scared you’ve worn the wrong dress, or you’re leaving your room at the wrong time, or you’re walking or breathing too loudly.”
I can feel a glare trying to work its way onto my face, but I’m too tired even for that. I just can’t summon the energy for anger. There is only hopelessness, despair, and never-ending exhaustion.
“I had nothing. No one. Just my books and whatever hope I could hold onto that one day it would be better.”
I peer at Vae through my lashes. “I did confront him. Once.”
“You did?” His tone is gentle. It’s a pretty lie.
“A few weeks ago, he told me I had to go back. I thought it was strange, so I went to his study. At first, I thought I was sick.” I close my eyes and lean my head against the wall, releasing a self-deprecating laugh.
“I thought he might be trying to protect me. Maybe he knew something that I didn’t and wanted to get all the answers before telling me the truth. ”
I swipe away another tear and inhale a stuttering breath. “I was wrong.”
Vae’s still, barely moving. Barely even breathing. “What happened?”
“He told me, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t sick. I asked him why he would take so much blood, and he said Albertson was using it to research Omega illnesses. He said, ‘You are my daughter, and if I want your blood, I’ll take it.’”
“So you let him,” Dax’s voice is ice cold.
“I told him I didn’t want him doing it anymore,” I correct. “And he told me that if I wished to have autonomy, then I could have it.”
“That’s good though, right?” Vae asks. His voice is so soft compared to Daxen’s. So removed from the reality of the situation.
Gods, I almost feel sorry for how naive he is.
“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” I give him a watery smile. “He said that if I wanted independence, then I could manage my own needs. No blankets, no extra clothes, no books, no food. He locked me in my room for days with nothing but a glass to refill in the bathroom sink.”
I turn my attention to Dax and meet his gaze full on, despite the anger and heartbreak churning in my chest. “Maybe you would have done something different, Daxen, but I did the best I could with what I had. Which wasn’t much.”
“I think you’re lying about Caelan.” Dax’s accusation echoes around the cell as he stalks toward me. “I think you read about Mate Bonds and figured you understood them well enough to fake one. But you forgot something.”
He smirks. “If one member of our Pack were Mated to you, the rest of us would be too.”
I nod, because what else am I supposed to say? I want to laugh. I want to cry. I do neither.
Instead, I glance away from his hateful gaze and focus over his shoulder, at the bars of my cell. “Yes. You’re right, of course.”
You absolute fucking idiot. I scream in my head. You arrogant, ignorant asshole.
“I think you knew your blood was magic, and I think you knew exactly what your father was doing with it. I think you knew he was injecting omegas with it. Killing them.”
My eyes snap back to his. “What?”
The words don’t make sense at first. My brain can’t seem to put the pieces together into anything that resembles reality. Killing them. My blood. Other Omegas. The words just bounce around my skull, refusing to land. I use the wall as leverage to push myself upright. The room tilts.
”You heard me,” He scowls.
“No,” I shake my head, staggering sideways. “No, that’s… you’re lying.”
My blood can’t be killing people. I’d know if it were… wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t I know if my father was taking my blood and using it as a weapon to hurt others?
Oh, gods. How many?
How many scared, terrified Omegas have been hurt because of my blood? Because of me?
My legs give out, and I slam into the wall, barely catching myself before I hit the ground.
“You would know,” he hisses, eyes glinting and a sickly sweet smile on his face. “You are a phenomenal little liar, you know that? It’s impressive, really. How quickly you managed to wrap Vae around your finger with that sad little story.”
Vae steps between us. “Daxen. Stop it.”
Dax glowers at me, then turns on his heel and stalks out of the cell
Vae closes his eyes and takes a long, deep breath, hangs his head… and follows his packmate.
The moment they’re on the other side of the bars, Dax grips the bars of the cell door. Then, with a twisted, self-satisfied smile on his face, he slams it shut.
“No!” I lunge forward, stumbling toward them. My hands wrap around the cold iron bars, and my vision swims. Bile rushes up my throat so fast I have to step back in case I get sick.
“You said you wouldn’t leave me down here! You said—”
“I said no such thing.” Dax leans in, resting his hands exactly where mine had just been. “I said you wouldn’t be down here forever.”
He bends lower and smirks. “Let’s be honest with each other for just one fucking minute, little Omega. We both knew I was lying then. Just like we both know you’re lying now.”
“Dax—” Vae grabs his shoulder, trying to pull him away. “You can’t leave her down here. I told her she wouldn’t be left here, and I meant it.”
He pushes between the two of us and forces Dax’s hands off the iron bars.
“I agreed because I thought a stone cell without any fire would be a good place to have this conversation in case she…” he glances at me over his shoulder with a wince, “got upset. I was serious about leaving her down here. You can’t do it. ”
“That— ”Dax snaps, pointing an accusatory finger directly at me, “is a supernatural that we don’t understand. Her blood has been forcefully injected into kidnapped omegas, and now those omegas are lighting shit on fire, glowing, and speaking in riddles when they’re not catatonic.”
I stagger back a step, blinking to see past the black dots swimming in front of me.
“There is something fucked up with her,” Dax insists. “And I won’t let her become a weapon in our own damn home.”
“She didn’t know,” Vae’s voice is low and pleading. My Omega sits up, soothed by his attempt to stand up for us, but the more he speaks, the worse it sounds.
What the hell could possibly be in my blood that would kill or hurt other Omegas?
Dax shakes his head. “You can’t honestly believe that. That’s like trying to tell me you didn’t know you were a vampire when you were twenty-two. She is different, and she knows it.”
He’s so calm. So self-assured as he tears me down piece by piece, until all that remains is doubt and fear.
Gods, what if I do something to hurt someone else? What if something inside of me hurts Caelan?
I have no idea how this, whatever it is, works. If my blood can change others when I’m not even in the room, what else is possible?
My hand drifts to my neck, and I scramble back, vision blurring further as panic twists everything sideways.
“I don’t trust her,” Dax argues, but his voice sounds far away. “I didn’t trust her when we bought her here, and I sure as fuck don’t trust her now.”
Vae shakes his head, like he doesn’t want to believe it. But I can see it in his eyes. He’s seen me lose control twice in twenty-four hours.
He doesn’t know if I’m dangerous, and the truth is—
Neither do I.
“He’s right.” My voice cuts through their argument. I can hear my own anxiety and resignation. I fall back and land on the stone bench, where I finally collapse.
“You don’t know what I am. I don’t know what I am, either. I don’t know what’s happening to me, or how I’m making things explode, or catch fire, or—or—” My voice cracks, and tears gather on my lashes again. “Or anything.”
It’s all too much—the interrogation, the accusations, the silence from Caelan’s side of the Bond. I can’t handle it anymore.
I need them to leave. They aren’t going to let me out. Even if Vae wants to, Daxen’s convinced. I can see it in the set of his jaw, and the way he holds himself—like a one-Alpha barrier between me and the rest of the world.
And gods, I don’t even think I can blame him this time.
I look at them. Really look at them both. Dax with his cold anger and Vaelenor with his guilty conscience. My Mates. The males who will never look at me with anything other than fear and disgust.
“It’s better to leave me here,” I say softly, blinking through my tears. “Until you can get answers.”
Vae’s head snaps up, eyes widening in shock. He opens his mouth, but I speak before he can.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve survived worse. And Dax is right. I don’t know what I am and until I do… until I know why people are being hurt because of me…”