Chapter 67
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Falcon
The walk back through the woods toward Warren Corvina’s house feels a lot longer than it did when I was alone, following tracks this guy made sometime earlier.
Owen explains his story as we go, and Mr. Ortega cries quietly for the entire journey, letting us lead him back home without asking any questions.
He doesn’t seem capable of coherent conversation.
He just keeps whispering one word, “Zelena.”
“Isn’t that the name of that popstar?” I ask, when I realize where I’ve heard it before.
“Yeah,” Owen confirms. “That’s his daughter. Kind of.”
“Kind of?”
“Warren Corvina replaced her when she … "had an accident" as a kid,” Owen says, doing air-quotes one handed. “Ortega’s wife went to prison over covering everything up. It seemed weird that this guy avoided that fate at the time, but now I get it. Clearly, Warren did something to keep this guy out of jail so he could break into the academy later.”
I take it in silently, not wanting to make Ortega any more upset.
His daughter died, and Warren Corvina replaced her with another kid.
That’s so diabolically fucked up.
“It gets kind of wild after that,” Owen goes on.
“It gets wild?” I can’t help but laugh.
Owen nods. “You’ve probably heard about the brainwashing experiments Corvina conducted on Omegas. Well, that’s the tip of a very big iceberg.”
“I know he also trained a lot of psychologists and therapists, and there are rumors that he might have shared some of his techniques with a whole lot of them.”
“He ran clinics that he probably used in his experiments, too.”
“Experiments?” Ortega whispers.
“You remember experiments?” Owen asks.
The guy doesn’t respond.
He sniffles, sobs, and goes quiet again.
“Is that why he’s like this?” I ask Owen.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is,” he mutters.
“What are you not telling me?”
I know there’s something.
He’s quiet for a few moments as we walk on through the forest.
“Do you know anything about astral projection, or possession of another soul’s body?”
“Uh, did you just turn into one of the Ghostbusters?”
He laughs and shakes his head. “Good one, but no.”
“Then, what?” I ask, needing to hear it out loud.
“Ortega wasn’t like this when he came out here and cut that hole in the fence,” he starts. “He’s been broken down mentally by Corvina. I’m guessing because it made it easy to use him.”
“You think Corvina brainwashed him into breaking in?”
“I think Corvina was in his body a few minutes ago. Using it to break into the academy.”
He’s being completely serious.
It’s a wild theory, but given the circumstances, I can’t discount it out of hand.
“Corvina’s soul was inside Ortega’s body?”
Saying it out loud doesn’t force it to make sense.
All it does is make me shudder.
The man is evil.
He used his wealth and power to abuse Omegas.
The thought that he has what amounts to a supernatural ability is beyond fucking terrifying.
“How do you stop someone who can do that?”
Owen shakes his head. “He deserves a cruel and unusual death, but considering what he’s capable of, I don’t think that would stop him.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” I mutter.
The whole thing is crazy, and this isn’t how I expected my day to end up.
We walk in silence for a while, with only Ortega’s sobs to accompany us.
I can’t help but worry about Robin.
She’s not as safe as I thought she was.
Not while this is an ongoing threat.
“What does Corvina want, exactly?”
Owen hesitates to answer, while Ortega whispers the name of his daughter.
“You don’t know, or you don’t want me to know?”
“It’s not …” Owen starts, before letting out a sigh. “Lana wouldn’t like that I’m telling you any of this. You’re an outsider, and I don’t think she believes Robin’s your true mate.”
“She’ll know Robin’s our true mate soon enough,” I tell him.
“Yeah,” he admits. “Probably. I doubt it’ll make her trust you.”
“So, you know what Corvina is doing this for?”
“He has more than one reason. There are Omegas in the academy he was in the process of brainwashing to sell to Alphas. It’s possible he’ll attempt to trigger them.
It’s also pretty obvious he doesn’t like what Lana’s done to Goldcrest. She made changes no one before her would have dared to suggest. She’s locked out all the old sponsors of the academy.
They don’t get a say in what happens there now.
His friends will be pissed off about that, too. ”
“Yeah, I’m sure they hate that it’s not their kind of exclusive anymore.”
“Pretty much. If you’re worried about your mate’s safety, you shouldn’t be. The academy is the safest it’s ever been. We know Corvina’s our biggest threat. We know what he can do, and we’re careful about who gets into Goldcrest.”
“Sorry, but I can’t take your word for that. This guy could have gotten into the property. He got close. If I hadn’t been here today and I hadn’t seen the hole in the fence, then the biggest threat you have would have gotten inside.”
“A patrol of the exterior was scheduled for tonight, and we have cameras all over the property that are monitored constantly. We would have caught him.”
“After how many people were already affected? You have a priority to protect Lana. She’s your mate. I know how that feels. Everyone else matters, but if it comes down to the wire, and it’s her or someone else, we both know who you would put first.”
He doesn’t try to deny it. I wouldn’t believe him if he did.
After a few minutes, he sighs and stops walking, forcing all of us to a halt.
“You have no intention of leaving once we’re done,” he states, with a sour note in his tone.
“I can’t. Not while Robin’s still here.” I shake my head.
He doesn’t look pleased. “Lana’s not going to like that.”
“With all due respect to your mate, I don’t care.”
He curses under his breath, before he admits, “I knew I shouldn’t have told you about Warren Corvina.”
“That wouldn’t have changed anything.”
From the wry expression he has on his face, I think he already knew it.
He has true mates. He knows what that feels like.
“You know I can’t leave her,” I add. “If I need to spend all night circling the fence, I will, but I’m not going away. None of you can make me do that.”
“I’ll talk to Lana,” he tells me. “Once we’ve got this guy secured.”
“Secured?” I ask, as we start walking again.
“I’ll call a team once we’ve got him back home. They’ll come out and watch over him. Corvina can’t use him if he’s under guard.”
“That’s the plan?”
“It’s not perfect, but it’s all we’ve got,” he admits.
“We can report his attempted trespassing to the police, but it won’t get us anywhere.
What he did was barely even a crime, and it’s not like he’s going to confess to whatever he was going to do when he can barely even function as a human being. ”
“So, you’re just going to use some of your guards to keep him from being used.”
“Unless you have any other ideas?”
“I guess not,” I murmur.