Page 147 of Eclipse Sector

“Yes, Dixon and Cael assumed that if Tadhg found out another V-Clan Alpha was interested in Carlos’s way of life, he would reach out and set a playdate.” Grey sounded bored. “That didn’t happen.”

“You don’t seem all that surprised by that outcome,” Kieran noted, his observation rivaling my own.

“Because I’m not. Tadhg has spent a century, perhaps longer, hiding who he is from everyone in our world. He probably saw right through Dixon’s intentions.”

Cael blew out a breath and shook his head, his posture and expression suggesting this wasn’t the first time he and Grey had exchanged these words. “We had to try.”

“Sure,” Grey drawled. “And now Ashlyn has taken fate into her own hands by offering herself up as bait. She’s seen what’s going to happen to those Sanctuary Omegas, and she’s trying to stop it. Which is why I need to see those diaries.Now.”

“Shit,” Kyra cursed. “Shit, shit,shit.”

“I know,” Quinnlynn muttered.

Ivana frowned. “What?”

“This is just like Ashlyn,” Kyra hissed, her catlike eyes flashing with annoyance. “Always putting herself in danger to protect others. We knew she didn’t join the mating program to find an Alpha. We knew, and we didn’t press the issue.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Quinnlynn argued. “You know how stubborn she can be.”

Kyra shook her head. “I really am going to kill her when we find her.”

This time, Lorcan didn’t utter a response to Kyra’s repeated threat. He just studied his mate intently, no doubt hearing a string of words through their mate bond. Or perhaps he was just sensing her mood.

Ignoring all that, I focused on Cael and Grey. “So you think she allowed herself to be captured, to try to stop the other Omegas from being hurt,” I reiterated.

“Yes,” Grey replied. “And it makes perfect sense, too. Tadhg would have learned about her prophetic abilities from Hawk or one of the other Alpha candidates from his sector. Or he likely knew because she’s a Z-Clan Omega. Regardless, he would haveseen her as a threat he needed to dispose of. And she placed herself in a position to be taken.”

“By volunteering to come back to Blood Sector to help those who stayed here during their heats,” Kyra muttered, shaking her head again and chastising herself mentally for not seeing it.

“She was one of the few who didn’t go into heat, too, and had said it was probably because her kind didn’t react to the serum,” Quinnlynn grumbled. “But I bet she didn’t imbibe the drink at all.”

“Assuming a drink is how it was introduced,” Kyra returned. “We still don’t know how that happened.”

“It was definitely the estrus party serum. I recognized it while trying to heal some of the Omegas.” Quinnlynn’s eyes narrowed at Cael. “A serum your brother would have had access to.”

“True, if Bariloche Sector still existed,” he replied, arching a brow. “I can bring him here for Cillian to interrogate if that would help the situation.”

“He has a natural block in his mind, making that rather difficult,” I pointed out. “Something I think you already know.”

“It’s a barrier he can remove.” Cael proceeded to do just that, opening his mind to me so I could see the truth. “It’s not difficult to do.”

I didn’t reply, instead poking around his thoughts and hearing the sincerity inside them.

As well as a worry for Ashlyn.

Because he knew all too well what was about to happen to her. So well, in fact, that it told me this had happened before.

To someone close to him.

No. Not to him.

To Grey, I realized.

Grey was the one who had exposure to this organization’s auctions.

He’d experienced the pain of betrayal. The pain ofloss.

All of this, the accusations surrounding Tadhg, the need to bring him down, was because of Grey. He somehow knew the Alpha Prince was responsible for whatever had happened in his past.