Page 281 of Incompatible

I struggle to tap the words.

"Hey, I have great news, my therapy is finished…" My phone slips from my hand.

A moment later everything goes black and I slide sideways on the seat, losing consciousness.

???

When I open my eyes I realize I’m stretched out on something like a cot, and my arms and ankles are tied to the four legs of the bed.

My first thought isn’t even frightening, I just assume I’m dreaming, because everything is slightly blurry and hazy and fogged over the way it is in dreams.

A second later it hits me.

I let out a wild scream and jerk my head up as much as I can to check what’s around, panic pouring through every limb like a cold river.

I see him immediately.

A giant of a man, so huge that even sitting he’s taller than I am, watching me with an icy gaze.

His long hair is steel colored, silver mixed with gray, his face looks carved out of gray stone, and there aren’t that many wrinkles even though I know right away he must be well over seventy.

His massive, muscular body is so enormous that even Bay’s brother Storm wouldn’t compare, even though he’s also a purple.

Eugene Hanson is the largest purple alpha I’ve ever seen.

Fuck. The ground seems to split open beneath me. At the moment when something so miraculous happens in my life, this happens too, another tragedy hits.

Is my world really about to shatter in a fraction of a second?

I should have known. Bay has never called me ‘darling’. For some reason that thought flashes through my mind. And in the last two messages he called me that twice, which makes no sense, so could it mean he didn’t send them, that they… have him too?!

A cold shiver shoots through me. I nervously glance around.

The room is terrifying. I see right away I’m in the basement of a funeral home. That huge cabinet with metal doors is unmistakable. They keep bodies in there, it’s a cooler. I vaguely remember from the trial back in high school that the Hansons have various businesses: clubs, shops, but also funeral homes.

I try to think of what I could say, what I could demand or negotiate, but the truth is that right now I am entirely at his mercy unless… he dares to touch me.

Even lying here, tied like a pig, my mind still refuses to accept these facts, it keeps trying to rewind time and stop it at the moment I got into that Uber. I want to wake up from this nightmare, that’s all I want, someone pinch me, please.

This driver, the omega… only now do I start to understand why his face looked familiar. Those rough features, of course I should have recognized him. Back in high school, when all of this began, there weren’t only the alphas from their family. There was also a beta, Kaleb, and… one omega, and they both were the brothers of the ones Bay killed.

I remember his sugary, fake smile, and damn, he sold it well, I suspected nothing.

But it’s too late for regrets now. I can’t rewind time. I have to deal with what’s in front of me and trust that maybe another miracle might happen.

"Do you know what it’s like to live for over a decade without knowing what happened to six of your grandchildren?"

His voice is low and gravelly, almost booming.

I stay quiet. I’ve already decided I won’t argue with him, because I know perfectly well there’s no chance I can talk my way out of this.

"Yes, I spent exactly twelve years trying to figure out what really happened. When my other sons gave up, when they moved on, I kept pushing. The police refused to help, private investigators found nothing, but… I didn’t stop."

Eugene leans forward a little, his massive shoulders bulging as he braces his hands on his knees and tilts his gray head. His neck is actually wider than his skull!

"Until one day, driving for the thousandth time along the route where three of my grandsons died, I noticed one of the factories about six miles from that road was replacing its cameras."

A short pause. My eyes stay fixed on his grotesque face, all sharp angles and heavy brow ridges. I stay silent as he goes on.