Page 24

I felt like an absolute failure to Soren, for leaving him, for telling him I would do everything in my power to keep him safe and free the omegas. There was a comedown effect from all the memories sliding back into place, all the things I’d seen myself doing, but with these eyes and a mind that wasn’t so clouded with the anger my brother and doctors had been poisoning me with, I was on the verge of total collapse myself.

“Oh, there you are.” Naja, of all people, it was Naja to see me pause in the hallway and rest with a hand on the wall, trying to ground and center myself. “The Apex and Doctor Rathe want to speak with you. They’re in the lab.”

“In the lab?”

“Yes. I’m not sure what they’ve found, but—”

“Cut the shit, Naja. You know everything that goes on in here. What have they found?” I was done with it all. She was my brother’s advisor, and yet she hadn’t left this compound since I arrived to lead it. I know realized how stupid I’d been in thinking I had any real say in what happened here. “Is it the omega? Do they need me to deliver the final blow?”

She smirked, showing some lipstick on her teeth. For once, a flaw on what she plucked, primped, and primed so not a single hair was out of place. “No, we think he’s left the compound. But the omegas left behind, something very strange has been found, and they need you to look at it with them.”

Of course, she wasn’t going to be straightforward with me at all. “Ok,” I said. “Are you going that way as well?” I knew she would follow me to make sure I went anyway. Those cameras seemed to only have been in place so they could keep an eye on me.

My world was in a tailspin, trying to control what people thought of me and if I was axcting in the same manner I’d always been acting, but then there was the people who knew I’d already broken from it before, and they were going to suss me out easier now. Something in my gut told me.

In the doctor’s office and lab where a sheet covered the dead body of Doctor Payne, my brother and Doctor Rathe were standing over a microscope. They waved me over and Naja followed.

“Is everything ok?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure the omega has left. I couldn’t find them anywhere, so it’s looking like they’ve up and left.”

Drakon turned to me and scoffed. “Not chance,” he said. “They woke all those omegas and then they’re just going to leave. That doesn’t make much sense now, does it?”

“No, but I haven’t been able to find them, and nobody else seems to have found them either,” I said. “Unless they really can shift into the most miniscule of animals, in which case they might still be here, but otherwise, I don’t think they are.”They both glared at me. I didn’t know if they were buying it, but I forced my brows into a frown in hopes of conveying the seriousness. “Unless Naja found something you wanna let me in on.”

Doctor Rathe shook her head before glancing at my brother, as if they were both tryin got gauge whether or not to share this information. He nodded. “We need to find that omega,” she said. “He’s going to ruin everything. We need him dead.”

“Just—” I paused, a sharpness in my throat. “Point me in his direction and I’ll deal with him.”

“Don’t you want to know why?” Drakon asked.

“I assumed you’d tell me if it was important,” I said. “But my main goal is to find him, take him out, and keep the Sydnicate on track for our plans.” I tried to read the room, hoping that was what they’d wanted me to say.

He nodded. “Ok,” he said. “Well, that omega somehow has been able to eradicate the Rotmor from those omegas. It’s wiped the full disease from their blood. None of them have any of the effects now. They’re all lucid and smiling, even in the face of potential death.”

“Well, we’re not planning on killing them, are we?” I asked, looking around to seen Naja smirking as she stared daggers into me. “We need to use them for the plan.”

My brother shook his head. “Well, omegas are a dime a dozen out there,” he said. “I don’t want them to go to waste, obviously not, but if they’ve been cleared of the disease, then whose to say if they can be infected with it again?”

I didn’t know if it was the same for me, considering I didn’t know what had been going on with me. I was born with Rotmor, unless, now it had also gone from my system as well. A pit welled in my stomach. I grabbed the counter, keeping myself balanced. “We can try, right?”

“We don’t want to try,” Doctor Rathe said. “If you or your brother try and bite them, you might also lose the Rotmor.” My exact thoughts, but it didn’t bother me. I’d already bitten Soren, I was probably already in the clear, which nearly brought a tear to my eye.

“It’s not the end of the world, brother.” Drakon smirked.

“But all this work, for nothing,” I said, forming a fist against the counter. “I don’t think we should kill the omegas though.”

Naja cleared her throat. “They’re witnesses,” she said. “We can’t just let them go, and we definitely can’t just let them live here. We’d need more resources. Unless you know of a secret surplus the rest of us don’t.” She stood on the side with my brother and the doctor. Those three against me.

“No, but were would we bury them all? The goal wasn’t to kill a bunch of helpless omegas. The goal was—” the words swelling in my throat. “We’re here to create an army of Vepres serpents.”

“I already called mom,” Drakon said. “She’s advising we get rid of them. Leave no trace. And it was something I’d already thought.”

Staring into Doctor Rathe’s eyes, I needed her on my side. “What about—” the entire lab was filled with research. It was obvious. “The research,” I said. “Kill them, and the research dies too. I think they’d be better to keep alive. We can use them. Free labour. And the soldiers can get laid.”

“The resources are the problem,” Naja added.

“Why are you fighting this so much?” Drakon asked.

My cover was almost blown. In the moments of quiet, I wished I knew how to respond without baiting out the idea that I wasn’t the cruel and ruthless Alpha my brother and the Syndicate had tried moulding me into.

“I think Vasilis has a point,” Doctor Rathe said. “Since we’re no longer using them for their intended purpose. They would make great subjects for me to study. And there are a lot of other toxins we could potentially try out on them to make sure they stay docile.”

“We shouldn’t make quick decisions,” I said. “They’re just omegas. What’s the worst they could do?” I forced my mouth into a smirk. “Anyway, that’s what I think about it. I should probably go and keep searching. We can’t afford anymore mishaps,” I said, nearly turning to head out of the door, forgetting th eentire reason I was glad to be coming to the lab. “But while I’m here still here, what antibiotics do we have around? And pain killers?”

The change of subject raised their brows in my direction, and then to each other. I didn’t want to be so suspicious, but I needed to help Soren heal before my brother acted as the Apex and executed the omegas.

“Why would you need those?” Doctor Rathe asked. “We have an entire medicine cabinet, but those are reserved for dire needs, like myself, or—” Her eyes glanced to the body under the sheet, it was behind the parition, but since there was so much space beneath it, he was still very visibly a lump beneath it.

“And pain killers?” I asked.

“Come on, brother,” Drakon chuckled. “You don’t need painkillers.”

“I think I might,” I said. “I don’t know what it is, but after being wiped out for the past couple of days, my body is sore. I figured it might be something it’s trying to fight off. That’s all.”

They boguht it. The doctor nodded and agreed to get me some medication from the cabinet, and after handing it me, she stood and nodded at me to take it in front of her. “This should help, and you can come back if you need any more,” she said.

With the tablets in my hand, I reacted to the words and moved my hand to my mouth, pretending to shove them on my tongue. I didn’t need to do much but keep all focus on me as I dry swallowed them, or so they thought while I actually slipped the tablets into my pocket. I didn’t know what they were, they could’ve been to knock me out, but I trusted them in that moment it would help fight whatever Soren was going through.

“Brave,” Drakon said with another one of his widening grins. “You used to have swallowing tablets.”

“Did I?” I recalled it, somewhere in the back of my mind. “Maybe when I was a kid, maybe eight or something, but I’m not a kid anymore, Drakon.” I was in my thirties, and yet, he tried to infantile me at every opportunity. I was his way of plying people off against me, he’d always done it. I hated how non-linear the memories wre coming back. I could barely create the timeline, or how I was aging.

“Like when you were twenty,” he laughed. “I always rememebred you doing that thing like you’d gotten a bone stuck in your throat where you were hacking for ten minutes. It drove mom crazy.”

“Everything drives her crazy when it’s not coming from you,” I said, hoping I wasn’t breaking their trust in me by snapping back at him when I was supposed to be under his control. “Anyway, we’ve got a—rat problem to fix. Assuming that’s what he is.” Soren would’ve clawed my eyes out if he heard the word I used. I even suppressed a smile at the idea of him throwing himself at me, hands going everywhere, only for us to fall into bed and I would assert my Alpha self over him.

Drakon clapped his hands once. “Yes,” he shouted. “Go deal with that and stop whining then. Naja, I need to speak with you about the cameras and the security of this place.”

Finally, my window to leave without her beady eyes. I didn’t run, but I moved with purpose back to my room. In the short trip back, I looked bakc a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t being followed, and I didn’t stop for any of the soldiers who asked what they needed to do. Soren was high priority, not only because we were bound, but because he’d savedmy life before, and I owed him that.

As the door opened, I saw Soren at the foot of the bed, collapsed into a heap, balled up with a blanket covering his back.

“Jesus, Soren.” I dropped to my knees at his side as the door behind me closed. “You were supposed to stay in bed.”

“I was—” he muttered. “Your voice. I was following.”

I was never taught bond mechanics or what feelings were mine and which were his, but I assumed it had something to do with it. “I got some pills, I don’t know what they do, but I think they’ll help.” I placed the back of my hand to the back of hsi exposed neck, the hair on his nape was soaked in sweat.

“You’re back,” he grumbled. “Where did you go?”

Stroking the back of his head and neck, my hand became soaked in his sweat. “You’re burning up.” With my othr hand, I grabbed the tablets from my pocket. In the darkness of the room, only illuminated by the night light and my superior vision, I counted four tablets. Now, I know why my brother made the comment, that would’ve made me gag. “Come on, let’s try and sit up. I need you to take these. They should help fight any infection.” But I was confused about how he’d been able to help everyone else fight off the Rotmor, and yet, he was now stuck with an infection because of it. He’d already told me about how it was a wound he’d made with his claws, but it felt silly that his clearly superior immune system had faults.

As soon as Soren was upright, his back against the foot of the bed, I forced him to take the tablets, just as he had once done to me. Individually with sips of water, he took the tablets and fussed about how he was still burning up.

“You’re gonna be ok,” I whispered to him, pulling him into my arms and embracing him with a hug. “You need rest. You need to stay in bed. I’m going to take care of what you started.”

Soren could barely lifted his head and look at me. He his rolled around in all directions, struggling to keep them open or even a straight gaze. And his speech had slowed to a slurred slurry of syllables.

I couldn’t stay in my room, I knew that much, I had to be seen out there with the soldiers, I had to pretend to look for traces of Soren outside, hinting to his escape. And I had an idea to get the scent seeking soldiers to search for his sweat stained clothes outside.