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I didn’t want to leave Soren alone. I never wanted to leave him alone, and yet, he didn’t care what I wanted. But he was right in any point he made, he was always annoyingly right. He final point before I left him alone in the room was about how if we were seen together, we’d both end up caught.

And it was a good job I left the room the alone because Naja was walking down the hallway, aiming for me it seemed. Dressed in a shirt, almost fully unbuttoned and a pair of black slacks, I was clearly desheleved.

“You stink,” she said, snarling at me. “What have you been doing?”

“Masturbating,” I said, hoping she didn’t smell omega on me as well.”Going for a shower now.”

“Good.”

“So, are you purposefully stalking me?”

“No, I was heading to the omega bay when I saw you,” she said. “The omegas have been cuffed to their beds. We’re still trying to plan what happens next with them. And Doctor Rathe believes she might be able to knock them out if we plan on sending them somewhere else.”

“Where?” I asked.

Naja shrugged. “Ask someone in operations. But they might end up in California or Arizona under your mother’s command.”

“Keep them here,” I said. “Don’t make any moves until I’ve showered, unless you want me to come to a meeting smelling, or stinking as you put it.”

Her mouth in that constant snarl didn’t give any of her thoughts away. “The Apex isn’t sure why they would be kept here when we can begin recruiting more omegas in,” she said. “And while they would be great to have around to fix things, like my office, I’m inclined to side with him because they are a drain on our resources, which you haven’t given anyone an idea as to how we would make up that shortfall.”

Looking her up and down, I tried to mimic the same snarl. I probably couldn’t pull it off in the same vien of disdain she did. “Considering you don’t work in the operations area, of course, you don’t see how we’d make up that shortfall,” I said. “But I have a plan.” I didn’t, but I would use the time showering to come up with one.

I didn’t. Once I was in the shower, all I could think about was how we would manage to get all the omegas out of this place. I didn’t have an accurate count of them, and I didn’t know if the cargo vans had already been driven off somewhere else to keep the omegas fom leaving that way.

All dried and dressed, the buttons of my shirt done up to the collar, I headed to the first bay of omegas. The ones that had been place into comatose states while Rotmor ravaged their bodies. There was one soldier to each omega bound to the bed with cuffs.

One of the sergeants approached me. She nodded and smiled, her teeth were perfectly white. It might’ve been the only thing separating the soldiers from the sergeants. “The soldiers are getting a little antsy,” she said. “They’re scared to take anymore of the venom, and the doctor has told them they cannot feed from the omegas.”

“They shouldn’t have been feeding from them in the first place.”

She nodded. “Of course. But since they were, and now they can’t, I think they’re going through withdrawal.”

“Ok,” I said, nodding as I thought about how to resolve the issue. “If any of them are suffering really badly, send them off to the hall where I’ll happily help them get their fix.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll make sure to do that, but only when we have enough soldiers here to keep the omegas pacified.”

“I wouldn’t wait,” I told her. “The omegas aren’t going anywhere.”

“Yet,” she added. “I heard they’re readying the trucks for transport.”

I was supposed to be running this place, and yet, I had no clue what was going on here. I just smiled, nodded, did my wave, and then left. I had to hurry my ass around all the bays, tell each of the sergeants on watch the same deal, and hope to cull as many black-toothed soldiers as possible.

It took half an hour before I was in the empty hall, staring at the replica large chair my brother had brought to the room. I approached it with the intention of sitting in it, before he arrived, standing in the doorway.

“Brother,” he said. “You know that’s only for the leader. And you’re not the leader of the Syndicate. Men have been killed for what it looks like you’re about to do.”

Standing behind the chair, I planted my hands on the wood. “Well, I’m not going to make the mistakes of lesser men,” I told him. “Why are you here?”

“Heard you were asking soldiers to come here, something about you helping them,” he said. “We have much bigger problems to solve before we attack the issue of addiction running rampant within your compound.”

My eye twitched. I’d been sleepwalking through everything. If I’d been conscious enough to decide what was going on, I wouldn’t have let them become addicted, and I wouldn’t have let them fill omegas with Rotmor with the intention of breeding them to produce infected and maybe mutated serpents in the same way I was. My cocks were a mutation, I didn’t know about until later in life, as I assumed everyone had two.

“Maybe you’d like to stay here and give the soldiers venom,” I suggested. “I probably have bigger things to be doing, like planning on what to do with all those omegas. And I’m not going to be killing them. That’s just wasteful.”

Drakon walked into the room, and in the doorway, shrouded in the darkness of my clothes, Soren appeared. I glared at him, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks. It was really him.

“You know,” Drakon began. “You’ve always tried to go against me. Even now, painting me as wasteful. Look around, brother, mom isn’t here, nobody is going to take your side. I won, I’m the Apex.”

The light from the room caught the glint of a knife in Soren’s hand. I wasn’t taking in anything Drakon was saying. I just watched. Soren didn’t even need me, it seemed. Fom behind, he plunged the knife into Drakon’s back, and then with his clawed hand, he sliced at his throat. Drakon turned immediately, he knife plunged into his back revealed. He grabbed Soren by the throat and pushed him against the wall. Soren slapped the button for the doors, enclosing the three of us inside.

“Kill him,” Drakon said. “You said you wanted this.”

I raced across to them, eyeing the knife in his back. It must’ve narrowly missed his heart with where he’d plunged it.

Soren’s face turned red, but he keps his eyes on Drakon.

“Is this the omega?” I asked.

“Yes!” he snapped. “Now, take the knife and kill him.”

I could’ve finished my brother off, here and now, but I’d made a promise to Soren that he could, even if now the reality was my brother would be dead, and I would be the only Vepres besides my mother to take over the Syndicate. Frozen with choice, I glanced from Soren struggling to breathe to the blood traveling down the black garb my brother wore.

“I can’t do that,” I said.

“Vasilis, you said you wanted to kill him,” he said. “I can do it here and now. But I’m saving him for you.”

I pushed the knife into his back, deeper, pressing his body against Soren’s on the wall. His arm fell from around his neck just as Soren gained movement with his hands at Drakon’s throat. He could barely choke out a word.

“I’m not going to kill him,” I said, twisting the knife inside my brother’s back. “You’ve been conrolling me for years. Why?”

He sputtered up blood, coughing it into Soren’s face.

“Why?” I demanded.

Soren loosened his grasp and moved out of the way for Drakon’s body to become flush with the wall.

“You’ve always been weak,” Drakon said.

“I’m not weak. I’m different. I’m—I’m better.”

“You were never able to kill like us,” he said. “It’s why you needed a little brain boost.” He laughed, more blood flying out from his throat.

Soren caressed his neck at where Drakon’s hands had been firm. “I want to do it,” he said. “I’m going to kill him, Vasilis. You promised me.”

I let go of the pressure I put on my brother’s back, giving Soren what he wanted.

“See,” Drakon laughed. “You’re weak.”

Soren yanked the knife out and as Drakon turned, he swiped, slicing a line across his neck. Blood sprayed him in the face and then he flopped to the ground, shifting into a blue pit viper, his body darting left then right, slithering fast with trace of blood on his tail.

“Where’s he going?” Soren asked, his hand shaking with the knife in it. “He’s going to—”

“He won’t get far,” I said. “But we should use this as an opportunity to get the omegas out. I’ll go find my brother.”

Soren nodded. “I’m glad I picked this up from the kitchen now,” he said. “I didn’t even intend on doing it then, but I—”

“It’s ok.” I pulled my sleeve into my fist and cleaned the blood spray from his face. “You just work on getting the omegas to safety. Use that if you need. Soldiers are going to start coming in here any minute. They’ll wait, so it’s fewer people to fight against. I’ll make an announcement, if I can to help.”

He leaned in and gave me a kiss. “I’m not going to use my claws again on myself, don’t worry.”

“You should on others though.”

“You should go find your brother. I still want to be the one to deliver the final blow.”

My brother was cunning, and since he probably helped create this compound, he would’ve known how to get between places. I didn’t know what shifting would’ve done for him, maybe it saved his life until he shifted back, or maybe he was still dying. There was only one way to find out.

As Soren went to gather the omegas, I tried sniffing out Drakon. The trail of blood stopped abruptly, either he’d been picked up, or the trace of blood had ran its course from his scales.

I went to his office space where Naja and Zito were talking. Sat on the sofa together, their brows furrowing as their glares became intense. Both very quiet but still loud in the way they stared as if I was trespassing.

“I need to make an announcement,” I said, approaching the small desk area with a micrphone. “We’re transporting the omegas. So, I need them all in the back of one of the transport trucks.”

“Where’s your brother?” Zito asked.

“The Apex?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“He’s somewhere. Surprised he’s not here. We just talked. He’s approved the plan. We’re trucking the omegas to Calfornia,” I said, thinking quick. “My mom is going to be working to find out what happened to them.”

“Still no sign of the little bastard that did it to them?” Naja asked. “Because you know finding him would solve a lot of those issues. Maybe like finding out why he was able to clear them of the Rotmor.”

I hummed and forced a smile on my face. “Sure, sure, I know, but I’m pretty positive he’s already left,” I said. “Do you want to stay here while I make the announcement? Or do you want to actually help the Syndicate and get the omegas prepared to leave? I know my mom will be happy to hear you were helpful.” Although, she was never going to forgive me for what I’d done to Drakon, and I would never forgive her for what she’d done to me either.

They both left the office, making remarks I couldn’t focus on through the blood rushing to my head and thundering in my ears as small bouts of panic settled around me. The idea that they could call my bluff, or that I was making a mistake hung heavy above my head.

From the speaker, I cut all of that noise in my head off and made the announcement. “All omegas are to be loaded on the transport trucks. No questions asked. This is a direct instruction from Apex Drakon. I will be transporting the omegas myself and leaving operations to Zito while I am absent.” The idea came to me suddenly. He couldn’t leave if I was putting him in charge, and no doubt, Naja would stay with him. “Soldiers addicted to the Rotmor infected venom should quarantine in the large hall. We will be purging the addiction from you. Don’t be alarmed, it will not hurt.” That’s the lie I’d been telling the omegas. It wasn’t going to hurt. It was all going to be ok. I wasn’t going to do anything to them, least of all give them Soren’s blood. They could kill each other for all I cared, as long as I was out of this place.