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There was more to the reason why I was keeping Soren away from the compound in New Eden, and I couldn’t tell him why. I could barely even tell myself the reason why, because I wanted to forget it had ever even happened. It happened back when he was taking care of me, and I was bound to a bed, unable to move, but in complete control of my mental faculties. Soren hadn’t really seen what I’d done to him back then, and I didn’t want him finding out.

Part of me wanted to drive back and intercept him on his drive, but I was needed back at New Eden to check on the newest import of omegas. I wracked my brains to try and figure out a way to keep Soren out, but without physically holding him down and injuring him, I was shit-out of options.

I exchanged vehicles from the van to my motorcycle to get back to the compound. I hoped Soren would see the van when he needed to refuel, and I’d be able to cage him up there. It was the plan I’d called in to the bar. They’d picked up a fair share of omegas for us in the past. The only difference being, they weren’t allowed to injure him this time. No cattle prod or electric cages, or venom.

Arriving at New Eden through the underground parking, I was met by Naja in her all-black attire with her hair scraped back with gel. She hummed at me and rolled her eyes. Her manicured hands tapping at a tablet. “You’re reckless,” she said. “You’re always reckless. I wonder how long it would take you to fuck this entire operation.”

“I was dealing with someone,” I told her. She was on the high council, one of my brother’s three advisors, and she ranked higher than me. “It’s not like I was out there for a social visit.”

Naja tutted. “I know all about it. I have cameras everywhere. So, who is he?”

I approached her and glanced at the tablet screen. She wasn’t lying. She had cameras everywhere. “Someone who once helped me,” I admitted. “I owed him one. And I don’t want us pulling him in here. He’ll be the downfall of us all.”

She clicked her tongue and laughed. “Vasilis, you don’t take me as someone who needs help. I mean, you do help, but you don’t admit it. You’ll look weak.”

“I don’t need help, Naja. I’m just telling you what I’ll be telling everyone else. That man you saw me with in the bar, he’s not to be brought in. If he comes sniffing around. I want to be told, and I’ll take care of him.”

“A scorned lover?” she asked, tapping her nails on the tablet. “Did you get him pregnant? Is he looking for you to pay him something? Maybe he wants you to meet your offspring?” She snorted back and waved a hand. “I’m kidding, of course. I know you’ve got venom coming out of you everywhere. Anyone you mate with is surely already dead.”

And there it was. The nail on the head. The nail in the coffin of my life. I’d never be able to find a mate because of Rotmor, and I’d never be able to have a kid either. An omega could never survive Rotmor and pregnancy, even someone as special as Soren appeared to be.

It wasn’t so much that I knew he was special, but I’d tasted it on his skin, and smelled it in the air he breathed. I couldn’t have anyone else getting on his skin before I had the chance. If an Alpha claimed him before I could, even after all the ample opportunity, I would rampage throughout the state in what would be known as the world’s worst rut.

“You know, your brother is going to be back soon,” Naja said, interrupting the turmoil brewing throughout me.

“He’s the Apex to you,” I reminded her. “And why is he coming here? I thought he was needed in California.”

“Well, Vasilis, that’s on a need to know basis, and you clearly don’t need to know.” Her brows raised, she glanced off behind me. Of course, she hadn’t been here waiting for me, but someone else.

Two Alphas in their lieutenant attire walked toward her with big smiles on their faces. They gave me a nod before walking by, sweeping their arms around Naja as she went back inside the compound with them. Her harem, I mused with a smile.

There were so many different tiers to power. There was the natural order of power, which was Alphas and omegas, and the unfortunate circumstance of betas, who were often far too undiscernible and could assimilate with humans easier. Then, there was the tier for family, the older you were, the most power you had in your family, assuming you were an Alpha. And then, to the organization or coven you belonged to. I was firmly slapped in the center of all things.

***

Ten Years Ago

Family fucking sucked, especially the way mine were acting. Spitting words at me, laced with venom. They struck me every single time I was trying to do something with my life. Of course, my life wasn’t mine to live, it had never been mine to live. I was a Vepres, descending from the famed Medusa Vepres, my mother. She’d since retired but always spoke to my brother, Drakon. She advised him on everything. She’d groomed him to take off, and then he did, several weeks ago.

I left the family home from an underground forest outpost in Georgia. We enjoyed the heat and the way it could get slightly tropical for us. Being blue pit vipers, our ancestors were used to the tropics of Asian nations. I wanted to get back there, without knowing a lick of any of those languages, but as a viper, I spoke the universe serpent tongue.

It was the last time I was ever going to be part of the family. I just had to find somewhere else to go until they realized I’d left them. I’d gotten several miles from the compound when two of my brother’s henchmen came upon me with knives, threatening to kill me if I didn’t go home.

I put up a good fight, and after only taking a little damage to the face while spitting my intoxicating venom at the men, throwing them into a deep dreamlike haze, I managed to get away. I’d escape my family, and for what?

Over a large red and gray concrete wall, I succumb to the injuries and fell. My body flopping into a bush. Those blades they’d cut me with had been tipped with poisons. I knew the type of poison, and I knew my brother had wanted me dead if I didn’t return home.

It was the first and last time I left home with the intention of making a name for myself. And I was twenty-eight then. I lived my life in my brother’s shadow before, and if the wounds didn’t finish me off, I’d have to go back into a life where my brother was spoken about as the coming of a God.

***

It was easy for me to recall events, even if some of them were filled with lies I told myself just to get angry about. Each time I retold something, I might’ve adjusted the number of people who were there, or overplayed how much power I actually had to appease my inner voice. I was probably the weakest most powerful Alpha in my family. And I would keep telling myself that.

After laying in the tropical warmth of my room for a while, having the steam create dew on my skin, I got a call.

“We’re on our way to you,” the man from the bar said. “We used the small cage. You didn’t tell us he was a flying squirrel. Those things can squeeze through holes like rats.”

I smiled for a number of reasons. One, forgetting how adorable Soren had been the first time he showed me that he could shift. An omega who could shift was rare, although according to him, it was more of a burden. It was strange in some way, considering who we were. If we bot kept our animal forms, we were natural enemies, and even now, outside of those forms, we were still on opposite ends. Predator and prey, except he was the one coming to me without the fear of being prey.

“Is he in that form now?” I asked over the phone.

“Yes. We got him in a larger cage first, but when he shifted, we snatched that fucker up in one of the smaller cages. If he shifts back, he’s probably dead. And he knows that.”

It was looking forward to see him all small and adorable. “Ok. That actually helps me. I’ll come and collect him. Remember. Nobody can know.”

“Got it,” he said.

I put my shirt back on and looked at myself in the mirror. The nice glossy scars on my skin brought back memories, maybe they were real, and maybe they weren’t. I didn’t know. The amount of times I’d gotten second-hand highs from feeding on the omegas that were infected with Rotmor had tainted some of those memories like acid eating away at a camera film.

Soren being trapped in his shifted form was actually a relief. Sure, he would’ve smelled like an omega, but it meant I could bring him in here, keep him locked away and stop him from causing any more issues.

Two men arrived at the underground parking of the compound. Not the same men I’d ordered to keep an eye on him, they’d failed me once, I didn’t trust them to do anything more for me now. They were on motorbikes with a metal frame cage where Soren’s silver shifted squirrel form clung to the frame with his sharp claws.

“You wanted to visit,” I said, poking my finger through the small squire of space that the wiring allowed. “You brought this on yourself, Soren.”

The men stood and waited with smiles on their faces. One of them with the audacity to hold his hand out as if I was going to leave him a tip and a five star review.

“The Syndicate thanks you,” I said, carrying the cage from the handle at the top. “You’ll find a small thank you of toxin sent over. But I’m not going to send enough for everyone. So, split it amongst yourselves.”

They looked to each other. I knew that look. They weren’t going to split anything between their larger group on the fringes of New Eden. Not quite members of the syndicate, but still putting in the work for the occasional perk here and there.

Naja was in the doorway, stalking me, it seemed, or my paranoia was growing. “Have you checked on the omegas?” she asked. “And what’s with the new pet?”

I clung the cage to my chest and felt Soren scurry around inside it. “Let me do my job. I don’t need to be micromanaged. Unless that’s what my brother has you doing now.”

She looked me up and down. “I am his head of intelligence. It’s only natural that I know what’s happening in and out of the compound. So, have you checked on the omegas? Because the last I heard, a couple of them were convulsing and there wasn’t enough venom to go around to knock them out again.”

It was a veiled threat. The threat that if I didn’t go deal with them, she would tell my brother and he’d force me into a change akin to the one Soren was in and he would squeeze every drop and ounce of venom from me until it replenished itself. I’d half thought it would happen eventually, a fear, in fact. It was one of the reasons I’d left when I did. I didn’t want to be used. I needed to do whatever I wanted, to have free will seemed like such an illusion.

Taking the cage back to my room, I placed it on the bed and kneeled in front of it. “I want to take you out now and see what the fuck you were thinking,” I said, pushing my finger through the gap. Soren attacked it, his sharp claws drew blood. “Ow. You know, if you keep that up, you’ll be in this cage forever.”

He hissed at me, both tiny arms attempting to claw at me through the gap once more. I could only smile and stare at him. It wasn’t ideal. I never wanted him as a prisoner, but I was saving him from himself. And this was the only way I could do that. My tongue turned forked in my mouth before licking at the air. He scented the air just how I remembered it. This was going to be dangerous.