Page 59 of The Omega's Bloodlinem: Part Two

Since I didn’t want them to violate the terms of their temporary house arrest, I got both Kendrick and Yelena to sit in their respective doorways. They could just barely see each other, but they were close enough to speak out loud. I sat somewhere in the middle.

“So, which one of you wants to start? Let’s figure out how we got to this point and how to stop us from getting here again in the future.”

“He’s dangerous to my mate,” Yelena snapped. “It’s my job to protect her.”

I glanced toward Kendrick, absorbing his flushed face and white knuckles where his hands were curled into fists at his knees. I turned to Yelena. “She’s my mate too. We have the same job. Do you think I wouldn’t intervene if I thought he was dangerous?”

“You don’t know to intervene. And you probably have a sympathetic bias toward him. It blinds you.”

“I don’t think that’s very fair. Logan is my first bond, and I’ve loved her for years. If I thought she was at risk from being with Kendrick, I would have said something. How is he dangerous to her?”

“He’s manipulating her. He tried to claim her and separate her from you when the lot of you first arrived. Are you forgetting that?”

Kendrick had already been honest with me about his motivations in that regard, and while I wasn’t perfect at discerning honesty, he had sounded sincere. “I’m not forgetting. I thinkyoumight be forgetting how you came across at the beginning, though. If we were letting first impressions stand, we would have the same opinion of you as you have of him.”

She frowned, staring back into her suite, avoiding eye contact. “That’s not the same.”

“Because you know your own motivations,” I pointed out. “You knew you weren’t going to hurt Logan, but we didn’t.”

“I don’t want to hurt her, Yelena,” Kendrick insisted.

“Bullshit,” Yelena hissed.

I empathized with Yelena, with her impulse to guard a mate, but that wasn’t going to serve us well. “This is supposed to be arespectful conversation. If you’re not going to try, I am going to report that back to Logan.”

That seemed to cow her. “Fine.”

“Go ahead, Kendrick.”

He sighed. “I think we all know I’m not stupid enough to pick a direct fight with you. I already know it’s a terrible idea to indulge myself in my feelings for your mate. I know you hate me, and you would hate that even more. If she didn’t want me in return, I wouldn’t?—”

“You’re deluding yourself if you think she wants you.”

“Yelena,” I said firmly. “We can both feel her in the bond. You know that’s not true. Listen, I know it’s hard, and this isn’t the first time this situation has happened. You’re the Caden here, Kendrick is me, and Logan wants who you think she shouldn’t. This isn’t about your relationship with Kendrick, it’s about your relationship with her. You can go on for a while the way you are now, but she’s the one who’s ultimately going to hurt for it.Everyonehurts because of it.”

“You told me you had no bias,” she grit out.

“What I have is an understanding of fate. Logan needs her pack. Why would it turn her eye to Kendrick if he wasn’t supposed to be part of that? She was already overwhelmed with just me coming into the mix, and we’ve already added you, Haru, and Velda. She’s trying not to acknowledge her feelings for him out of deference to you, the same way she tried to deny me for Caden.”

I felt Yelena’s frustration in the bond, sensing every moment she grappled with herself.

Has he done something specific or is this a clash of personalities?

Her gaze snapped to mine.Ask the women he’s claimed. He has a dozen he’s stolen the moment they walked through the door.They’re terrified all the time, flinching at every sound.

“All right, I will. Kendrick, call your claimants for me, please.”

He looked surprised, but complied, the women in question appearing one by one and stepping out of his suite.

“Where the heck did they come from? Your room was empty.”

“There’s a tunnel so they can come and go as they please. It connects to the common area on the prey floor.”

Interesting.

They all looked nervous and twitchy, so Yelena wasn’t lying there. “Ladies, I’d like to speak with you please.”

They turned as a unit to look to Kendrick, as if requesting permission, and he nodded.