“They just stole them away,” Ezra continues. “Guards turned up at doors, dragging the omegas out if they didn’t come willingly. The alphas were in a frenzy, so they’d hit ‘em with tranquilizer darts so they couldn’t fight back. They’d wake up and their omega would be gone. Bagged and tagged like an animal.
“Whole packs fell apart overnight, omegas ripped away from their mates. There was fighting in the streets, the government deployed troops and a curfew to keep order. It went on for months. People were mindless with grief. But they were ignored because most people had started believing the hype. They said it was the right thing to do. And there just weren’t enough of us to turn the tide.”
I feel sick to my stomach.
“Every day, I went to the compound they’d put them in,” he murmurs. “I tried pleading, begging the guards to let me in, but they refused. There was too much unrest. They told me that any omega was now required to be part of this government program and I should just go home.”
“I couldn’t leave it, so I kept trying. I tried to force my way in, then climb over the fence. They had too many soldiers, too much security. Eventually, they told me that if they saw me again, they’d shoot me on sight.”
“I was getting ready to go back,” he says. Ace flinches. “I knew that I couldn’t live without her. It had been six months and I’d hit my breaking point. But then I had a call to come to the compound. I’ve never moved so fast. But it wasn’t for her. Instead, they handed me a baby. Just her, nothing else. Not even a note. They told me that Ivy had died in childbirth.”
The whine slips out of me, and Ace slumps forward with his head in his hands.
“That was before the surrogacy program was implemented,” Ezra continues. “I’d had no idea that Ivy was even pregnant when she went in.”
“But Iknewshe wasn’t dead. I would have felt it, you see. She wore my bond, and I wore hers. But there was so much uproar. It wasn’t safe for the baby. There were gangs roaming the streets, looking for any excuse to cause trouble, and we didn’t have a pack to help us. If anyone had seen us, they would have gone for Cora. So I packed up our things that night, and we left. I didn’t even have a crib or a basket for her to sleep in. We moved upstate, where things were quieter. I told myself that I’d come back for Ivy as soon as Cora was a little older.”
Cora. Ace’s mom. She died in a car accident when Ace was a teenager, along with his dad. Ace’s shoulders are shaking with emotion and Rogue gets up, striding over and wrapping his arms around him.
I can feel the heartbreak in the room, filling up my throat. I glance at Ezra, at his tear-stained face. I can’t even comprehend the grief that he’s silently endured all of these years.
“I was going to come back,” his voice is almost a whisper now. “But then I felt the bond snap. And it was too late.”
My head is spinning. This is so different from what I’ve been told all my life. From what I’ve seen with my own eyes. I turn Ezra’s words over in my mind.
They’d wake up and their omega would be gone. Bagged and tagged like an animal. Whole packs fell apart overnight, omegas ripped away from their mates.
“But…” I choke out. Ezra looks at me, his blue eyes knowing.
Memories assault me. Soft singing in my ear. Screaming, the sound of broken glass. Growling, fighting. A woman pleading for mercy. Dull thuds. Wet across my face.
“They told me it was him.” It sounds like a plea. My pack turns to me, realization settling over their faces. “That’s why they killed him. They had to.”
Ezra looks at me, his weathered face firm.
“I know what you think happened to your parents, Devlin. But I swear to you, your father would never have hurt a hair on your mother’s head. He wouldn’t have been capable of hurting his bonded mate like that. He would have fought for her until the end. That’s why the alphas fought like they did. It was never anything to do with mind control.”
A growl curls up my throat, my body rejecting the idea that everything I’ve thought about my history for twenty years has been wrong. I’ve been told over and over that my mother had so much influence over my father that his mind couldn’t handle it. That he’d snapped and killed her before being shot by government guards, put down like a rabid animal.
“There were a lot of incidents like that, you see,” Ezra explains quietly, maintaining eye contact. “Gangs breaking in and trying to take omegas by force, or the soldiers getting trigger happy. The Government explained it away as omegas trying to manipulate pack bonds, that they were greedy, and it sent people twisted. We knew the truth, of course. It was them who’d twisted things. There just…wasn’t enough of us to get people to listen. I’m sorry, son,” he whispers. “I would have sat you down and explained this before, but I just didn’t think you were ready to hear it.”
I’m not ready now. I’m shaking badly at the realization that my father likely didn’t hurt my mother. Instead, a faceless gang or even our own government, my fuckingemployer, tore our family apart. My mother… if this is true, then she might not be dead. Where is she now?
Without a word, I jump up and flee the room, ignoring Rogue’s bark. He can’t split himself between me and Ace, and he doesn’t follow me as I head outside for some badly needed fresh air. I’m glad. I need a moment to myself.
ChapterThirty-Five
Rogue
Ican’t breathe. There’s so much emotion saturating the pack bond. Ace is hurting and Devlin – he suddenly snaps his bond down, effectively cutting himself off from his pack, and I growl in response. I’m not going to let him close himself off to us.
Not only that, but Gabe is an absolute mess too, his guilt soaking into me. And Harper is still upstairs, alone. We haven’t even seen her open her eyes yet. I stare wildly around, not sure who to go to first. The caving in my chest urges me to split myself in every direction. Ithurts.
Ezra snaps his fingers in front of me and I jump. Staring up at him, I can feel the glaze in my eyes as the bonds all fight for my attention. As pack alpha, I’m automatically drawn to soothe my packmates when they’re in pain or distress. Having all of them batter me at once is an assault on my instincts.
Ezra places his hand on my shoulder. “Steady, Rogue.” As a senior alpha himself, he can push some of his dominance into me. It’s rarely done outside of packs, tending to cause more harm than it fixes, but in this situation, it’s exactly what I need. I breathe in deeply, letting his support settle into me, and the overwhelming pull recedes slightly, clearing my head and letting me breathe. I nod at him in thanks.
Ezra looks down at his grandson, sorrow in his eyes. “Here, I’ll take him, and Gabe. Go and find Devlin. There’s more that needs to be said and we’ll need to head upstairs soon.”
