Max doesn’t take his eyes off Christian Winter as he sits down, his arm falling across my shoulders and tugging me into him. Rogue clears his throat, but Luc leans forward, his green gaze cutting.
“The second she gives the word,” he promises. “I want you all gone. You understand me?”
Devlin Winter shifts a little as Harper nods, her face ashen. “Ava, I’m so sorry,” she whispers. “It’s just… we had this idea, and I don’t think we have much time.”
My body goes cold. “Because of the news reports?”
Harper looks at Christian, and I flinch as he turns toward me. His eyes glimmer with a hint of apology. “Your father is throwing every resource he has into searching for you, Ava. He has now correctly identified Max Grey as the doctor who took you from the hospital.”
Max turns to stone next to me and my hand clenches on his thigh.
This is it. This is exactly what I was scared of.
“They don’t know we’re here,” Luc says in a furious voice. “Nobody does, outside of our pack and Leah.”
Christian nods. “That’s true, but it’s only a matter of time before your faces are on display alongside Max’s. When that happens, how easy will it be to get supplies? To go anywhere outside of this house?”
My legs start to shake. Max won’t be able to get Leah’s insulin supplies. “This is my fault,” I whisper. “I did this.”
Luc and Max both turn to me with a snarl. “You’ve done nothing,” Max emphasizes. “They are the ones who did this. Not you.”
He turns to Christian. “Why are you here? What’s your role in this?”
The alpha sighs, a hint of weariness entering his face. “May I sit down?”
Luc points him to a seat as far away from me as he can get. “Be my guest.”
Rogue takes a stand behind his father, the rest of the pack settling into seats around him. Harper sits close to Devlin, her amber eyes not leaving my face, but I can’t look at her right now. I need to understand how my friend is sitting in front of me, next to the man responsible for so much of our trauma, without batting an eyelid.
“I need to start with the creed,” the Director begins. Rogue glances down at his father, a slight frown on his face, but he doesn’t move.
“The day the Government announced the introduction of the Omega Creed, all omegas were required to present themselves immediately to the Omega Compound for processing. Anyone who didn’t was rounded up by soldiers. The pain of all those families, ripped apart…,” he breathes a little heavier. “It was agony.”
Clearing his throat, he looks up, meeting my gaze.
“My wife and I saw the soldiers coming. We lived in a street with a lot of alpha-omega pairs, and a few packs. Rogue had just started school, and she was supposed to pick him up. We’d discussed running, but she didn’t want that. Alicia was convinced that the creed wouldn’t pass, that people would realize how wrong it was. But we watched the soldiers kicking down the doors, dragging women out and beating the alphas who tried to protect them.”
His throat bobs. “We realized that we had miscalculated. Badly. We fought, but she walked out and handed herself over. She was too worried that something would happen, and Rogue wouldn’t have anyone left.”
I glance up at Rogue as Harper slips off Devlin’s lap. She rounds the couch, coming to a stop beside him. He draws her into his side, pressing his lips against her hair as he closes his eyes and listens to his father.
“I was working for the Government already, and I’d started climbing the ranks. And I was convinced that I could get her out. So I went to my superiors, and they said no. No exceptions. That was that, and we were expected to just carry on and forget that our mates were locked up somewhere that we couldn’t reach.”
Christian’s fists clench. “I realized that there wouldn’t be any success trying to protest. Anyone who did was put down – sometimes killed. So I told myself I’d be smart. I’d become the perfect Government lackey, parrot anything they needed me to – whatever I needed to do, I would do it, until I was in the position to get Alicia out.”
You could hear a pin drop in our silence as we digest his words. “So you lied?” I ask.
He nods. “I’m not a good man, Ava,” he says in a low voice. “I did whatever I needed to do, said whatever I need to say. I stood by and watched atrocities you can’t imagine. I just wanted Alicia back.”
I hold back the question on my tongue.
“When they offered me the Directors position, it was everything I’d been working towards. I thought – now, I’llfinallybe in a position to help her. It took me seven years.”
My heart twists, a little pity breaking through.
“On my first day, I checked the files. She had been transferred to the heat nests two months before. They found her hanging in her cell one week before I was offered the job.”
Horror ripples through me. “I’m sorry,” I breathe, glancing between Christian and Rogue.
