Rogue only nods. Harper buries her face into his chest.
“I should have known,” Christian said quietly. “They never would have offered me that job if Alicia had been alive.”
Max leans forward, his voice rough. “But you stayed.”
He looks at us. “I did. I thought… better it was me, than someone who believed in their bullshit. Better to have someone who could try to restrain some of the activities happening, minimize some of the damage. At every step, I have done whatever I can to help. Some of the ideas the board have come up with…,”
Harper flinches, and he inclines his head. “As Harper knows.”
My head spins with this information. “How could you stand by and watch that, every day?” I ask him quietly. “How could you sign off on what they did?”
He faces me, his chin up. “The alternative would have been worse. And I tried to help, wherever I could. There are still good packs out there, good alphas. I put word out, quietly, and sent as many omegas as I could to packs who I knew would look after them behind closed doors. When I met Harper, I matched her with my son and his pack, hoping that they would do the same. Thankfully, it worked out.”
Harper smiles sadly. “It did,” she says softly.
Christian turns to me. “I have an apology to make to you, Ava.” I start. “To me?”
My soul unravels with his next words. “The night you left the compound, I was called to an emergency by one of the guards. I didn’t realize that it was a ploy until I got there. By the time I realized that the cameras had been adjusted, and I got to your cell, it was too late.”
My breathing speeds up, remembering his face appearing that night.
“You carried me,” I say numbly. Luc and Max turn to me in surprise.
Christian closes his eyes. “I contacted Stone thinking that he would relish the opportunity to remove you from the compound. For Stone tochooseto put you in the nests – I am more sorry than I can say, Ava. If I could do that night over again, I would have kept you in the compound and not contacted him.”
I push myself up, stumbling a little from the weight of my stomach as I press my hands to the small of my back and move toward him. He glances down at my stomach and away.
“Have you been to the heat nests, Director?” I ask him boldly, and his green eyes meet mine with a touch of uncertainty.
“Several times,” he says. “It’s a hellish place. I requested several times to be given charge of the nests too, but I was always pushed back.”
My lips part, and I stop, frowning in surprise. “You’re not in charge of the nests?”
He shakes his head. “No, Ava,” he says gently. “Only the Omega Compound. Jonathan Stone is in charge of the heat nests.”
My knees buckle, and I barely feel Max’s arms surround me.
My father is in charge of the heat nests.
“We need a minute,” he barks, sweeping me into his arms.
I bury my face in him as he pushes open a door and kicks it closed behind him.
“Ava, love,” he smooths my hair back from my face. “Talk to me.”
Shuddering, I try to suck in a breath and vocalize the thoughts racing through my head. “I thought… I thought it was only me,” I confess. “But to know that he’s responsible for all of that pain, Max… that’s myfather.”
My father wilfully strapped me to a table, injected me with drugs, and let alpha after alpha use me. The screaming, the cries, the scents… all because of him.
His eyes are dark. “That man,” he spits, “is not your father, sweetheart. And you are not responsible for his actions in any way.”
I close my eyes, resting against his strength. “I don’t know why this even surprises me, but it does.”
“It doesn’t surprise me.” I pull back and look at him as his hands flex on my back. “But I am sorry.”
I blow out a breath. “We should go back in there. I want to hear what else he has to say.”
When I walk back in, Max close behind me, Christian stands.
