“How should it have been?” I ask. “That idealistic view that the gods had for us to walk a path together, to have peace? How can we have peace when it’s so easy to overpower two-thirds of the population? The gods made alphas and omegas weak.”
“Heats were a time of empowerment for an omega, to be sexy, comfortable in their skins, to express their love, and speak without words to the alpha they chose for a heat or a lifetime. By depriving alphas, they’ve created monsters and turned heats into violent experiences that you all fear. They used to be celebrated. The gods envied humanity for getting to feel so much, for living so vivaciously.” Cadel is talking, but his eyes are unfocused and far away.
I stare at him, unwilling to break into his musing.
“The betas were there with them, keeping them safe, guarding both and receiving the love of the other designations. It’s how it worked. For so many years, omegas were celebrated, alphas were guardians and protectors, and betas were the solid ground they all clung to. A world in balance.”
“It’s not in balance anymore,” I whisper bitterly.
“No, it’s not,” Cadel says sadly, his eyes on the alphas that have been reduced to animals. “It’s not at all.”
I peer at the side of his face. “How do you know all this?”
He frowns, but he looks taken aback. “I read about it.”
“Oh.”
But that’s weird because almost everything about before and especially anything about alphas and omegas has been destroyed.
“Would a society even be possible now? You don’t remember who you are,” Cadel muses. “That’s the question. Can you recover?”
“We.”
He jerks his head towards me, and I try to ignore my pounding heart.
“What?”
“We. We don’t remember who we are,” I say, putting emphasis on the word because there is something there that makes my body tremble and scares me.
He stands up, and I take a step back, my heart beating even faster because, for a moment, I saw something impossible. For a moment, it looked like he had blue-tinged skin and wore robes of white, not black.
“Kaida,” he murmurs. “I would never hurt you.”
He speaks, and a shadow rises. I take another step back, gaping at him.
“I promise, Kaida, you are safe with me.”
I know it, but there was a huge black shadow of a wolf superimposed over him, and, for one heart-stopping moment, I felt power such as I’ve never felt before, and it rolled off him in waves of icy breezes.
“I know,” I say, but when he comes closer, I turn with him, watching intently for any sign of the other image I saw.
He lifts his hand, and I snatch his wrist, holding it still.
“What is this?” I murmur, running my fingers over the white stars and moon on his palm.
“It was a gift from someone I loved very much,” he says, looking at it.
Jealously rises in me, a thick poison that is hard to swallow. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know; I’ve been searching for her for a long time.”
I don’t want to let his hand go, but he’s got someone else. I attempt to let go, but he grabs my wrist, holding me still. He turns my palm over and traces his index finger in a circle on my palm. It tingles and turns cold, and a snowflake appears. It glows and then settles in like it’s an old scar. Then he lifts his hand to my chest, and I feel the tingle of something icy rise to the surface.
“What is going on?” I whisper, backing up, but he comes with me.
Cadel brings my palm to his mouth and kisses it, then he lets me go, whirls, and leaps through the window, clearing the impossible distance in one jump.
“Are you breathing, or shall I do mouth-to-mouth on you?”
