“Let’s go, then.”
The food and water have been left behind, but we’re out in the wilds now, and this is where I spent years surviving alone.
Cadel leads, and the rest of us follow, walking briskly. He’s quiet, even more so than he normally is, and I can’t help but think there is something else bothering him.
I jog to catch up with him and reach out, taking his hand in mine. He stumbles but looks down at where I have hold of his fingers. It’s almost as if he can’t believe it.
“We’re going to be okay now. I survived out here for years. I can show you how to hunt and fish, where to get water and trade for supplies. It’s going to be great. We’ll be free to live however we want. Just the four of us in our own happy world.”
Mordecai makes a sound, but I ignore him.
The air around us turns tense, and when I glance at Jarek, he’s not looking at me.
“Is that what you want?” Cadel asks, slowing to a stop. “Would you be happy to walk away from it all, to pretend it’s not your problem and that it’s someone else’s life so it’s not something you have to worry about? Could you live your life happily, Omega, to do that?”
I flinch. “You don’t need to be so brutal about it.”
“You are so messed up,” he whispers. “I don’t even recognise you sometimes.”
I recoil, but he doesn’t let go of my hand when I try to snatch it free.
“People have hurt you and betrayed you. Too many of them, and now you’ve forgotten how to trust, and you try to hide who you are. I’m not going to hide in the forest with you, Kaida,” he says slowly, enunciating the words clearly so there can be no misunderstandings.
“I know who I am,” I snap at him. He doesn’t want to be with me?
“Do you?” he says darkly. “Because abandoning everyone, your designation, your people, that’s not you.”
“I’m the person who—”
He lets go and shoves me with both hands in the chest. I stumble back until I slam into Mordecai.
“You’re the person who shouldn’t be running off into a forest hiding,” he snarls. “Planning to live in a forest, running and hiding,” he shouts scornfully. “You! Who are you?”
“Well, let’s just go back, then!” I shout at him.
“You want to live happily with us forever while everyone else dies? They only become a problem when they come for us, right? We don’t care about Bear or Legion. What about Mia? Sophie?”
“Cadel,” I snarl, furious.
“Just admit it; you have no intention of hiding.”
I snarl at him.
“You were going to keep fighting, and we all know it. I’m not going to let you lie to yourself, hide from yourself. It’s time you really looked at who you are. Stop being this person!” he says, waving a hand at me.
“I barely know you. How could you know who I am better than I do?” I shoot back hotly.
“We know you,” Mordecai says. “And he’s right. We’re not going to live in the forest. We’re going to the Resistance.”
I’m stunned for a moment because, even though a tiny part of me knew that is where I would end up, I’m furious they are making me face it now.
“What is this? Do you want me to leave? Do you want me to go off alone?”
Cadel snarls, and I find myself staring up at this alpha with a hand wrapped around my throat again. His thumb gently strokes over my pulse.
“Just try it. You are ours,” he hisses in a dark, deadly voice. “I am not going to watch you walk away from me again.”
I let out a sound of frustration. “What do you want from me?”
