“But he’s not a wolf; he’s a monster.”
Walker flinches as if I’ve struck him.
“How dare you talk about my creation like that! It took a very long time and a lot of work to get him so perfect. We could never have done it without the both of you.”
Walker closes his eyes. His facade is crumbling. The pain in his expression grows until I catch a scent I’ve never smelled before. He smells of flowers, delicate blooms. It’s not a sweet smell, but something calming and powerful.
I open my mouth to speak several times, but I can’t.
Legion drags air into his lungs and heaves it out, over and over. His fingernails bite into my hand, but I don’t even pay attention; all I can do is stare at him.
The Warden is an alpha? My Walker was an alpha? Oh, gods.
My eyes drop to his neck, where a thin silver necklace sits close to his skin.
He’s not there willingly; there’s no way he does these things willingly. He’s a prisoner.
“What do you mean, the both of us?” I ask her and finally manage to look away from him.
The goddess walks down and touches Legion’s face. Walker takes a half a step before he stops himself.
“This boy followed his alpha, leading a trail of happy pheromones to a place we didn’t even know about. We found a nest of omegas and alphas. He came to save you first, begged for us to leave you all alone; he’d do anything. And then you came and did the exact same thing. It was the most incredible situation. Of course, we couldn’t keep the deal, but it wasn’t until we almost caught this one that things got interesting.”
I feel sick.
I had a feeling Legion was talking about my family. I’ve been refusing to think about it too hard, but now I can see, he was just a kid, just infatuated with the scent of his alpha. It wasn’t his fault. But the collusion of events resulting in my torture, Walker’s five-year agony, and Legion’s guilt and shame is just bad luck, bad timing, or a manipulation of the gods.
This isn’t our fault.
It’s hers.
She looks from Legion to Walker.
“The way to the Warden’s heart is through his omega. If you control one, you control the other,” the Beta Goddess singsongs. “Just like every pathetic alpha on the planet.”
I stare at Walker, seeing the emotion he’s masking clear as day. He’s afraid.
She sneers.
“Now kneel!” she commands.
It bounces off of us with no power in it, but the knife at Legion’s neck has the Warden dropping to his knees on the stage.
I can’t see anything else, anything except his dark grey eyes staring at me, begging me for help.
I don’t know if I can.
Chapter 65
The gamble
I turn on the goddess and scoff. “He’s a killer. I do not believe for one minute that he cares about an omega.”
She raises an eyebrow. “How shall we prove it, then? Shall I disfigure him? Cut off a limb?”
I shake my head. “That wouldn’t prove anything.”
She juts her lower jaw and pretends to think.
