My jaw drops. This guy might be crazier than me. “Demon spawn?”
He tosses his hands up. “Alphas. Omegas. It’s unnatural. You’re allunnatural,” he spits, pacing the room. “Instincts and ruts and heats—you’re no more than animals, really.” He stops, lifting a hand to stroke a finger down my cheek. The touch makes my skin crawl as his voice goes suddenly soft. “I’m going tosaveyou, Josephine Harding. Make it so you can be more than your instincts. More than your disgusting urges. Xavier wants to build a new world. One free of designations and laws that give alphas and omegas special treatment. He wants to saveallthe omegas, Josephine.”
My fingers itch for a knife at the use of my full name, but I do my best to ignore it. “Save omegas? Do you know what that word means, Senator? Is the irony lost on you thatIam currently an omega strapped to a bed in a strange place?”
“Omegas are bought and sold every day. To packs. To individuals. Remove the commodity, remove the temptation to profit from it. Omegas cannot be sold into slavery if theydon’t exist.”
Something morbid occurs to me then. Dick Pierce, New York Senator and influential politician, is just loose-lipping his way through this conversation. No secrecy.
He’s either crazy, or he’s not planning on letting us live, even if he succeeds in reverse engineering the serum. Which, he can’t possibly, because it burned out of my system the moment Hayden bit me again.
Hayden must think the same thing, because he jumps in, “Surely you can just work off the dose still at the asylum that they’re giving all the alphas, right?”
The Senator glares at him. “No, you idiot.” Red flares in my vision at his harsh words.
“Don’t you talk to him like that!” I spit, and Dick gives me a condescending grin.
“I’ll talk to him however I want, you simpering fool.” Then he shakes out his shoulders, letting a breath loose. “The dose was specially altered and curated for Josephine Harding. Then it was administered to the omegas in the testing facility, but now that they’remissing,” he glares at me again, “you’re the only thing we have left. And Iwillmake good on my promise to Prometheus.”
“You can’t,” I shake my head wildly. “It’s not in my system anymore. Hayden’s venom burned it off. You’d just be wastin’ time.”
His expression stills. “His…venom? You bonded?”
“Guess Brooks and Whitmore left that out of their little reports,” Hayden smirks. We may not be getting out of here, but we sure as hell aren’t giving these assholes what they want either.
“We’re a true-scent match. Me, Hayden, Sam, Kole, and West.” My voice is triumphant. “It burns it straight out of the system. Even if you prick me a hundred times, they’ll just bite me again.”
Something clicks into place for him and his eyes dart down the hall. He pulls a cell phone out and dials a number before holding it to hisear. “Send the scientist down and bring the other mutts and the beta into the main holding room. There’s been a development.”
He hangs up, and gives me a pitying look. I have the distinct feeling I just fucked up.
“Listen, Josephine…once we perfect the serum, even the bite of a scent-match will be useless, because scent matches won’t exist anymore. No more venom, no more bonding. The only thing that will happen if someone bites you…well, it’ll probably get infected because the human mouth is a disgusting place. My son…he’s already spoken for. He’s been engaged for the last three years, did he tell you that?”
Acid churns in my gut. Of course I know what he’s talking about, but the thought of my Hayden being married to some woman who isn’t me makes my omega very territorial. Regardless, I glance over at my Fire Demon and shake my head so he doesn’t interject.
Dick continues, oblivious to mine and his son’s silent conversation. “She’s fantastic breeding stock. Perfect tits and ass…for a beta. That will be the only shame I think, in removing designations. No more naturally curvy bodies perfect for childbearing. You know, I’ve been milking the whole ‘single, dedicated father’ shtick for quite a few years now. Perhaps it’s time for a new wife…” His finger strokes down my cheek again as Hayden lets out a growl of warning. The asshole is distracted enough by the sound that he turns towards him, and my teeth snap forward, catching his finger.
“You bitch!” Dick screams as blood fills my mouth, and then my ears are ringing, my head snapping to the side as my cheek burns.
“Is that all you got?” I croak, shaking my head to try to get rid of the dizziness. “You slap like my great Aunt Dixie.”
“Don’t you fucking touch her!” Hayden screams from his cell, rattling the bars. His face is contorted in rage, and the gutting feeling of helplessness seeps into our bond.
“Is this what I have to do to get you to listen?” Dick shouts, holding his bloody finger to his chest. “Do I need to knock the bitch around to get you to shut the fuck up?!”
The sound of a door opening has him turning, and I follow his line of sight to see West and Sam being pushed into the room, their hands cuffed in front of them, and Kole being dragged by two guards, one comically taller and thinner than the other. Kind of reminds me of Bert and Ernie. “We had to sedate the Russian, sir.”
The sight of my guys banged up, bleeding, and bruised from the car wreck makes my insides churn, and I have to fight to keep an omega whine down.
“It’s fine. Just put them in the cell with my useless son.” I watch as Sam and West’s eyes land on me, and they both immediately start fighting against their cuffs.
“Jo!” Their voices are desperate as they call for me, but it’s no good.
“You weren’t lying, were you?” The Senator shakes his head. “Scent matched toallof them? I bet you’ve fucked them all at the same time too, little whore that you are. Pity. You’re not bad to look at but I don’t go for sloppy seconds. Or…” he mentally counts, “fifths.” I snarl, but he turns to a man in a white coat and round glasses coming down the stairs. “Oh, good, Sinclair. There she is. Take some blood samples and see what you can get.”
The beta scientist, Sinclair, eyes me with disdain as the Senator leaves, presumably going up the stairs. Bert and Ernie move to follow behind him.
“You aren’t going to just leave me in here with her, are you?” His eyes are wide as he looks back and forth between us.
