When we reach the estate,Bethany opens the door and immediately pulls me, Cass, and Simon into her arms, pressing kisses to all of our cheeks.
“You’re safe,” she murmurs, relief rolling off of her. “I’m so glad.” As soon as she can bear to release us, she gathers Ian, Luca, and Marcus in her arms, doing the same. “Come in, come in. We’re all in the kitchen but Gerard.”
“Where’s Dad? He’s not at the Hall, is he?”
Bethany shakes her head. “He’s in his study, trying to run damage control. His security team is refusing to let him leave the house. So am I. And I’m scarier. Whatever work he can even do in a crisis like this, he can do it from here.”
We make our way into the kitchen where Roman, Douglas, and Colin are all sitting around the table, talking in hushed tones.
“Juniper, boys,” Douglas says with a weary smile. “It’s good to see you safe.”
“Any updates?” Cass asks.
“Gerard’s been locked in his office since the attack,” Roman says with a shake of his head. “And nothing new has shown up on the news. They’re running a profile on Annette in between repeating what they know about her assassination, but it’s the same story, over and over.”
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Colin admits.
“Nor could I,” Bethany says quietly. “I can’t believe they got Annette. She was the sweetest alpha, and she cared about her work, truly. She cared about omegas. She was a hero.”
And now she’s dead, all thanks to my father’s devious experiments and the Prince’s cruel orders.
“My father did this,” I say quietly. “You all know I have visions. I saw him in the New Jersey facility we found abandoned. He was experimenting on omegas. One of our sources who was early on the scene suggested he may have up to fifty test subjects in captivity.” I pause for a moment, pressing my lips together. “And this isn’t the first time my father’s conducted experiments on omegas. I think… I think I was his first test subject.”
Bethany drops the empty milk frothing pitcher, and it clangs to the floor.
“You what?” she asks, aghast, as Cassian stoops to retrieve the small metal pitcher. He washes it for his mother and then gently shoos her away from the espresso machine.
“I can’t be certain. He may have experimented on omegas before me, but when I was sixteen, I was confined to a facility not unlike the one we saw in New Jersey. A clandestine medical suite, hidden in some nondescript industrial zone.”
“What did he do to you, Juniper?” Bethany asks, trying hard to keep her voice level.
“He locked my magic,” I say quietly. “With spells and some kind of magical or pharmaceutical infusion.”
“That monster!”
“I wouldn’t have my magic if not for Ian’s brilliant spellwork.”
The alpha in question takes my hand and gently tugs me down to his lap, wrapping his arms around me.
“He got away with it then. Either no one found out or no one cared. I know my brother Aspen didn’t. And now he’s getting away with something even worse. I’m so fuckingsickof him getting away with shit. I have to stop him somehow, but we can’t figure out how to get a step ahead of him. I know he’ll regroup somewhere, but I have no idea where. He’s covering his tracks too well.”
After coffee,my pack gathers in the library, coming together in a pack pile I desperately needed. Simon taps away on his laptop, but I know that’s his way of fighting for me, so I don’t resent that it takes him away from the pile and to the desk in the library where he realizes something. “One of the files finally finished defragging,” he says, staring at his laptop screen. He taps a key, and an audio clip plays, my father’s voice immediately recognizable.
“Subject was collared to restrain her and prevent her from using her affinity?—”
“I’m shutting this down,” Simon mutters.
“Don’t!”
“You don’t need to hear this, Junes.”
“I do. I need to know everything about what my father’s doing if I have any chance of stopping it.”
“Ifwehave any chance of stopping it,” Ian cuts in.
“Play the clip, Simon,” Cassian says quietly, though I know he’d rather our beta do anything but.
“The sedative was administered at the surgical table. Subject fought against her guards until?—”
