Not that we have vultures here, but the image makes me feel better.
Hours pass as I run laps around our home. Long enough for Auryn and Em to do their thing, long enough for Diego to clean up after dinner, long enough for Olly to hopefully come to a conclusion on something useful. Something we can use against Sneed.
I slow my steps and head back inside. Shower next, then seek out Olly.
When I get to the lab, Olly’s sitting there staring at a slide in the microscope. His jaw hangs open, and his eyes are wide with disbelief. Whatever he’s looking at, it must be big.
“What did you find?” I ask.
He turns to me, gaping, and points at the microscope. I know I’ll have no idea what I’m looking at, but I take a peek to humor him.
Yep. It’s a blood sample. Beyond that, I’m clueless.
“Okay. I looked. What am I looking at?”
Olly points at a monitor that displays a magnified view of the slide. Why the fuck did he have me look in the damn microscope?
“See that? Right there?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Olivander, please remember that I’m not as smart as you are. I have no clue what those little wiggly things are. Just tell me, okay?”
He sighs with frustration and points again. “Rightthere, Gage! I finally isolated the fucking protein in Auryn’s blood, the one that keeps disappearing on me.”
“Good?”
“Well, sort of good. I mean, it’s … it’s hard to believe. If I hadn’t had Em’s blood for comparison, I might never have figured it out.”
“English, please, Olly.”
“Auryn’s not an omega.”
I blink blankly at him. “What the fuck do you mean? Of course she is.”
He shakes his head. “The purring, the growling, the locking. You have to admit, she doesn’t act like your typical omega. She’s got aspects of omega in her, yes, but she’s got morealphain her than anything.”
Great. My scientist has lost his flipping mind. “Olly–”
“Gage, I’m not crazy! The evidence is right here. I couldn’t isolate the protein earlier because I was looking for omega-type proteins. Then I saw a similar protein in Em’s blood, one of his naturalalphaproteins, and it clicked. I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”
“Are you saying… Auryn is … an alpha?”
Olly’s face lights up. “Yes!”
But … that means … “She’s a natural alpha, so the omega traits she exhibits …”
His light darkens. “Are traits Sneed forced on her.”
Words can’t begin to describe the rage that boils inside me. Everything we’ve seen of Sneed’s operation indicates extreme sadism, but this is so far beyond that …
He tried to wipe out her alpha nature. He tried to make her docile, pliable.
Now I understand what she meant when she said he made her into something she’s not.
“Have you told Auryn yet?”
Olly turns bright red. “She’s with Diego and Em. She said not to disturb them. Plus, I just now figured it out. I haven’t had time to go get her yet.”
Well, fuck. Now we have to interrupt playtime for the serious drop.
