Shepherd waits another minute, testing to see if I will cave and allow him to shield me from this, but I hold steady. Even if it hurts, if my heart breaks watching this video, it is something I have to do. Sensing my resolve, he powers on the laptop we use to stream movies to the TV. He doesn’t enable the mirrored connection, sparing Kaitlin from whatever awaits us.
Pressing play, we watch as a dark, shaky image of the interior of Father’s church fills the screen. It’s unrecognizable with the pews pushed aside and all the lights off. A single bulb fills the space ahead of the camera, shining down on a medical table. Horror has bile rushing up my throat as I realize what its placement means. If that table is the new centerpiece, then the vile Doctor Harrison must be nearby.
“The Lord has spoken. Whispered into my ears the list of your sins and deemed me responsible for deciding your punishment.” Father’s voice rings through the speaker. Thesound makes the hair on my arms rise and my pulse race with fear. His false claims of prophetry make me sicker. I’ve spent the last thirty years of my life listening to him spread hatred in the name of God. Blasphemous preachings aimed at nothing more than bringing more wealth and power into his own hands.
Omen lurches forward suddenly, her too-thin wrists coming into view as she catches herself on a pew. She hasn’t spoken yet, simply allowing herself to be dragged and tossed around. Why isn’t she fighting back? Does she not realize what he intends for her? The torture the Doctor will inflict at our Father’s order?
Footsteps echo through the church as Father approaches her, spewing more nonsense with each step. I watch as he comes into view beneath the light. His hair is graying and messy, unruly in a way he would beat his congregants for. He’s disheveled,but is it because of my sister’s appearance? Or is there more at play here than we can see?
Being trapped in the cabin for the past sixteen days means we have no news from the outside world. No way to know what actions the DAU and FCDA have taken since Kaitlin and I fled Whitlan.
“So she returns. The abomination my wife birthed. A walking embodiment of sin.”
Omen speaks, her voice strong but hoarse, as if it hurts her to force the words out. Have they already hurt her? Is this not the first of her punishments?
“It takes two to tango,Pastor, so I carry your sinful DNA equally to hers.”
Pride and concern war within me. To hear my sister lash out at our Father after all this time… her unshakable confidence standing before him awes me. My knees tremble imagining being there with him.
When his hand flies out, audibly connecting with Omen’s cheek, a squeak of fear slips through my lips. I watch in horror asshe falls to the floor, the strength of the hit hard enough to knock her camera free and send it skittering across the floor. It rolls to a stop with the lens aimed back at her.
The sight of her on the screen makes my stomach heave. Shepherd quickly pushes an empty trash bin into my hands, just in time. He sets it aside after the spasms stop, offering me a bottle of water and a wet wipe. His body is strained as he sits down on the longest part of the couch to watch with me.
What has happened to my sister in the past two weeks? Her skin is so pale it’s nearly translucent, and it clings to her body so tightly that she looks like a walking corpse. Worse than her physical appearance is the lifelessness in her eyes. She looks resigned to a Fate she promised wouldn’t take her from me.
Omen only stays down for a moment before climbing back to her feet. She spits blood-soaked, condemning words at Father’s feet, not backing down despite her obvious disadvantage. He hits her again, punching her in the stomach and sending her crashing to her knees. The sound of her wheezing breaks my control, and the first sob slips through my lips. Shepherd’s resolve snaps then, too. I’m lifted from the couch and pulled to sit between his thighs. Strong arms wrap around me, holding me together. My body sinks against his, stealing his strength, but neither of us turns away from the screen. We’re determined to see this through. To understand what my sister went through to bring about our father and his cult’s demise.
“I may have once been a simple Beta, but no longer. The people of this church come to listen to me. They follow me. I hold the power, and I won’t let you and that silly organization dethrone me. I am their god now.” Father is truly delusional. Openly speaking of himself as a false idol and destroying the illusion he hides behind during his sermons.
“There is no God here, only a man pretending to be something he’s not. Your flock will see through your bullshitsoon enough.” A vicious kick meets Omen’s response, sending her body rolling across the floor. Shepherd holds me tighter as I fall apart, witnessing the abuse he is lashing onto her already weakened body.
“They’ll never have a choice. For years, Doctor Harrison has been dosing all of his heat and rut suppressors with a chemical mixture allowing for forced control of Alpha or Omega instincts. Even if they realize I’ve been using them to expand my power base, all it will take is one dose of this drug in the air to bring them back into the fold. The same drug that has been pumped into this very room from the moment you arrived.”
Everything seems to freeze as we listen to him admit the true depth of his crimes. It all makes sense now, his conversation with Colin the day we left. That’s why they’ve been kidnapping Alphas and Omegas. Doctor Harrison is using their bodies to create this mind-control drug. And my husband has been helping traffic them into New Hampshire.
I grab the trash bin and empty my stomach again.How have I been so blind to their crimes? I searched for years to find evidence to bring them down, but in all that time, I never stumbled upon anything like this.
“Shit,” Shepherd swears, his hands flexing where they slide to my hips. I jerk my head up and focus back on the screen, only to have my heart shatter at the image depicted there. Omen is strapped to the medical table now, her shirt split open, and Doctor Harrison stands above her.
What terrifies me the most is the smile stretched across my sister’s face. Even facing the madman we grew up fearing, she doesn’t allow the smile to fade. She stares up at the ceiling as he grabs a scalpel and starts cutting into her neck.
It takes my brain too long to catch up with everything he said until now, but as soon as it does, my body sways. He’s going to remove her scent glands.
Before he can make more than a shallow cut, the door to the church splinters in the background. A man’s voice barks through the room, commanding the Doctor to drop the scalpel, but it’s ineffective with the drug they’ve been pumping into the room. More voices join his, making similar demands. Glass shatters, raining across the room in rainbow shards. Harrison takes the temporary distraction to his advantage and bolts for the back of the church.
Father just stands and stares, as though he is untouchable. His inflated ego makes him believe there will be no consequences for what he’s admitted to today. I want to laugh at the audacity, but my attention is riveted on my sister.
Omen lies on the table, bleeding from the wound in her neck. Her chest rises with ragged, uneven breaths before stopping altogether. My lungs freeze as I wait for her to take another breath. To blink, twitch, or show any sign that she is still alive, but none comes.
My world rips apart, fracturing into impossibly tiny pieces as I watch Father get knocked to the ground. Omen’s bodyguard, Lex, climbs onto the table and performs CPR. The image of her lifeless eyes as he tries to keep her heart beating is the last I see before it all becomes too much, and I pass out.
Jolting upright, my hand flies to my chest, hovering over the frantic beat of my heart. Memories of the video flow through my mind on repeat as I try to make sense of the world around me. I’m still in the living room, but it’s much darker out now.
“Angel, you scared the hell out of me.” Foster appears at the back of the couch, red-rimmed aquamarine eyes shining in the dim light. He gives me a watery smile and presses his lips to my temple. “I’ll be right back. Gotta peek in on our little princess.”
Shoot! Kaitlin!I twist, intending to get up and follow him, but thick arms wrap around my chest and pin me against a broad chest. “Relax. He’s got her.”
“Shepherd… do you know…” I trail off, uncertainty lacing my voice. Part of me doesn’t want to hear what happened after the video cut off. Can’t I hide here and pretend that none of that happened?
