He chuckled as he stepped forward, hand rising to cup Sidian’s jaw, forcing their eyes to meet. “Your scent is so interesting when you’re angry, little pet,” he murmured, voice husky with lust; Sidian knew that tone. He’d heard it before. “I always enjoyed seeing you get angry.”
“Fuck you,” Sidian hissed. He couldn’t help himself.
“Such a naughty little creature. Never able to hold that tongue of yours, hmm? But I know how many uses it has.” Dax squeezed his jaw tighter, drawing him closer. “I knew you would be bad if you got a chance. That’s why I had to have the tracker implanted the day Amethyst was born. The moment you lost consciousness, I knew what had to be done.”
Wait… What? What the fuck did he just say?
Dax laughed as Sidian stared at him, his brain refusing to process the words the alpha had just spoken. What tracker? What was he talking about? No, Sidian would haveknownifsomething like that had been done to him. The thought that Dax had violated his body in ways he didn’t even know about made him sick. He had to get out of there. He had to kill the son of a bitch.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded, though his voice came out whisper-soft.
“When the breeding center told me you were a prime omega, I knew we had something special on our hands, and I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to you. I didn’t want someone to claim what belonged to us.” Dax thumbed over Sidian’s lower lip, his gaze distant as if trying to figure outwhathe wanted Sidian to do with his mouth. “Did you think I would ever let you go? I mean, if you’d been a regular omega, I might have. I wasn’t close to my father, so, contrary to popular belief, I felt nothing when your stupid little alpha dog killed him.”
“The alpha who tried to buy me was your father?” Sidian asked, his heart beating faster.
“Sterling Kincaid was his name. A businessman by trade. I forget what he owns in Washington. That’s my brother’s area, not mine.” Dax trailed the backs of his knuckles along Sidian’s throat, and Sidian shuddered at the touch. “My entire pack was more than happy to rape you when I told them what happened, though. And then you werefartoo precious to let go of.”
Sidian didn’t know what to say. What to think. His brain fuzzed over, static crackling between his ears so much so that he almost didn’t feel it when Dax turned him around and gave him a light swat on the ass, pushing him toward the laundry basket in the corner as he turned his attention to Lilac.
Sidian almost wanted to laugh. The son of the man Roman had killed… It explained so much.Toomuch. His skin itched as he tried to figure out where the tracker could have been placed, his guts churning as tears stung his eyes. Dax had always known where he was. He had never escaped.
All that shared time with Roman, and they had beenwatchingin their sick little way.
No wonder they hadn’t acted sooner. Dax had watched whatever device he used for the tracker and saw that Sidian was making his way across the country right to Dax’s doorstep. When Sidian had been screaming himself to pieces on the floor of that dilapidated house, Dax laughed. There had never been a moment in which Sidian had any freedom whatsoever.
It would only come when Dax was dead. Sidian understood it in its totality now.
There was wanting him dead because he could not come back from the grave; there was needing him dead for the security it would provide, but none of that compared to the simple truth: Dax would never stop, and Sidian had proof now. If he didn’t kill the alpha who had tormented him for years, then he could never raise his children. Never live happily alongside his mate.
He balled up the fabric in his hands, and something hard pressed against his palm.
He threw a quick glance over his shoulder to see Dax nudging Lilac up toward the pillows, his attention focused on the other omega. It gave Sidian just enough time to realize he was feeling something inside the pocket of Dax’s pants, sliding the piece of metal out.
It was a pair of brass knuckles with just a little blood flecked on the steel.
Sidian stared at them for a moment before curling his hand tight around them, gripping them as he dumped the clothes in the hamper. Before Dax could look up, he slipped the weapon under the nightie and into the side of the embarrassing panties he’d been given to wear, the tight satin pinning the metal in place against Sidian’s hip. It bit in just enough to feel secure.
Dax glanced up just as Sidian returned to the mattress, his eyes looking him up and down as he seemed to considersomething. “Maybe this would be a nicer affair in the nest. What do you think, Lilac?”
“No.” Lilac said it so quickly that it caught Sidian’s attention, his brow furrowing as his eyes flicked toward what he assumed was the nest in the corner of the room. What was wrong with it that Lilac didn’t want to go in there? “No, alpha, please, the bed is more than comfortable enough—”
But Dax rose to his feet, taking Sidian by the wrist and dragging him around the bed to lead him toward the double doors on the far side of the room. “Come here. It’ll beyournest soon, too.”
“What is it?” Sidian glanced back at Lilac, who only stared at him with wide, horrified eyes as he pressed his back into the pillows. “What’s wrong? What did you do?”
“I wanted to decorate it nice and special for our pack omega while he was settling in, and I thought, you know, he should get to know you as best he can.” Dax pushed the doors open and reached inside to flick on a light that was far too blinding for an omega’s nest. “Come here. Tell me what you think.”
He didn’t give Sidian a chance before shoving him into the room.
An omega’s nest was supposed to be a dark space tucked away from the world, small and secure, soft and comforting. Having such harsh light defeated the purpose of it all together, and Sidian blinked until his eyes adjusted to the light. The nest itself was far too neat; Lilac wasn’t nesting. Big surprise.
Sidian glanced around the room, not sure what he was looking for until his eyes settled on the wall that faced the nest. Settled on the myriad photographs pinned to the pale plaster.
“No,” he said, the word a dying gasp on his lips.
Dax’s chest pressed up against his back. “Oh, yes, Obsidian. What do you think?”
He didn’t remember most of his heats beyond the pain and the blood, and evidently, Sidian didn’t remember cameras being shoved in his face. His mind refused to let him process a single photo, but the longer he stared at them, the more they took shape and form. Photos of his naked body in every position possible. Photos of the blood and semen smeared into his skin, the bruises that marred his flesh. Photos of his tear-stained face, his pupils shot wide from his heat, his lips bruised from sharp kisses. And far, far too many close-ups of every intimate part of him that was never meant for Pack Kincaid.
