“Tell that to Jaye Lachlin,” Dash whispered.
Emerson sighed, leading them both back towards the door. “You can’t go searching for him with nothing in your tank, Dash. You’re puttingbothof you at risk.”
“I’ve done more with less.”
“That doesn’t mean youshould,”Emerson replied. “Maybe the tone is linked to your hybrid nature. With two alphas, maybe one has to be more dominant somehow?”
“Maybe. There’s a lot I don’t know about my condition.”
Emerson pulled the door closed behind them, allowing Dash to turn and face the man.
“You said that specialist did tests on you. Maybe you could ask him about it.”
“I’ll never speak to that man again.”
Emerson stiffened. “Why not?”
“I had to sneak out of his research ward in Alexandria—otherwise I might’ve still been locked up in there, still taking more tests.” He shook his head. “I’ve never even seen the results of all that testing he did.”
“For fuck’s sake… how long were you there?” Emerson asked as he sat on the bed and opened Dash’s robe.
“Nearly three months. Luckily, Mason figured out where they’d taken me and helped me escape.” As soon as he said the words, guilt hit him hard. Mason had given himso much.What had he done to pay that back? He was being self-centered not considering the impact his actions had on the man and their business. “He brought me back to my parents here in Fort Seattle and stayed with us a while, until the smoke cleared. That’s when I convinced him to stay and go into business with me.”
Emerson drew him back to bed. “He quit the Guard for you?”
“He was already disillusioned before all this happened. We all were. Nothing we did seemed to tip the meter much. Going into province after province and seeing the decay and corruption? It slowly broke parts of us. But also seeing it in the Wildlings, too? That was even worse.” He cuddled into the crook of Emerson’s arm. “Depravity isn’t a product of our society. It’s an error code written into our very DNA. If given the chance togreatly profit from another’s harm, men will choose it nine times out of ten.”
“That’s a rosy view of things,” Emerson said, urging him to lay his head down.
Dash closed his eyes and listened to the steady beat of Emerson’s heart under his ear.
“I’ve been to every major province in this Palatinate and found darkness in every one. It’s too much. No matter what we did, there was always more around another corner. When I was told I would be let go, I accepted it without argument. I figured if I can’t make the world better, maybe I can makeone provincebetter and be happy with that. Which is why I feel dreadful wasting another day while my client’s son is missing.”
“I know the timing wasn’t perfect, but it’s not as if you could’ve stopped your heat,” Emerson said. “As far as leaving, you weren’t yourself yet, and in no condition to leave. Webothknow that.”
“Maybe the Guard was right. They said it was bad enough I was alpha, but I was a danger to their investigations as an omega, too. I refused to believe it then, but now my nature has finally impacted a case.”
“You don’t know that. It’s not over yet.”
Dash shook his head. “What if something terrible happened to Jaye while I was here, with you?”
Emerson clearly didn’t have an answer to that. Dash sat down and looked out the round window at the setting sun.
“Do you really want me to take you back?” Emerson asked. “You seem more yourself now—though I truly believe you need more rest.”
Dash stared at Emerson for a moment, torn between the two. “No. I’ll leave in the morning. I still feel a bit…off.”
Emerson massaged his back. Dash closed his eyes, melting into his mate.
“Em?”
“Yeah?”
“You called me your omega in front of Jackson and Mason.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It came out before I even realized I’d said it.”
“You don’t see me as that, do you?”
