“They knew time was ticking, but they wouldn’t let me act.”
My eyes fall on the grip he has of the wheel. “What changed?”
“I was fired.”
I reel back. “Fired?”
He shrugs. “Disconnected from the Alliance is the term they used.”
Frustration rolls off me, and I shake my head. I don’t know him well enough to worry about his employment status. All I care about is finding Mirasol, and if he can’t anymore, he needs to spell it out for me.
“So what’s this about?”
“Calm down.” He shakes his head. “It worked well for you. Now that I’m not part of the Alliance anymore I can move without asking permission.”
I don’t hide my relief. My shoulders drop and I nod.
“Is it safe to take her?” I need to know if I have to hide Veda and Marisol after this is over.
“You don’t need to worry about that. Once we have the baby, I’ll take care of everything else.”
I nod.
“But that means we have no one with us. No back up,” he says in a hard tone. “Are you ready for this?”
“Yes.” There’s not a doubt in my mind. “Is she far?”
“A little farther. They are good at hiding their breeding houses.”
My whole body goes rigid. Fuck. A breeding house? “She’s in a breeding house?”
He doesn’t say anything for a moment, his eyes on the road, and I almost start shaking him for answers until the words come out of his mouth.
“They keep the babies with their mothers until it’s time to sell. The breeding houses are equipped for babies. I think keeping Veda with her child was a little too dangerous because she didn’t grow up in thesame conditions as the other Omegas. She needed to believe she was giving her daughter up for adoption.”
Everything out of his mouth is so matter-of-fact, it makes me angry beyond belief. I’m not sure what I want him to do about it or what tone I want to hear, so I keep the anger to myself.
“Those are just my guesses. There’s a lot I don’t know yet,” he continues. “And I’ll never know now.”
I give in to curiosity. “Why were you fired?”
“The international Alliance accepted money from Angelcorp to fund their Omega-Alpha matching program. As of last week, Angelcorp is officially handling every pack pairing and has all our data in their greedy hands.”
I shake my head. “What is Angelcorp?”
He sighs, as if there’s a lot that I don’t know. And he’s right. I never trusted the Alliance, but it was my mistake to stay out of their business rather than pressure them to do better.
“They are a tech conglomerate. They have a lot of money, and that’s why the Alliance agreed to their sponsorship so quickly, while I find it odd that they want to throw so much money into our happily ever afters.” He chuckles darkly.
My face is closed, my eyes following the highway as I try to connect the dots. I don’t like to sound ignorant. I hate that since Veda entered our lives, I don’t fully understand the big picture. At each turn, I’m left feeling like my desire to keep my family safe isn’t enough.
Something in my expression must give away the inadequacy of my thoughts, because Dominic starts explaining without me having to beg for clarity.
“I told you about the program before,” he says.
“Yes, they found a lot of Omegas in South America, so they started to pair them with the packs all over.”
He nods. “Yes. Once an Omega is found, they run blood tests and pair her with the right pack that will scent-match with her.”
