“Thompson!” River shouted, an edge to his voice. “I know you’re hiding out there, you rat bastard. I can smell your reek a mile away. Come out here and face me like a man.”
He stood there, his legs braced and shoulders squared, his hands loose at his sides. Silence greeted him. River growled, his fingers curling into claws. “Come on, you asshole! I know this is a trap.”
“And yet, you walked right into it.” Dr. Thompson’s voice came from the right, and suddenly, his men fanned out around us.
I gasped in pain as one of them grabbed my wounded arm and yanked me to my feet. When I tried to pull away, I felt the cold press of a gun against the back of my neck. Tears slid down my cheeks, unbidden, because I was trapped. A pawn in Dr. Thompson’s cruel game.
Thompson laughed coldly, his attention on River. “Stupid mutt, but that’s to be expected. You are inbred after all.”
River bared his fangs. “What?”
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Thompson feigned innocence, but the cruel smirk on his face was telling. “The Alpha-Omegagene is directly linked to inbreeding. Somewhere along the line, but not too far back, you had relatives who procreated. Genes got twisted, and voila. You were created from their sin.” He chuckled. “Why do you think I’m repeating the process with you and your brother?”
“Because you’re a sick fuck? I don’t know!” River spat.
“Because,” Thompson said slowly, “I want to break you down and see how you tick. Because you two, and all the other Alpha-Omega monstrosities, are broken, twisted creations.” He paused. “But there must be a cure.”
River snorted. “There’s no cure for bad genes, dumbass. If it’s in our biology, then we’re stuck with it. We just have to learn to cope.”
“Cope?” Thompson sneered. “My daughters didn’t learn to cope. My daughters were ticking time bombs, just waiting to explode and destroy the world with their ire.”
Something in the man’s words, his voice, made my chest tighten. Dr. Thompson had Alpha-Omega children?
“You’re trying to save your daughters? Is that why you’re experimenting on us?” I asked.
Thompson turned cold eyes on me. “No. There was no saving them. I put them down like the monsters they were.”
My stomach twisted at the realization of his words. No wonder he had no problems killing our babies; he’d murdered his own flesh and blood with his own two hands.
“But if there is a cure,” Dr. Thompson continued. “I am going to be the one to find it. If that means I abduct Alpha-Omega twins until the end of my days and continue my research until I die, then so be it. I will not rest until it’s complete—and you two have been the closest thing to a breakthrough that I’ve ever found, which is why I can’t afford to let you go.”
“Bullshit,” River growled. “That’s bullshit! You’ll ruin our lives just for a chance at your so-called research?”
“Indeed.” Thompson smiled, but it was menacing. “I hope you enjoyed your little stint at freedom, because it’s the last time you’ll ever see it. Trust me. I’ve learned my lesson. You two will be under lock and key, barred in silver. There will be no escaping a second time.”
“Fuck you.” River snarled, his fists tightening. “Fuck you and fuck your research! We are people, Thompson. People who have friends and partners and lives. You can’t just?—”
Thompson lashed out and cracked River across the jaw with the butt of his gun. River’s head snapped back.
“River!” I tried to pull free, but the grunts held me back.
River growled low, blood staining his teeth when he bared them at Thompson. “You’re a monster.”
Thompson merely grinned. “Oh, I know.” He stepped back, gesturing to River. “Sedate him. He’s too dangerous to be handled in his current state.”
“Yes, sir.” The guards immediately moved to surround River, but River had other ideas. With a snarl that was more wolf than human, he lunged at Dr. Thompson. Claws out, roaring a battle cry, he raised his arm to attack.
Somehow, Thompson was faster. I screamed as the man lifted his pistol and fired. The gunshot cracked, splitting the night sky with a sound that made my ears ring and my heart pitch.
Crimson sprayed, and River careened back from the force, staggering as blood soaked his shirt.
“RIVER!” I shrieked, struggling against the grip the guard had on me, but it was no use. River went down, and when he fell, my knees folded out from under me as well. “No!”
57
ADAM
I drove through the night,my fingers tight on the wheel. The headlights illuminated the way, but I felt lost in the darkness. Like losing Sky had removed a key component of my life, of how I lived and breathed and moved, and I was struggling.
