Page 168

Is rage.

A heaping, righteous, mound of rage that doesn’t give a single fuck about blue eyes.

That part of me fuels my loathing. Reminds me that she earned it. She got Caelan shot. Lured him in by playing the victim so convincingly that my careful, tactical, intelligent brother walked right into her father’s hands.

And now he’s fighting for his life.

Because of her.

Fuck, I shouldn’t have even gone in there. I just went to check on Lenora. Make sure she wasn’t coddling the girl. But there was something about the Omega that immediately put me on edge when I saw her.

My Alpha perked up, and my instincts dialed up to a thousand when they normally hover somewhere around three.

She was sitting on the floor of that cell, in that thin, once-white drape of cotton that can barely be called a dress anymore. That silver hair hung in her face, her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, and when I looked at her, all I could think was, Why you of all people? Why would you do something so brutal to Caelan?

Then, she asked about Caelan’s gunshot wound. All wide eyes and feigned innocence, like she wasn’t secretly proud of her handiwork.

“His gunshot wound… Did you see it?”

Like we could fucking miss it.

And so…

I snapped.

All because of a pretty little package with gentle blue eyes and soft, full lips shaping taunting words.

My vision went red, and I lost it.

Hundreds of years on this planet, and admitting when I make a mistake still never gets any easier.

But Gav isn’t going to let up until I do, and to be fair, I don’t blame him. I exhale, and with as much dignity as I can muster, own my shit.

“Fine. I fucked up. Happy now?”

I fucked up by not stopping Caelan from going back.

I fucked up by not forcing him to see the truth.

I fucked up allowing my brother to put himself in a position that I learned lifetimes ago leads to heartache and death.

Each of my failures lines up like dominoes in my mind. One falls into the next, over and over, every failure leading me here—to this living nightmare that will take us decades to recover from.

I fucked up by not being smart enough. Fast enough. Vulnerable enough to finally explain to my pack exactly why I knew he was compromised.

“Fucking thrilled,” Gav replies drolly, pulling my attention from my anxious spiral. “You’re not to be near the Omega unsupervised, do you understand?”

“Whoa, hold on,” I snap to attention, but he raises a hand to silence me.

“This isn’t a negotiation, it’s an order. Considering you apparently have a hard time following those, I’ve decided that someone else needs to be in charge of her time here.”

“Like who?” I demand, seething with rage I don’t understand. I don’t even know why I’m fighting this. I should be relieved. Thrilled. Grateful that he’s taking the temptation away from me and out of my hands.

I’m not.

I’m furious. I want to be near her. I want to make her pay for what she’s done. I want to rip every truth out of her pretty little head until all that’s left are answers and vengeance for Caelan.

Fuck.