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It’s oddly satisfying knowing that before it’s all said and done, I’ll ensure the foundation of our home tastes rivers of her tears.

When I’m stabbed with an unexpected pang of something that feels a lot like shame, all I have to do is picture my brother in the medical wing.

Then the shame disappears, replaced by a simmering, fiery rage that settles in my spine.

To my shock, the Omega swipes away the tears from her cheek and squares her shoulders. She lifts her chin. Her blue eyes flash with fire.

I have to admit, for such a tiny, pitiful, little thing, she sure puts on a brave face.

We both know it’s bullshit.

“I did not set Caelan up.” Her words are steady, but her voice shakes. “I tried to help him.”

“Tried to help him,” I sneer, throwing the words back to her. I stalk toward her, releasing a cruel laugh that hangs in the air between us.

“You tried to help him. Is that what you call it? Helping?”

I’m in her space now, close enough to see the exact color blue of her irises.

“Let me tell you what helping means, Omega.” My voice drops to a hiss. “Helping is warning someone before they’re attacked. It’s getting them away before they get hurt.”

I lean in, wishing she weren’t on suppressants, so I can smell the fear rolling off her.

“What you did wasn’t help. It was cowardice. It was deceit. Whatever you did to make my brother believe you were worth saving—I want to know what it was. I want to know what lies you fed him. What plan you had for him.”

I’ve moved so close I can feel the vibrations of her body as it shakes.

“If you really want to help, you’ll tell me the truth. You’ll tell me what your father’s doing. What his plans are. How you’re involved. If you have a sliver of morality or decency left inside your pretty, empty shell, you’ll be fucking honest. Instead of begging and pleading for us to believe you have some kind of Fated Bond with my packmate. Which we both know is bullshit.”

“That’s not true,” she insists, but her voice breaks. “I never did anything to—to—make him believe something false about me. I didn’t deceive him. I would never deceive him. That’s not what happened.”

Her jaw clenches, and the fear and despair in her eyes morph into something hotter. Sharper.

Rage.

Ah, there it is.

It seems the little doll actually does possess a bit of a backbone. How interesting.

I scoff. “Isn’t it? Explain something to me, Omega. Explain how Caelan failed to notice your father and his men arriving. Do you have any idea how good vampire hearing is? He should have heard that asshole’s car a mile out on that gravel drive. Yet somehow, he was so fucking sidetracked by your performance that he missed it completely.”

My fangs throb as I relive the moment I realized we’d fallen into a trap. One that was set for him. It’s been days, but the panic still hasn’t gone away.

“He was on his way toward your wing, the one place he wasn’t supposed to be. And what do you know?” My voice is callous, but I don’t give a shit. “He gets ambushed. And now he’s in a coma, after nearly dying.”

The rage dissipates, like it never even existed.

Her eyes are scarily empty again, fixated on something over my shoulder. She looks like she’d rather crawl into the roaring fireplace than be forced to acknowledge the world around her any longer.

My fingers tighten around my whiskey glass as my anger builds.

Who the fuck does this female think she is? She doesn’t get to ignore me. She doesn’t get to ignore what happened because it’s hard to hear.

Especially not when it’s her godsdamned fault!

“Explain it to me, Omega. Because there were only two people in that house. One of them is fighting for his life in the infirmary, and the other one is you.”

She falters, stumbling back a step. I follow, keeping pace with her.