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My jaw aches from clenching it. Varenthrall hasn’t said a word, but the way he uses his larger Alpha stature to loom over his daughter registers as a clear threat.

I want to rip him apart for that alone.

“Idril.”

His voice isn’t warm. It holds a world of contempt and distaste that isn’t lost on me.

It isn’t lost on her, either. She flinches, but holds her ground, craning her neck to look at him.

“Father.” The tone is respectful, but I can hear the fear in her voice. I must make some kind of sound because Dax is suddenly in my ear, snapping at me to calm down.

“Chill the fuck out. What is wrong with you? If he hears you, you’re fucked.”

I take a calming breath, knowing he’s right.

“Alexander is leaving,” Varenthrall continues. “Come say goodbye.”

Her brows furrow in confusion. “Why?”

Her question clearly shocks them both. Her hands fly to her mouth, eyes wide with terror. She looks like she wants to snatch the word from the air and shove it back down her throat. I can see tears pooling on her lash line from here.

Varenthrall doesn’t speak, but the aggression pouring off him is strong enough to make my stomach roll.

The asshole clearly doesn’t use any kind of desceneter.

He makes his daughter inject suppressants, though.

Why? Doesn’t he know what they do to her? Doesn’t this asshole care?

For a long moment, father and daughter stand motionless, neither making a move. Then, quick as a snake, Varenthrall’s hand snatches Idril around her upper arm and squeezes. She yelps as he stalks across the room, dragging her behind him by her arm.

I watch, dumbfounded, as she struggles after him, tripping in a desperate attempt to keep up. His hand is so large wrapped around her bicep that his fingers overlap, but that doesn’t stop him from squeezing and hissing at her to ‘be quiet, don’t make a fucking noise, Omega. You’d think you’d have learned your lesson.’

The two disappear from view, but I stay frozen for long minutes after I hear the door to her room slam shut behind them.

A red mist takes over my vision. The warmth in my chest has gone from a gentle, calm pool to a swirling, molten lake of destruction and wrath. I’m shaking, all my muscles strained and quaking in an effort to be still and not rush inside and rip that asshole’s spine out through his neck.

“So, the daughter knows the Severed, too, then,” Dax hums, and his commentary nearly costs me the last bit of sanity I’m clinging to.

“He made her go with him,” I snarl, each word clipped so there’s no fucking confusion on his part. I can already hear the distrust in his voice. Can already see exactly where this is going. He heard the conversation, but he didn’t see how she was treated.

He didn’t watch her eyes fill with terror. Didn’t witness her being dragged behind her father like a doll. Didn’t see how she struggled to be brave despite her obvious fear.

Dax sighs, long and weary, like he knows something I don’t. “It’s time to get out and come home, Caelan. Get here, and we’ll regroup.”

I want to. I want to unstick my boots from this section of pavement and leave, but I also want to kick the door down and take the Omega with me.

Idril. Her name is Idril.

Such a strange name. Unique. Just like her.

“Caelan!” Daxen’s shout redirects my attention. “Two SUVs are coming up the drive. They’re a quarter mile out. Could be more security. Could be Deadwalkers. I can’t tell from here. You need to get the fuck out of there now.”

The snarl I’ve been biting back escapes, and my body finally decides to obey me. I make myself take a step, then another, even though my body and mind are screaming at me to stay.

When I’m sure I’m once more in control of my limbs, I escape into the trees and race through the forest, hating myself the entire time.

Eventually, I find my way back to the Denali, parked on an old back road a half mile outside the property line.