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My fingers are tingling, halfway to going completely numb. My hand feels clumsy and too big, and before I realize it, the paper is fluttering from my fingers to land on the floor.

“What?” Vae asks. His expression is full of confused concern.

My mouth opens, but I can’t—can’t force words to come out. I notice absently that my hands are shaking, and I fist them by my sides to hide the movement.

My gaze meets Silas’ grim expression, and I know he understands.

That asshole likes to pretend he’s a total idiot when in reality, he’s one of the smartest operatives we have. That’s part of what makes him so deadly. People always underestimate him.

Silas bends down and swipes the paper off the floor where it landed at my boots. He hands it to Vae, his mouth set in a thin line.

“He’s not just trying to splice magical DNA into stolen Omegas,” he explains. “He’s breeding them. Like livestock.”

Chapter 32

Idril

Iused to wake at the slightest sound. Always alert, always on edge. I learned early on how to sidestep my Father’s physical blows and how to swallow the rest of his abuse whole—even when it came right on the heels of waking up.

I probably have my mother to thank for that.

I used to see her as weak. I never hated her for it, but there was just no way for my child’s mind to understand how she could be so warm with me, but still let my father turn our home into a place full of darkness and pain, where I was always afraid of the monster lurking around every corner.

Now, I understand.

It’s easier to keep your mouth shut and let the anger wash over you than to open it and risk drowning in the pain. Safer to pretend it isn’t raining than acknowledge the storm and get hit by lightning.

In mere days, these Alphas taught me what took me years to understand at home.

‘Be quiet. Be calm. Don’t make him angry, Idril.’

‘Keep this between us girls, okay?’

‘Be brave, but don’t let him see your courage.’

‘Hide it, my love. Do you understand? You must hide everything.’

My mother’s words echo in my mind on repeat like a horrifying lullaby I can’t turn off. ‘You must hide everything, my love.’

I always knew my father was a monster, and I quickly learned that the Alphas here could be just as cruel.

Until last night. Until Caelan.

My Mate, who is in a coma and whose only concern was finding and saving me. The stubborn idiot who refuses to take down that barrier around our Bond and let me heal him. Who is still protecting me when the only thing functioning without the help of a machine is his mind.

Whatever happened yesterday, it resulted in my soul reaching out and latching on to Caelan’s.

It didn’t feel like a dream. There was no gauzy, half-real, fog-filled memory that falls apart at the edges and slips through your fingers when you wake. This had been solid. My body was in the attic, on the cold stone floor, while his was in the medical wing, in a medically induced sleep.

And somehow, impossibly, something pulled us together, and for a few glorious minutes, I hadn’t felt so alone.

Until Lenora woke me up with a suppressant shot to the arm—and wrenched me away from my mate.

I nearly tore her throat out; an act that was so out of character for me, I’m still replaying the whole interaction hours later, attempting to make sense of what happened.

I’d been in Caelan’s arms. Then I’d been in the attic, shooting up from my pallet so fast I nearly slammed my head into Lenora’s.

She’d been crouched over me with a syringe clutched in her hand. That, combined with the throbbing in my arm, made it obvious what she’d just done.