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He didn’t once look up at me.
Rhett caught me before I hit the floor, and Crew pushed into Kellan’s room with a ferocious snarl. Jude grabbed my hand and squeezed hard.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Crew demanded, blocking Kellan’s path.
Kellan gave him a blank stare. “Packing. The fuck does it look like?”
“You’re not leaving.” Crew threw out the sentence as fact, not suggestion.
Kellan’s dark eyes moved past Crew and glanced off of me before lowering to the floor. The tattoos on his arm writhed as he flexed his fist around a ball of fabric that I thought was a pair of pants.
“Let me go, man,” Kellan spoke in a low, rough tone.
Jude let go of my fingers to enter the room while Rhett started a soft purr aimed to soothe me.
But one of my alphas was trying to leave me. There wasn’t a purr loud enough to erase that kind of pain.
“Kell, talk to us,” Jude implored.
“Relax, love,” Rhett whispered in my ear, rubbing his cheek against mine. “He won’t leave you. He’s not that stupid or masochistic.”
“Fuck you,” Kellan snapped, glaring at Rhett before turning his rage on Jude. “You don’t fucking get it. None of you do. It’s better if I go. You three can take care of her?—”
I wasn’t sure the strangled sound I made was entirely human. He was talking about me like I wasn’t even a person. How did he go from damn near claiming me in the family room to wanting to leave me in less than an hour?
Crew slammed his hands on Kellan’s chest, shoving him back several steps. “Stop, okay? Just fucking stop. Talk to us.”
Kellan was trembling, his entire body quaking. “You saw what I almost did to her. I’m no fucking good. I almost went feral. I’m damaged?—”
Crew roared out his frustration before shoving Kellan back into the wall. “Stop! That’s not—fuck. You’re listening to all of that old shit, Kell. You’re not that guy, but you will be if you walk out and leave us.”
Kellan slumped against the wall, surrendering and submitting in stony silence.
Crew released his shirt and stepped back. “Kell, you were the one who knew Hazel was our omega. You made sure she was safe and protected until we could all be with her.”
Kellan’s pained gaze found me. He straightened, looking like he was going to come and get me. Then shutters masked his eyes, and he shook his head. “No, Crew. She’s safer without me. If OS had walked in on me going feral… shit, they’d have taken her out of here in a second.”
“Or,” I spoke up, forcing my wooden legs to bear my weight, “you four are the only thing keeping me safe from OS.”
Rhett touched my shoulder. “What do you mean, dove?”
“Something the doctor said to me tonight,” I replied. “Did any of you know there have been eleven other betas who awoke as omegas this year?”
Every single one of them looked at me like I’d declared I was going to live my life in the woods as a fairy and eat tree bark while howling at the full moon.
“There’s no way,” Jude spluttered. “The media would’ve been all over that.”
“Dr. Berthand told me that a memo went out to the medical community. He also mentioned that every single omega was an orphan who was quickly packed up thanks to the lovely folks at Omega Services,” I answered sarcastically.
“And no one knows how? Why?” Rhett asked.
I looked back at him. “No.” I swung my head to pin Kellan with a stare. “But it’s probably just a coincidence, right?”
Kellan’s dark eyes lifted to meet my gaze. Slowly, he shook his head. “Not a chance.”
Crew blew out a heavy breath. “But what does it mean?”
“We need to get our hands on that memo,” Jude added, rubbing his jaw.
