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“I need to hurt her, Dox,” he says, eyes gleaming with bloodlust and savage revenge. “I need to hear her scream. She hurt Sadie, my fucking Cherrybomb, my bonded mate.”
“What?” Claudia gasps out. “You bonded that piece of beta trash?” Of course, that’s what she’s worried about and not that Swift is practically begging me to let him hurt her.
Swift spins and has her neck in his hand again, bearing down on her until her face turns red. “Keep talking like that, Claudia. I’m already gonna hurt you, but if you want me to hurt you more, by all means, insult my fucking mate.”
My gaze flicks back to Claudia sobbing on the metal table. I nod. “Whatever you can do in seven fucking minutes, Swift. We’ll meet you in the garage. If you aren’t ready, we’re leaving your ass behind.”
A wicked grin curls his mouth as he nods his agreement. Then he swagers back over to the sobbing omega. “Clau-di-a,” he sings her name, bending over her trembling form. “This is where I really shine. Where you get to meet the real me. And I’m fairly fucking sure, you’re gonna absolutely hate the monster under my skin.”
I won’t be able to stay, even though I kind of want to. I know my instincts to protect and shelter the omega will get in the way, as much as I might want to listen to her screams, to hear her confession of what exactly she did to Sadie, I know I won’t be able to stop myself from intervening.
Swift needs the spill of Claudia’s blood right now as much as I need to finish preparations to get our girl back.
So I slip out of the room just as the first scream sounds.
Chapter 34: In which history is repeated
The man I knew as Doctor Schwab is still here. He gives me that smile that used to put me at ease, but that was before I knew all of this… Before I realized what a liar he is.
I feel like he’s taken more than the recommended pint of blood, draining me into tiny plastic bags. But he’s made it clear he won’t drain me all away. No, he wants to keep me alive.
“You shouldn’t have presented as an omega at anytime, Sadiecakes,” he says, sounding excited as hell by that. “The medications we gave you should have broken the omega hormones down in your system.”
I snort. My voice comes out sloppy and slurred. “Calling it medication makes it sound like I was sick. You gave me untested drugs. Harvested my hormones and imbedded them in someone else and then took away my designation.”
He frowns, scooting closer on his little stool. “That was never our intention, Sadie. We want to help people become their best selves. Some people want to become omegas. We’re working on the way to hep them accomplish that. Our intention is to increase the number of fertile omegas to increase the chance of reproduction.”
My gaze narrows. “There isn’t a reproduction crisis! You’re trying to help with something no one asked for!”
He glares at me. “Many, many people have asked for this. Can you honestly say you weren’t thrilled when you presented as an omega? When you realized you were no longer a beta.”
“I loved being a beta!” I shout at him. Even as my slur grows worse. “I loved it. Being an omega sucks. I loved not being controlled by my instincts and hormones. Having control over my emotions and body.”
He pats my hand condescendingly, like he thinks I’m lying. I’m not though. I would have happily stayed as a beta for the rest of my life. I’m fairly certain if I’d fucked Luca and Ethan that first night and stayed a beta, we would still have ended up together. The draw was too strong.
Besides, Swift has told me he wouldn’t have stopped looking for me. He would have found me and brought me into their pack. I have to believe that.
“Then you shouldn’t be upset that we tried to remove your designation from you.” I blink at him. Rage simmering deep in my belly. Did he really just say that? Truly? He thinks I should thank him for fucking with my body and my hormones? “As I said, going forward, we won’t be removing the designation from the omega whose hormones we harvest. The intent is to create more omegas, to increase the likelihood of finding fertile matches. Your situation was… requested by Claudia and her father. They didn’t want anyone competing for her scent match.”
I lick my lips and shake my head. “What was it you gave me? That was supposed to stop my designation presentation?”
His lips curl into a smile like he’s delighted that I’m taking an interest. I am, but more because I want to know. No, I need to know what he did to me. “It was a concentrated dose of a suppressant. Enough that it should have obliterated your omega hormones, rather than just suppress them. We gave them to you twice a month for a year. Then in lower doses in the years that followed. And eventually, we simply put you on normal suppressants, just in case. And yet your designation pushed through. Not only that, but your omega hormones are thriving. It’s fascinating.” He sounds genuinely intrigued.
“I wish I had the time to study you further, but alas, Claudia has made her wishes clear. And those wishes are that you are no longer an omega, to open the way for her to be with her pack. You understand, don’t you? The Pooles have made quite the investment in our research. ”
I blink at him, trying to make my fuzzy mind focus enough to fully understand what he’s doing. What he’s planning. But he’s taken so much blood, and I’m having a hard time concentrating as my brain goes a little swimmy. “What does that mean?”
“It means, Sadiecakes, that we’re going to have to do the entire process again. To break down the omegamones in your system and leave Claudia as the only scent match.”
I blink at him, and his meaning finally penetrates my mind. “You might as well just kill me. Or keep me locked up. You think if you break my omega and then let me out into the world as a Beta, I won’t fucking come for you? You think I’ll let you get away with this? With experimenting on me and, god, there must be others right? Other omegas, other alphas that you’ve done this to? You think I’ll just let you get away with it? You think my pack will just let you get away with it?”
He gives me that smile again, the one that puts my teeth on edge, condescending as hell. “My dear, I’ve already gotten away with it. Your mother signed away your rights when you were eight years old. She knew exactly what we were doing. By the time you became an adult, you blindly signed away your rights nearly every time you came to my office. You agreed to everything we did to you.” He pats my hand again. “You really should learn to read the fine print. And as for your mates? I imagine right now they’re balls deep in Claudia and bonded to her, too. The draw of a scent match is nearly impossible to ignore, especially without you there to muddy the waters.”
I want to scoff at him, to tell him they will never, ever bond with Claudia, that they love me. But then, none of them have said those words, and there were far too many times in recent memory when they’d lingered between the two of us, torn about what omega they should go to, comfort. What if, without me there, they give in? What if…
Almost like he can feel my doubts, Swift sends a blast of love and affection to me, determination and reassurance. They aren’t leaving me here. They aren’t fucking Claudia. They aren’t bonding with her. Swift won’t let them. Ethan won’t let them. He’s a beta and not as driven by his instincts as the alphas of the pack.
I swear I hear Swift’s voice in my head. “We’re coming, Cherrybomb.” His voice drips violence and blood. I shiver at the dark promise.
