“I hear the video playing.” Dad sighed. “Did you read the article?”
I took the phone out of Liza’s hands and scrolled down, my breath catching in my throat as I scanned the article, my eyes stalling when I read the wordomega.
The first omega in centuries was born to the massacred pack and is now living with the Keller pack.
Shit. Castro hadn’t just put a target on our backs, he’d put one on Liza’s as well.
We were all fucked.
56
LIZA
Nico’s face turned an alarming shade of red as he punched the back of an armchair.
We’d spent the last hour staring at the newscast, trying to make sense of the footage Castro had leaked.
“I never recorded any of our missions. Ever!” He pointed a trembling finger at the screen, where every major news station was airing the grainy footage. “Dominic, I swear I never recorded nor approved recording on any of our missions. It would have been a major breach of security.”
Cold sweat formed on my brow, and my heart was dangerously close from beating right through my chest. The room seemed to tighten around me, suffocating me.
I remembered what Mom had told me to do when I was anxious, how I should focus on everything around me—colors, shapes, smells, sounds—anything to get my mind out of the downward spiral of gloom and doom. I tried to focus on the patterned rug, the thickness of the pile, and the bright red colors that swirled with blues and greens. It worked for a moment as I avoided the images that flickered across the screen.
I turned my head, needing a mental break from the gruesome scenes. The TV had been on ever since Ty and I arrived, streaming the leaked footage repeatedly. Quite frankly, I’d had enough.
“Someone must have altered the footage,” Nico insisted, clenching his fists at his sides. “AI and movie editing can create stuff like this. But I swear, no one was recording the mission. Not to my knowledge. The whole thing is baffling.”
He paced the floor, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Maybe they took footage from another battle and added to it with some kind of editing program. Technology has come so far. I wouldn’t put it past someone with Castro’s means to pull this off.”
No one said a word. The air was thick with tension and fear. My mind raced through the implications of the video and the danger it posed not only to our pack but to my own fragile sense of belonging.
I thought about how much time I lost with my biological parents, and how I was so close to creating a new family with the Kellers. Now, it was all in jeopardy because of Castro. His psychotic obsession with me could put an end to it all.
The phone in Dominic’s office rang off the hook as he stared emotionlessly at the TV. I’d never seen him so defeated, which wasn’t a good sign. The alpha was overwhelmed and frozen with indecision. I wondered if there was a way for any of us to recover from this.
Persephone sighed in the seat next to me. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think it looks like real footage, Nico.”
At some point, she’d reached over and taken my hand. Probably because she could see that I was slowly spiraling downward and losing my mind. I appreciated her trying to comfort me.
She was right about the footage. The images were grainy and a bit distorted, indicating that the recording took place long before quality digital video cameras were available.
Persephone continued. “The angle of the video looks like it’s from a body cam. Could it have been recorded from the point of view of one of your men? Did you have that kind of technology at your disposal back then?”
Nico raked his hands through his hair and stared at the TV. His face told us everything we needed to know. He was worried, and that didn’t bode well for the rest of us since he was the head of security and also Dominic’s righthand man. If he couldn’t see a solution to this mess, it could truly be the end of the Keller pack, and the end of them protecting me.
As the video played from start to finish again, someone on the screen shouted, “Burn everything to the ground!” It sounded like Dominic’s voice. The sigh that escaped from his lips indicated that he believed it was very much his voice, too.
It was followed by Nico coming into view and reminding them of their mission. “No oneleft alive.”
I shut my eyes tightly, trying to rid myself of the memories that still haunted me. Blood-stained snow. Screams of helplessness. The image of my parents lying on the ground, bleeding to death as Castro stood over their bodies. My attempt at escaping, the fear that almost crushed me. In those moments, as a little girl, I’d truly believed I would die at the hands of our attackers or Castro.
Somehow I’d made it out alive. If only I’d been taller and stronger, maybe I could’ve attacked Castro. I could’ve climbed into a tree and dropped down on top of him as he walked by in his search for me.
If I had taken him out back then, none of this would be happening. Ty and I would’ve already been officially mated, and Dominic could’ve passed the powers of the alpha to Ty. Myworld would have looked far different than it did right now. Watching the screen felt like staring down the barrel of a gun, wondering how we could possibly come out of the other end of this unscathed.
Survivor’s guilt hit me like a Mack truck, and I doubled over, trying not to retch all over the Persian rug. It didn’t matter that I’d barely been four years old. I had survived. Castro had survived. Everyone else… all of those innocent children, women, and men who had nothing to do with the drug and weapon activity… they’d all died a slow and painful death.
What made me so special? Just because I was an omega didn’t mean my life was more valuable than theirs. Yet, there I sat, crippled by my anxiety but alive. How was that fair?
