Preston when he’d been under the control of this monster.
Why didn’t they know?
They couldn’t smell it. Neither could I.
I couldn’t see the face to go with the voice of the Omega who spoke to me. But Ross must have both heard and recognized it. He shook like he recognized it. Wow. That was a big change.
On the dock, while he waited for me to do my job, Rainer called out my name. “MacKenzie?”
“Kenzie?” Jarret must have been with him.
They were comfort, but not what I needed right then. I had to hold on.
The scene changed, but Ross was the same age as he’d been in the last memory. A woman stood in front of him, her hands on her hips. “Mate? I’m not your mate. I doubt you have one. There is something wrong with you, and since you won’t let me fix you, I can’t tell what it is. Ross, you’re not fit to be anyone’s mate.”
Inside, I gasped. Okay. So some things were starting to make sense. He had wanted to mate an Omega, and she had rejected him. Like that?
Oh, hell.
Yes, it wasn’t my finest moment, but I couldn’t have known.
Her voice in my head. That woman hadn’t just rejected him, she’d humiliated him. Okay. To be fair, no one could have foreseen what would happen. Not a single one of us had a crystal ball. We were all making this up as we went along, and she didn’t have what I had—the benefit of all those who came before me.
Still, couldn’t she have done better than that?
I didn’t need to see anymore. I could see the path as it had gone. Quasi lost from an early age, brought to the edge by an Omega who didn’t love him, didn’t want to mate. He wasn’t her one. He’d turned the corner, never to see the light of day again. Unled. No one helped him, and he blamed the Omegas, so he killed them.
I might feel bad for him under different circumstances.
I was sorry he’d had his heart broken, but tons of people did every day, and they didn’t turn around and destroy everyone around them for having done so. If the guys had rejected me, I wouldn’t have burned down the world. I’d have hurt, but somehow, I’d have come through the pain without ruining other people’s entire existences. There were wolves who had died without ever getting to shift again because of the Accords.
He’d hated his life? Well, I was sorry to see that had happened to him. But sorry only went so far.
I’d pushed and pushed my energy into him, until he was almost healed. That wasn’t going to be what happened here today. He just needed to un-Loup enough that Rainer could take out the Alpha in him. I let go, practically stumbling backwards. Strong hands grabbed me before I’d have fallen off the dock into the mud pit that was the lake.
But I wasn’t quite done. “Hold on.”
I swung my hand out, letting my claws take care of the last bit of tether he had on anyone. I’d gotten most of it earlier, but the little grasp he had left was gone. Swish.
“Rainer, he’s all yours.”
My Alpha mate tilted his head. He pointed at Ross who panted, his eyes clear as he glared at Rainer. Then Rainer pointed at him. “I’m sure there are some official words that should be spoken here. But since you took that upbringing from us, forced us in hiding, and killed my father, who might have told me what to do, I’m just going to have to tell you that I’m going to kill you, and I don’t even feel bad about it. Consider yourself Alpha challenged.”
Preston pulled me out of the way as Rainer shifted mid-stride into his wolf form. Ross did the same. He didn’t look like a Loup. No, I’d cleared that madness, but he still smelled wrong. Maybe some people were born that way, maybe someone else could have helped him. A better Omega, or someone who hadn’t taken so much pain from him.
I would somehow have to live without being the Mother Theresa of Omegas. Maybe the ones who came after me could afford to be selfless. I had to rid the world of this menace just so they could exist.
The two male wolves lunged at each other, growling. Blood sprayed, and I winced, hoping it wasn’t Rainer’s. Or at least, that not too much of it was Rainer’s.
“He’ll be fine.” Preston tugged