Page 35 of Omega Hunted

“Why didn’t you send him to a Haven safe house? You could’ve called one of the ORT teams still operating. Hell, you could’ve left him with one of our own.”

He paused way too long. “I don’t know who’s clean anymore.”

“Explain.”

“I don’t know everything yet, but fuck, every operation we’ve ever run has to be questioned. Every report. Every extraction. Every safe house. I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”

“You think the ORT’s compromised?”

“I don’t know that it isn’t.” He sounded tired now, carrying a weight I’d never heard before. “After what happened with Raff… hell… maybe it’s one corrupt administrator. Maybe it’s someone feeding names to the SED. Maybe it’s nothing. But until I know, I’m not handing Soren to an organization whose security I can’t swear to.”

“Okay. What do you know about the Center you took him from?”

“Center 14 files are heavily redacted.”

The answer frustrated me more than it should have. “Why? “

“I’m digging.”

I growled down the phone. “Dig faster!”

“Yes, Alpha!”

“I’m not your freaking alpha!” I snarled, but Ronan ignored me. “And you sending me Soren…”

“I sent him to the one person I know isn’t compromised.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because nobody owns you anymore. Nobody gives you orders. Nobody can threaten you.” He paused before adding quietly, “You’re the only person I know who’s completely outside the system, and I’m not sorry. I can’t be sorry when there’s so much… fuck… so many omegas dying, so many…” his voice hitched, and I heard the familiar growl of him regaining control over his emotions. He’d always hated to feel out loud, another trait where he was the opposite of Raff. “I’ve missed you, Alpha,” he said so quietly I almost didn’t hear him, but the admission caught me completely off guard, and he didn’t give me a chance to reply. “I’ll call if I find anything out.”

Neither of us said goodbye.

The line went dead, leaving me alone in the quiet kitchen with the phone still pressed to my ear and snow falling steadily beyond the window. I stood there for another minute before slipping the burner into my pocket and heading upstairs, because there was still one frightened omega sleeping under my roof, and he needed me.

We need him.

“Whatever,” I told my stupid-ass wolf, who huffed back at me.

Great.

Chapter Thirteen

SOREN

The closet at the top of the stairs had more than enough blankets and pillows. I took all of them and headed to the large bedroom that smelled of Cassian—worked into the fabric of the duvet and the pillows already on the bed. My cat went still, then settled, and some of the tight alertness he’d been carrying all day went with him.

I stood in the middle of the room with my arms full of blankets and waited to feel wrong about being in here, but all of it just felt right, and I couldn’t explain why, so I concentrated on building my nest.

I knew it was a throwback to ancestors who’d made dens in actual caves, who’d needed the physical boundary of layered material to feel safe enough to sleep. I knew it wasn’t rational. I also knew that without it I wouldn’t sleep at all, and Brec had said rest, so rationality had to wait. I folded the duvet, doubled up, across the mattress. Layered the spare blankets on top. Built the pillows up on three sides and arranged them until the weight and the height were right and there was a clear space in the middle that was just mine and Asha’s.

My cat approved, and he put his head down when I got into the nest and tucked myself around Asha and tugged the top blanket over both of us.

This smells good, my cat whispered.

“I know,” I said. Out loud, quietly, into the dark. It smelled of Cassian.

Home, he added.