Page 125 of Caged

He glares over his shoulder at the controls he tossed into the backseat shortly after we left.

“Useless,” he mutters, facing forward with a huff. “All my tech is fucking useless right now. The most it did was give me about thirty seconds of warning once Varenthrall and his men showed up, and Caelan was too far into the house to get out.”

He rolls his head back and forth, cracking his neck. “It’s all that Omega’s fault. She did this to him, I fucking know it.”

“Explain to me again what you heard.”

It’s not lost on me that I’m speaking to a grown-ass male the same way I’d speak to a toddler in the middle of a tantrum. That’s exactly what Dax is right now, though. There’s a reason he keeps such a tight leash on his control. His temper, when he losses it, flares fast and hot. Matching his energy won’t do shit except make him double down defensively.

That’s not the only reason I’m keeping as calm as I can, though. There’s also a part of me that needs to know the answer. I need to understand why Dax is so sure this Omega’s at fault.

“Varenthrall had Caelan surrounded, and he said⁠—”

Dax’s lips press into a thin line and he looks away. I keep my eyes on the road, giving him some time to wrangle his emotions. When he continues, his voice is raw with emotion.

“He said, ‘Thank you for making sure this Alpha was brought to my attention.’”

My stomach drops, but he’s not finished.

“Then he called for her. Told her to come downstairs and said, ‘I’m sure this Alpha would love to see the Omega he so stupidly threw his life away for.’”

Fuck.

“And… did she come down?” I swallow thickly, waiting anxiously for his answer.

Dax’s jaw ticks. He stares straight ahead, fisting his hands on his knees.

“She came down. Didn’t say a fucking word. Didn’t deny anything.”

“She could have been scared,” I suggest, but it’s a weak excuse. We both know it.

Furious eyes snap to me. “Then why didn’t she say anything, Vae? Caelan tried to shout something, but the connection cut out. I don’t know what happened, but I’ll bet Varenthrall found the comm.”

I wince. Dax still isn’t finished.

“Right before the feed died, his exact words to Caelan were, ‘She played her part beautifully. I told her what would happen, and she followed every direction.’”

His exhale is shaky. Anger thrums off him in waves so thick it’s hard to breathe.

“She played him. She played our brother. Now he’s in that house, hurt and trapped and possibly dying because of her.”

For reasons I don’t understand, my instinct is to push back. I want to tell him he might’ve misheard. Tell him he might’ve misunderstood the conversation. The words are right there, on the tip of my tongue.

I swallow them down.

It doesn’t matter if I want this female to be innocent, there’s no arguing that what he heard is bad. Really bad. No matter how I try, I can’t rearrange the words in a way that doesn’t point to the Omega being guilty as hell.

What Dax heard… It’s damning. And it’s not like he heard one off-the cuff moment. He heard three separate statements, each of them damning in their own right. Each enough proof to be sure. All three together?

Fuck.

Dax has more than enough proof to validate his fears.

I want to groan, but I stop myself before I do.

This is just great. He’s going to be such a pain in the ass once this is all over. He’ll literally never let us hear the end of it.

I haven’t said so, but I’ve been ‘Team Dax is Overreacting’ since the start. Maybe that makes me naive, but I just couldn’t imagine condemning an Omega without proof. I definitely didn’t want to believe an Omega was capable of doing something to deliberately put one of us in danger.