Page 200 of Caged

She clears her throat awkwardly. “He suggested that my father use it on me. To sell my first heat, and keep the money to fund his research.”

Interesting.

I don’t quite believe she isn’t using this story as a ploy to gain my sympathy.

At the same time, I absolutely believe the Severed might possess a serum to induce an Omega’s heat. There have been rumors of one in the works for years.

“What research does your father need funding for?”

This is the answer I really need. What Varenthrall’s up to. What he and the Severed are injecting into the Omegas, and why…

“I don’t know,” she whispers.

I grind my molars. Of course, she doesn’t.

“When Alexander came to your home, where did they meet?”

I watch as, once again, her eyes begin to glaze over. She’s losing steam right in front of me. To make matters worse, she isn’t providing me any fucking answers worth a damn.

“Where, Omega?” The volume of my shout startles a reaction out of her, just as I hoped.

Her lashes flutter, like she’s struggling to focus. She frowns before muttering, “In Father’s study?”

“Are you asking me, or telling me?”

She eyes me like I’m about to strike. “I don’t⁠—”

I throw my glass against the wall behind her head, and it shatters before she can even finish speaking. Sparkling shards of crystal rain down, flying across the room. I watch one lodge itself in her hair. Another slices a thin cut across the fabric of her shirt near the shoulder.

I feel a sliver skate across my forearm, the sharp sting of pain grounding me before my body heals itself.

My lungs heave, my lungs working overtime as a growl rumbles steadily in my chest.

What the hell is it about this Omega that makes me act so fucking out of character? Any other time, I can sit through an interrogation for hours without coming close to losing my cool.

So why am I coming unglued because of this slip of a girl?

Only a few seconds have passed since I threw my glass, but it feels like hours.

The Omega doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t move. She just stands there with tears streaming silently down her face, staring at me like⁠—

Like I just killed something.

The reality of the situation slams into me like a fucking truck. I stagger back a step, finally taking in the explosion of glass surrounding us.

What… what the fuck did I do?

I threw a glass at her head.

There are sharp splinters of crystal caught in her hair, and glittering all over the floor around her bare feet. Glass dusts the shoulders of the oversized grey t-shirt that hangs off one thin shoulder.

The Omega’s pupils are dilated. The longer those wide, blue eyes stare at me, the more certain I am that she’s judging me.

She looks at me like I’m a monster.

No. Like I’m a monster who can’t stop losing control.

She blinks. The second her eyes begin to lose focus, I know I’ll lose my mind if I watch this female escape into her own mind just to get away from me for the third time in an hour.