by L. C. Davis
Most days, Connor scarcely recognized the face staring back at him in the mirror. His features hadn't changed, but something inside of him had. He could no longer delude himself into thinking that he was alone like he always had been, and surrounded by the love Mel, Toval and Hassan shared both with one another and with their family--a unit Connor had finally accepted that he was now a part of--he found himself unwilling to settle for less. Maybe he wouldn't ever be the kind of omega--the kind of person--an alpha could love the way Toval and Hassan loved Mel and each other, but the supposed freedom and luxury Everett could offer him had lost all its appeal.
Connor still wasn't sure where things stood with Duke. The alpha had been as scarce as Everett had until the phone call that morning announcing his return to Mountain Ridge, but he had never left Connor's thoughts. Or his heart. He wasn't willing to allow himself to hope that Duke would actually return whatever nascent feelings were stirring in his heart. After all, being Cutter's mate came with drawbacks no amount of authority or prestige could compensate for. Still, as the days wore on, he knew he at least owed it to the man to tell him about the pregnancy. Connor's heart still wasn't set on the matter of keeping it, but the realization that he would have support and acceptance whatever he chose to do, regardless of whether Duke was in the picture or not, had ebbed away some of the fear.
"They're right," said Mel. "If you don't want to see him, I'll tell Everett to fuck off myself and that's better than he deserves."
"You know the world has gone mad when I'm the one who wants to do the polite thing and break things off in person," Connor said, reaching for his jacket. Hassan helped him into it as Connor freed his ponytail from his collar. "I'm just going on a walk with him. Knowing Everett, he'll hop right back in his convertible and have a new omega by sunrise."
"I'm proud of you," Mel said, gripping his shoulders. "You've changed so much."
"I'm just breaking up with a guy I've met twice," Connor reminded him. "That still leaves us in the same position we were in before."
"Maybe not," Toval said cryptically.
"It doesn't matter," Mel said, giving him a tight hug. God, omegas hugged a lot. The worst part was, he was starting to like it. "Knowing what you don't want is as much a part of feeling as knowing what you do."
"Yeah, yeah," Connor muttered. Sometimes he regretted his decision to admit to the fact that his emotions and other omega-related traits had begun to surface, but it was a relief to at least be able to share things with someone who understood.
"I love you so much," Mel said brightly, starting to pull away only for Toval to pull them both into near-crushing hug. If this was the beta being gentle with the pregnant omegas in his life, Connor could see how he was a match for alphas on the field.
Hassan watched from a distance, smiling warmly. "We all do. If you need anything, remember, we're right here."
"And my guards are everywhere," Toval said pointedly, making the "I'm watching you," gesture. "You tell Everett I said that."
"You're as bad as an alpha," Connor muttered, reaching for the door just as he heard the knock. Everett was on the other side, sharply dressed as ever, but there was something anxious in the alpha's posture, like he had somewhere else to be. Well, thought Connor, soon enough he could spend all his time there, wherever it was. "Hello."
"Hey," Everett said, looking warily at the looming trio of wolves who looked ready to shift and jump him at any moment. "Shall we stay and talk, or...?"
"It's probably better that we don't," said Connor, ushering him out into the hall. Toval was still pointing at his eyes when the door fell shut.
Everett was silent until they made it outside the building. "I've heard there's a garden on the edge of the territory. I didn't get the chance to see it the last time."
"Yes, it's one of Angel's projects," Connor said, motioning for Everett to follow him towards it. "I hope you don't mind the walk." Everett's shoes were so shiny and stiff, they looked more uncomfortable than heels.
"Not at all," he said, glancing down at Connor. "You're used to taking the lead, aren't you?"
The question struck Connor as strange, but he brushed it off as Everett trying to be charming. For some people, it was a hobby. "I guess so."
"Sorry for disappearing like that," said Everett. "I had some urgent business to attend to for my father."
"I'm sure he felt your absence deeply."
"That's a lovely tree," Everett said, walking deeper into the garden once they arrived at the front gate.
"Cherry, I think."
"I bet it's even lovelier in the spring," Everett mused. "Most things are. It's a shame time has to ruin beauty."
Connor frowned. "I've always felt that time refines it."
The alpha tilted his head, strolling further into the garden. "How's that?"
"Anyone can live," Connor murmured, ignoring the strange pull in his chest that told him not to follow. Yet another useless emotion surfacing at the worst time, when he needed to be practical and succinct. "It takes strength to survive and grow. Seeing something change and become more than what it was, that's beauty."
"Perhaps you're right," Everett said without stopping.
"Everett, wait." Connor froze on the path, knowing it didn't continue far before the edge of the woods that bordered the residential area of the pack. He knew his collar would pump his blood full of neurotoxins if he stepped foot over the line. Funny how he'd almost forgotten it was there. "There's something I need to tell you."
The alpha stopped walking, but he didn't' turn around, his hands buried in the pockets of his fine silk suit. "I bet I can guess what it's about."
Connor sighed. "I'm sure you can. You're a smart man." Normally, playing into an alpha's ego wasn't something he would do unless he wanted something in return, but he was feeling uncharacteristically merciful and the relief of being rid of Everett likely had something to do with it.
"Smarter than you."
Connor paused, wondering if he'd heard the alpha incorrectly. "Excuse me?"
"Imagine that. Outwitting the malevolent, the brilliant, the fiendishly genius omega Cutter," he said with a dramatic, mocking flourish of his hand as he spun on his heels. "Too bad I can't add it to my resume."
Connor shook his head, taking a step back from the alpha whose sudden and complete shift in demeanor had him questioning his own perspective for the first time in more than a decade. "What are you talking about?"
"Of course you wouldn't remember me," Everett said with a laugh. "I so rarely visited the Parlor."
Connor's heart pulsed out a wave of pure dread at the sound of the name he'd once thought--and hoped--he would never hear again. The Parlor. His own personal hell for seven years. Surely this was a mistake. Surely Everett was speaking of somewhere else, anything else. He stumbled back, realizing the alpha was walking towards him with an easy if menacing gait. "What?" His voice was cracked and filled with something he hadn't heard in it in ages: weakness.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Everett purred, clasping his hands in sympathy. "Is that a painful reminder or a past you'd rather leave behind? Too bad you didn't leave my father with the chance to live at all."
"No," Connor gritted out. "Don't. Your father is Aaron Hauser, he's a fucking Federation official."
"We are an ambitious lot, we Hausers," he said wistfully. "I'm so sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. And I'm afraid I haven't been entirely honest with you. It's terrible to be dishonest with your mate, isn't it?" He shook his head in feigned disgust. "You see, Aaron isn't really my father, he's my uncle, but he was kind enough to raise me as his own when my real father turned up with his throat cut by a clever little omega."
"If your father is Richard Hauser, then you should know he slit his own throat."
"Yes, that's what the police reports said," Everett said, his gaze turning sharp as it fell on Connor. "But we both know that's not what really happened. You made him do it."
"You're insane."
"Don't be so boring,"
Everett snarled. "You're a colossal disappointment, you know that? When I first heard of Cutter, I could understand why my father was so transfixed on you. I thought you'd be clever, interesting at the very least, but you're nothing but a weak, simpering little omega," he said, drawing a blade faster than Connor's eyes could register. He held the tip to the omega's throat and when Connor swallowed, it dug in. "Just like the ones who told my uncle it was you when he rounded them up after you set them free in your triumphant escape. See what mercy gets you?"
"Your father was a sick, twisted bastard and he deserved a worse death than the one I gave him," Connor seethed, tears burning his eyes. Usually they came with despair or even humiliation, but these were the overflow of his rage. Was there no end to the absurdity of the emotional spectrum? "If you know who I am, you know why he kept me there in that place. You know the things he did to us, him and all his high-brow alpha 'clients.'"
"You're omegas," he said, as if there was some explanation laced in his words. "It doesn't matter what happens to you. You're all the same, you're all meant for breeding and serving, even one as clever as you think you are. You think you're so much better than them, but you're not, are you?" He sneered, blinging the blood-red tip of the blade to his mouth, his tongue flicking out over the edge. "Even the Cutter bleeds."
Connor dodged swiftly as the alpha launched in. Everett didn't seem to be prepared for the omega to tackle him and he went to the ground with a less than dignified cry of alarm. Connor let out a hiss, taking the blade from the alpha's grasp to press it to his throat. "It's just Cutter, you moron," he growled, pressing the blade in deeper, the sight and scent of an alpha's blood triggering instincts that had lain dormant for years. How much easier they came back to the surface, yet they didn't displace the emotion that had returned as well. Instead, the bloodlust mingled with the humiliation and the pain that felt as fresh as it had all those years ago, fueling the promise of vengeance, the end of his tormentor's line.
"You were there," he choked, looking deep into Everett's eyes. "You were younger, but old enough to know what you saw was wrong. To know your father was a monster."
"And what are you?" Everett shot back.
The question hit Connor hard enough to stagger him, but he kept the blade pressed to Everett's throat. "I've done things I regret. I've profited from omega auctions, from assassinations, from things I'll spend the rest of my life atoning for, but never from the sick things your father did," he said, his voice quivering with fury. "I'm the reason men like him turned up dead in their beds, the reason even the deepest, darkest parts of this world have a limit, a line no one is allowed to cross. I dismantled his twisted ring and maybe I sold my soul and stained my hands in blood to do it, but I won't let you continue his legacy."
"So self-righteous," Everett sneered, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his life rested on a razor's edge. "We'll see how you feel after a few weeks in my uncle's dungeon. I think I'll wait until he breaks you and pay you a little visit myself."
Connor gritted his teeth, ready to drag the blade across Everett's throat and end his miserable excuse for a life when someone grabbed him from behind. He struggled and thrashed, but the men held him fast. With a snarl, he gave up on fighting with his hands and sank his fangs into his captor's shoulder. The man grunted in pain but secured Connor's hands behind his back, immobilizing him as if the bite had no effect.
"Don't bother. I know what you are and I came prepared," said Everett, brushing himself off as he stood, wiping away the blood on his neck with a handkerchief. "They're betas. Your venom has no effect on them, and I'm willing to bet the drugs they have you on has rendered it more or less useless, anyway."
"Mel! Toval!" Connor cried, still straining in the beta's grasp as the other closed in on him. He had given up on crying out and thinking someone was going to come save him long ago, but for the first time, he had hope that there were some who cared enough about him to bother.
"Get him across the line, the collar will subdue him," Everett said, ushering them through the line of topiaries that marked the border. Connor kept struggling as the betas dragged him through the brush and the moment they crossed the invisible line, prongs embedded within the metal collar plunged deep into his flesh, shooting his veins full of neurotoxin that immobilized him immediately. He caught a glimpse of the crescent moon overhead as his body turned limp in the beta's grasp and he was loaded into the back of an SUV concealed in the woods. As he slipped into consciousness, it wasn't fear that plagued him. It was guilt as he wondered how many other omegas had been in the same situation while he congratulated himself on his accomplishment of "civilizing" the underground he had once ruled.
Chapter Nineteen
DUKE
"What the fuck do you mean he's gone?" Duke snarled as he stood in the Mountain Ridge Alpha's office, surrounded by Mel, Toval and Hassan. Mel was an omega, even if he had once outranked Duke himself, so he was out but both of the alphas and the beta were looking like fitting target for the rage coursing through him.
"He was with Everett," Toval said through gritted teeth. "They were gone too long, so I went to check on them and I caught his scent going of the territory."
"You let him go off with Everett alone?" Duke roared.
"He was with my guards!" cried Toval. "Most of them are still unconscious. Everett must have brought an entourage."
"We have to consider the possibility that he was working with Connor," said Mitchell.
"Bullshit!" Mell hissed.
"He's right," Hassan said with a frown. "Connor wouldn't do that."
"This is Cutter we're talking about," Mitchell said slowly, like he was talking to children. "Let's not be naive here."
"No, he's not. He's changed," Toval said, squaring his shoulders as he stared his Alpha down without any difficulty or hesitation. "He's not the same person he was when you imprisoned him. Hell, he's not the same person he was a couple of months ago."
"I'm not saying he colluded with Everett for certain, I'm just saying, we have to consider the possibility that --"
"He's pregnant," said Toval, looking right at Duke.
Mitchell groaned. "Now is not the time for --"
"He's what?" Duke choked out.
"Toval," Mel murmured, evidently as surprised that his mate had announced it as Duke was to hear it.
"He needs to know," Toval said, holding Duke's gaze. "He's pregnant with your kid. I don't know if that changes anything, but he was going to tell you and now he can't."
If that changes anything. Not much, Duke thought, aside from turning his whole world on its axis. If Connor had been there, it would have changed everything for the better, even though the risk of impregnating an omega was once the very reason he'd avoided them. But Connor wasn't there, he was gone and with some alpha that Duke had never trusted from the beginning. He'd thought Everett was a coward, but knowing that he was something far worse made him regret not putting a silver blade in the alpha's chest that night at the party. All his thoughts were jumbled together, the most inexplicable sense of joy mingling with a fear greater than any Duke had ever known, but he forced himself to suppress it all the way he had for so many years, one last time. It had to be the last. He would find Connor and bring him home, and nothing would ever be the same. He would never be the same. It was a promise he should have made a long time ago, but it was one he intended to keep.
He shifted gears, forcing himself to go into the same cold, detached mode that had made him so good at his job, at finding the target. Cutter was the one target he had never caught, but that was about to change. The end goal was just different than it ever had been. He turned to Mitchell, stalking over to the Alpha's desk. "Call up the TTF, Colt is the interim leader. Tell him to launch protocol Theta Psi, and give me every alpha you can spare."
"My team's already on the move," said Toval. "We're going."
"I'm going with you," Mel said, rushing after him.
"The hell you are," Toval growled.
&nbs
p; "It's Connor!"
Duke could see the tension building between the two of them, a sure sign a fight was going to break out when Hassan stepped up, shaking his head. "That's exactly why you're not going. That and your condition."
Mel's eyes narrowed, his anger redirecting towards the alpha. "I don't take orders from you, not in a military situation. Connor is in danger, and I'm the best tracker in this pack."
"Duke is better," Hassan said firmly. "You can hate me for saying it, but there's a reason you chose an alpha as your replacement. You've been out of the field for years. You're out of practice and you're too close to this. You'll just be a liability to the team."
Mel seemed ready to argue, and Duke knew the defiance on the omega's face well.
"He's right," said Toval. "The more time you spend fighting it, the longer Connor's out there."
A low growl rumbled in the omega's chest but just when it seemed like he was about to explode, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Please bring him back. Please..."
Toval leaned down, kissing his mate gently. "We will," he murmured, motioning for Hassan to follow him.
"You're dismissed," Mitchell grumbled from his desk.
Duke was already out the door, overtaking Hassan and Toval on his way to the garden. Connor's scent was still there, tinged with fear. There was blood, too, but it wasn't the omega's. Duke dipped his fingers into the small pool of it on the pavement and tapped it to his tongue.
"That's nasty," Toval said with a grimace before turning to bark orders at his men to fan out.
"It helps me keep the scent longer," said Duke, shifting without warning. The beta staggered back and a few of the soldiers gave startled cries as the massive brown wolf settled on his four paws. Duke wasted no time looking back as he heard another wolf's growl behind him. Hassan's scent followed him past the first barrier that separated the unit from the outside world and he looked over to find the russet-hued wolf close behind him. Hassan gave him a nod that let him know he was following Duke's lead and Duke took off at full steam in pursuit of the soon-to-be-deceased Everett.
