Page 49 of Fallen Omega

“You turned me in. And now?—”

“Craig Edmonton?”

She recoils.

“Of course,” Lizette snaps, “you went through my things. Read the letter.”

“How did you manage to keep out of their reach now you’re in heat. It started, what? A year ago?”

“This city’s full of jobs where you don’t need registration.”

I smirk. “I’m aware.”

It’s the only type of person we employ. The girls who workthe lower level and some of our other places, the men who bring in the stolen goods, deal in contraband—women, too—not one of those are registered, or they’re shunned. And some, according to Council records, are dead.

“Then—”

“Craig?”

She shudders this time. “Some old alpha the Council wants me to mate with.”

“You’d be queen of the pack.”

“He has mean eyes,” she says. “Cold. It’d be a loveless match.”

I scoff. Love? Is she really that naive?

“I thought…I thought I was shunned, but I’m not and now they expect me there next week.”

I nod. She can’t go. They can’t see the mark. “Will you go?”

“I… It’s not your business.”

It makes sense how she thought she was shunned, especially since they were off grid. Somehow Roth showed up on their systems when the idiotic cops handed over her name.

Our connection with the cops on something like this need to be handled right, and I’d personally prefer not to involve them. It’s not worth them getting caught. And if they turn…

“I’m not interested. Curious.” I shrug. “But what you do next with this Craig is up to you, Lizette.”

“Can I go?”

“You’re in fucking heat. Do you want me to spell out what might happen to you?” I say.

“Can I go?”

“No.”

Her father’s dead, and she’s protecting him. Or herself.

But the way she put that hat away and the photos…not to mention the little leaflet of the pauper’s funeral tells me it’s all about him. In death, she doesn’t want to give up anything that might seem like betrayal.

I go along the lines of things in my head. Every place I stop has a thousand possible outcomes or motivations.

Life isn’t cut and dried. It’s not simple. People do things that are muddied. Her love of her father might be pure, but her motivation might not be. His might not have been, either.

Fuck, he might not even have been the Elias Enver I knew.

Which brings me back to how an unregistered little omega managed to bestopped by idiotic cops who both didn't know what she was.

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