Page 61 of The Omega Project

Our operator follows the stumbling bouncers inside, until it’s only Creed holding Emily, and me looming over her walking corpse of an ex. Emily is pale faced but her chin is up, and I can sense the anger starting to build now that her fear is ebbing. “Do you want to stay for this?” I ask, peeling back the veil just enough for her to see the intent in my eyes.

“Yes,” she says quietly. “He said he was going to do a lot worse to me before I maced him.”

She looks down at her wrist, and the reference to his attempt at a mating bite fills me with rage. I learned long ago to hide my aggression under a cloak of civility, but I don’t need that now. In fact, I want this piece of filth to see exactly what kind of monster he’s unleashed by coming after my mate.

I start with his wrists, tearing the tendons with a couple of well-placed kicks that have him screeching into the dirt. Symbolic injuries for daring to put his mark on Emily, not that he seems to be joining the dots as he writhes on the floor.

“Fuck, man! I’ll never touch the bitch again!” A very stupid choice of words, and his agony is a sour stink in the air as I kick his front teeth in. Not that physical torture is my end game, and I force myself to take a step back. Any half-decent operator can snap a guy’s neck, but not everyone can order them to walk into traffic, whistling as they go.

An impulse I would’ve once given into, when issuing self-destructive commands was my bread and butter. The military was my biggest client, aiming my darker tendencies against their enemies until they launched Vast Horizons, and I realised the only thing that separated them was the pattern on their uniforms.

“You think you’re a big man, don’t you?” I grab him by the back of his jacket, jerking him up until he’s swaying on his knees. “Cheating your customers and screwing over your friends. But we both know you’re really just a coward and a loser.”

“Fuck you, arsehole!”

The curse is garbled, given the state of his teeth, but I don’t bother trading insults. Instead, I grip the back of his head, pressing my fingers into the vulnerable spot between his brain stem and spinal cord. All it takes is the right kind of pressure and a command that has his whole body jerking like he’s been hit with a cattle prod. “Break.”

I don’t think the actual word matters, although the military researchers probably know more about it than I do. They were the brains on the project; I was just the brain breaker.

I also don’t know what it feels like from the victim’s end, but I’m assuming it’s pretty horrific by the way Wagner’s eyes bulge out of his head. “What the fuck did you do to me?” he blubbers through his broken teeth.

“I made you a null. Not alpha, beta, or omega.” He blinks at me through dazed red eyes, and I hold up three fingers. “No knot, no bite, and no alpha juice. You’re nothing now.”

I let that sink in for a moment. No more swaggering around his bar or lying about his exploits, especially since I’ve bought the deed to his business and cleaned out his bank accounts.

“You can’t do that!” he sobs, reaching out to claw at my legs. Another kick has him sprawling, and he starts crawling in Creed’s direction. Probably to beg Emily to go easy on him, but Creed doesn’t give him the benefit of the doubt, kicking him hard enough to send him crashing into the wall. He’s not dead, but Emily is still looking queasy, and I step in front of her, blocking her view of her ruined ex.

“It’s done,” I tell her. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”

“My bag…” she says softly, but she doesn’t resist when I steer her towards the end of the alleyway.

“Creed’s guys will get it and clear things with your boss.”

No doubt Ridgeway is already bribing the club management into looking the other way while our cleanup team rolls through their venue. When they’re done, there won’t be a speck of evidence to suggest any of us were ever there, Wagner included.

“Did you really turn him into a null?” she shivers as we exit the alley, the car we took from the airport hovering at the curb. She rubs her arms as she climbs into the back and I peel off my hoodie, draping it over her shoulders. She buries her face in the fabric as Creed and I settle on either side of her, only coming up for air when the driver pulls out into traffic. “I didn’t think that was a real thing.”

“It’s rare, but there are cases. In fact, I thought you were a null at one stage.”

“Me?” She blinks up at me, and I feel Creed twitch on her other side. This is a conversation he’d definitely prefer to leave for another time, but he can’t see the curious spark in her eyes. “What made you think that?”

“Your scent. Your bloodwork. The fact you could resist your father’s commands.”

She lifts her brows, but doesn’t ask how I got access to that information. Emily has a brilliant mind, so I doubt my views on privacy are news to her. “Can nulls be switches?”

“Not that we know of, but as I said, it’s a rare condition.”

That bright intellect flares in her eyes as she mulls it over. “And if they can resist alpha commands, maybe they’re immune to the triggers.” She studies my face. “Designation manipulation. It’s what you did for the army, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” There’s no point in denying it when I want her to know all my secrets. “I assisted on a number of projects that required skills like mine.”

She doesn’t shudder, but I can sense her pulling away a fraction. I expect her to shut down after the traumatic night she’s had, but she brushes her fingers over the back of Creed’s hand. It’s gripping his knee so tightly, the veins are bulging against his tanned skin. “Were you guys involved in Vast Horizons? Is that how you met Soren?” Creed flicks a dark glance over her head, but before I can answer, she sighs and leans back into the seat cushion. “Can we… go somewhere quiet to unwind? I don’t think I can go home just yet.”

“I know the perfect place,” Creed says before I can respond, his fingers flying over his phone. He gets a return message almost immediately and he leans forward to give our driver the new address. I recognise it, of course, and give him a startled look. The only person Creed protects as passionately as his pack is his mum, but he just wraps an arm around Emily and says, “I think we could all do with a hot chocolate, don’t you?”

Emily

I’m not sure if I sleep on the drive to Creed’s hot chocolate spot, or if I’m just in a daze from the events of the night, but the next thing I know I’m blinking up at a cute house in the suburbs. It’s got the same colonial charm as the beach house but on a smaller scale, with palm trees overlooking a koi pond and a white picket fence. I thought we were heading to a diner, or maybe a hotel lobby, but my lips curve up as Creed ushers us through the garden gate and a tiny woman explodes from the front door.

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