Page 95 of Where the Current Takes Him
Beau’s blood ran cold.
“Montgomery spoke at a Natural Order event last night, denouncing the Omega programs put in place two decades ago."
The shot cut to a bright stage, surrounded by a crowd of thousands. Beau let out a choked cry. Behind the familiar silhouette of his father was a photo, blown up to serve as a backdrop.
It was his own face, wearing a soft smile, and gazing down at a distended belly. Facing him, with his tail swept up into a crescent to cover his mate’s chest, was Loriun. His scarlet fingers draped over Beau’s own hands, where they rested together on the swell of his stomach.
He stole our paternity photos.
“What the fuck.” Loriun’s voice was nothing short of deadly. “Is this.”
On screen, Beau’s father had begun screeching into the microphone.
“They have come to tear our families—no, our very way of life apart. To desecrate the human form and to bastardize our men. Look what they have done to my own son!”
His father whipped around and stabbed a finger up at the photo.
“My only son, destroyed by the Mer just months before my wife’s passing.”
His wife’s what? Surely, Beau had misheard…
“The day that filthy creature got his hands on my boy, that child died, and his mother followed soon after. My family is gone. Gone because of the Mer.”
The screen went black. Loriun was beside him now, holding the remote in a shaking hand. Beau had always known his father was cruel, but he never imagined it would come to this.
Is she… really gone?
His vision blurred. For a second, he didn’t realize what was happening. Then, a hot tear cascaded down his cheek.
“Beau…” The fury that had been radiating from the Alpha melted away. He dropped to the sofa and gathered his Omega into his arms. Beau buried his face in his mate’s shoulder and gave himself over to the pain that clawed at his chest. Neither of them spoke.
Loriun’s arms crushed Beau to his chest and his fingers curled like vices around the Omega’s shoulders. They stayed like that for a long time.
Chapter 39
Loriun
Loriun could do nothing but watch helplessly as his mate, the man who would soon bear his nymph, sobbed into his arms.
“Do you think… it was true?” he said through gasping breaths. “Is she really gone?”
“I do not know,luae,” Loriun whispered. In the back of his mind, he was sure Ashford had not lied about his wife’s death. He would have never committed the atrocity Beau had just been forced to witness if Ileana still held breath. Even beyond that, such a lie would be easily sniffed out by the press. No, Ashford had not lied. Ileana Montgomery was gone.
Eventually, Beau’s shuddering sobs quieted and gave way to slow breaths. Asleep. Loriun sat silently in the blackness, alone with his thoughts, not even the moon to keep him company. Without Beau’s grief suffocating his rage, Loriun’s mind turned once again to anger. He could not allow Ashford’s actions to go unpunished, that much was certain. But he had won his election, and it seemed the people of Florida more or less agreed with the vitriol he spewed.
Loriun did not want to upset Beau any further—not in the state he was already in. But he also could not allow this dangerous man to go unchecked.
An urgent knock at the front door startled Loriun from his violent thoughts. He blinked at the clock on their stove. 10 p.m. Who would be at their door this late?
The knock sounded again, louder this time, and accompanied by a familiar voice. “Beau? Loriun?”
Vuos.
Loriun slowly extricated himself from his sleeping mate, shifting him into a lying position on the cushions.
His footsteps were almost soundless as numb legs carried him to the door. Vuos’s pale face was lined with concern, while his Omega appeared to be in a full-blown panic.
“Where is Beau?” Jaime demanded. “We saw the news and drove right over. Did he know? About what his dad was going to do? About his… his mother?”
