Page 64 of The Alpha: Part Three
I close my eyes. Begrudgingly. I breathe in the air and try to feel the atmosphere. “Okay, fine,” I huff. “Fine. It's good. But I just think–”
“You think your energy would be better spent fighting.” Elizabet comes into the room and lays back on the bed I just smoothed out. “Right? You think being in the thick of battle is more important than making beds and checking light switches. I get it, Ben. I really do. But you're building the real battlefield here.”
When I don't say anything she continues. “The COTs storming that compound right now are just the first step in saving those omegas. They will save their bodies and bring them here. But for those omegas, the alphas and betas on those teams are just as terrifying as the rogues who have been keeping them captive. They look the same as the rogues. They feel aggressive, much like the rogues do. The COTs will load them up into planes for transport exactly the way the rogues loaded them into vans and probably planes. And those vehicles will smell like aggression and stress. They will feel dangerous. This place doesn't feel dangerous, does it?”
I shake my head, my shoulders slumping.
“I am an omega, correct?”
I nod.
“Do you know what you and your brother feel like to me?”
I shake my head again.
“You feel safe. You smell safe. You smell like alphas who protect omegas and make them safe. Guess what every room in this place smells like because you and Michael have touched every single part of it?”
Well, fuck. “I didn't think about it like that.”
“Exactly,” she sits up and gives me a small smile. “You understand now, don't you? Why it had to be you? The omegas who come here will feel protected and safe while they fight to regain themselves. They haven't felt that for a very long time.”
“You just can't let me pout, can you?”
She laughs. “Nope. What you've done is just as important as what the COTs are doing. You don't get to pout about that.”
I'm about to make another comment to continue the banter, but Seth calls Michael and Michael's expression has me on my feet.
“Yes. Okay. We're on the way now.” He ends the call and looks at Elizabet. “Nothing's wrong. But we need to go to Nathan's. Will you be alright? Is Marcus on the way?”
She rolls her eyes. “I'll be fine. Marcus will be here soon. I'll lock the doors behind you.”
When we walk into Nathan's security room there are a lot of things happening on multiple monitors and I don't know where I'm supposed to look. Seth clears up the confusion by pointing at one of them. “Watch. I need you to confirm. I don't want Desir'ee in here for this.”
“Or Talia,” Jasper says from his perch on the edge of one of the desks. “I probably shouldn't be in here either, but nobody's kicked me out yet.”
“Watch,” Seth says again. “It's almost over. Then we'll find out how many are left.”
Michael grips Seth's arm. “What do you mean, how many are left?”
Seth holds up a finger, shaking his head. “Just wait.”
I watch the absolute chaos on the screen. It looks like chaos, but the longer I watch the less chaotic it becomes. It would be less messy if the COTs didn't look exactly like the rogues, further hammering in Elizabet's point.
The cacophony of gunfire halts almost all at once and one by one the COTs begin to reform, taking stock of our losses. We watch as the units efficiently move across the compound tagging the dead and immobilizing the rogues who are injured or dying.
“Here we go,” Nathan says. “They're going in.” He pulls up the view of the building with all the extra vents and things.
Then an unfamiliar voice sounds from one of the speakers in the room. “One forty-two alive.”
“There should be one forty-five,” Nathan barks. That's the first time I've heard him sound even a little aggressive. “Where are the other three?”
Everyone holds their breath as we watch and listen for the voice to tell us where the three unaccounted for omegas are. After what feels like an eternity, we get good and bad news.
“Three were moved to another facility. Two female omegas and one male. There's an omega here who has a message. I'm going to put her on.”
We wait for an even longer eternity before a trembling female voice starts speaking. “They found out you were coming this morning. They woke us up and put us all in here. They moved Owens to another facility.” She stops, her voice breaking on a sob. “They took Connie.”
“That's Desie's mom," I hiss. "That's her name."
