Page 13 of Knot All Is Lost: Part 2

That had me giving him a questioning glance. “You make it sound like you’ve been with an Omega before.”

He traced a finger along my jaw then tapped it against my nose. “No need to be jealous,Keksík. Not all cities and countries are like this one, some don’t put the same value on having Omegas bonded and in a pack. Where I was raised, Omegas are in a breeding house and can be enjoyed by whoever pays for the experience.”

My eyes widened in horror. “That’s awful,” I gasped.

“We are always at war, they need soldiers, and the only way to ensure more will fill the places of those killed is to have more children,” he explained. “It’s one reason I’m so thankful to have left that all behind. I have no family left to fight for, and I refuse to die for a country that hates itself.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, who are they fighting?” I questioned.

Savo pressed a kiss to my head and breathed deeply. “Truthfully, I don’t think they even know anymore. At some point, there were two people of power that split the country in two equally. Then as time went on, each ruler after them got greedy and wanted to take more land from the other, or overthrow them entirely. Since then, there has been no peace, always one side fighting to take back what’s theirs. The thing is, I’m not sure anyone knows where the original division was, and they just fight because they don’t know how to stop. One of them would have to give up or surrender and no one is willing to do that. If they did… they wouldn’t live long.”

“I’m so sorry that’s the life you grew up in, but it led you to me, so there is good in this yet,” I offered, turning to snuggle into his chest.

While we lay there in the flickering light of the fire, my hand wandered across his muscles, venturing lower and lower. I reached the waistband and tried to slip my hand past it, but he stopped me.

“That is not necessary,Keksík,” he said as he intertwined our fingers. “I got all the pleasure I needed hearing you scream my name to the heavens above.”

“I can feel how hard you are still,” I commented, rubbing my body against it to prove my point. “It has to be uncomfortable to leave it like that.”

He pushed me onto my back, looming his body over mine as he answered. “If I allow you to do that for me, I won’t be able to hold back. Every atom of my being wants to bury my cock deep inside you and claim you as mine. You told me no sex, I will honor and respect that, but you need to respect the boundaries I have as well.”

Shame flooded me at his words. He was right to scold me. I’d put my own rules in place and hadn’t even bothered to ask him if he had any for me. “I understand,” I whispered, dropping my gaze.

These were the moments Mom would tell me I was being selfish, only worried about my needs and not those of others around me.

Savo’s fingers gripped my chin and pulled me back to look at him. “Now it is you that doesn’t understand. I want you so badly, Cambrie, that the slightest touch of your hand would make me lose all reason. If that were to happen, then I know I would break my promise to never hurt you, because having to tell your pack that we went all the way before talking to them would devastate you. As I said before, I will not be one of those people who takes away your choice. Ever.”

Tears welled up as I kissed him, clinging to his neck, holding him as tightly as I could to ensure he would never leave me.

Chapter 6

Wespentthedayat Alton’s and even slept over, not willing to go back to the house without Cambrie there. The information that Alton had on the CoF as a whole was slightly disturbing, but I didn’t give a shit. We needed to get our girl back and it needed to happen fast. Our priority was trying to find a location where he would keep her that was out of the way, but still close enough to keep an eye on.

Since all the men we were looking into were government employees, all their information was cataloged and filed. They needed to declare what property they owned to ensure that bribes weren’t happening. Clearly, that wasn’t working, since we knew for a fact that Yoram and the others were getting money into their pockets somehow. However they did it though, was hidden well, because there wasn’t a goddamn trace of it to be found.

“We need access to different records we can’t get as citizens,” Nixon grumbled. “If only we could get into the Capitol Building without raising suspicion, but they’ve made it so that’s impossible. Spence, have you heard anything from Savo? He’s the hacking wizard, right?”

Spencer looked up from the documents he was reading over and frowned. “He hasn’t answered and his phone goes straight to voicemail. I don’t really want to leave a message or text him in case someone else might read it.”

“Fuck, this is getting us nowhere,” Nixon swore, kicking a trashcan across the room. “Alton’s been looking for loopholes for years. How in the hell did we think it would be different just because we read over the same damn things?”

Most of us had gotten hardly any sleep last night, which made for short tempers. All the coffee in the world couldn’t replace what we actually needed.

“Wait, I think I got something,” Bodhi called, waving us over. “It’s not in his name but this property outside the city closer to the countryside is owned by a female in his pack. Actually, if you really look at his pack, they only have Beta members and their one Omega that died in childbirth nineteen years ago. Oh, she’s the one who had the house. Seems her family was well off and died at an early age, leaving everything to their daughter who was bonded to Yoram.”

Peering over Bodhi’s shoulder, I took note of the Omega’s name and frowned. “Isabelle Neenan, I read that name somewhere.”

I walked back to the newspapers I’d been looking through that had articles about each of the CoF Officials. Flipping through them, I found the announcement of her parents' death. Skimming over the piece, I found what I was looking for.

“So, her parents were from old money, her grandfather was one of the creators of the fertility drug they used to help pregnancy rates. This was before they twisted it to create more Omegas. This says after the terrorist attack the family retreated to the countryside, where they lived out their lives, raised their children, and died in their sleep,” I read aloud. “Isabelle’s family raised her out there, choosing to keep out of the city life. That’s also where they passed away, refusing to seek treatment at hospitals for fear they would kill them for who his parents were. Autopsy shows it was a natural death for them both, yet this reporter challenges that outcome. His reasoning was it would be impossible for them both to die from an illness that destroyed their lungs, drowning them in their sleep at the same time. He called foul play but his words, I’m sure, fell on deaf ears.”

“Wait, did you say they died from their lungs being damaged?” Marius asked with a furrowed brow. “Let me see if I can find more information on them. What were their names?”

“Carson and Elise Neenan,” I answered, handing the article over to Marius, who sat in front of the laptop Alton had for us to use. “If the property went to the daughter, then it was transferred to Yoram when she passed.”

“Do we think it’s weird that she died just a few months after her parents did? I know pregnancy is dangerous and all that but the timing just seems odd, don’t you think?” Bodhi asked, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms. “You’d think a man like Yoram would do anything to prove his pack could produce viable offspring. That’s more impressive to anyone than how much money or power you have.”

The sound of keys clicking as Marius typed filled the silence. “Okay, I found a few articles that agree with that reporter. It’s said Isabelle's parents bought and moved to that house because they were getting harassed by the Equality for Betas group before they became known as the terrorists EQ. They found the use of drugs to alter women’s reproductive system repulsive and an abomination. To them, the fact that children were not being born was more about their sinful nature proving they shouldn’t extend their genes than an actual physical issue.”

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