Page 160 of Stolen Omega

Russ gazes at me carefully before he looks back at Archer. “He didn’t do this, Archer. She perfumed for him. He’s one of her true mates.”

“He is,” I confirm.

“He’s a kidnapper,” Archer says, frowning at me now.

“I can’t say that’s not true,” I admit, while Zane lets out a weary sigh. “But he had his reasons.”

“What were his reasons, exactly?” Archer asks, after exchanging a look with Russ.

Okay, here goes, I guess.

“I’m not Zelena Ortega. My real name is Zoey Rodriguez. I’ve known Zane since I was a kid, and I knew he was my true mate even then. Dale is ours, too. It’s going to sound crazy, but they kidnapped me because I was kidnapped when I was nine years old …”

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Archer

Zelena’s story is as far-fetched as it gets, but if she’s lying, she isn’t showing it. Her responses to my questions are earnest, and she doesn’t try to give me an answer for anything she doesn’t know.

She really believes her real name is Zoey Rodriguez.

If that’s been conditioned into her in less than twenty-four-hours, then the Alpha who took her is even more diabolical than I thought he was. He’s the only one who would have a motive for making her think she was someone else, yet he hasn’t used it to tell her Russ and I aren’t her mates.

It doesn’t make sense.

Harris warned me the guy might not be stable, but he also warned me that Zane suspected Zelena was someone else, and she’s claiming to be someone else.

“Are you done with the questions now?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

She leans forward, her elbows on the table, and turns her head to the left again. Her attention has been split since we came into the dining room to assess the situation before I plan our next move.

Russ is questioning her kidnapper at one of the only tables that have been set up in the room.

Only half of the room is painted. The weird vibe in this place feels solidified by what I’m seeing around me now. It’s unfinished, and it’s never going to be full of people, like a hotel should be.

Mainly because the owner’s about to go to jail.

If he couldn’t afford to finish, there’s no way he’ll be able to keep the place when his trial starts.

Guys like him always think throwing money at a lawyer is the way to go in these cases.

Well, this one is out of any Alpha’s price range.

Zelena’s too well loved by too many people.

No one gets to steal her away from the world like he did.

Like he tried to.

I watch her watch him, and she turns back to face me as if she can feel my eyes burning into her flawless, lightly tanned skin.

She presses her lips together slowly and then releases them to ask, “We’re all done with the questions now, right?”

“Not quite.”

She lets out a sigh, and slumps back a little in her chair.

Questioning her has killed the mood I found her in, and her perfume has faded into a whisper of coconut scent in the air around us. It’s a sweet, summery smell that makes my mouth water for a taste. It’s a thirst that nothing less than her slick will cure.

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