Page 148 of Stolen Omega

“Well, did I tell you about my contract? Because that’s the other layer of crazy we need to get through.”

He smiles. “I know you’re forbidden from taking mates, true or otherwise.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“There isn’t much about you that I don’t know.”

“Okay, fanboy,” I tease.

Of course there isn’t much he doesn’t know. He’s a determined Alpha. Whatever he wants, he gets.

He knows way more than I do about my own damn life.

I should be mad about that. Honestly, it’s hard to be anything but turned on when my body’s reacting as if he’s already marked me. When I breathe in, I can tell my perfume is strong enough for him to notice.

Yet he’s keeping a distance between us, acting as if it isn’t affecting him.

He’s hiding what he’s feeling right now. I can tell he’s feeling something, and the feeling is intense, but it’s not on the surface so I can’t tell what it is.

“I want Dale to keep his chosen mate,” Zane tells me. “I’ve seen how well Cameron looks after him.”

“Russ has spent more than a year looking after me,” I tell him. “Archer has been watching over me from a distance. He’s an Alpha, so I don’t know him well, but Russ has been friends with him for a long time and that tells me everything I need to know about him.”

He nods slowly. “James Archer is the head of your security team. He’s been doing a decent job of protecting you.”

If anyone would know that for sure, it’s Zane.

I bet he would have found it easier to get to me if the team hadn’t been so well organized.

It sounds like they got lucky when they found out our old neighbor was on the team.

“He’s not going to be happy about this,” I tell him.

“He’ll get it over it.”

“I understand why you did this, and I’m grateful that you helped me to remember.”

“But?” he asks.

“But I need to know the rest. I understand why you think it’ll overload me, but you’ve helped me find out the worst part already. I mean, it doesn’t really get more awful than being kidnapped as a kid and having my memories of my old life wiped clean, does it?”

Sighing softly, he looks at the ground.

I can tell he feels worried and a little guilty.

It’s the first real crack in his armor, and I don’t know what it means.

He looks back up at me. “You were taken to replace a child who already existed. I don’t know what happened to the real Zelena, but I’d bet on something sinister.”

Oh God. I was wrong. It can get worse.

“I was taken to replace their own child.”

The full meaning of that reveal hits me hard. They had a little girl they called Zelena.

I’m not that child. They used me to replace that child when they lost her.

The life I’m living isn’t just a lie. It’s a cover up for a terrible crime.

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