Page 33 of Truth or Lie

Jax set it aside and returned to his chair. “Yes,” he agreed. “At the conference.”

The conference. We’d been there with Nikolayev and the omegas, meeting with Irina’s mate—husband—and several other dignitaries from countries around the region. Things had been going decently well, if not spectacularly so. There’d been talk of extending the meetings for an additional day. I’d been watching Leona and Kam work, berating myself for letting them distract me from scanning for threats like I was supposed to be doing. And then—

I blinked.

Rage. Lust. Terror.

Bodies writhing against mine. Soft words that might as well have been gibberish. Reassurances that I couldn’t allow myself to believe. I felt the blood drain from my face so quickly that it made me lightheaded.

“No...” I whispered.

“Alex.” Jax’s voice cut through my growing panic. “Look at me, alef.”

I dragged my gaze to his blue eyes, staring at him past a hazy memory of sighting along my gun barrel at Flynn’s head.

“We’re back in Russia,” Jax said. “No one’s injured. You didn’t mate either of them. They helped you of their own free will, with the full expectation that it wouldn’t change anything afterward.”

“I didn’t bite them?” The words were a barely audible rasp.

“No one bit anyone.” He paused, seeming to rethink the statement. “Correction. No onematedanyone. Actually, your neck is a mass of bruises, because apparently Leo has a not-so-secret marking fetish. She didn’t break the skin, though.”

My body flushed hot, then cold. “And she wasn’t in heat.” That was right, wasn’t it? She hadn’t been due for a heat... had she?

“No one’s pregnant,” Jax said firmly. “And no one’s mated to you. Someone at the conference spiked the drinks with a drug that brings on a rut in alphas—probably one of the staff. You and two other alphas got dosed. Nikolayev’s doctor ran blood tests on you, and he doesn’t seem to think there will be any lasting effects.”

“A drug. For alphas,” I repeated stupidly, trying to get more neurons firing in sequence.

“If your first thought wasBeta Liberation Front, so was ours.” Jax took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. “It was probably meant as a way to get alphas to hurt or kill people, so the story could be spread over the worldwide news media to reinforce Enoch Sloane’s message about the so-called alphomic menace.”

I swallowed hard. “Did I...”

“No one at the conference was seriously injured. You pulled a gun on Flynn, but you threw it away an instant later when you realized you were compromised. One of the other alphas in the room got off a few shots, but he didn’t hit anybody. I knocked you out. We bundled you onto Nikolayev’s plane and brought you back here, where we’re secure.” He hesitated. “Sorry about pistol-whipping you like that, alef.”

They’d kept me from hurting anyone. They’d brought me back. They’d let their precious omega mates fuck me through a rut, and made sure I couldn’t bite them or hurt them too badly in the throes of my madness.

Jesus Christ.

“Leave,” I said, because I was in danger of falling to pieces and I didn’t want him here.

“There’s something else,” he told me, not rising from his chair. “Beckett whelped a female pup yesterday. It’s been touch and go. He’s still recovering. The pup’s in an incubator, two weeks premature and pretty damned tiny. He’ll want to see you as soon you’re up to it.”

Derailed, I took a moment to try and wrap my brain around that revelation. Nikolayev and Beckett had a daughter? Good god—she’d probably end up ruling the world when she grew up.

I shook my head to dislodge the non sequitur, and regretted it immediately when my eyeballs pulsed like they might roll right out of my skull. “I need to talk to Leona and Kameron,” I muttered.

“They’re resting at the moment,” Jax said, in a carefully neutral tone. “You probably should be, too. I’ll let them know you’re awake and wanting to see them. I’ll also have Flynn bring you something to eat.”

My stomach protested the idea of food, but I hadn’t eaten in who knew how long, so I nodded.

“Thank you.” The words were harder to get out than they should have been.

Jax rose, looking down at me with a troubled expression. “Alex... this thing with Leo and Kam—we need to figure it out. They’re dead set on not pressuring you into anything you don’t want to do. But, me? I’m starting to worry about what will happen to our pack, long term.”

I heard what he wasn’t saying. If I’d had a mate-bond with the rest of them, I wouldn’t have pulled a gun on Flynn, because I wouldn’t have perceived him as a threat. Leo, as an omega, would have been able to soothe my emotions through the psychic link to keep me from losing my shit.

Basically, all of this could have been avoided. My stomach churned harder.

“I hear you, alef,” I said. “I do.”

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