Page 74 of Into the Fire: Before

I practically leapt from the couch, breaking myself from the various vise grips on my arms and shoulders and hands. It was claustrophobic. I stood at the end of the coffee table, running my hands through my hair and focusing on my breathing.

“Okay,” I said, swallowing down the bile threatening to overtake me. “Okay, so…so they tested some anti-puking drug a few decades ago. And now they’re taking omegas. So they clearlyweren’ttesting some fucking anti-puking drug.” I crossed my arms, stepping closer to Vikki. The three alphas in the room all growled, still not trusting the woman we’d warily let into our midst. I didn’t care. “So what are they doing?”

Something like respect sparkled in Vikki’s eye. “They’re trying to find the designation gene. They’re trying to figure out how to create omegas.”

Brooks

“Nofuckingway,”Cainegrowled. “Thereisno designation gene.”

My heart raced in my chest, my brain working twice as fast. Designations seemed to happen totally randomly. Scientists had been looking through data for ages, trying to suss out any possible rhyme or reason, any correlation they could explore to figure out how to tweak designations manually.

They never figured it out. Alpha numbers decreased, omegas’ drastically so, and we were no closer to understanding the mechanism of designations to begin with.

“Strictly speaking,” I said, mind still half-distracted as I sifted through every bit of knowledge I had on the subject, whichwasn’t much but was probably more than everyone else in the room, “we don’t know that that’s true.”

Caine sat forward the couch cushion, shooting his death glare toward me. “It doesn’t run in families. Alpha plus alpha doesn’t equal alpha. Beta plus beta doesn’t equal beta. Alphas and omegas aren’t even guaranteed to give birth to alphas and omegas. It’s fucking magic.”

“No,” I said. “It’sscience.It’s just science we haven’t figured out yet.”

“Bull—”

“UV rays existed before humans learned how to detect them,” I cut him off. “Bacteria still existed before we could see them. Designations aren’t magic. Bond bites aren’t magic. It’s biology. It’s—it’s—chemistry.”

Caine opened his mouth to argue back, but Lin beat him to it.

“It doesn’t matter if it exists or not if they’re trying to find it. All that matters is that theyare.” He turned to Vikki. “So what do we do?”

What a question. What do we do against the megacorporation apparently hellbent on taking our omega as their own for god knew what? Vikki all but confirmed as much when she answered.

“The police are on the take,” she said somberly. “Omegas being targeted should be front-page news, but they’ve buried every single one. Done the minimum to keep family or friends or whoever off their backs, fed them lines about doing all they can do, and wait for people to give up or forget about it.”

“We didn’t fucking—”

“Butpeoplecare,” Vikki said. “People care about their loved ones being targeted with shady medical testing or abductions and abuse. And people care about omegas being taken and killed.”

“And what makes you so different,Detective?” Caine snapped as he charged off the couch and loomed over Vikki. “What the fuck is in this for you?”

Brea stood. “Caine—”

“He’s right,” Lin said, standing as well. He nodded at Vikki. “She just told us the police are bought and paid for, so why isn’t she?”

Vikki shook her head, shifting in the light brown leather chair. “I wish I had a sob story to give you. If I could tell you about a sister or…or a lover who’d been taken, that may make you trust me more.

“We had five missing omegas come through this station in sixteen months. Two through New Gilden. One in Eagle’s Peak. Andno oneis doing anything about it. They tell us they’re runaways, or the trails are cold, and they move on.

“But I wanted to know why. So I looked for why. I found other people who wanted to know why. Every bit of this information came at great risk and cost, believe me.” Vikki’s tone took a defensive edge, just for a moment. “But there’s never been a witness. Never been a survivor.” Her gaze turned to Taryn. “Until now.”

Taryn paled. Brea shook her head. Lin—calm, collected Lin—snarled, a burst of rotten blackberry exploding from him. “Absolutely not.”

“I have someone inside.Deepinside,” Vikki said, standing herself. “We’ve been painstakingly smuggling all this out over the last three years, trying to build our case. But if we don’t get hard evidence—photos, video,witness testimonyfrom a living victim—there’s no chance in hell this will stick. I told you before”—Vikki looked to Brea, still seated with her brows knotted together—“wehaveto have irrefutable, undeniable proof, or they will walk and this will be for nothing. And you’ll still be in danger.”

Everyone began speaking over each other, Brea and Caine standing from the couch, all three alphas arguing with Vikki, who never once faltered or faded, arguing right back at them.

What a fucking mess.

Taryn’s voice was the one that quieted everyone. “What if they’re still there?”

Everyone turned to her.

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