Omega Bound Chapter 254

Ayla

I can’t stop staring at the Alpha on the cot. He looks like my father. His face is the same, and his scent is familiar too, smoke and pine, threaded with something I can’t quite place because of the poison still burning in my veins. His groans, the way he mumbles under his breath, even that sounds familiar. My instincts recognize him instantly, as if they’ve always known him.

But the bond… the bond is wrong. Or maybe it’s too right. The moment my eyes saw him on the cot, something inside me snapped awake, a tether pulling tight in my chest. It’s new, raw, and alive in a way it has never been. I don’t remember ever feeling this with the Alpha we all now hate. My father never gave me that bond, never filled the hollow space inside me where it should have been.

Throughout the course of watching him, I noticed the gray pallor of his skin changing to more pale white like mine. He started to move around on his cot, and my heart started beating rapidly when I saw his eyes open. Large teal eyes lock onto mine as he sits up, holding his chest. His mouth hangs open, and he gasps while staring at me in shock. I protectively hold my stomach as I sit back against the glass wall behind me. His eyes go to my stomach and back up to mine.

The Alpha sitting on his cot, staring at me in disbelief, looks nothing like the photos of Mikhail that Thane had a few months ago in his office. Could he have deteriorated that rapidly in a few months, and who would want him and me? Stevens?

“Ayla? Is that you?” He says, putting his hand up on the glass. I can hear him, but it is slightly muted. The more they poison me, the more muted he will become.

It may be a good thing.

I stared at him, saying nothing. I don’t know what to say and what to believe at this point. If he wants to talk, I will try to soak in anything of importance that can help me escape.

“You weren’t ever supposed to end up here. I don’t know why he brought you here.” He says, scowling as he lowers his hand.

“Who brought me here? I thought you did.” I say sternly.

“No, no, Ayla. He told me that if I stopped trying to escape, he would not hurt you. I haven’t......I haven’t....” The Alpha, or my father, starts rocking himself back and forth, holding his legs.

“Who told you that? You need to tell me who you are talking about.” I plead with him, close to desperateness and too tired from the poison and whatever else in my system.

And I really need to pee.

“M-my brother, Nikolai. Your uncle. He would have raised you. The last time I saw you, you were not quite three yet, your sister just a baby.” He frowns at me, his lips trembling as he runs his fingers through his short, white hair.

“Y-you need to explain. Are you trying to tell me that the Alpha that raised me was supposed to be you, but instead was your evil twin brother? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?” I shake my head at him.

“You will find out soon enough. If he brought you here, you will see him. I can explain everything.” He turns more toward the glass.

“Please do,” I growl, losing my patience. He smiles at me.

“When you were a pup, our pack lived near Glacierfang Mountain. Your mother had just given birth to your sister a few months prior. You were short and chubby with snow white hair.” He smiles, staring at the floor of the space between us. “I had an Alpha meeting set up with both of your uncles.”

“Who?” I interrupt.

“Nicholai and Gregory.” He answers with a low tone, sounding agitated.

“Who is Gregory?” I asked, confused.

“Alpha Stevens. He is your mother’s brother. Your mother was from his pack. It was the first time in a long time in our pack’s history that a fated mate was found outside of our own pack. I met her when I was there at an alliance meeting.” He grins and starts rubbing his chest as if he is remembering the feel of a mate bond.

“Anyway, I went to the Alpha meeting. When they approached me with the plan to use my gift to try and change the shifter world, it sounded like it would be the greatest thing ever. A magic cure-all for everything.... everyone.... but when I got to that meeting, it was anything but.”

“You’re gifted? I was told the last gifted was my grandfather.”

“No... that isn’t right. I am fate’s gifted. Any of us with our coloring are.” He gestures between us with his finger. “I have the power to heal.” He holds up his hand again. “That’s why when I had agreed to experiment, it was because we could potentially cure anything, but when I went to the meeting, they had other business shifters there.” He explains.

“Was Stevens always shady?” I interrupt. I need to paint the picture of this in my mind. I need to hear it all to know if I can believe him or not.

“I knew that money swayed him, and that he was greedy based on your mother’s account of her own family, but I had no idea, none until I started digging into my brother, what they were really doing to earn their money.” He shakes his head, looking dejected. “They were discussing altering DNA by using my gifting somehow. In our meeting. They had theories about using my gifting to create more gifted shifters, and we were all going to become rich and elevate ourselves above the shifter world. Their words were cruel. They really thought they could buy me with money.”

“Your brother didn’t know better? He didn’t know his twin brother had morals and couldn’t be bought with money?” I ask in disbelief.

“Your uncle Nicholai and I had a falling out years prior. He was living his life recklessly. Going down the wrong path. When your grandpa left the Alpha title to me and not him, he started holding a grudge. He resented me anyway because he wasn’t gifted. Then he became jealous because I had a fated mate.” He sighs loudly, bringing his foot up to his cot and propping his arm across it.

“I had hoped that his presence at the meeting meant Nicholai had changed. And he had—but only for the worse. Your uncle Gregory… your mother never really had a relationship with him. Gregory was ten years older, her complete opposite. She was gentle, and loving… and he is nothing but evil,” Mikhail growled.

“So, you are gifted, he isn’t. You are twins, and you all had a meeting, you learned they were all corrupt, then what?”

“Then I refused to work with them. I hurried back to our pack as fast as I could. They sent a messenger threatening the lives of our pack, our.... you...my family. I packed everybody up and we fled, hiding in the coldest mountain range. I remember learning about the area in our pack’s history. It was believed that our wolves came from the coldest mountain range, and that was why our coats carried the colors we do. We adapted quickly to the harsh land, learning to survive off it and bend ourselves to its unforgiving ways quickly.

“Then how did I start getting raised by your evil twin brother at two years old?” I arch an eyebrow, impatiently waiting.

“I was silly to think we could stay hidden for too long. I had hoped that they would have given up truthfully. We were so far north, but he found me on a supply run. He and his militia took me. This....” He gestures around, “This whole thing, this.... This operation was so much larger than I thought it was. Nicholai took me, brought me here, and I have been here, getting my gifting drained ever since.”