Forbidden by Liliana Carlisle
CHAPTER 22
JAKOB
I washed her blood off my face and rinsed it out of my mouth.
I left her with a bite mark to remember me by, then left her passed out on the couch.
Monster.
I was more animal than man.
And I called her Omega.
What the fuck.
You’re not good for her.
I wrestle with the anger and shame as Lucas drives us to our first Omega hospital.
I doubled my dose of suppressants to avoid the scent of any presenting Omegas. We have access to military-grade injections, and it’s something every Collector uses when they’re on missions.
Just in case.
But ever since Amelia, the temptation isn’t there. The thought of mating an Omega repulses me. My body rejects the notion, and there’s a sense of wrongness deep in my chest when I even think about it.
Amelia is mine. She’s all I need.
But as we question more people and dive deeper into the world of the Saviors, the painful reality sets in.
My world isn’t meant for her.
She shouldn’t know what it’s like to take a life. To make a man beg on his knees for mercy as you do what you can to get the information you need.
She shouldn’t recognize the look of a battered woman, trembling with fear as she displays herself for sale.
And she sure as shit doesn’t need to see the blood on my hands after only a day of doing my job.
My knuckles are bruised and split by the time we return for the debrief. Out of the six hospitals we’ve visited, three doctors were dirty, paid off by the Saviors to remove Omega’s chips.
Three doctors in only six hospitals.
But before we can even discuss it, Conrad bursts into our meeting room, his face pale.
“Any of you know who this belongs to?” he barks, tossing something small across the table.
As soon as Lucas sees it, he loses his shit. “What the fuck is this?!” he snarls, grabbing the object off the table and holding it, horrified.
It’s a white hair barrette covered in blood.
“Left outside the Center,” Conrad says. “Right near the front door.”
Lucas unravels. “This is Chloe’s!” he roars. “This is a fucking message from the Saviors! A threat!”
My blood runs cold as he runs out of the room.
“I’ll go with him,” I insist, but Conrad shakes his head, then looks to Calum.
“Make sure Aria and Chloe get to the safehouse,” he instructs him.
Panic erupts in me.
Amelia.
“Stay with me a moment, son,” Conrad says to me as Calum leaves the room. I fight a growl as he looks at me pointedly. “Or do you have someone to protect, too?”
My nostrils flare. “Does it matter?”
He shakes his head and sighs. “We can’t protect her,” he says quietly. “The Beta girl. She’s a distraction.”
“Now is not the time for this conversation,” I hiss at him. “Or am I the only one that saw a bloodied hair clip?”
“If the Saviors find out about her, what do you think they’ll do to her? They only threatened Chloe because she’s an Omega. But if they find out about your girl, they’ll kill her on the spot. One dead Beta means nothing to them.”
I snarl, baring my teeth. “No one’s going to touch her.”
“The longer she’s with you, the more at risk she is!” Conrad yells, slamming his fist on the conference table. “Listen to me, Jakob. You’ve done a good job of hiding it, but it takes one slip up. If she’s seen by any Savior, there’s a target on her back.”
My mind goes back to that first night at the bar.
“And she’s not your Omega, son,” Conrad adds. “As much as you want her to be, she isn’t your mate.”
I roar.
I fling myself at him, grabbing him by his shirt collar, baring my teeth. “She. Is. My. Mate.”
His aging eyes are tired, and he sighs as if he expected my reaction. He doesn’t hesitate to land a punch square in my jaw, knocking me off him.
“Then protect her,” he hisses. “By staying the fuck away from her. Like it or not, she’s a Beta. There’s no room in your world for her.”
And just like that, all the pieces fit in place.
With the chaos surrounding me and the ringing in my jaw, I know what I need to do.
A piece of me dies as I make my decision.