“Oh, fuck you, man. Seriously.”
“Why doesn’t he shift?”
“He can’t,” Carter said. “Or won’t. We don’t really know. He just stays as a wolf. It’s kind of his thing.”
“Like watching you masturbate.”
“I hate everything. Including you.”
“I’m heartbroken. Really. Why don’t you let me out and I’ll do my best to make amends.”
Carter squinted at me. “Are you hitting on me?”
Jesus Christ. “No, Carter. I’m not hitting on you.”
“Really? Because it sounds like you are.”
The wolf bared his fangs. Ah. So that’s how it was. Before I could comment on it, his eyes flooded with violet.
“An Omega,” I said quietly. Because of course he was. I’d never seen so many of them in my life.
“Yeah,” Carter said, looking at the wolf. “We don’t know where he came from or how he came to be stuck like this. The Omega thing we’ve pretty much got figured out, but beyond that? I don’t know.”
I blinked. “What do you mean you’ve got it figured out? How the hell is there an Omega here? Why isn’t he hurting anyone?” The woman in the diner. The Omegas in the woods. The fucking kid at the bridge. Brodie.
And with that, another memory.
Chris. Tanner. Carter. Don’t hurt him. You hear me, whatever you do, don’t—
“You’re an Omega too.”
“Yeah,” he said, and he let his eyes fill. The violet was shocking, even though I knew it was coming. “And that’s why I was down here where you are now. In fact, there was a time when our roles were switched. You stood where I am, and I was in there behind the silver.”
I slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor. “I don’t understand. How are you able to control it?”
“Long story,” he said again. “But the gist of it is Ox is like Werewolf Jesus, and there was this beast who murdered my dad and Ox’s mom and then stuck his hand inside Ox and ripped out his guts—taking Ox’s Alpha power away from him, even though he was still human—and then he turned into the Alpha for like six seconds. Then Joe ripped the bad guy’s head off because of love and stuff, and since said bad guy was, like, leader of the Omegas, the Alpha power went back to Ox, and when he was turned into a wolf, there was a door that we closed, but then we shattered it because Mark and I got bit by a carrier of a magical Omega virus—Pappas, poor guy, got shot by someone who took the Bible a little too literally—and Ox became the Alpha of the Omegas, and now here we are.” He shrugged. “Might have left out a few details here and there, but that’s the nuts and bolts of it.” He grinned at me. “You get all that?”
I stared at him.
His smile faded a little.
I said, “What.”
“Yeah, right? It sounds crazy, but that’s how it went. Some explosions too.”
“And I was here for all of it.”
“Most of it, yeah.” His grin returned, taking on a wicked curve. “You wanted to fuck Ox for a long time. Or so I’m told. Tried to get all up on that Alpha junk.”
I choked. “What.”
“Ah,” he said. “I feel better now that that’s all out in the open. So, I was reading up on amnesia, and Wikipedia told me that if I show you pictures, you’ll remember. That didn’t work so well at the garage, but that was probably a little overwhelming, right? At least now you know we aren’t bullshitting you.”
“I don’t know that at all—”
He ignored me. “So, here. Take a look. Let’s see if we can get the brain juices flowing. I mean, if we can control the Omega shit, who’s to say we can’t do something like that for you?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. He took a step toward the line of silver, but the wolf was up in a flash, standing in front of him.
Carter thumped him upside the head. “Would you stop it? He can’t hurt me. He’s trapped.” He looked at me earnestly. “We love you.”