“All of us?” Ox asked.
Pappas shook his head. Then, “Maybe. But it would be Gordo first.”
Joe crowded in closer to me. “Why him?”
“His magic.”
“What about it?” I asked.
“It hurts. It stings. It stinks. It’s a cloud of filth that covers all of you, and it’s driving me crazy. I want to tear it to pieces. I want to tear him to pieces.”
“The Omega,” Ox muttered. “The girl. She looked as if she wanted to go after you first too.”
Joe stared at Pappas. “And every time you came into the room, she was more agitated.”
“That’s not—” I shook my head. “Shit.”
“What is it?” Ox asked.
“It has to be him. My father.”
“Why?”
“Magic, it—it has a signature. A fingerprint. Specific to a witch. But amongst family, it’ll be similar. Not the same, but familiar. If my father did this, if this is his magic breaking the tethers of the Omegas, his magic is in them. And they’re recognizing him in me.”
Joe sighed. “This sucks.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Sounds about right.”
Pappas st
ared at me. “I killed them.”
“The Betas.”
He growled, “Yes.”
“You warned me.”
“I did? I can’t remember.”
“You called me. You said your tether was breaking. You told me about the infection. That she knew about it.”
“I betrayed my Alpha,” he whispered.
“You warned me. Us. You knew what was happening. You wanted to be stopped. It’s not you, Pappas. It’s something inside you.”
He stood slowly. He was a big man. His skin looked as if it were rippling, like he was fighting his shift. His thighs were tree-trunk thick, and the muscles quivered as he took a step toward us.
Ox rumbled deep in his chest, a clear warning that caused my skin to crawl.
Pappas ignored him. He only had eyes for me. “Your magic,” he said. “It offends me. It makes my skin itch. You would be first. I would come for you first.”
“You already tried that,” I said coolly. “It still hasn’t healed.”
He didn’t acknowledge the burn mark in the shape of a hand, blackened and crisped.
Joe’s fingers circled my wrist. “Maybe not piss him off even more.”