The Old Man kicks me in the stomach to make sure I’m not recovered enough to act. He looks at her as I cough and spit blood on the stones. “You’ll come willingly?” he asks her. “No fighting? No protesting? No last-ditch effort to save yourself and this mistake who is too weak to even get up off the ground?”
“I p-p-promise,” Molly sputters. “I promise! I’ll do whatever you want.” She gets to her feet and puts her hands up. “I won’t fight you. I won’t do anything but what you tell me to. Just please.”
“Lincoln!” Case yells in the maze. “Lincoln!”
I can’t even answer him, but when I turn my head to see the dark spot where the maze dumps out into the center, he and Thomas come running into the courtyard, guns drawn.
The Old Man squats down and looks me in the eyes. “They can’t help you either.” And then he stands and raises his voice so everyone can hear him. “I’m in control here, Alphas. Did you really think I’d breed monsters capable of such evil and not have a way to keep you under my thumb? But by all means, boys,” he says, shaking his gun in the direction of Case and Lincoln. “Give it a try. You’ll end up on the ground like your little attack dog here.”
Case and Thomas stop short. I can already see the signs of inhibition poisoning on their faces just from their traitorous thoughts.
“Good boys,” the Old Man says with a snide laugh. “Molly, you offered to be cooperative if I spared your lover here?”
“Please,” she begs again. “I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Well, there’s the problem with your offer, honey.” She recoils at his term of endearment. “I don’t need you to promise me anything. I own you, Omega Three. I have owned you since birth. My will is your will. And believe me, I am one hundred percent in control of this situation. So I’m going to decline your offer and cut my losses while I’m ahead.”
He points the gun at me.
All three of my friends protest with yells and screams. Case even runs towards me, but he is quickly overcome by the inhibition poisoning for approaching the Blue Boar. And the last thing I see before the bullet strikes my chest is Case’s body falling to the ground.
The impact hits me so hard, I feel like I meld into the stone pavers under my back. The pain erupts like a volcano. My mind swims like never before and the world begins to fade.
I hear voices yelling, hands on my chest. “Lincoln.” Case calls my name from somewhere far away. “Get Sheila!” This time he’s right over my face and his voice reverberates in my head. “Get Sheila!”
“Lincoln,” Thomas says, a hand pressing on my chest. It feels squishy and empty. My life is flowing out of me in rivers of hot stickiness. “Open your eyes, brother. Open your eyes.”
I try, but it’s hopeless.
“Get that bike out of here, Case,” Thomas commands.
I swim in the dull gray world of in-between. My chest barely able to draw breath. My body limp and weak. My mind slipping…
“Sheila’s here with the car,” says Case.
I open my eyes a slit, just enough to see blurry motion all around me.
“We have to move fast.”
“He’s dying!”
My consciousness fades in and out as my body is lifted, set down, lifted again, and finally placed to rest. I will die here. In my own car. But then I think of Molly and the defeat I feel stops my heart.
“Breathe!” someone calls out. “Breathe, Lincoln.” Someone is pushing on my chest, and all I hear is the pumping of blood through my body.
Thump—thump.
Thump—thump.
“Do not fucking die on me, Lincoln!”
“Do not fucking die on me, Lincoln.” Thomas is standing in my doorway as I pack one change of clothes. “I need you. Do not do anything stupid, you hear me?”
“I don’t take orders from you.” I growl it out. “I’m the only real Alpha here. You two don’t have an Omega. You have no idea how it feels.”
“They breed them, Lincoln. They breed them to control us. They have been programmed from birth to kill us.”
“Don’t lecture me, Case. I know what she is.”
“She’s your killer, Lincoln.” Thomas, ever calm, says it so matter-of-factly, we might as well be talking about homework and who we’re taking to the movies on Friday night. “He bred her to kill you. He’s manipulating you into loving her so when the day comes, you will submit.”
“I’m not leaving her behind.”
Case grabs his hair and lets out a frustrated sigh. “We need to get going, Thomas. If he wants to save her, we can’t stop him.”
“Is that why you insisted we use the inhibitor on ourselves?” Thomas is bright. I’m sure it surprises him that I got this far and he didn’t suspect it.
His hate for the Omegas is so strong he probably can’t even imagine the feelings I have for this one little girl. “What do you think?”
“You wanted to make sure I didn’t kill you over this.”
“Well, you’re not exactly known for your familial loyalty, Thomas.”