Page 42 of Generation Omega: Revealed
Studying faces on a screen as though this is an omega beauty pageant—this is wrong. I should know her on sight, like I did on scent. But I don’t and I can’t catch her budding perfume through a monitor. I should know something, be pulled somewhere, but I don’t and I’m not, and I’m furious about it.
Sage glares at the middle screen. “Crap.”
“What?” I demand, leaning closer and searching the same monitor.
“Another Volkov—that’s four so far. They’ve impersonated cops, SWAT, hotel staff, even the fry guy at the alpha burger cafe. They have quite the costume department, don’t they?”
My stomach twists and I mutter my question, not wanting to speak his name to Sage but unable to hold back. “Not Kazimir though, right?”
She refuses to flinch, but her features always tense in the same way, as though becoming a statue is the only way to deny the power of his name. “No, he would never be that careless, which is why he’s the most lethal of them. There’s only one other Volkov as dangerous and we’ve never been able to identify him or her—no face, no gender, no actual name, just another invisible enemy to fuel our nightmares. I guess every culture has their bogeyman and the mystery Volkov is ours.”
I lean back, unable to stare at the monitors without my skin crawling. “I used to have nightmares about a killer, a Volkov, who looked as sweet and fresh as any omega, with a soft voice and a whimsical laugh.” I grimace. “Then she’d gut me. You think that was a portent of my own doom or that I might need relationship therapy?”
Sage scoffs. “Of course, you need relationship therapy—heck, you need every kind of therapy. And damn,alpha, what a complicated relationship you’re about to have with who knows how many other alphas and an omega. What’s the largest number of alphas ever recorded for an omega?”
“Nine.”
“Oh, dear. You don’t like people. This is going to be a wonderful opportunity for you to evolve, and it’s going to be an entertaining spectator sport for me. Win-win.”
“Ifwe find her in time.” I say the words as though they’re written in a dusty text rather than inextricably tied to my own future.
“We’ll find her or she’ll find you—that’s how this works.”
“How it’ssupposedto work,” I correct and she squints at the monitor as though extreme attention will shield her from my negativity. But I don’t relent. “What if this is a false positive, my alpha reveal?”
“Dude, come on…”
“I know it’s unheard of but I shouldknowher.”
“Airborne—the legacy is now airborne. Why are you struggling with that?”
I slam my hands on the table and stand so abruptly the chair is thrown to the floor. “Because it has never happened this way in the history of the world!”
She casts a dismissive glance at me and the fallen chair. “That would be a problem if we were time-traveling into the past, but since we live in the present day—something not included in a single one of your reference materials—there’s room to be surprised.” Her expression becomes unreadable, though hints of hope begin to surface. “I think it would be harder to believe that the outcome could be different this time, if everything is exactly the same as it’s always been. Something has changed—somethinghuge—and I choose to believe that we truly have a chance this time. I have to believe that.”
I reclaim my chair and force myself to sit like a civilized human. “But don’t you think I should feel something?”
Sage exhales and she might as well have delivered an entire speech on my inadequacy.
“Say it—Ineedyou to say it.”
“I’m not asking how youfeelbecause I actually care.” She winks at me to soften her words. “I’m asking because you are the best source of information we have right now.” She waves at the screens. “I can look at a thousand different faces. I can search the crowd and assess groupings, even utilize fabulous algorithms and other borderline-magical tech. I can look for abnormal behavior—an alpha cosplay costume that includes oven mitts, for example.”
“Oven mitts?”
“Hey, I approve. Baking is an attractive quality in an alpha, one you are sorely lacking, even for someone with your cultural cuisine affliction.” She jabs the table with her finger, tapping it several times. “The point is that I can stare at all these monitors and playfind the needle in the ginormous haystack. And I’ll do it. I’ll do anything to help the new omega and her pack. But I’m not going to lie. I’m annoyed right now, because I’m seated beside a human metal detector who could instantly locate the needle if he just allowed himself tofeel—notthink, not cling to past knowledge or experiences, not question the validity of the legacy. Justfeel.”
Her expression locks down and she suddenly looks like the business titan she is. “That’s your one job right now. I certainly don’t believe that you’re a false positive or an alpha dud, but I do think you’re resisting.” She stares at the ceiling for a long moment before sending her glare my way. “You almost passed out rather than breathe her scent—I’d call that resistance. Maybe the legacy isn’t going to give you any hints until you fully commit to the omegaverse, come what may. An alpha who doesn’t listen to his instincts won’t be able to protect his omega. That’s just logic.”
Sage spins in her chair and returns to the dozen screens, freeing me from the searing disappointment she can no longer hide.
An alpha who doesn’t listen to his instincts won’t be able to protect his omega.
Of all the words she said, those strike the hardest and wound the deepest. She’s right, of course, but that knowledge was earned with her sister’s blood, my blood even. Doubt kills omegas and alphas. Even the smallest hesitation can be fatal. The legacyguides, another piece of data that’s entirely unsettling from this side of the omegaverse.
Every omega and alpha I met or studied mentioned the instincts, the pulls that couldn’t be silenced, the feeling of rightness when they moved according to a plan they couldn’t see. Trust was always rewarded, though not right away. Seeing all ends took time, and most of them never lived long enough to understand the parts they were meant to play.
I suddenly feel a chill at the words etched in memories that will never fade, times when doubts about the guidance grew too strong to ignore for Sarah, for Kai, for the others. Terror blocks the intuition—I’ve witnessed that too, but I didn’t understand it then the way I do now.