31. Belle

Chapter thirty-one

Belle

A strange feeling of calm drapes over me like a blanket when I kneel before my captor of three years.

Francis.

The last time I saw this Beta, he'd left me to rot in the woods.

He used his cruel little bell to pull me under a spell—the same bell that turns me into a killing machine with no mercy.

The same bell that gives me an insatiable bloodlust for Alphas.

He planned to hand me off to one of his cohorts in the prison, and I think I have a good idea of who that cohort might have been now.

I recall what the guard said to me before he was about to kill me.

"Francis sends his regards…"

But now look at him.

He couldn't keep away in the end.

I bet he wanted to see how his little 'weapon' was faring after he unleashed her on the government. I bet it killed him to see how happy I was with my pack.

But his plan failed.

And now he is being held captive by my pack.

How the tables have turned.

My guys have done a number on his face, and truth be told, I feel nothing.

No empathy.

Francis brought this upon himself.

He opens one of his swollen eyes, and I meet that watery blue.

When a lump forms in my throat, I remember the time he took away my books and stripped my bed of all comfort.

No. I will not feel sorry for this man.

A tear drips down his cheek, mingling with the crusted blood on his face, and I angle my chin away.

"Belle… please… tell them to stop."

He wants me to make them stop?

Did he 'stop' the day I begged him not to take my smutty books from me?

Those books were all I had.

They were my gateway to another world. One where I could pretend to be someone else for a while, and he denied me that pleasure because I forgot to wash some dishes.

Francis hates filth, and now he is sitting in a pile of his own.

It must be killing him.

But taking away my books and sheets wasn't the worst thing he did to me.

He tracked me down to the pack house and threatened to reveal Rian's secret so that I would leave with him.

But now Rian is safe.

Now my Omega can be his true self, and we will both get to Present in front of the world together one day.

We will show the world that we are two Omegas in love, and we won't care who knows it.

No one will keep us apart again.

The guys are silent as I kneel before Francis.

Rain watches with bated breath. Leo is silent and Jeremy is curious.

Troy hangs above me like the angel of death that he is, and I bet this is just as personal for him as it is for me.

Francis used him in order to get to me.

He took advantage of an Alpha on the edge and now Troy will make him pay.

I will give him my blessing to deem any punishment he sees fit.

But I just need to know first.

"Why?"

My voice is a rasp, but it still rents the air thick with silence.

No one breathes a sound.

Francis takes a moment to respond. He swallows several times, and I focus on the action on his throat, the way it bobs.

He closes his eyes in contemplation, but I don't push him.

I give him time to reply.

A rumble sounds on my right, and Troy steps forward. "Our Omega asked you a question…"

Just as I go to reprimand Troy, the Beta snorts, opening that swollen slit of an eye, and there's the Francis I know.

" Your Omega?"

Troy grinds his teeth, and he's so close, I can hear his molars crushing together.

"I see no bond mark on her neck."

If I thought the shack was quiet before…

It's Rian who replies. "In time, my friend… You just won't get to live to see it."

Francis whirls on him next, and his look of utter disgust almost makes me lose my cool. "You disgust me. You gave up being Beta so you could become a filthy Omega whore!"

He spits at the ground at Rian's feet and my arm shoots out.

My fingers circle his throat, and I have no idea where the killer instinct came from.

A bell didn't go off, but the moment he disrespected my Omega, it was as if a switch went off.

Francis glares at me, but when he meets the look in my eyes, he stops.

His throat bobs beneath my hand, and I wonder how long it would take for me to squeeze the life from his lungs.

I wonder if I'm even capable.

After all, I have no clue how far my ability to kill goes.

Judging by the fear inside Francis's eyes, I would have to say that it's a lot.

It appears he has made me slay many an Alpha at his command. Now that my fingers are wrapped around his throat, he's stunned into silence.

"You wouldn't…" he chokes.

My face is void of emotion as I apply a little more pressure, and I hear Leos's seductive purr somewhere behind me.

"But I would."

I add a little more pressure, and Francis begins to splutter.

"So, tell me," I say, my voice like a robot. "Why?"

I don't have to explain. He knows what I am asking.

Why did he lock me up for three years and turn me into this.

A silent killer.

The guys must have all thought I was a sweet little thing the day they brought me under their roof, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.

No one is innocent. Not really.

Everyone has the ability to kill.

Just some more than others…

I let go of his throat long enough to let him speak, and now the Beta explains.

"Because Omegas and Alphas are nothing but filth, and you need to be eradicated. The way you fuck… like animals... It sickens me."

No one speaks while he talks.

"You're animals. You're not even human anymore. Evolution went backward the day you all formed."

I listen to his words carefully, trying to be as neutral as possible.

At some point in human history, everyone was Beta.

Until a couple of hundred years ago—around the time that Alphas and Omegas appeared…

That's when things started to change.

Pack dynamics formed and then bonds arrived shortly after.

Evolution going backwards, he says.

Is that how he sees it?

He sees us as less than human because of the way we fuck?

Francis bares his teeth, and he looks more animal than human at that moment. Go figure.

"Do you know how far we advanced as a civilization? How far we could be right now if Alphas and Omegas didn't exist?"

None of us has an answer to give.

It's not even worth thinking about.

As far as I know, humanity was already pretty fucked before Alphas and Omegas arrived.

Francis has got it all wrong.

Humans have always been animals.

"You're no better than dogs. All of you... Heats? Ruts? You make me sick!"

Troy growls, kind of proving Francis's point, but the Beta continues.

"But that's okay. Because all dogs can be trained in the end…"

Leo follows Troy's lead, and now their twin growls rumble through the shack.

Francis smirks. "If not, you can always be put to sleep. "

I've heard enough.

At least I finally know why he abused me for years.

Francis doesn't see me as human.

He thinks I'm just another bitch he can train to do his bidding, and I rise, turning my back on him at last.

I was his pet, so to speak.

He's vile. Pure vile.

Before I exit, I meet Troy's eyes.

He has my permission.

Any punishment he deems fit.

I don't stay to see what happens next. Sure, we may be proving his point that we are nothing but simple-minded animals, but Betas aren't any different.

I know my history.

That once great 'Beta-only civilization' that Francis loves so much was constantly at odds. Wars were fought, and many were killed.

Many of them innocents.

In the end, we're all killers.

Humans never advanced because humanity was already broken before Alphas and Omegas came along.

Francis's screams echoed until dawn. But I already made peace with my choice.

Nothing but a killer.