8. Leo

It took hours to wash away the smell of blood and death from my fingers, yet no matter how much I scrubbed my nails, the blood just wouldn"t go away.

It"s all in my head, I know it is. Troy doesn"t have to keep reminding me, but I can never quite forget how their blood feels dripping down my face.

Why am I like this? One moment, I appear to enjoy the inane bloodlust and the next, I am curling up into a fetal position, crying about being a monster.

Granny will be so disappointed with me, and I don"t care what Troy says; she isn"t dead.

She watches over me every day. I have her ashes in an urn, so her spirit will never leave me.

Fuck.

I"m hovering over the bathroom sink, fingers gripping the porcelain as I try to forget the latest kill.

It pays the bills, though. We all need the moolah, but it"s getting hard.

I"m pretty sure I am becoming less human every passing day, and I don"t even know how I can look at myself in the mirror.

Because I just see a monster gazing back at me. One with red eyes and horns…

This pretty face of mine is a lie.

Women simply throw themselves at me because all they see is the sculpted face, the hair, and the full, fuckable lips.

But what they don"t know is that beneath this beautiful fa?ade lies a demon.

Behind these pretty brown eyes is a twisted psychopath who wouldn"t think twice about cutting them up.

This has to stop. This disease of mine is spreading too far now, and sooner or later, I won"t even be human anymore.

A knock sounds at the door, and I pick up on Troy"s coffee scent.

"Hey, Leo… You all right in there?"

I sigh, bowing my head.

I"ve just finished washing myself up, but I don"t want him to see that I have been crying.

I don"t know why. We"re pretty close, and we share a Beta.

But I just don"t want him to see the state I am in.

As I inhale through my nose, I lean up, tying my hair back in a bun. Then I meet my big brown eyes in the mirror, and again, they"re just another lie…

There is a killer behind these big doe eyes.

The handle rattles now, and I finally approach the door, meeting his electric blue eyes on the other side.

He hikes up a brow when he sees the state I am in.

"Sure you"re all right?"

I look away from him. He"s as much a killer as I am, but that doesn"t mean I can stand to see the judgment in his eyes.

I"m not as good at compartmentalizing my emotions as he is, but I know he doesn"t judge me or think me weak.

"I"m… good, Troy. Don"t you worry about me…"

Troy narrows his eyes, watching me for a little while longer. Then he grabs my shoulder. "Look… if it makes you feel better, you can bail on the next mission."

I shake my head. "No. I must put these killer instincts to good use somehow."

Again, he raises another brow, stepping back to study me carefully.

Maybe one day, I can find someone to protect, someone worth killing for…

After all, it"s not wrong to kill when it comes to protecting the ones we love.

Well, at least that"s what I tell myself.

There is just no one to kill for… We have Rian, but he"s a Beta.

My eyes find the door of our empty nest.

I built it in the hopes that we would one day find our Omega, but so far, they have eluded us.

Yet I am grateful to Rian. He has helped fill the void that an Omega would normally fill in these instances, and I am looking forward to him coming home just as much as Troy is.

Rian is worth killing for… and I tell myself that he is the reason why Troy and I go out and spill blood most nights.

I don"t care if they were bad, twisted people; they were still living, breathing things, and it was wrong.

But this demon in me needs release.

"Now hurry up and pull yourself together. Jay and Rian will be home soon. I just got a pretty cryptic text. Apparently, they have a surprise for us."

Now my mood improves, and I suck in a deep breath, following him down the stairs.

Before I leave, my eyes find the empty nest again.

One day, we will find them.

There has to be an Omega out there for us somewhere.

Maybe then, Troy and I won"t have to dirty our hands with blood in order to survive. Because she would become our new reason for living.

Troy and I wait in the front room of our country house.

Lucky for us, Jeremy"s grandparents had been rich and left us the place after they died.

The house is large enough to house three Alphas and a Beta, but it always feels so empty.

What it needs is an Omega"s touch.

Rian offered us some interior design tips, and he really does have a knack for those things.

Also, he has a strange sweet smell about him, one that makes me want to take care of him and pleasure his body in more ways than he can imagine.

I scent them before they arrive: Jeremy"s petrichor and Rian"s soft baby powder.

But then my nose picks up on the scent of another, and when I breathe it into my nose, something snaps inside of me.

One word rings through my mind.

Mine.

That caramel scent belongs to me…

Troy picks up on it too, but where I expect to see the same infatuation in his eyes, I only spy hatred.

How can he hate that smell?

It has to be the most beautiful scent I have ever come across.

After Rian"s baby powder, of course.

It couldn"t be…

"Leo…" Troy warns with a growl, but I ignore him and fly toward the door, yanking it wide open.

When my gaze lands on the ebony-haired beauty in Rian"s arms, I finally understand what all that killing was meant for…

Why I had to dirty my hands all those awful times.

Because that is a face worth killing for.

Mine.

Finally. Our Omega.

She has to be…

And I am going to make her mine.