The Fat Omega’s Vengeance : Between Two Alphas

Aria's POV 40

I followed Damian down a narrow flight of wooden stairs that led behind the main kitchens, then out through a back door I had completely forgotten existed.

The cool air hit my face as he led me into a dense thicket of trees at the far edge of the pack grounds. I kept my head down, watching his wide shoulders cut through the overgrown branches.

After a few minutes, the thick trees opened up into a hidden, circular clearing and

I stopped dead in my tracks.

My breath hitched in my throat,it was a secluded stone greenhouse, its glass roof mostly broken, surrounded by patch after patch of wild white lilies and sweet jasmine.

My heart twisted hard inside my chest as I remembered it, this place had been my sanctuary when I first married . Whenever Kael’s stress got too heavy or the pack politics suffocated me, I would hide here for hours just to read and tend to the flowers. Nobody in the pack house had ever known about it.

"How..." I whispered, looking around at the colorful petals. "How do you know about this place?"

Damian turned around to face me, a faint, mysterious smile tugging at his lips. He gave me a quick wink. "It's a secret."

I swallowed hard, keeping my hands hidden in the folds of my skirt so he wouldn't see them shaking. "I didn't think anyone ever came out here."

"They don't," Damian said, stepping closer to me. "That's why we're safe to talk. Now tell me what happened in the study and what did Silver say to you ?

I took a deep breath, forcing my mind away from the memories of the garden and back to the task at hand.

"Silver wants every single thing that has anything to do with Lydia destroyed," I explained, my voice quiet in the still air. "She ordered Kael to burn them all. But when I went into his office earlier, the folders were sitting on his desk, charred around the edges. Kael pulled them out of the fireplace with his bare hands."

Damian frowned, his dark eyebrows pulling together. "He burned his own hands for those records?"

"Yes," I said. "His skin was completely blistered. I offered to go get him some ointment, but he exploded and screamed at me to get out."

Damian let out a low, bitter breath, rubbing his jaw. "He is so hung up on Lydia. He is completely blinded by her ghost. If he's willing to burn himself just to keep a few pieces of paper, he's never going to let us close enough to find the real evidence."

"So what do we do?" I asked. "If he won't let me help him with the records, I don't if he'll need me around anything sensitive.”

Damian fell quiet for a long moment. He stared down at me, his eyes scanning my face, my hair, and the way I was standing. The silence stretched between us.

"Lydia," Damian said softly.

My blood ran completely cold as a sudden terror struck my chest, and I went rigid as marble. Did he know? Did he recognize me?

"What..." I stammered, my voice barely above a whisper. "What about her?"

Damian took a slow step toward me, closing the distance until he was standing right in front of me.

"You're Lydia," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my heart hammering like a trapped bird as I tried to pull back. "Damian, what are you talking about?"

"You," he said, reaching out to lightly touch a strand of my hair before dropping his hand. "You can be his Lydia. That's the only way we will ever get to him."

I blinked at him, completely thrown off. "What?"

"Look at him Aria," Damian said, his voice dropping into a urgent, persuasive whisper. "He is drowning in grief and guilt over her. If you act like her, he won't be able to push you away. I can teach you how to be like Lydia, I know her small behaviors, the way she walked, the way she dressed, the colors she loved, the way she used to talk to him. It'll be like Lydia was reincarnated as you."

I stared at him with horror and confusion clashing inside my mind. He wanted me to act like myself to trick Kael.

"That is a terrible idea," I said quickly, shaking my head. "It's insane Damian ,and Kael isn't stupid. If I start acting like his dead Luna, he's going to notice."

"He won't think it's a trick, he'll think it's fate," Damian countered, stepping even closer, his eyes intense and desperate. "He's already soft toward you and I've seen the way he looks at you. He's looking for her in you already or maybe you have a better idea?"

I opened my mouth to argue, but nothing came out. The image of Kael's blistered hands flashed in my mind. The image of Silver burning my records flashed right after it. I didn't have another way into Kael's inner circle.

"No," I whispered reluctantly, looking down at the white lilies at my feet. "I don't."

"Then we do it," Damian said softly. A slow, dangerous smile spread across his face. "Starting tomorrow, I teach you how to bring Lydia back to life."