MATED TO THE PSYCHO OMEGA

Chapter 3

Leo’s POV

“Am I speaking to Leo?” The voice was flat. Mechanical. “Do you know someone named Cecilia?”

“Yes. My sister. How can I help you?” I sounded bored. I wasn’t, not really. I just wanted the call over.

“She was involved in a hit-and-run. She’s in critical condition.”

The words went underwater. My legs folded. The phone slid.

Blaine was there before I hit the ground. He hauled me up by the jacket.

“What? Leo—what?”

“Cecilia. Hospital. Critical.” My vision smeared.

The cigarette dropped from his fingers. His face went white.

“You’re not driving.” He took the keys.

I slid down the wall anyway. Heat in my eyes. Useless legs.

“Leo. Get in.”

I fell into the passenger seat. He talked the whole way. She’s a fighter. She won’t quit. Believe it. I didn’t answer. Red lights. Horns. Someone in uniform waving us down. He didn’t stop.

I was out of the car before it finished rolling. Reception desk. Dominance off my skin like heat.

“Cecilia. Now.”

The woman whimpered and tipped her throat. “Operating room.”

Nightmare logic said if I blinked hard enough she’d be at home packing a bag. She wasn’t.

We stood outside the doors until a doctor came through. I had him by the throat before Blaine could move.

“How is she?”

“Alpha—” Blaine pried my hands off. “He’s trying to help.”

The doctor wouldn’t look at me. “She’s in a coma. The damage to her legs… if she’d been brought in right after the impact, maybe. It’s too late for that now.”

He bowed and walked.

I went after him. “Say that again. She left the house an hour ago. You’re not talking about my sister.”

Blaine caught me. I broke in his shoulder and hated him for holding on.

Too young. I felt it before she left and I let her walk out anyway. That’s on me.

They let me in after they scrubbed my hands. She was still. Pale. Lips cracked. I took her fingers and looked for warmth like it was a trick I could win.

Both legs gone.

*She’ll be all right,* Lucas said in my head.

“All right.” I laughed once, ugly. “A wheelchair and a coma. That’s all right. I want the person who did this.”

I bent over her. “I’ll find them. I swear it.”

Outside, Blaine was waiting.

“Best people we’ve got. Hit-and-run. I want a name in twenty-four hours. Tear the territory apart if you have to.”

He was gone before I finished.

Then I called the number I only use when something is already on fire.

“Leo,” Lucian said. “Why now?”

“My sister. Hit-and-run. I need who did it.”

Silence. Then: “Video’s coming.”

The line died.

Ping.

I played it.

Cecilia stepping into the road. The car. The stop that came too late.

They got out drunk. The driver crouched. Put his hand in her blood and painted his shoe with it. Face empty.

Her mouth moved. Ambulance. Please.

He nudged her with his foot. They smiled. They watched her fold. They drove away.

The phone left my hand and hit the wall.

Lucas shoved under my skin, all teeth. *Break him.*

Blaine found me in the hall. “We’ve got a location. What do you want?”

“Take me there.”

The alley was narrow. He walked it like the night belonged to him. Like he hadn’t ended someone yesterday.

I meant to teach him what that cost.

I had his arm before he turned.

Then the scent hit.

Cinnamon. Raspberry.

Lucas stopped dead.

*Mate.*

I knocked him out anyway.

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