Raze's fingernails sank painfully into my upper arm as he led me away from the camp. The night was cold, and I felt even colder in my thin gown. The forest was no less scarier than when I'd been running from the Sanatorium, and I shivered in apprehension.
I had no idea where he was taking me, but something in his expression—stony and hardened by years of distrust—told me that wherever we were headed, it wasn't going to end well for me.
"You wanted to survive, right?" Raze growled, not looking back at me.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my legs from giving out under me. "That's all I want."
He snorted, like that was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. "You've been coddled your whole life. The daughter of a Conclave member, an Alpha's cub, an Elite wolf. You don't know the first thing about survival."
I bit back a retort. What was the point? These rogues already hated me. To them, I was nothing but a symbol of everything they despised. A daughter of power, of privilege. And maybe they were right.
"Do you know why we live out here, Elite?" Raze finally asked, his pace slowing as we came to a small clearing. "Why we live like hunted animals?"
I stayed silent, waiting.
He let go of my arm and turned to face me. His green eyes seemed to glow even brighter under the moonlight; I could sense his wolf prowling behind them. "Twenty years ago, we had no choice. The Elites forced us out."
"The Segregation," I whispered. I'd heard of it, of course, but no one in the packs ever talked about it in detail. It was a shameful secret, buried in the past.
Raze nodded and curled his lips in contempt. "The Omegas had been oppressed for centuries. Treated like trash. We were the runts, the powerless. The ones who couldn't shift properly or lacked the strength of the Alphas, Betas, and Gammas and the other Elites. We were nothing more than servants to them."
I shivered, swaddling myself with my arms. I'd seen how Omegas were treated, even in my father's pack. Barely acknowledged, always made to do the grunt work. But I had never realized the extent of it, how deeply the resentment must have run.
"Twenty years ago, the Omegas decided we'd had enough. We gathered from every pack, united under one cause: to fight back. To demand freedom from the Elites' rule. We chose a leader. His name was Silverfang."
Silverfang. The name made me reel in shock, and I stopped walking.
"Silverfang?" I repeated, my heart racing. "That... That was Jesse's father's name."
Raze stopped too, and swiveled to face me. "What did you say?"
"Jesse," I whispered. "He told me his father died a few months before he was born. He told me Silverfang was his father. I just... I never knew his father was an Omega."
Raze's eyes narrowed. "Jesse? The same Jesse?"
I nodded, the shock settling into my bones like ice. "Yes."
Raze's expression went dark, before he finally let go of my arm. "Calm down and listen," he said gruffly. "Silverfang was more than just a name. He led us into a war. The Omegas against the Elites. We fought for years, but we were outnumbered and outpowered. The Elites crushed us, forcing the Great Segregation. That was when the Conclave was formed."
My mind was spinning, trying to piece it all together. "The Conclave was formed to control the packs, wasn't it?"
Raze nodded grimly. "The Elites chose the seven most powerful families from the seven packs to rule. They called themselves the Conclave, and their mission was simple: hunt down every rogue wolf and eliminate us, so we would never dare to stand up against them again. They drove us into the forests, away from the packs, away from civilization. We've been running ever since."
I shook my head, trying to comprehend everything. "What about Jesse's father?"
Raze shrugged. "Well, Silverfang wasn't just an Omega. He fell in love with a powerful Alpha's daughter. The daughter of one of the Conclave members, in fact."
I gasped softly. "Jesse's mother...."
Raze nodded. "Their love was forbidden. She was taken away from him when the Segregation began. By then, she was already pregnant."
"With Jesse..." I whispered.
I could barely breathe for everything being revealed to me. Jesse... his father was a leader in the fight against the Elites. And his mother... she was taken from him.
Raze's voice was harsh, but there was a flash of something softer in his eyes. "So Silverfang died during the war, and Jesse's grandparents took him in. They raised him to be an Elite, like them. But he never forgot where he came from. He was drawn to the rogues, to his father's people. His grandparents warned him, tried to keep him away, but it was in his blood. And one can never fight against blood."
My throat tightened painfully, and before I could stop myself, I whispered, "Jesse's dead."
Raze's eyes darted towards me, then away. "I know."
I could feel the tears building in my eyes again. "He died a few days ago. I—I got a letter from his mother. She said he died while fighting against the rogues, but..."
Raze's expression didn't change, but there was something dark in his gaze. "The Conclave killed him, Lena. He was too friendly with us, and he was warned by his grandparents to stay away. He never listened. So they snuffed him out."
The ground seemed to drop out from under me. "What?"
"They made it look like a rogue attack," Raze said coldly. "But it was them. They wanted to silence Jesse's mother. She's too dangerous, knows too much. Killing him was the only way to keep her in line. I suppose that's why she had to lie to you in that letter as well. She knew you'd ask questions, knew you'd want to find out more about your mate's death."
"No." The word escaped me in a hoarse whisper.
"Well, it's the truth," Raze said flatly. "The Conclave—your father—had a hand in it."
I stumbled back in horror. Everything I had feared for the past day or two was true. It was all true. My father had a hand in the death of my mate!
Raze's face was as hard as stone. "The Conclave doesn't care about family, Lena. All they care about is power. Jesse's death was a warning. To you. To anyone who dares defy them."
I fell to my knees. Jesse. Silverfang. My father. The Conclave. My world was unraveling. Everything I thought I knew was shattering into pieces I could never put back together. My father had done this. He had taken everything from me.
Then the sobs came hard and fast, wracking my body until I thought I might break.