Chapter 15

Riven – POV

I hated hospitals.

The smell. The sterility. The fucking silence filled with things no one wanted to say.

And now this.

That omega.

Ours.

I still felt the phantom echo of her fear crawling under my skin like fire. It hadn't left me since the moment she bolted out of that hospital bed. And watching her flinch like we were the ones who hurt her—yeah, that shit did something to me I couldn't name.

Now we were heading into Damian's office, the four of us walking like a damn funeral procession, and I could feel it simmering in the air. The tension. The guilt. The rage.

Kael looked like he was barely holding himself together. Lucas was dead silent, which was never a good sign. And Damian... Damian's jaw had been locked so tight I swore he'd snap his own damn teeth.

I followed them in, arms crossed, back tense as we all stepped inside.

No one spoke right away.

Damian shut the door behind us with a sharp click.

And that was it.

The room felt too small for how big this problem was.

That girl—

whatever she remembered, whatever she'd been through, it was bad. Worse than any of us wanted to admit.

She gave us a number. Not a name. Three-Seven.

My stomach clenched just thinking about it.

What the hell kind of place turns someone into a number?

I leaned against the far wall, trying to school my face into something calm. It didn't work.

"She didn't even flinch when Kael asked for her name," I said finally, voice low. "Like it was normal. Like that's all she's ever known."

Silence.

Then Damian spoke.

"We need to find out where she came from."

Yeah.

And then we burn that place to the fucking ground.

We were all thinking the same thing—just too wrecked to say it out loud.

Then Lucas snapped.

CRACK!

His fist drove into the wall like a damn sledgehammer, splintering wood and shaking the frame.

We all flinched—but no one stopped him.

"What the fuck did they do to her?" he snarled, turning on us, eyes blazing. "What kind of monsters—"

His voice broke, just for a second.

And that said more than anything else.

Lucas was never the soft one. Never the emotional one. But this? This wasn't just fury. This was helplessness masked as rage.

Damian didn't answer. None of us did.

Because there was no answer.

Not yet.

Kael stood still in the middle of the room, shoulders square, jaw tight, that storm brewing behind his eyes like he was ready to rip the world apart and serve the pieces to whoever had touched her.

"She didn't even know her name," I muttered again, fists clenched at my sides. "She gave us a number like it was normal. Like it was fucking carved into her."

Lucien turned back toward the wall, breathing hard.

"I want names," he said. "I want locations. I want every single bastard who was part of this."

Damian's voice came next

"And you'll get them."

Because one omega escaped.

But what if there were more?

What if she wasn't the only one?

The real war hadn't even started yet.

But I could feel it coming.

And this time, we were going to be the monsters.

For her.