บททั้งหมดของ Rise Of The Betrayed Omega : บทที่ 211 - บทที่ 220

**Cole's POV** I stand at the edge of the lounge long enough to hear four words. 'A few more weeks.' That's all I catch before they notice me looking at them both. Sabrina looks back at me with that expression she's perfected — open, slightly concerned, the face of a woman who has absolutely nothing to hide. Her mother beside her is the picture of calm, hands folded, ankles crossed, like she's waiting for a bus. What do they mean by a few more weeks? Are they planning to hold Maya somewhere for a few weeks until the search dies down and then release her? Is that what this is? Keep her hidden, let the pack exhaust itself looking, and then what — she just wanders back? Sabrina plays the relieved stepmother? Everyone moves on? My jaw tightens because I want to get rid of them so badly. But I don't have enough evidence to rid them off the pack for good just yet. Sabrina raises her hand in a small wave. Casual. Almost friendly.The gesture turns my stomach.I stare at her hand, t

**Stella's POV**Hours later, the elevator in my apartment building feels small with my ex-husband and Shawn in it at the same time.I don't remember it ever feeling this small before with only three people, and a silence so thick you could cut it into slices and serve it at a dinner party nobody wanted to attend.I stare at the floor numbers changing above the doors.Cole stands to my left with his hands in his trousers pockets. Shawn stands to my right still shirtless in shorts he was given in Cole's pack. Neither of them is looking at the other, but the space between them has the particular quality of two storms deciding whether or not to make contact. I am standing directly in the middle of that decision and I would very much like to be somewhere else.The numbers keep changing.I start humming without meaning to — an old song, something slow and familiar that I used to reach for when I was nervous or tired or needed somewhere to put my energy that wasn't screaming."You still do

**Stella's POV** "Yes, and I'm sorry for not—" Riley starts to explain herself when Cole's voice fills the lobby like a wall coming down. "What kind of a nanny are you, Riley?" The words aren't shouted but Cole's Alpha aura unspools into the air around us and I feel it press against my skin like a change in atmospheric pressure. Beside me I can see Riley's spine straighten involuntarily before her shoulders curl inward — the body's instinctive answer to something it recognizes as a predator. I should say something but I can't because the thing is — and I hate that this is the thing — Cole isn't wrong. Riley took Noah out of this building at night without a guard. Without her phone. Without telling anyone. My daughter is missing and my son was walking around the city unprotected and I didn't know where either of them were for the same stretch of terrifying hours. I know that Riley didn't know about Maya. I know she didn't mean any harm. I know all of this. And Cole still isn

**Stella's POV** I wait for Riley's answer. I watch her face and I think — not for the first time tonight — that I recognise this expression. The one where someone knows what they want to say but is carefully measuring how much of themselves they're willing to hand over in a single conversation. Then Riley says, "I'm conflicted." I blink. "Conflicted," I repeat. "I know how that sounds—" "Riley." I unfold my arms. "He divorced you and left you with nothing." I pause. "What exactly is there to be conflicted about?" Riley looks at her hands. "It's complicated." "It's really not—" "Stella." Her voice is quiet but firm. "I know what he did. I was there. I lived it." She looks up. "But tonight he stood in front of an Alpha he'd never met and told him to back down for me. Nobody has done that for me—" she stops. "It just made me feel something I haven't felt in a long time." "One gesture," I say. "After everything." "I'm not rushing into anything." She shakes her h

**Stella's POV** “I—it’s nothing,” I say quickly while signaling Maria to put the flowers down and excuse me. “Do you have any news on Maya?” “Well,” Cole says slowly, “I need you to sit down.” The flowers become blurry as my eyes fill with tears. “Just tell me,” I say. “Did you find her?” There is a pause. It lasts just long enough for me to know the answer—before he even says a word. "No," he says. "Nothing yet. The trail we picked up last night went cold by morning. I have people covering the southern territory and two of my best trackers working the rogue den routes that Shawn flagged out—" he stops. "But there is nothing concrete yet." I sit down on the arm of the couch. Not because he told me to. Just because my legs have made the decision for me. "She could be anywhere by now," I say. My voice comes out flat. Not because I'm not feeling it — because I'm feeling too much of it and flat is the only container that holds. "We don't know that—" "Cole." I close