Chapter 125: ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE

Nicholas’s POV

The first thing I noticed after Blackthorne welcomed me to his little warehouse was how quiet the place was.

I kept looking around, but there was nothing.

There was no sound coming from outside. No voices.

Nothing that told me where I was or how far away the mansion was. Just the faint hum of something running somewhere in the building and Blackthorne standing a few feet away from me as though he had brought me here for a conversation instead of kidnapping me from my room.

He looked at me for several seconds before shaking his head. "You really should have stayed dead the first time I tried to kill you."

I stared at him, my lips parted in shock and fear.

He walked slowly around the room, looking completely comfortable in a place that made my stomach twist. "Or, if you were determined to survive, you should have kept hiding for the rest of your life. You had already disappeared once. You could have stayed gone. Instead, you came back into my house and made everything more complicated than it needed to be."

I pushed myself upright and kept my eyes on him. "You kidnapped me yourself this time."

Blackthorne stopped. "After everything you’ve done, that’s what you want to complain about?"

"I’m not complaining." I looked around the room before looking back at him. "I’m asking why you’re so desperate to keep Omegas beneath Alphas."

His expression changed immediately and I could only watch as the calmness disappeared from his face.

He stared at me as though he couldn’t believe I had actually asked the question. "You still don’t understand why I do all this."

"Then explain it."

Blackthorne gave a short laugh and turned away from me. "You have no idea how irritating it is to hear you speak like this. You were supposed to understand your place. Your father understood that eventually."

My jaw tightened. "My father understood nothing. You killed him."

His eyes snapped toward me but I didn’t look away.

Blackthorne remained silent for a moment before walking toward a table positioned against the wall. There were several objects scattered across it, things I had no desire to identify closely. He looked over them before reaching for a whip.

My body tensed, my eyes widening.

What the fuck did he want to do with that?

He held it loosely in one hand as he returned. "You want to know why I hate Omegas?" he asked.

I swallowed but kept my voice steady. "Yes."

He pulled a chair closer and sat down opposite me, the whip resting across his lap. "Omegas were never meant to stand beside Alphas," he said. "That is the truth everyone used to understand before your kind started believing you deserved more. Alphas lead. Alphas protect. Alphas build families, control territories, run businesses, make decisions. Omegas were born into a different role."

His voice was calm again, dropping a notch as though he was letting me in on a secret. "They were born to serve."

I stared at him. "So that’s what you’ve been telling yourself all these years?"

His eyebrows lifted. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You actually believe that?"

He shrugged. "I don’t have to believe it. It is how the world was created."

"No. It’s how you decided the world should work." I shook mh head. "That’s not the truth."

His expression hardened. "You’ve been listening to your father."

I gave a scoff. "My father was right. You fucking bastard."

The whip moved before I could prepare for it and landed on my back with a loud crack. Pain spread across my body, sending my nerve endings on fire. I clenched my teeth and remained where I was.

Blackthorne looked at the mark he had left and then back at me. "That," he said quietly, "is how Omegas should be treated when they forget their place."

I breathed through the pain and looked directly at him. "Is that what you tell yourself every time you hurt someone?"

His grip tightened around the whip but I continued before he could interrupt. "That you’re correcting them? That you’re putting them back where they belong? Or do you know exactly what you’re doing and just need a reason to make yourself feel better about it?"

Blackthorne stood. "You really don’t know when to stop."

I didn’t stop. "You hate us because we’re no longer willing to accept what you think we are."

His face twisted with anger. "You’ve been taught to think you’re equal."

"We are." I gritted out. "We are equal."

"No, you’re not." He scoffed. "How delusional do you have to be to think like that?"

"You can keep saying that, but it won’t make it true." I told him.

He stepped closer and I could see the anger building in his face, but I refused to lower my eyes.

"Omegas have changed this city," I said. "You know that. You’ve seen it. You’ve watched them build businesses, influence people, become leaders and hold positions you once believed belonged only to Alphas. That’s what you’re actually angry about, isn’t it?"

"Shut up." Anger crossed his face.

I couldn’t stop now. "You can’t stand that we’re no longer willing to stay beneath you."

"I said shut up." His voice became harder.

My voice became more matter of factly. "Because every time an Omega succeeds, it proves everything you’ve built your life around is wrong."

"Shut up!" His voice exploded through the warehouse.

Before I could say anything else, Blackthorne pulled a gun and aimed it directly at my head.

Everything around me seemed to become still.

He stepped closer, his hand steady around the weapon. "You are in no position to argue with me."

I looked at the gun, then back at him. "You think pointing that at me proves you’re right?"

"It proves I have control."

I looked up at him with pure disdain. "It proves you’re afraid."

His eyes narrowed.

I knew I was pushing him. But I couldn’t stop. "You can threaten me. You can lock me in a warehouse. You can point a gun at my head and tell yourself you’re powerful, but none of that changes what Omegas have become."

Blackthorne’s jaw tightened. "I could kill you right now."

I held his gaze. "Would you dare?"

"No one would even know where your body was."

The words lingered. between us.

Then I asked the question that had been sitting in my mind since I woke up in this place. "Is that how you killed my father?"

Blackthorne froze and his entire expression changed. For a moment, he didn’t look angry.

He looked caught.

Then the anger returned twice as hard. "Don’t you dare remind me of that lowly, filthy thing."

I watched him carefully. "My father."

"Don’t call him that." He tightened his grip on the gun.

"He was your enemy?" I asked, my voice lower now.

"He was nothing."

I cracked a small, mocking smirk. "Then why were you so afraid of what he was doing?"

Blackthorne’s breathing became heavier.. "He poisoned everything. He filled Omegas’ heads with nonsense about equality and made them believe they could stand against Alphas. He encouraged them to rebel against the order that kept this world functioning."

Oh, how stupid he was to think like this.

"My father? He gave them a voice. He gave them hope. Something you would never understand."

Blackthorne stepped forward, raising the gun slightly. "Enough."

I didn’t stop. "You killed him because he wouldn’t bow to you."

His face twisted. "I said enough!"

"You killed him because he was an Omega who refused to accept that you were better than him."

Blackthorne stared at me. Then he moved suddenly.

The gun struck me, and everything around me blurred. The last thing I saw was Blackthorne standing over me, his expression filled with anger.

Then everything went black.