Chapter 129: Seventeen, thirteen, and eight.

Noah’s POV

The last time we were here, Elias was the one who stopped Conan from speaking. This time around, it’s my turn.

"Hey" I say softly, grabbing Elias’s shoulder and turning him around to make him look at me.

The alpha’s breath is coming out in short, uneven bursts. I had a panic attack last time and right now, he’s the one having a panic attack.

"Let go of him" Damien says, who has been grinning all along, suddenly demands in a serious voice. I don’t even get the chance to refuse the command before he pulls Elias out of my arms.

My omega whines in protest at the sight of our alpha being taken from us, and when Damien hugs Elias, I whimper out loud.

"Elias, are you okay?" I ask and Damien holds a hand up to keep me away from his brother.

The last born of the Deus family is also pale, but he’s not as pale as Elias is. He joins his older brothers’ tight circle and I start to worry. What exactly did Julian do to him during the kidnap?

What did Conan’s desperate decision cost all three of them?

"Noah" Conan calls my name to get my attention, and I turn my head to look at him.

The omega male, my real mother, is sitting on the edge of the table and looking at me with tired brown eyes.

I have his golden hair color and my blue dad’s eyes. While most of my features are similar to dad’s, the resemblance between Conan and I is clear. We have the same softness in our beauty, the same lips, the same eye shape...

"Noah" he says my name again and I shake my head.

All I see in front of me is an unfortunate and broken man. A teenager who was forced to grow up and endure horrible pain because of me.

"Y-you gave in to Julian’s demand...didn’t you?" I ask him quietly and he nods.

"I couldn’t resist" he says and my heart breaks for him.

I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him at the same time; I can’t fully process what he had to do.

"You..." I point at the three brothers huddled in the corner talking to each other. This is one of the painfully rare moments where they feel human. "...you ruined their lives to save mine" I whisper.

"You don’t understand. They were the kids of murderers and psychopaths, you were innocent, Noah. It was simply trading the life of one pure child for the life of three evil ones" Conan says and a sharp pain goes through my head.

"Children, Conan. They were children in the same way you were a child" I hear myself yell.

"You weren’t in my shoes" Conan shrinks into himself.

"I was an omega whose son was stolen away from him" he says, wrapping his arms around himself as he rocks back and forth.

"But you stole away the children of another omega" I say in a tired voice. I’m thinking of Siren, the love he has for his family, and the heartache he had endured.

"It wasn’t fair" I say in an even weaker voice.

"I wanted to protect you..." Conan whispers, dropping his head into his palm and crying softly.

My heart is ripped into a million pieces, and I can only stare at him.

Everything is glaringly clear. Conan is innocent, but his hands aren’t clean. My father, my idol, is the real evil, and my whole life...is a gamble.

"What exactly was your deal with Julian?" Elias’s unsteady voice asks from the far corner where he’s standing with his brothers. His back is against the wall and his eyes are steely again.

"I...I was going to get Noah out of Winslow. He told me to take Noah to Gottingen, and since Noah was the same age as the Deus kids, he advised me to use him as bait" Conan says with shame in his tone and drops his head again.

"He told me you read alone in the forest, that all I had to do was to make sure you brought the other two. He said if I did all that, I could run away with my boy and be free of my sufferings" he says everything without looking up.

I want to stab myself in the chest. I was bait. I was the worm on the hook.

I was in pain when I walked in through forest, but it was only a step to a master plan...I was supposed to find Elias and I was supposed to be the reason he endangered his brothers.

"But?" Elias asks, looking at Conan with expressionless eyes. The lid of control he has on his emotion has been tightly shut again.

"But...he betrayed me" Conan starts to cry loudly.

"What the fuck did you expect from a man who was the Governor’s business partner?" Damien roars and Conan starts to shake his head.

The regret in his eyes is obvious.

"I just wanted to save my son" he says.

"Congratulations, you succeeded in getting Julian to own Noah...are you happy?" Damien asks. He’s charging towards my mom with full speed, and without thinking, I put my body between them.

He’s raging, I’m upset, Conan messed up, but I won’t let anyone touch him.

"Get out of the way, Goldie" Damien growls at me.

"No" I say, steeling my spine and glaring up at him with stubbornness.

"Damien" Elias calls his brother and Damien’s eyes flash golden. The raging alpha looks over my head at Conan, pointing a finger at him with anger as he spits out the next words.

"You fucked our lives over. We were kids too by the way. I just turned seventeen that week, Elias was thirteen, and Kai...Kai was just an eight-year-old child!"

"Damien, leave him the fuck alone" Kai says angrily, and it’s the first time I’ve ever heard him yell.

"Fuck. FUCK" he spits out and storms out of the room.

I keep myself in front of Conan, he’s falling apart, and it’s hurting me. I don’t know what to do. Everyone in this room is hurt.

"Noah, I didn’t know he was going to turn on me..." Conan says from behind me and I don’t turn around.

"You heard a man say his goal is to kidnap three kids, and your next thought was to hand your son’s safety to him?" Elias asks.

My husband pushes himself off the wall and approaches us with slow steps.

He stops right in front of me, and somehow, the inhumane calmness he’s displaying is more terrifying than his brother’s anger.

"You’re stupid" he says coldly and I keep looking at his face, hoping he’d at least look at me too.

"Elias" I say his name, but he ignores me. "Kai" Elias calls his brother’s name without looking at me.

"Yeah?" Kai asks.

"I need to kill someone" he says and finally looks me in the eyes, "right now" he completes his instruction and I lose all the strength in my leg in horror.