My Omega Returned to Burn It Down novel · Chapter 4 of 21

Chapter 4: Soren's Version

Soren Hale slid into the seat across from Alex without being invited, his coffee already in his hand, his excuse already forming on his face.

Alex did not look up from his cup.

The coffee bar was on neutral ground, a narrow place wedged between a bookshop and a pharmacy, and at this hour it was nearly empty. A beta behind the counter wiped the same stretch of steel over and over, watching them without watching them.

Soren set his cup down with a small, deliberate click.

'I heard you were back.'

Alex took a sip. The coffee was bitter. He had ordered it that way on purpose.

'I heard you vouched for me,' Alex said. 'Three months before the accusation. In writing.'

Soren's jaw tightened. He had not expected Alex to open with that. Good.

'I did.' Soren leaned back, and the motion was too casual, a man arranging himself for a speech he had practiced. 'I vouched for who I thought you were. If the evidence says otherwise, then I vouched for a version of you that wasn't real.'

He paused, and Alex let the pause sit there, heavy and unearned.

'That is not something I owe you an apology for.'

Alex set down his cup.

The words hung between them, polished and complete, a thing Soren had clearly said to himself in the mirror, in the shower, in the car on the way over. A thing he needed Alex to hear so that he could keep believing it.

Alex looked at him.

Soren had been his closest packmate for six years. They had shared a room during the winter runs, had split the last of their water during the drought season, had sat together at the back of council sessions and passed notes like schoolboys. Soren had been the one who taught Alex how to bank a fire so it would still be alive in the morning.

Now he sat across from Alex with the careful, wounded dignity of a man who had decided he was the injured party.

'Did you ever read the forensic examiner's original report?' Alex asked.

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