"Mother, are you the one who wiped out dominant omegas?"

Teru gasped into Kieran's shirt, wishing he hadn't heard Dr. Charles's question. What would make him think that?! It couldn't be true. The queen had been kind to him, helping him get away from Abaddon. She even gave Teru her husband's heart to decide his fate! He couldn't imagine his savior being responsible for the supposed extinction of an entire dominant gender.

Then again, Lilith likely wasn't aware of Teru's secret when they met in the maze of hallways. She still didn't know.

Right?

Would she have killed him on the spot if she did?

Teru questioned himself about Lilith. He knew nothing-her likes, dislikes, triggers, favorite color, etc. He could only tell you she was Kieran's mother and the origin for all scents, but-

-Wait, didn't she force Kieran to do things, terrible things, as a child? Teru vaguely recalled what Kieran told him:

"My first memory was when I was a pup, barely three years old. I woke up from my afternoon nap to find at least fifty humans tied up outside our small house. Lilith told me I would be on my own if I didn't find the individuals who smelled of whatever unknown sin I was at the time. For hours, I analyzed each and every scent like a search dog and separated them: the innocent ones to the left, prideful ones to the right. And then...she made me kill the sinners. I'll never forget my first kills, their screams of terror and calling me a demon child."

Teru unhid his face from Kieran's side and gawked at Lilith, still taken aback by the torturous details of his mate's childhood. What sort of parent would do that?!

She gazed at the sunrise ahead, not showing empathy to Tristan for keeping such a dark secret. Lilith's photogenic posture did not fit her expression. It was...how should Teru explain it?

It was like the mothers in his pack when their pups were misbehaving. They were about to go off on them but not quite at that level yet to snap.

Or when he and Lucas failed to get a nibble while fishing. Lucas always wanted to release his anger and kick the small pier or their makeshift boat. He could not because that would scare the fish if there were any below. Instead, he'd breathe in and give himself a pep talk to be chill.

Oh, right. Let's not forget when Teru found an old magazine with naked betas when he was eight years old. He discovered it in the back of Dad's library with the corners sticking out. It wasn't dusty, so it must've been read recently. When he innocently showed Mom what he had found, her face was calm, but her aura was fuming. Not at Teru, of course; at Dad for not properly hiding his lewd content, which left her with a curious child, bombarding her with questions about the female anatomy.

In other words, the queen's patience was thin, like melting ice layered over a pond. It cracked under their feet, threatening to submerge them into the dark blue depths if they stepped on the wrong spot. Lilith was on the brink of insanity, to lash out if not tiptoed around carefully. She turned her back on them to watch the swarms of locusts buzzing over the skyscrapers, remaining silent.

They were willing to wait a few moments longer to explain her reasonings.

Tristan, now replaced with Envy, would not wait with them. In a blink of an eye, Envy dashed at his mother. Dr. Charles and the twins reached out, but they were too slow to seize him. Tristan was far too gone as not only his deadly sin but also his inner alpha. Double the rage, double the speed. Not even Kieran could get to his brother in time.

Envy unfurled his claws and aimed his fangs to go for the kill-

The queen finally faced Envy. He stopped. His nails trembled in front of her throat. The aggressive, alpha growls changed tempo, becoming quick and distressed. Envy whimpered, whimpered, like a frightened pup, unable to tear himself away from her penetrating glare.

Lilith gave her son the attention he had asked for. Exactly like the deadly sins after transforming, her irises were long, cat-like slivers. The once soft-but-mysterious brown eyes were cold.

No...describing Lilith's eyes as just 'cold' wasn't enough. They were icy. They were lethal. They were strict and required everyone's undivided attention...or face repercussions. The pressure she gave off was heavy, much, much, worse than Abaddon's, or any other alpha Teru had ever encountered.

"Kneel."

That one word uttered from her red lips was not their mother. This was Lilith, the first human to be cursed by the heavens.

The original vampire.

Envy dropped to his knees and hands, head bowing.

Teru involuntarily did the same, copying Envy.

Huh? Why am I...?

His fingers gripped the dead grass, embarrassed to have also kneeled when the command wasn't even for him. Lilith hadn't used her authoritative alpha pheromones, yet the word itself compelled Teru's inner omega to obey, to please the ultimate alpha that was unmatched.

Get up. Get up, Teru urged his omega. Kieran grabbed Teru's shoulders and hoisted him to stand. Much to his surprise, Kieran was shaking. Though he seemed calm, he was anything but.

Terror-struck.

Troubled.

Paralyzed.

Fear.

These intense emotions couldn't be hidden between them anymore. Their internal connection wouldn't allow it.

"Stop," he growled, releasing musky pheromones to let it be known to Lilith that this was crossing the line. She did not pay any attention to him. She solely focused on her other son yielding at her feet, not apologizing for affecting Kieran's mate.

Kieran took his hand and tried to rush him inside of Blaise's car.

"Pride," Lilith's tongue snapped at the name. "Stay."

Kieran paused. Teru had no choice, as well, with his omega thinking it had to listen. Kneel. Stay. What next? Teru hoped she wouldn't demand more. They couldn't move.

"You are all aware," Lilith stated, "of my origins. I was cast out of the Garden for not wanting to obey my partner, Adam, the first man the heavens created. You are all aware that I was made equal to him, unlike Eve, who was formed from his rib after I left. And, you are also aware that I found the inequality to be unfair. In the end, the man I loved commanded me with his pheromones to leave and repent. My immortal curse would supposedly give me plenty of time to reflect on that."

Dr. Charles's eyebrows furrowed. "Pheromones? Adam was a dominant alpha like you?"

Lilith responded with a single, "No."

It was quiet, allowing them to come to their own conclusions. Teru didn't get the open-ended answer.

"Then," the doctor began slowly while thinking, "Adam was a...dominant omega. An average alpha's scent can't force a dominant one."

When Lilith didn't refute it, Charles continued with his theory, "So, your lover betrayed you by forcing you out of Eden for not obeying him willingly. And you've been-"

"-I've been eliminating dominant omegas as revenge," Lilith interrupted to finish. "Adam's gender is unknown to all except me since I am the only one to remember. You see, dominant omegas are the most dangerous of all secondary genders. They can rise above any powerful alpha. As for why normal omegas weren't born in this generation, that was purely the heaven's control. Perhaps they were protesting what I had done to society, how I had spread my kind to dominate the precious humans. It was a plan years in the making. I did not care what Abaddon did because I thought I had succeeded in my revenge. It took me since the beginning of humanity to kill all of Adam's descendants. I rested in peace, content that they were gone...but my peace was disturbed."

Kieran squeezed Teru's hand tightly. Neither could move.

Teru remembered her visit in the penthouse:

If she was insulted, Lilith didn't make it known. "I'm curious about you. A little omega found in the wild who turned out to be my son's destined pair and virtue. Don't you think it's fate? I almost believed it was divine intervention, but that couldn't be the case because you're an average omega."

A frog jumped into his esophagus and choked him. Teru double-checked his pheromones. Yep, his dominant side was currently dormant, so it made him seem like a normal brown sugar-smelling human. Maybe he should play dumb? Her vibes were trustworthy, though.

"Are there any dominant omegas left?"

Lilith pursed her lips, thinking. "I don't believe so and I pray not. I can think of a certain someone who would kill for one."

Teru thought of that shit-faced Abaddon.

"And there are others," she continued, "who have a vendetta against them because of their unique...abilities. If a dominant omega appeared, they'd be in grave danger."

"Abilities? Like authoritative pheromones?"

When Lilith raised her eyebrows, he scolded himself. Teru said too much about an extinct gender that barely existed in textbooks. "Kieran told me about them." Well, he wasn't lying.

"That and other things," she vaguely said.

People didn't have a grudge against dominant omegas. It was her. It was only her who loathed them.

Lilith was in front of the destined pair in an instant, frightening Teru into a jump-scare. Her hands caressed his baby bump, making him think she was going to injure him at that moment. "And you, Humility-"

Kieran temporarily broke free from his trauma-induced state and slashed at his mother's arm, slicing deep scratches from elbow to wrist. The long wound didn't heal. Kieran brought Teru close to shield him, crimson eyes glowing.

"TSK," Lilith clicked and inspected the oozing red, not showing pain. "This is the first time my own flesh and blood laid a finger on me. Now I know my children can hurt me without healing instantly. That will be a problem." She lowered her arm and peered straight into Kieran's agitated eyes. "It was my negligence for not realizing what he was. I was not expecting a dominant omega to appear before me. You were careless, my son, but I'm also to blame for knowing vampires and human dominant omegas could conceive together."

"They can? They're not an anomaly?" Dr. Charles was soaking in all this new information. Whose side was he on?!

"No, they are not. A few thousand years after I was cast out and had spread my curse in all continents, I came across a mated pair-a dominant omega and his immortal alpha. She was heavily pregnant. I waited in the shadows to see the hybrid results. Curiosity, if you will. After the pup was born, I knew it was the same gender as its mother. Dominant. Omega. One that couldn't live. It was destined to be strong, much stronger than Adam, and I vowed to never allow such a relationship to occur again. It rekindled my revengeful mission, not only to spite my old partner, but to make sure hybrids could not create an omega more dangerous than dominants."

Charles's nose scrunched in disgust and spat, "I'm assuming you killed the mother and their pup. You didn't give the child a chance. It could've grown to be the bridge between humans and vampires. Instead, we had to hide for centuries because our differences were too great for the humans to handle."

"It's a burden I'm willing to bear. When I smelled Humility's pregnancy pheromones, his real gender and what he carried in his stomach were exposed. Kieran is too prideful to allow another human to soil his womb with their seed. It had to be his. As I said, you were careless."

When? When did she find out? Was it when Teru got sick in front of her?

Teru ran to the bathroom as quickly as he could. The second he lifted the toilet lid, he hurled everything into the porcelain bowl. The taste was bitter. A string of drool dripped from his lips from heaving so hard. A hand gently rubbed his back. Kieran kneeled next to him and asked if he was okay, but Teru couldn't stop throwing up to answer.

When the sickness spell was over, Teru rested his cheek on the white edge. Its cool texture felt nice on his warm face, not caring that he was touching something so germy. He was tired again. A candied scent emanated from him, like someone had poured extra scoops of sugar into his pheromones.

"You are-?" a woman began to say, but didn't finish. Lilith was under the doorframe, studying the scene without an ounce of emotion, completely void of what she was thinking. Her nostrils flared from smelling the air.

Teru didn't want her there anymore. Kieran understood this. He growled at his mother, warning her to go or else.

Lilith ignored it and told her son, "I highly suggest not taking him to your stepfather's party next weekend."

He bared his fangs at her. "You don't need to tell me what I already know."

Lilith eyed Teru one more time before making her exit, not wanting to fight or cause further stress for him.

Teru felt like a fool. Of course, she'd recognize his sweet pheromones. Lilith had been alive for...a fucking long time!

In the distance, Sofia strode their way, seeming to guess where they were located since she couldn't find them with sight. What did she want? He was about to growl at her to back off when Kieran beat him to the punch. "Sofia."

She paused near them and held out her hand, dropping a familiar ring. Teru caught the silver jewelry before it touched the ground. It was his ring! He thought he had lost it forever! Why did she have this?