AN OMEGA'S CYCLE: TRAPPED IN HEAT WITH MY FOUR STEPBROTHERS.

ADRIAN’S POV

I didn’t speak to Jayden again before leaving the basement. I simply looked at the guard standing outside the door and handed him the phone I had taken from Jayden, making sure he understood that nobody was to enter that room without my permission. I was still trying to process everything I had heard, and the last thing I wanted was for Jayden to manipulate another person while I was gone. I stopped halfway toward the elevator and turned back when another thought crossed my mind.

"Make sure he receives no food or water until I give you a different instruction," I told the guard, keeping my voice cold as I looked directly at him. "Keep the door secured, keep someone stationed outside and if he asks for anything, you contact me before you make a decision."

The guard nodded immediately. "Understood, sir. Nobody will enter the room without authorization, and I’ll make sure the next shift receives the same instructions."

I left without saying anything else.

By the time I reached my car, Jayden’s words were still running through my head. I started the engine but didn’t move immediately, sitting behind the steering wheel while I stared through the windshield. My father had a brother. An Omega brother. A brother nobody in our family had ever mentioned. A brother who supposedly worked for him and had been involved in eliminating Omegas who became inconvenient.

It sounded ridiculous. It sounded completely impossible.

But so had the DNA report.

I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found the number I needed. The man who answered was someone I had used before for private matters, someone who knew how to investigate people without making unnecessary noise.

"I need you to investigate my father," I said, leaning back against the driver’s seat while keeping my eyes on the road ahead. "I want everything you can legally and discreetly find about his immediate family, especially his siblings, relatives who disappeared from public records and anyone who has been deliberately kept away from the rest of the family. I don’t want assumptions or gossip of any kind. I want documents, records, names, dates and anything else that can be verified. There’s a possibility that he has a relative we’ve never been told about, so I want you to look specifically for that."

The investigator was silent for a moment before answering.

"How far back do you want me to go?" he asked, and I could hear him already reaching for something on his desk.

"Go back as far as you need to," I replied, rubbing my forehead as the weight of the request dawned on me. This was crazy. "I don’t care how long the report becomes. I want his family history checked properly, and I want anything unusual highlighted. If there are records that contradict what we’ve been told about his childhood or his siblings, I want copies of them. Don’t contact him, don’t let anyone know you’re investigating him and don’t tell anyone in my family what you’re doing."

"Understood," he said before ending the call.

I remained in the car for another few minutes. I didn’t know whether I had just done something stupid, but I also didn’t know whether I could have done anything else.

Eventually, I drove home.

The mansion was quiet when I walked inside. There was nobody downstairs, and for a moment I wondered whether everyone had gone out, but then I heard voices upstairs. I followed them and found my brothers gathered in Roman’s room, each busy with something different. Adrian was going through documents on a laptop, Cassian was speaking quietly on the phone, and Elijah was sitting on the edge of the bed with his attention fixed on his own screen.

They all looked up when I entered.

"Where have you been?" Cassian asked, lowering the phone slightly as he studied me. "We were beginning to wonder whether something had happened at the penthouse because you haven’t answered any of the messages we’ve sent you."

"I’ve been dealing with Jayden," I replied, walking farther into the room before looking toward Elijah. "Before I tell you anything else, how’s Nicholas?"

Elijah’s expression softened immediately. "He’s back in his room. The detective came earlier and took his statement, although it didn’t last very long because Nicholas was exhausted. He answered what he could and then went upstairs. Mom has been checking on him every few minutes, but she finally went to rest."

I nodded. "I’ll check on him."

Everyone nodded and nobody stopped me.

I walked down the hallway and knocked softly before opening Nicholas’s door. He was lying on the bed, turned slightly toward the window, and for a moment I thought he was asleep. When I stepped inside, however, his eyes opened.

He looked tired and there was something else in his expression that made me slow down.

I pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down.

"I’m not here to question you if that’s what you’re thinking," I said, keeping my voice quiet as I rested my hands on my knees. "I just wanted to check on you before I went back downstairs. Elijah told me the detective already spoke to you, so you don’t have to worry about anyone asking you more questions today."

Nicholas nodded faintly. "Thank you for checking on me," he replied, pulling the blanket slightly higher around himself. "I’m just trying to sleep because I still feel exhausted, and every time I close my eyes I keep remembering things I don’t want to remember."

I looked at him for a moment. "You don’t have to act normal," I said, leaning back slightly in the chair. "Nobody expects you to wake up and behave as though nothing happened. Take whatever time you need. If you don’t want visitors, tell them. If you don’t want to answer questions, tell them. And if you need anything, you can call me or one of the others."

He looked at me, his eyes tired but appreciative. "I’ll try," he said quietly, shifting against the pillow. "I just want to sleep for now."

"Then sleep," I replied, standing from the chair and moving toward the door. "I’ll leave you alone."

I closed the door behind me and returned to Roman’s room.

The moment I walked in, all three of them looked at me and I didn’t sit immediately.

I stood near the door for several seconds, trying to decide how much of what Jayden had said I should reveal before the investigator got back to me. In the end, there was no point hiding it from my brothers.

"Jayden told me something you need to hear," I said, moving toward the bed and taking the empty chair beside Cassian. "He claims the person who hired him was Dad."

Elijah’s head snapped toward me. "What?" he asked, sitting upright as his expression changed completely.

I raised a hand before he could start talking over me.

"I know how it sounds, and I don’t believe it yet," I continued, keeping my voice measured as I explained everything. "Jayden says he was hired to make Nicholas disappear, and he claims Dad was the person giving him instructions. He also showed me a DNA report on his phone that supposedly proves he and Dad are biological brothers. He says they were separated when they were young because he was an Omega, that he eventually found Dad again and that Dad began using him to deal with Omegas who became inconvenient."

Nobody spoke for several seconds and Cassian finally leaned back in his chair.

"You’re saying Jayden claims he’s Dad’s brother?" he asked, staring at me as though he was waiting for me to laugh and admit it was a joke.

"That’s exactly what I’m saying," I replied, placing the phone on the table so they could see the report. "I don’t know whether it’s genuine. I don’t know whether Jayden fabricated it. That’s why I contacted an investigator. He’s checking Dad’s family history, relatives and old records. Until we have something verified, I’m not accusing Dad of anything."

Elijah stared at the phone. "But why would Jayden say that?" he asked, his voice tense as he leaned forward. "If he wanted to manipulate you, couldn’t he have accused someone else? Why Dad?"

"That’s what I’m trying to figure out," I said, rubbing my hand over my jaw. "There are too many things that don’t make sense. Dad was searching for Nicholas, he hired special forces and he was at the hospital when Mom collapsed. At the same time, Jayden claims Dad wanted Nicholas dead. Those two things don’t fit together unless somebody is lying or there’s information we don’t have."

Cassian nodded slowly. "So we wait."

"We wait for the report," I confirmed, picking up my phone. "If the investigator finds nothing, then we know Jayden was trying to create confusion. If he finds something, we deal with that when we have evidence."

The conversation continued for a while, but nobody came up with an explanation that made sense. Eventually, we returned to our separate tasks, though I could tell none of us were concentrating properly anymore. Every few minutes someone would look at the phone on the table as though the answer might suddenly appear on its screen.

By early afternoon, I was downstairs when my phone finally rang.

I answered immediately.

"Adrian, I’ve completed the first stage of the investigation," the investigator said, his voice unusually serious. "I’ve sent the report to the secure address you gave me. You need to read it before we discuss the next step because there are several things in there that I don’t think you expected to find."

I straightened. "What did you find?" I asked, gripping the phone more tightly as I moved away from the others.

"I’d rather you read the documents first," he replied. "Call me after you’ve gone through them, and I’ll explain anything that isn’t clear."

The call ended and I stood there for a moment before opening my messages.

I could do this.

The report was already waiting and I stared at the attachment without opening it.

Then I tapped it.

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