Page 99 of Of Daggers and Deceit

This entire time, she had been the silent snake in the grass. She was no prey.

I watched as she stood toe-to-toe with the Dominant’s of the other side, all lined up, listening to her without rebuttal. She proved Omegas were not weak at all. If she and Zander were anything to go by, they were as oily and as cunning as anyone I had ever met. They were all predators.

“R-ile-y,” I croaked out.

I wasn’t done with her, but my body was overwhelmed with lethargy. My eyelids opened sluggishly, and my efforts at batting them profusely to stay open lagged from the intense amount of concentration. I needed to see this all, no matter how much it hurt.

“Shut it, Raya. I do not want to hear what you have to say. You will understand one day that this is for the best. For both of us.”

A second body was placed unconscious on the ground, closer to Riley, and I squinted. Mum. I whimpered and moved to reach for her. She was meant to be near me. We were all meant to be together. She wasn’t meant to have turned her back on me.

My insides seized as grief attempted to claw its way to the surface, the pressure in my chest mounting heavier than ever. I struggled to draw in a breath.

Hands snaked around my back and gripped me tight, lifting me up and carrying me back towards the other figures standing by the entrance. Away from my family. Away from Bodhi. I noted they carried other unconscious Omegas in their grip.

Disgust was potent within me, my sister completely unrecognisable.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Rose. You will find everything you requested in the package.”

The biggest Dominant, Raid, tossed a small bag towards Riley, which lodged itself in the sand at her feet. She looked down at it and then back up towards him, her irritation clear.

The package that lay on the ground was a tiny thing, almost invisible beneath the sand trickling over the top of it. The wooden box, half the size of my palm, was worth my life, apparently.

Two tears rolled down my cheeks, and my tongue darted out to wipe them away, tasting the pain within them.

I couldn’t get my throat to work to speak, to scream. My mum would not survive this. She and Bodhi needed me.

A pained screech broke through my sorrow, and I opened my eyes in fright to see Bohdi near, a looming form diving from above. The sight of him ignited a feral need inside me, urging me to fight, to not give up. I grabbed hold of the leash of my power again and ripped it with all the force I could muster.

“No.” Silver’s voice was harsh and close as he crushed me to his chest, and I felt the thread I had grabbed pulled far out of my reach.

“What the…? How did he…?” Riley stammered over her words, showing a dent in her armour. Sly turned and trained the gun directly at Bohdi’s wild, flying form.

Three successive gunshots rang out across the field, the sound reverberating in my ears, competing with my throbbing pulse. Bohdi dodged lazily fighting the toxins in his system but unable to miss the second and third shots that had followed the first. He faltered in his flight, careening to the side, battling to flap his wings.

I held my breath, my pulse a deafening roar in my ears, panic seizing the air from my lungs. His wings beat slower until he was making no progress at all.

We all watched as his energy left him, shifting mid-flight, his body unable to maintain his form. Stark naked, there was no glory in his fall, only brutal, unrelenting pain as he plummeted towards the ground, colliding against it with a violent crack of his bones.

Nobody bothered to move.

I hammered against the binds that kept my body prisoner to the drug.

I fought with everything I had.

To move.

To get to him.

To save him.

Tears came thick and fast, my body failing to respond.

Everybody turned away from him.

I looked back towards Riley, my sister and betrayer, the one who told me she loved Bohdi—who’d told me she loved me.

There was nothing familiar about the Riley who stood there.

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