Page 40 of Cause Of Death

Low-Tide quietly closes the door to the room and kicks the pieces of plastic into the shadows under the cot. His eyes dart from side to side, examining the room for something, and then he opens his mouth.

“Kieran, I need you to listen to me. I know you’ve got an invisible friend here with you somewhere. I need you to tell her that my name is Greg, and that our mutual friend is on their way. I’ll do my best to delay things, and to keep you protected, but I can’t break my cover. You need to stay silent, you hear me? If I can’t stop things from happening, whatever you do,don’t speak. Pyotr is hoping to use your heat against you, to make you agree and beg for everything he has planned. He’s beingpaidto make you beg, and if you don’t say a word, he loses money. A lot of it.” Greg pauses for a moment, his head cocked to one side as he listens to something beyond my hearing.

“Pyotr isn’t allowed to kill you. He can hurt you, yes, but his life is forfeit if he kills you. He’s the middleman in all of this. There’s another alpha due to arrive in Reno any minute now. He supposedly has a prior claim to you, and he’s paid a lot of moneyto have access to you. Just try to hang in there, okay? I’m sorry about your back. I’ll see if I’m allowed to bring you something to drink, and if I am I’ll also bring some alcohol swabs to try and clean your wound out. It’s the best I can do while Pyotr is around. I’m sorry I can’t do more.”

Greg.Greg.Leslie’s contact who’s been getting us information on the dark web. I stretch out and brush myself lightly across Greg’s hand to let him know I’m here, and that I’ve received his message. Greg flinches from the sensation, his gaze darting back to Kieran’s.

“Is that her? Your friend?” he mutters in awe. Kieran nods.

“Her name is Wisp, and it’s a good thing for you that she knows you’re a friend. I don’t know what your ‘mutual friend’ has told you, but Wisp is not only my self-appointed guardian angel, but she’s a lethal force to be reckoned with. The last person who abducted and hurt me ended up begging her for a merciful death. What was it she told him, again? Oh, yes.” Kieran’s mouth splits in a wicked grin as he recites the declaration I gave Conroy only days ago.

“She’s the thing that goes bump in the night. She’s the monster of your nightmares, the blade in the shadows. She is the bitter end you never saw coming. She is death disguised as beauty and seduction, and she is sex personified. She’s known as The Wisp, and she’s an initiate of The Guild.”

Greg pales so quickly that he stumbles from the blood loss to his head. He quickly recovers, though, reaching one hand back to brace himself on the wall.

“Sh… she’s a member of the Guild? TheFemme Fatale Freakshow? Fuck me, Pyotr's a dead man and he doesn’t even know it. Well, let me promise you both, I will do my best to assist Wisp in any way I can, as long as it doesn’t expose me. I’m sure she knows how much work still needs to be done to shut these people down, and I can’t do that if my cover is broken.”

I release Kieran and move to the center of the room, making myself tangible enough to be seen, but not enough to be touched. My form is nothing but billowing cloud, swirling and roiling as I move and speak.

“How long do we have until our friend arrives? I was able to get a message out a while ago, but I didn’t want to wait around for a response.”

Greg checks the door over his shoulder, then takes a step forward, his voice low and urgent.

“I was able to get a message out just after we arrived in Reno about two hours ago. They’d already geared up and were waiting for a location before rolling out. Your message arrived about forty minutes after mine, and they were already on the road by that point. Depending on how long it took between receiving my message and heading out, which route they take, and if there are any delays on the way, they’re somewhere between one and two hours out. Will that be a problem?”

I look over at Kieran, the feverish flush of his skin from both his oncoming heat and his wound doing him no favors.

“He needs water and antibiotics. If you don’t have any antibiotics, then find a fucking first-aid kit with sterile gauze pads, tape, and antiseptic cream. If Pyotr bitches at you, tell him that Kieran can’t respond if he’s unconscious from infection. Then get your ass back here so we can plan. I need to know what we’re up against, because the clock is ticking and we’re on the wrong side of the counter.”

Greg nods and exits like the hounds of Hell are on his heels, but my attention is solely on Kieran.

Who is drenched with sweat.

Whose pupils are blown and is panting for breath.

Who is perfuming the air as he unconsciously ruts against the mattress.

Kieran, an omega, who is now in the grips of his first heat in over a decade.

We’re fucked.

Iache.

Every single nerve ending is alight and shrieking at me, furious that I’m in a cold, cement cell with a rubber mat instead of a plush nest. There’s nothing here to soften the hard and unyielding edges, nothing to provide me any comfort, and my omega instincts arescreamingin outrage.

My entire body throbs with unsated desire, my thoughts fixated on the need to rut against another’s skin, to bury my cock into an open and dripping cunt, to have an alpha’s lock clamp down and milk my balls dry better than any machine could do, and for my ass to be stuffed so full of an alpha’s cum that it oozes out from around the knot plugging me closed.

I have two alphas and three betas willing to do that for me, a voice inside my head whispers, but the words burn up in the inferno raging through my body.

You just need to hold on a little longer. Your Wisp, your guardian angel, she will help, the voice soothes again, but oncemore the words disappear in a blaze of unsatiated lust and arousal.

A soft breeze brushes over my cheeks, cooling the heat of my skin. It’s a relief, albeit a temporary one, but it’s enough for the small voice in my head to finally get their words to stick.

“Wisp?” I croak, my mouth and throat as dry as the Sahara. “Help me?”

Cool air soothes the wildfire raging beneath my skin, allowing clarity to make one last, brief appearance.

“Please, don’t let them knot or bite me? Knock me out before I beg them to do that to me? Hurt me, choke me, I don’t care, I just don’t want anyone else but our pack, Wisp. I only want Adam and Henley’s bites. I only want them to knot me. Please don’t let Pyotr or the others take that away from us.”

---