Page 1 of Our Deceptive Heat

Chapter one

Ryn

Four years ago

All at once mygrey world burst into colour- Ryn Raines.

My mother named me wrong. I’m not golden, I’m nothing but a dark spot of shame on my parents’ expectations. Raven black hair, pale skin and, in my father’s words, an unnecessary and useless beta with no value at all. I’m not male and alpha, nor am I a tradable omega. He likes to remind me of these facts often because he’s an asshole.

Auryn means gold. But I’m not gold. I’m not even silver or bronze. In my mother’s eyes and my father’s dismissal, I’m nothing, I don’t rank, I barely even exist in their world. I just float on the periphery of their luxurious lives. So I call myself Ryn, and I skate by working as a gift card designer and doing cute little loved up designs while I wait for Dad to decide where in the company I’ll be most useful.

The only thing that shows that I am a Raines is my blue-green eyes that my aunts, my uncle, my mother, and my cousins share. The Raines eyes.

I am an embarrassment to my father. But to my mother, I am the reason my father hates her.

Thus, I have no right nor reason to be snooping through my father’s files. The CEO of Alpha Labels who inherited his position through his prestigious marriage to the famous song writer Chile Raines, would never allow me here. I shouldn’t be here at all. Not in this building. Not in this office.

But I’m desperate.

Typhor Raines never would have left anyone else alone in his office. But I’m his only useless child. The one he can ignore until he sells me off to the highest bidder. I can’t remember a time my father was proud of me or interested in me. So when I came to see him and he got called away, he didn’t think twice about leaving me alone in his inner sanctum.

I am the perfect daughter. Well behaved and forgotten.

And I’m desperate enough to turn into a thief.

Right now, my salvation, my potential freedom, is at hand. In this folder is the outline of a problem that could very well rescue me from the horror that is my future. As my father’s daughter, I know I should shut the file and walk away. As my father’s unwanted child, I know if I don’t seize this opportunity, I might never get another.

It’s not like Locke can help me.

And Aunt China is worse than my mother. Lia is never going to escape her mother’s awful controlling rules. Bethany is gone. Raider is too busy trying to survive on the ice as a pro-hockey player, and Kelly is too far away.

I inhale slowly, drawing in the chemically clean air, trying to calm the churning in my gut. My fingers tremble as I turn the pages, swiftly scanning for the information I need. The desperation I feel won’t go away.

Time. Time is my enemy.

If only I could buy some. Freeze it. Still this office in a moment so I could search every inch, just to make sure it’s the right path. Instead, I have mere seconds to find the golden ticket out of my life.

I’ve planned this down to the last detail. The call for the last minute meeting came from my mother. My father will find his new potential singer will be with a brainless socialite who wants to sing songs to impress her mama and get famous.

It was all set up by me. I pulled strings, then promised people my first-born children. I used my savings. Everything worked like clockwork, predictable and exactly to my plan.

I curl my hands on his shiny black desk, using my long hair to shield what I’m doing as I pretend to have a violent coughing fit. The computer chair behind me presses against my thigh. I should have moved it.

There’s only one camera in my father’s office and that’s the one directly over my left shoulder. The security guard who traded me the information only wanted a kiss. I ignored his rough groping and, despite how sickening it was to have his tongue down my throat, I know I’d do it again and again. Totally worth it.

I turn the page and find the information I need. Fate’s Choice is my in. They will be my ticket to freedom. A band with four alphas who are up and coming, their rise could be astronomical, and their music suits my style.

I quickly take photos of all the information, then steal the page requesting a songwriter, making it disappear. My father won’t have read the file yet, and no one would dare correct him. I roll the page up and stick it in my jacket pocket. I take a moment to pretend I’m weak from coughing, shut the folder, and then leave the room exactly as I found it.

The only impressive thing about those rooms are the views.

Alpha Label looks over the city and all its impressive skyline. Powerful men have always sat in this room. It holds nothing but revulsion for me. Sometimes I wish Kelly hadn’t left and was sitting in this office instead of my father. Is that wrong of me?

When I pass my dad in the hallway, he does what he always does; he pretends he doesn’t see me. I stand still, watching him as he walks with the young blond who looks similar in colouring to Lia. His arm is around her shoulder as he guides her on a tour of Alpha Labels. She giggles and touches his chest in a way that makes me feel ill. He leans in closer, smiling that smile that terrifies me.

I spent a lot of my childhood hoping he would never, ever pay any kind of attention to me. So far, I’ve been lucky, but he’s made comments about my lack of use, and it’s making me nervous.

My father’s personal assistant glares at me as he follows behind, a tablet clutched to his chest. His suit fits perfectly, his hair is slicked back. Nothing about his features stands out or is noteworthy. Uley Ethels is as evil as my father, maybe more so because he isn’t a megalomaniac. He’s a normal guy trying to leach power by sucking up to the asshole of my father. I’m relieved when he turns the corner, and I can’t see him. The beta creeps me out.

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