Page 178 of Lonely Alpha

He’d put his disguise of nonchalance back on, and I couldn’t be certain if it was because we’d broken him down, or because he’d decided he wasn’t going to entertain this at all.

I looked at Dash, who shrugged. “I had to decode it quickly, OK? Canary sounded right.”

“It doesn’t matter. There are multiple copies of this information, Soren, so if you try anything with us right now, it will be leaked.”

“Noted.”

Dash took another pastry from the table, taking a seat beside where Soren had originally been sitting. “So, what do you say? I really don’t give a shit that you’re gold pack and creating rogue kids. If you help us out, I’ll never breathe a word. I’ll even owe you a thank you.”

“But nothing else,” I added quickly.

Being indebted to Soren was not a comfortable position. He took his owed favours seriously, from what I’d heard.

Soren looked between both of us and the bundle of papers in his hands. I tried not to hold my breath, not wanting to reveal how desperate we truly were—though it may have been obvious. It wasn’t every day Soren was threatened, I was sure.

He sat down casually on his original chair, mirroring Dash’s relaxed posture. Then, he sighed.

“I could fight your pack on this, and I guarantee I would win,” he said.

My chest tightened. I held my tongue, because it didn’t sound like he was finished. Surprisingly, Dash stayed quiet too. We both watched Soren, unable to read any thoughts projected on his face.

“But you are not a pack that I want to waste my time with, honestly,” he continued.

It should have been an insult, but it deflated the oppressive worry ballooning in my stomach.

“I’d really prefer not to waste my time with you, either,” Dash agreed with a grin. “There are so many better things we could do with our billions, don’t you think?”

Soren nodded, a small grin curling his lips. “Plenty. Besides, Leighton has been a shockingly good employee considering she was blackmailed into it. The past two years of having her work for me have been very efficient.”

He got out his phone, the bright pink case glinting in the lamplight. The keyboard made obnoxiously loud sounds as he typed with his thumbs.

“You said she was taken by the Connollys?” he asked. “I figured she might be.”

I growled softly at the second part. “Yes, the Connollys. If you figured that, why did you insist Kiara stay with her?”

“All my employees need a bit of a challenge now and then. Kiara may have been useful, too. She owes me a favour, you know. If I hadn’t been golfing that night, she never would have found a safe place to escape to.”

Dash’s aura shattered the calm night, the air filling with sharp spring rain and a hint of sweet peaches hidden beneath it all. I had more control over my aura—and a weaker aura overall—but fury rolled through me at the thought of Soren having leverage over my omega.

“Kiara owes you nothing,” I snapped.

Soren smirked, tapping a few more times on his phone screen.

“Is that part of the deal, then?” he asked. “Leighton owes me nothing, Kiara owes me nothing, and you don’t expose my secrets and go to war with me?”

I was about to confirm it, my mouth already open, but Dash beat me to it. “One more thing,” he said, reining in his aura. “Marlowe owes you nothing. Neither does his pack. I don’t give a fuck if one of his alphas is your son, you don’t touch them either.”

Our scent match hadn’t crossed my mind. I was the one who should have thought of it—Dash hated Marlowe’s pack and had since the moment they bonded him. The fact that Dash was adding them to this deal was… more than a little stunning.

“My son and I have our own arrangement,” Soren said. “I hide his rogue status, and he occasionally does tasks for me.”

“Not anymore.”

Soren sighed. “You’re demanding, considering I could retract my offer at any moment. What would happen to poor Leighton then?”

I clenched my jaw, half tempted to take back Dash’s insistence on keeping our scent match’s pack safe. Did they matter to us? Not a fucking bit. Not at all when compared to Leighton and Kiara.

However, Dash needed this. I felt it in the bond, the turmoil swirling in him. The need to close that chapter. Leighton would want it too—she might gut me if she found out we hadn’t pushed harder for her brother’s safety, after she’d spent so long being manipulated to protect him.

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