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CHAPTER 1

Reyna

Fuck, I’m late. I push open the back door to The Warehouse, the bitter cold of not-yet-spring cutting straight through my threadbare hoodie.

You can hear the buzz of drunk beta and alpha men from the main floor, cheering as the current fighters in the cage throw each other around.

I slip through the back hallway, praying I can make it to the girls’ locker room to get ready without anyone stopping me.

With my luck, my fucking boss will call me in and chew me out.

“Hey, Raine!”

Called it.

Raine. It’s not my actual name, but stupidly, it’s close enough.

When I walked into the brothel down the street at 18 and was told to pick a name, I don’t know why I didn’t choose something like the other girls there. Something sweet. Something a little obnoxious. Something that didn’t remind me of, well,me, when I was working.

“Yeah?” I say, stepping into my boss’s office.

Frankie is a squat beta with dark hair, a pudgy face, and acne scars. He’s a bit slimy, but he’s never outright tried to pull anything on me other than not paying out the tips I earned.

“You’re late,” he says, nodding for me to shut the door.

I eye the alpha guard standing outside the door, but he doesn’t make a move to come in before I shut the door. I guess this’ll just be a private conversation between the boss and I.

Great.

It takes all my willpower to suppress my eyeroll.

“Sorry about that,” I mutter. “Had something at home I had to take care of. You know how that is.”

He raises a thick eyebrow. Or should I say mono brow? It’s definitely close to mono brow status.

“Are you not takin’ this job seriously? I thought you preferred it to working for my cousin, but there’s nothing I can do to stop you if you want to work more for him.”

I grit my teeth at the thought of Dominic, Frankie’s cousin, and also the owner of the whore house down the street. The whore house I also work at.

He’s right. I do much prefer being a ring girl here than working down the street. There’s also really nothing a beta like Frankie could do to go against an alpha like Dominic.

But he knows I won’t call him on his bluff.

“I still want to work here,” I say, my jaw clenching.

“Okay then, that’s what I thought,” Frankie says, smugly, leaning back in his chair.

Deep breaths, Reyna.

Based on the way I’m pretty sure my left eye is twitching out of irritation, the deep breaths aren’t fucking working.

Dominic keeps my price high. Says it’s ‘cause I’m top shelf, not just for one of his girls, but for an omega in general, too. I only get on my back for people who can pay that kind of fee,and in the Southside of Riverwell, there aren’t many that can pay that sort of thing.

That makes my work there inconsistent. Plus, considering he barely pays me thirty percent of what he charges, I need more consistent money in order to put food on the table for my family. My parents barely make enough to cover rent, and I have three younger siblings who deserve at least a chance at a normal childhood.

“What did you call me in here for?” I say, purposefully enunciating all my words and tilting my head in irritation.

If he says it’s because I was ten god damn minutes late, I swear to god, I’m going to... I’m going to do something. I don’t know what, since I need this job, but it’s definitely going to be something.