Page 53 of Verses and Blooms
“You mean to tell me I should spend multiple hours of my life watching a marathon of movies where thewhole purposeis them walking to find a ring?” Ledger let out an exasperated sigh, but the smile never left his face.
“You make it sound so simple,” Ansel groaned, throwing up his hands in exasperation.
“No,” Ledger argued. “Simple is an action movie. They fight, they blow things up, they beat the bad guy. The end.”
Ansel gave Ledger a look. “I’m going to make you watch them someday.”
“I’ll try to stay awake,” Ledger deadpanned before he took a breath and his head snapped our way. “Oh my god, it smells incredible in here.”
“Kane made some tea for me to recover after my heat, and Rydell’s making brownies.”
“No shit.” Ledger grinned at Rydell. “Hell yeah. And they smell incredible.”
Rydell looked pleased at everyone’s reactions. “If this is the reaction I get, I’m going to have to cook more.”
“Damn straight you do,” Ledger said with a grin. “Ares might be out of a job.”
My red-haired alpha walked in to join us. “Good, because truth be told, I’m not much of a chef. I just know my way around a grill.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, giving him a grin. When he didn’t smile back, I froze. “What’s wrong?”
He sat down heavily. “The chief wants to meet us here. Now that the heat is over, I told him I was taking an extra day, but apparently, whatever he has to say is important.”
“Improtant enough to interrupt our last night?” I asked. “About what?”
He met my gaze. “I have a feeling he wants to know more about what happened to you. Maybe about your captors. Unfortunately, you’re the closest contact we have that knows about these places.”
My stomach sank. “So, they didn’t find her, did they?”
He shook his head.
“Did you see any familiar faces while you were stuck there? Other girls you met over the years?”
I thought it over. There wasn’t an easy answer. “Probably, from time to time, but I don’t really remember a lot,” I admitted.“We all kind of kept to ourselves. They didn’t exactly want us to band together against them, so they rarely put us in groups. I don’t know that I would have recognized them if I did.”
“No, I imagine not,” he agreed. “It’s just that after everything he’s done for me, I want to be able to give something back. Maybe he can show you pictures of the victims, and you can see what you remember?”
I knew Ares well enough that if I refused, he’d send the chief away no questions asked. But how could I refuse after all of this?
“Ten years is a long time to remember small details,” I warned him.
“It is,” Ares said. “I’ll make sure to ask him. Don’t worry, he’ll come prepared.
“Okay. I just don’t want anyone to be disappointed. I found that, mentally, I’ve blocked a lot of it out.”
“Of course you did,” I said softly. “I’d never push you to do anything. I’m just presenting the information.”
“If they didn’t find the chief’s daughter where they were keeping Audrey captive this time… whodidthey find?” Ansel asked.
“Too many omegas,” Ares said, his eyes shadowed now, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the full answer. “We thought this was just a local operation, but I think we’ve uncovered an entire omega auctioning ring. There were girls and guys from all over the country, all ages. Most of the data was minimal, and it seems the man running this facility wasn’t even high-ranking.”
“I imagine not if he was willing to risk it all for the money they paid for me,” I murmured.
Ares nodded. “My thoughts exactly. He wasn’t willing to let you go, and I’m not sure why he was so obsessed with you in the first place. It feels like there has to be something more.”
“We weren’t scent-compatible. Maybe it was the challenge,” I said. “My body didn’t comply for him like the other girls did. Ididn’t have heats. It was finally starting. I think after years of me being ‘broken’ and coming back when I had a pack, he thought this was his chance. He was just too greedy to pass up a payday like that,” I said as my stomach churned. Even talking about that monster made me sick.
“Alphas like that don’t like to let their self-claimed possessions go,” Ares said. “Your omega denied him for so long he was willing to risk anything to see it happen.”
