Page 4 of Seducing Selena

“Two more weeks,” Seb said. “Three at most, and we’re done.”

“Are you ever really done with this?” I asked.

In the last three years, we tried to minimize the damage of the operation, using countless willing Betas and Omegas trying to help us take down these evil men.

Too many of them had paid the price.

“Done with it? Yes. Done with the effects? Probably not.”

“Yeah.”

He clapped me on the shoulder. “Get it together, man. We’re almost there.”

“Where’s Derek?”

“Already working the crowd. Oiling the gears, like we should be.”

Point taken.

I turned away from the view of the public club and went through the hidden door to the veryun-public side ofCatena. Smaller and more intimate. With a few bedrooms for our guests, a stage and a theatre for the auctions, and our own private quarters. Among other things, like a section of the club for our less legal clients.

Backstage wasfloodedwith the scent of Omega. Twenty women wearing almost nothing but skin, and scents that made my mouth water out of instinct, but not desire. The only thing was, they weren’t Omegas at all. The hormones they painted on their skin made them seem like it and enticed our auction buyers to purchase them.

Once they were sold, they went on their way and did the lion’s share of what we needed, tracking and tracing the lines and men who purchased Omegas for their own pleasure and used them until they dried up. When that time came, these Betas had a capsule under their skin to break. The Beta hormones inside would make them hibernate and activate a tracker. So close to death it would be assumed they were. They would then be retrieved from wherever they were dumped. After all, these Omegas were dispensable in the eyes of our clients.

Everyone was already in character. They never came out of character here, and they were in it before they arrived.

The scents were overwhelming, and to my nose, cloying. Nothing like what I wanted in the scent of an Omega.

Derek swept backstage and leaned on one of the cages. “Time to go. You will serve until it is time for the auction. Your eyes will remain on the ground, and the only words you are permitted to speak are ‘yes, Master,’ or ‘thank you, Master.’ Am I clear?”

Soft murmurs of yes, and all eyes looking at the ground.

I hated it.

I loved the sight of an Omega on her knees, but only if she wanted to be there. What these Betas were about to do—

Derek came over to me as the women filed out to where the waiting trays of champagne and appetizers were. “I’m going to need you to fix your face, Nick.”

“He’s in a mood.”

“Yes, I’m in a fucking mood.”

Derek looked behind him, where the last of them disappeared. “They’re well trained. They’ll be okay.”

They were trained, but not by us, as all our clients believed. It was the one relieving thing. The women now going into the lion’s den were stronger than we’d ever be, and they volunteered, knowing the risk and the pain, hoping to save lives.

“Let’s just get this over with, I muttered.”

“That’s the spirit,” Seb said. “But bring out the smile, please.”

“I’ll do my best,” I said with a growl.

Derek chuckled. “Very convincing.”

They headed out to meet our guests, and I glanced over the shadowy room and all the cages in it. There was a hint of scent in the air. Like roses and oranges. Lovely, but it wasn’t real. None of this was real.

Taking a long breath, I pasted an easy smile on my face and took on the role of Nicholas. Me, and not me. We were almost there, and the end couldn’t come soon enough.

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