Page 31 of Seducing Selena

“But I’m still a slave.”

He inclined his head. “Yes,gattina, you are. I hope you’ll see it’s not as bad as you think.”

A whine came out of me, panic and terror overcoming me. “Not as bad? I—”

“Shhh.” He covered my lips with his, kissing me like we were still in the nest. “Breathe, Omega. Don’t worry about it tonight.” He brushed away some of my tears. “You will be okay, Selena. I promise.”

I wished I could believe him.

“Come here.” The words were gentle as he turned us so I laid against him again, and I cried. He didn’t tell me not to, nor did he admonish me for it. Simply held me and stroked my skin, occasionally whispering that I would be all right.

But how could I be all right?

How?

The water started to cool. “Sit up for me.”

I did, and he washed me, making sure the last remnants of the heat were gone before wrapping me in a towel and carrying me to a bedroom. His bedroom. “You’ll stay with me tonight.”

There was a hesitation in his voice. “But?”

“Give me your wrist,gattina.”

I closed my eyes and obeyed. The leather cuff wrapped around my wrist, and then the other one. A heavy, clinking weight attached to my hands, and he laid them on the bed before climbing in on the other side and pulling me against his chest.

“I promise,” he whispered again. “I promise everything will be all right.”

Closing my eyes, I let myself rest and believe it was the truth.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

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SEBASTIAN

Iscrubbed my hands over my face and shoved into the office. The need to hit something was rising, but I couldn’t do that without raising suspicions from everyone around us. But I was coming apart at the seams.

Selena’s face broke my heart, and I worried we weren’t going to be able to bring her back.

“Have we heard from the Denver Coalition?” I asked Nick when he stepped in behind me. It was what we called the agency we worked for, and he was the last one to check in. I hoped to god we had, because there was only so long I could do this before I was going to drag Selena out of here and make her mine, damn the consequences.

“No,” he said. “Or at least nothing of substance. Continue as planned.”

I swore, grabbing a statuette off my desk and catching myself just before I threw it against the fucking wall. Why did we even have this thing? Pretentious as fuck, having a bronze cast of some classical statue like the personas we played were supposed to be art connoisseurs while we were sellingpeople.

“Seb,” Nick said. “I know. I’m there too. I’ve been there for days. But there’s nothing we can do.”

“She wouldn’t say anything,” I hissed. “She wouldn’t.”

His mouth firmed into a line even as I saw grief enter his eyes. “We don’t know that.”

And of course, he was right. The women we ‘sold’ were some of the best actresses I’d ever seen, and they never broke character. Not once. I had every confidence that if they were somehow a scent match with one of the men that bought them, they would continue their mission and duty, regardless.

Which is what Selena would do if she were like them.

I turned and leaned both hands on the desk, everything suddenly pressing down on me like a weight I couldn’t bear.

What we were doing was good. Undeniably. It would save lives and end a whole hell of a lot of evil. But at what cost?

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