Page 3 of Deadly Ties

“What about the eyes, the hair?” He asks mildly, waving a hand between us. “That’s Ferrier blood in your veins.”

“My mom said she was an Old Blood European. That she could trace her line back to the Arbanon in the Middle Ages.” It hurts my heart to do it, but I sneer at him. “Turns out she was just a dirt-poor omega from Boston who was traded away like a box of Cubans.”

Ferrier takes a sudden step towards me, those big hands flexing into fists. I don’t know if he wants to hit me or shake me, but my claws come out all the same. Ten curved nails the length of my smallest finger, they’re as deadly as any alpha in a half-shift. It’s not something an omega is supposed to be able to do, but then, most omegas don’t have violence bred into their bones like I do. “Stay the fuck back.”

Instead of rising to my challenge, Ferrier puts his hands in his pockets and grins at me. It’s so open and boyish, it transforms his face. And for a moment, I see my own eyes smiling back at me. Holy shit. I’m still trying to deal with the shock of what this means –who he really is- when Ferrier sinks onto the arm of the chair, his expression now smug. “That little gift comes from your grandmama, Angela. She was a very powerful omega. It pleases me beyond words that you’ve inherited the ability.”

I shake my head at him. Any other alpha would have me writhing on the floor for pulling a half-shift in his presence. But his relaxed attitude makes my claws retract of their own accord and I sense my wolf inside me, watching him with eyes as big as moons. I feel her confusion and lingering fear, but also more than a little admiration. It’s better than the grief and hurt she’s been wrapped in since Link’s revelations in the glass room, but it’s also dangerous. “Words are cheap,” I tell both him and my wolf. “Anyone can spin a good story.”

“Like LiamBerkely?” It takes me a moment to realize he’s using Link’s cover name. When I just stare at him, the last of the humor fades from his face. “He has left the city, if that makes you feel any better.”

Does it? Unlike my wolf’s emotions, I can’t really label the churning in my belly. “Was he alone?”

I’m not sure why I care. Link traded me away for his omega sister, Kelly Starling. I came to the auction thinking I was his way in, but what I didn’t know until it was too late was that this place uses an omega trading system. Omega in, omega out. Since I’m still here and he’s left, I have to assume he got what he came for.

But Ferrier is shaking his head. “Kelly Starling was never here. It was an administrative error.”

That just makes the churning worse, and I lean back against the door, fighting a wave of tears. There’s no way I’m crying in front of the Alpha of Boston, but the truth sits in my chest like a stone.Link sacrificed me.There’s no other way to describe it. He was desperate, and prepared to do anything to get his sister back, including throwing me to the wolves. And maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much if he’d stuck around after his plan fell apart. But he’d left me.

I don’t know why I’m surprised. From day one, Link told me he’d never needed my help. I was a distraction, and possibly a spy. It was Rory who said I might be a useful hostage against their enemy, Roan Bisha, and was worth keeping around.

Rory.I try not to think of my fake stepbrother and almost-mate. He’s hovering at the back of my mind, just waiting to shatter me into pieces.

But if I have any kind of plan, it definitely doesn’t involve falling apart in front of Ferrier. Which, given the growing ache in my chest, means I need to get out of here fast. “If you have a car available, I want to go to a hotel. Not one you own or control. An ordinary, middle-of-the-road hotel chain, where no one gives a crap about my name. Can you do that?”

“Of course.” He’s on his feet again, his movements so smooth and flawless they betray how powerful he really is. “We can leave immediately.”

I frown at his enthusiasm. If he’s here for the auction, why is he so happy to leave? Unless the other omegas have already been sold. I don’t have my cell – Link was adamant they’d take it off me at the door, so I left it in his car – but it has to be close to two in the morning. I feel a pang of sorrow for those poor girls I saw in the holding room. Where are they now? Have they been shipped off with the highest-bidding alphas, or sent back to whoever put them up for sale in the first place?

The thought makes me grind my teeth. I don’t know many other omegas. There were a few pampered princesses at my boarding school, but I could never connect with them. Omegas, in theory, are raised to be cherished. Soft and sweet, because they’re protected by every member of their pack, but also entitled and bratty, because whoever says no to them?

So what went wrong for the girls who ended up here? Were they like me, alone in the world? Or had they simply put their trust in the wrong man?Also like me,my stomach reminds me with a painful clench.

I study Ferrier. He has a ring like my mom’s. He shares my eyes, my smile. But can I really trust him with my safety?

I have no idea. But just because he might be related to me is no reason to lower my guard.

In fact, given my track record with family, it’s probably a red flag to imminent betrayal.

Not that I have a lot of options right now. Getting out of this horrible place has to come first. Steeling my spine, I watch as Ferrier pulls out his cell and talks to someone I presume is his driver. But my heart rate kicks up as my gaze tracks across the room. “Wait. Why is there blood on your boardroom table?”

Ferrier takes his cell from his ear, his gaze following mine. “I had a disagreement with the former occupant of this office.”

I blink at the anger in his voice. There’s a lot of alpha power simmering under his expensive suit, and I realize he’s almost as amped-up as I am. What exactly did I walk into here? “Who? Why?”

Ferrier ends his call, his face darkening as he stares at the blood-stained table. “The man planned to overthrow his alpha in Chicago. But a coup is an expensive endeavor, and he thought to make up the shortfall in his funds by trading in omegas. He was foolish enough to bring his business to my city.”

“So he set this auction up?”

“And I’ve shut it down.” He gives me a careful look, like he doesn’t quite trust me with the information he’s sharing. “All the omegas who were up for sale are safe. I promise you that.”

I walk over to the table, staring at the pool of blood on the shiny surface. There’s a lot of it, and the wood is slightly dented, as if someone slammed something hard against it. Like a thick skull. As I breathe in a shallow breath, I smell alpha and something acrid, like bleach. I’m pretty sure it’s terror, and it’s not hard to imagine a guy face-down on the table, Ferrier looming over him with blood-stained knuckles.

Satisfaction ripples through me, but I don’t fool myself that he did it out of any real sympathy for the omegas. More likely retaliation because an outsider brought his business into Ferrier’s city and didn’t give him a cut.

Just more power games and betrayal.

The thought makes me exhausted, but it reminds me of where I am, and the danger I’m still in. “Can we leave now?”

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