Page 2 of Deadly Ties

Marku grunts, amusement twisting his lips as he leans over me and grips my neck. Last time he did this, I pictured him kicking my legs apart and bending me over his office desk. But a hard fuck is clearly the last thing on his mind as he presses against my windpipe. “You are the one who will be left out, kopil.”

It means asshole. I know, because I looked it up. But I couldn’t give a fuck what he thinks of me. Kelly is all that matters. And if I haven’t proven that by now, then he hasn’t been paying attention. “I want my mate,” I growl. “Where the fuck is he?”

Marku just shakes his head and lets me go, wiping his palm on his pants. “He was never here. Administrative error.”

“Bullshit!” I roar. “That administrator died screaming. There’s no way he lied.”

The assassin shrugs and says something to the guard in their language. A second later, I’m hauled to my feet and a needle is shoved in my neck. Fur prickles over my skin and I think of Rory, right after I drugged his drink. I’d told him to hold off his shift or it would hurt twice as bad. But my wolf is borderline feral, and agony slices through me as my magic fights the drug. Fuck, talk about karma kicking you in the nuts.

“Stop, wolfling!” Marku barks, his dominance slamming into me harder than his fist. It forces my wolf back, but bloodlust still boils in my veins and I can’t stop the agonized whine that tears from my throat. “You deserve this,” Marku says, watching me struggle. “And it will only get worse from here.”

The security guard cocks a brow. “Want me to finish him off, boss?”

Marku stares at me, and I know in that moment I’m dead. He’s probably killed more guys than I’ve passed on the street, and with about as little fuss. But he just shakes his head. “Drop him back at the lake. Let his brothers deal with him.”

The guard grabs my arm, yanking me to my feet, but I plant my heels. “Wait!” I pant, beseeching the assassin with my eyes. I can already feel the drug working in my system, pulling me under. Dragging me away fromhim. “I’ll do anything to get Kelly back. Please. Tell me what you want, and it’s done.”

Marku’s lip curls, like I’m the dumbest bastard he’s ever met. “Loyalty. Trust. Your pack before your needs. But you don’t understand true sacrifice, wolfling.”

Is he fucking kidding me? Doctor Death is schooling me on sacrifice?

He pulls out his cell and starts scrolling, and my last nerve is shredded. “What the fuck, Marku? Was this some kind of test?”

“If it was, you failed.” He nods at the guard before casting me one last, ominous look. “The next time I see you, run the other way, kopil.”

Elvana

Lucas Ferrier steps backwards into the office at the auction house and I follow. I don’t have much choice, since he’s still holding my hand, and there’s a bunch of security at my back, watching my every move.

Not to mention the ballroom full of alphas waiting to buy up an omega for breeding rights, or whatever the hell it is they do with my kind.

“What do you mean I’m your daughter?” I demand, frowning up into his golden eyes. A strange color for a wolf, except I see it every time I look in the mirror. “You know who I am, don’t you?”

“Elvana Bisha,” he says with a nod over my head. The door shuts behind us and he finally drops my hand, waving me towards a group of armchairs around a mahogany coffee table. I scan the area, realizing it’s more of a meeting room than an office. There’s a boardroom table and a bar, with more leather armchairs scattered around a marble fireplace. The scent-dampener they feed through the air conditioning is weaker in here, and the lingering cloud of cigar smoke and alpha hormones makes my nose itch.

Instead of taking a seat, I circle around to a door flanked by two sash windows. I nudge the heavy velvet drape aside and look out. There’s a balcony, lit by a security light, and a more functional staircase down to a walled garden. Good to know there’s a way out that doesn’t involve running through a ballroom full of alphas with hard-ons.

While I’m inspecting the exit, Lucas Ferrier has moved to one of the chairs and stands with a hand on the back, clearly waiting for me to join him. He could get me on my knees with an alpha command, but he seems intent on trying the polite approach first.

I need to sit. My head is still fuzzy from whatever they dosed me with, and the adrenaline high is draining away fast. But instead, I put a hand on the doorknob and twist. It doesn’t budge. “You own this place?”

“No.” A single word, but full of distaste.

I have no idea what business he’s in, but as the Alpha of Boston, this is Ferrier’s city. If anyone is peddling omegas, he’d know about it. “Just here for the breeding rights, then?”

The sound that comes out of him now is closer to a growl, and I freeze for a second. But then my hand shoots to the latch on the window. It’s an old-fashioned brass fixture and opens easily enough, but then I spy the industrial bolts in the corner. Shit. The tremor in my fingers suddenly becomes a shudder I have to clench in my fist.

His voice is soft. Careful. “Are you after fresh air or a way out?”

“Either would be good right about now,” I mutter, then turn my attention back his way. He’s tall, even for an alpha, with silver hair that almost reaches his shoulders and amber eyes shot through with gold. He’s wearing a three-piece suit instead of a tux, but in every other way, he could be one of the alphas in the ballroom, bidding on a traumatized omega. “Am I a prisoner here?”

“Of course not. I have a driver who is ready to take you wherever you wish to go.”

And where is that?I wrap my arms around myself as the answer to that question burrows into my soul. Not Cam’s house, obviously, since it belongs to theHilabrothers. And not the townhouse in the Village I shared with my mom, since it’s the first place Rory will look.

Ferrier obviously knows I’m not exactly flush with options because he says, “Boston is a safe harbor, Elvana. I have a residence in Beacon Hill and a family estate a little further out of the city. You are welcome at both.”

I’m already shaking my head. “I don’t know you. A ring on your finger doesn’t make you my father.”

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