Page 173 of Sweetheart: Part Two

He’d told her if she fucked me and we didn’t save her, he would have her killed.

A hunting arena.

It wasn’t something I was intimately familiar with, but I’d come across it on the dark web. Places where the trafficking ring was only the tip of the iceberg. You had to go deep into the underworld to find things like that. Where the rich played with the poor like toys. There were warehouses, pit fighting, and more. But hunting arenas: that was where omegas were killed by alphas for entertainment. And I knew there were packs who did it to rid themselves of dark bonded omegas they were tired of. It could damage the pack bond, but not always if the omega hadn’t been bonded long, or if they’d been held at arm’s length within the bond.

I almost jumped as the phone buzzed again.

Pack Lead: You want to know what really keeps me going, even knowing those pathetic alphas are banging my omega?

Pack Lead: At the end of the day you’re mine. I control it all. I decide if I keep you.

Pack Lead: There’s one video that keeps me going. I can’t stop watching it. I even showed it to the others, and they’ve been begging me for it ever since.

Next thing, a video came through the texts.

Pack Lead: Look how fucking pretty you look like that.

It was of Vex. She was in that familiar limo, and her eyes were a rich brown, the same as they’d been before the Gala when she’d worn contacts.

“Don’t push me Vex. It can always get worse,” the alpha murmured. “For example, I think the others would love to see this.”

She squeezed her eyes shut.

“What do you think I should do about how much you made me want you?” he asked. He took her by the hair, twisting her neck toward him. “You can give me something to work with, and you can return to them untouched. Or you can fight me, and leave me to claim what I want another way.”

Vex’s eyes opened in shock as she stared up at him.

But he wasn’t done. “Tell. Me.” The command came again.

Tears streamed down her face, but I’d seen that look in her eyes. It was the look she got when she was sure about something. When she wouldn’t give in no matter what.

“I w-won’t.”

She was shaking with the agony of fighting the bond.

“All of this pain, just to avoid telling me a little about him.”

“It’s not yours,” she choked out. “None of it is—”

“You are mine.” His voice was a low growl as he shook her. “Whatever you do with that pathetic mate of yours, it’s mine, too. If I want to call you here after, you’ll tell me what I want to know.”

“Drake isn’t yours. He never will be.”

Drake?

My mind raced a million miles a minute trying to piece together what was happening. He wanted to know about Drake?

And they’d just been together, by the sounds of what he was saying.

Still, something wasn’t quite right. Something tugged at the edges of my consciousness, just out of reach.

“If only you knew,” the alpha laughed. “Don’t you want to give me a little something? I’m getting a little antsy for the omega I’ve bonded. You’re proving so much more interesting than I anticipated.”

Vex shook her head again, and it seemed all she was able to do. Fighting the command was destroying her.

Still, she didn’t give up.

“I won’t…” she gasped, low whines slipping from her chest with every breath. “I won’t.”

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