red against the floo

er temples. He

ev

pick

lling anyone who'd listen that you're a shiftless waste with no wolf form who just sleeps her way to the top.

l smile tugging at the corner of her m

"But seriously... how's your shoulder doing? And what about the

shift." A worthless Omega with no wolf form, no value, no future. Her own father and the man

quiet, steady. "As long as I stay hidd

sant tomorrow morning. Maybe two if I'm feeling

st friend lingered in the silence, a tiny pocket o

sted all of t

to life in the corner of her screen. And at the

idden Omega File

as sellin

cy's eyes. Her fingers mov

r nape sudd

of rain-soaked cedar and agave dri

ized wha

Three da

to acknowledge. Some part of her, deep and primal and beyond reason,

ding the familiar shape of a suppressant pill. She dry-swallowed it, feeling the ch

O

ontrol office shuddered and

veins bulged on the backs of his hands and along the side of his throat. And his steel-gray eyes, those cold, calcul

ad completely failed. Her scent had

sence down on her like a collapsing sky. Darcy's legs went weak. Her knees threatened to buckle. The primal instinct

haling greedily, desperately, drowning himself in that lethal scent. She could feel his breath hot and ragged against her skin, his entire body trembling wit

rewed the cap. She coated her fingers in the icy gel and pressed them hard against

uid seeped into

he gold in his pupils flickered, contr

ut refusing to break. "Please. Stay calm. Someone put a bounty on me tonight

pressed flat against the wall on either side of her head, his knuckles white, his fingers shaking with the str

o create a sliver of space between them. His hand fumbl

North Barrens H

: King

150,000,00

s ago. The exact moment she'd

es lingered on the words "BUYER: K

our life, right now, it's registered under my name. Tomorrow morning, your desk moves in

and the wall. Her body moved before her mind caugh

Featherlight. Barely a touch. But the sensation burned

ested on the handle for just a second. Th

squeezed through the gap. Low. Rough. Almos

ant you took. It doesn't work on an Ome

ic

ock e

ed exhale, a breath dragged from somewhere deep i

city glow filtering through the curtains. The air

sed to her chest. Her heart was pounding too fa

d across the ro

dle of the wall, a dozen overlapping lines carved into the surface with brutal force. Nail marks. Claw marks

. Her fingers curled slow

ed all the way. A sliver of darkness showing where it had been left sl

down and pul

nothing else. Just a single p

icked

rl's silhouette was slender, barely visible against the storm, her clothes torn, her posture hunched against

e Thorne pack, wounded, bleeding, dragging herself thr

throat. She turned the photo over, her heart pound

ad aged slightly with time, cold and

nd y

e bottom read

been looking at her, this broken, bleeding girl crawling through the snow, for seven years before she ever set foot in his building. He hadn't bought her file on the bla

ss offered

ion that rose in her chest was ruthlessly pressed back down, flattened into something cold and unreadable. She ran her

ic

slipped back into the s

completely silent. No footsteps. No breathing. Nothing. Only the faint scent

mind, pushed past every limit, surren

blood staining the white behind her, every step a battle against the cold that wanted to swallow her whole. And in the dream, just as she was a

OO

her ribs. Cold sweat slicked her forehead and the back of

rning light was beginning t

ol. Composed. Unreadable. She told herself it was just a nightma

n't bel

yway. She had a b