26

nikolai

"WHERE'S THE MONEY ?" said the thug who'd met us at the rendezvous. We were in a public place, outside an outdoor shopping center with wooden-slatted walkways and fancy light fixtures decorated with dangling flowers. It was supposed to mean that there wouldn't be any violence, but I knew better.

I could feel my gun against my rib cage, and I knew that if I needed it, I would use it, location be damned.

"Where's Corentin Sejour?" I said.

"Not how this works, as I told you on the phone," said the thug. "You give us the money, and we text you his location."

"Well, here's the thing," I said, "we didn't bring any money."

The thug glared at me. "Wasting our time, I see." He turned on his heel and started to walk off.

I caught up with him. "Not so fast."

He whirled, fists flailing. I caught a punch on the chin, and then I pulled out my gun. I pressed it into his chest, both of us so close we could have been kissing.

"Now," I said. "Where is Corentin Sejour?"

"I don't fucking know," he said. "My job is to get the cash."

"Well, you didn't get that," I said. "But you're going to take us to where you would have taken the cash, and we're going to get to the bottom of this."

"If I take you to them, they'll kill me," he said. "You must think I'm an idiot."

"I could kill you now," I said with a shrug.

"Fuck you," he said, baring his teeth.

"Take us," I said.

He shook his head. "Fine," he said. "Fine, get that gun off me."

I lowered it, but I didn't put it away. "Take us there," I said.

His nostrils flared.

aurelie

NIKOLAI MADE THE guy from the rendezvous drive us out of town and to this fancy, expensive hotel. We took the elevator all the way to the penthouse suite. When the door opened and the guy there saw us, he wasn't pleased.

Nikolai brandished his gun and stepped off the elevator, and I followed him, staying behind him. "We're just here for Corentin Sejour," he said.

"Nikolai Wolff," said the man, who was older and balding and fat, but wearing a crisp, tailored suit. "I suppose we should have expected you to get involved."

"So," said Nikolai, shooting him a confident grin that only made him look sexier, "you've heard of me."

Was it awful that I was feeling so attracted to Nikolai that I just wanted him to knot me again right now?

It must be.

I should be more worried about Corentin, clearly.

What the hell was wrong with me?

The man spread his hands. "I don't know why you're here. We had a plan, a plan that involved keeping Corentin busy while we extracted money from you, but he slipped through our grasp, and—as I understood it—is back at your honeymoon castle."

Nikolai turned to look at me.

I bit down on my lower lip.

Nikolai turned back to the man in the suit. "What are you talking about?"

"We'll get the money a different way," said the man. "We invested a lot in him, after all. We spared no expense getting him his knot. He wanted to be an alpha so very, very badly. He owes us, and we were getting our money back through stocks, but then he swindled us. Now, he just pays us back—one way or the other. You tell him that, all right?"

"You turned Corentin into an alpha?" I said. "With that awful weird machine thing, with the needles and everything?"

"He was obsessed with the idea," said the man. "He would have given up anything and everything for it. He talked about you a lot. We thought you'd pay money to get him back. If he'd just have tried to get on a plane like we hoped he would. If he'd just have used his passport, we could have gotten him detained, and you'd be delivering a ransom right now—"

"Except we wouldn't be delivering a ransom," said Nikolai.

"Tell your prince, tell your king ," said the man with the bald head, "if they don't want the entire world to know how we can make anyone into an alpha or omega, that we want paid back for our investment in Corentin Sejour. With interest."

corentin

"BUT THAT DOESN'T make any sense!" I exploded. We were all together in a small sitting room in the castle, and Nikolai and Aurelie had just gotten finished explaining the entire gambit to me. Now, I understood why I'd been hacked, why they'd gone to so much effort. They'd wanted to fake a kidnapping, extract a sum of money, and that was exactly like the Banninos. It was also bullshit. I had already paid them back what they'd spent on turning me into an alpha. Probably twice over at this point, those fucking bastards. "Why would they want to expose the fact that they can make alphas to the world? It would ruin their business plan. Once everyone knows it's possible, they will no longer be the only game in town. Other people will figure out how to do it, and they'll undercut them. It's insane. They're bluffing."

"Do you owe these people money?" said Nikolai, glaring at me.

"Oh, you know how it is when you go into debt with a family like that," I said. "You pay and you pay and you pay, and they always insist you owe more. If I'd had the presence of mind not to get into an arrangement with them, maybe I wouldn't have. On the other hand, if I wanted to become an alpha, they were the only choice, so…" I shrugged.

"It doesn't matter," said Dmitri.

"It does matter," said Nikolai, rounding on him. "If he brought this down on our heads—"

"No," said Dmitri. "He is part of the pack, and I have taken responsibility for him, so it doesn't matter how it happened and there's no reason to point fingers."

I glanced at him, unsure of how I felt about that. Partly, it was that swelling feeling of goodness and belonging from before, which was really nice. Being his, being Dmitri's, I liked it. On the other hand, I wasn't sure that I wanted to be his responsibility. I could take fucking care of myself. I'd been taking care of myself for my entire life.

"So, what?" spoke up Johannes. "We're just going to pay them?"

"I don't know," said Dmitri. "I think I need to talk to the King about this, actually."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to cut your honeymoon short, you two." I felt bad about it, actually. I still kind of hated Dmitri, and I still didn't know how I felt about watching her with other men all the time, but I was starting to warm to the idea in many ways, and I also, well, I wanted her to be happy, and I hated being the cause of any of her discomforts.

"We've had nothing but honeymoon since I bit her," said Dmitri. "It's all right. We'll travel back to the capital this evening, and when we get back, I'll work on a new schedule—"

"Seriously?" said Johannes.

"No schedule," said Aurelie.

"You should know," said Nikolai, "that the only reason I am back is because of the omega. As far as I am concerned, I do not currently have a relationship with either of you." He pointed at Dmitri and at Johannes. "We've broken up."

Johannes shot to his feet. "What? What the fuck, Nik?"

Dmitri only growled. "No, Nikolai, we have not ‘broken up.'"

"I do get to decide that," said Nikolai to him.

"You don't," said Dmitri.

I coughed. "Um… I mean… he does."

"He does," said Aurelie.

Dmitri folded his arms over his chest.

"But," said Aurelie, "obviously, I want everyone to work this out. I want all my alphas to get along, at the very least."

"What makes you think you get access to my omega if you're not in a relationship with me?" said Dmitri to Nikolai.

Aurelie's jaw dropped. "You cannot be serious , Dmitri."

"He's not a prince," said Dmitri. "He has no claim on you except for the fact that I allow it. You barely know him—"

"We connected while we were gone," she said. "I should have told him to bite me." She turned to Nikolai. "Bite me now."

Nikolai was quiet and still, every muscle in his body tense. He didn't move. He didn't speak. He just held Dmitri's gaze.

"Nik, I'm not trying to be an asshole," said Dmitri. "I just won't—can't—lose you. You are mine. You've been mine, and you can't not be mine, just because you're having some snit—"

"It's like I never even knew you," said Nikolai in a flat voice.

Dmitri rolled his eyes. "Oh, for fuck's sake, don't be dramatic."

Nikolai sighed heavily.

"Dmitri," said Johannes, "listen to yourself. You say these things, and they're horrible."

" Everyone's dramatic all of the sudden," said Dmitri.

"Bite me," said Aurelie. "If you bite me—"

"Not like this," said Nikolai. "Not here. We deserve it properly, omega."

"But if he tries to cut me off from you, Nikolai—"

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away from you," said Nikolai. He stood up, bent over, kissed her hard, and then stalked out of the room.

She looked into his wake. "And yet, he walks away from me after saying that." Her lower lip trembled. "Why is this so fucking difficult? Why can't you all just get along?" She got up, too.

Dmitri stood up. "Omega."

She looked into his eyes.

"Sit down."

She sat down, and she was angry. Tears started to stream down her face.

I stood up. "Dmitri, no," I said.

"You sit down, too," said Dmitri.

I fought it. It hurt like fuck not to do what he said, but there was one thing that would never change. I would do anything for this woman. I'd die for her. I staggered against the desire to follow his directive, and then I seized her by the hand and yanked her up. "Let's go, sweetheart."

"You two aren't going anywhere," said Dmitri.

I put my body between hers and his. I spoke to him in a soft and urgent voice. "Hey, look at me, Dmitri. I am yours. Got it? But we just need a little space here to deal with… with whatever is fucking going on. You need… you're out of control, man."

"You are," said Johannes quietly. "You really fucking are."

Dmitri threw up his hands. "Sit down ," he told me.

"Not happening," I said. "I'm taking her with me now. I'll be in touch about where we are."

"Like fuck you're taking my omega—"

"Hey," interrupted Johannes. "You need to talk to the King about this shit with this Bannino family anyway."

"Right, and who brought that down on our heads?" said Dmitri.

I laughed. "So much for it not mattering."

"That was when you were obeying me," he said.

"Got it," I said. "So, either I'm your puppet and you pull my strings or you withhold all affection. That's entirely not abusive or anything. Super healthy, Dmitri." I pushed Aurelie toward the door. "Let's go, my love."

She was still crying. "But where?" she sobbed.

"Let me worry about that," I said, as I put my arm around her and we left the room. "And he's… he's… well, we're not giving him up, not entirely. So, don't worry about that."

She looked up at me, surprised. "You love him, too."

"I fucking hate him, Aurelie. But, uh, I hate him a lot ."