4. Troy

Iwipe the blood from my blade with my handkerchief, gazing down at the dead pig at my feet.

The client paid us good money in the end, and it was just too good of an offer to resist.

The pig deserved to die. It turned out that he had drugged and raped my client"s daughter at a college house party just a few weeks back, and now he is in hell getting gang raped by a pack of hellhounds.

As he should.

No matter how hard I try, though, I can never quite get their blood off my hands, no matter how many times I wash them.

The reek of their rot will always linger…

Being a hired assassin has its perks, but it can get tiring at times. Oppressive, even.

I see too much evil in this world for my liking, and sometimes it seeps into my skin and poisons my mind.

It darkens my soul, but maybe one day, I can escape this lifestyle.

But at least it"s a good distraction.

I"m missing my mate. Wherever Rian is now, I hope he is happy and safe.

He and Jay have been gone for weeks, and the house is cold and empty without them around.

I sense him through the bond, and I give it a gentle tug, letting him know that I will be seeing him soon. I also send him an image of all the things I am going to do to him when I see him again, and I sense his blush.

The Beta still gets a little shy at times, but I know it"s because he"s embarrassed, and doesn"t feel as if he deserves to be the object of my affection.

After all, he"s just a Beta. My Alpha shouldn"t be so attracted to him.

Yet I know that Beta bullshit couldn"t be farther from the truth. I know his secret…

The one that he keeps from the others.

Finally, I pocket my knife away, searching the back alley for my partner in crime, Leo.

Where did that deranged psychopath get to?

Who am I kidding? I"m just as deranged, if not more…

Leo had chased down our target"s friend, and if I know Leo, then he is already covered in a fair amount of blood and gore.

I soon find him at the end of the alleyway, right next to a stinking dumpster, and just as I predicted, he is completely covered in blood.

I kneel down, waving a hand in front of his face.

His dark eyes are blank, and he looks as if he has gazed right into the red eyes of the abyss.

Leo has a hard time keeping his monster at bay, and it looks as if he has let that monster out of its cage for too long yet again.

He"s always had an insatiable bloodlust, so it only made sense for him to take up work as a paid assassin.

Still. He needs to pull himself together.

"Leo. It"s done. He"s dead. You did the deed."

Leo blinks at me slowly next as he falls back to this reality.

He cocks his head sideways. "Troy? Is that… you?"

"No, it"s Charlie freaking Chaplin. Who else would I be?"

Leo laughs, though it sounds more like a bark as he looks down at his gory hands and shakes. "Fuck…"

I peer down at the poor bastard he murdered in cold blood.

Fuck indeed.

We were only hired to kill the first guy, but when our client"s daughter was raped at that party, there had been an audience.

I have a feeling that this prick was a part of that riveted audience…

Makes me sick.

People who take pleasure in other people"s suffering deserve to be murdered by Leo in a dark alley.

"Shit." Leo grips his loose brown hair, getting blood all over his locks.

It"s not the only thing about him covered in blood. His handsome, alabaster face is dripping in gore, and I don"t know how he manages to still look so pretty.

Leo has skin that most girls would kill for, and a perfectly chiseled nose and jawline.

The Alpha looks like a marble statue. But the pretty bastard is unhinged, though. Sweet one moment, and then explosive the next.

Still. He has a good heart beneath all that craziness, but the guilt of his crime will eat him up for weeks.

"Shit, Troy… I… I killed him…"

I look down at the poor dismembered college student again. "Yeah, you did. And then some…"

"N-no… How… how will I look granny in the face again?"

I hike up a brow. His granny has been dead for five years, and this won"t be pretty.

"Fuck!" He starts to weep, and I roll my eyes, shaking some sense back into him. "Leo, get a hold of yourself. The kid probably deserved it."

That"s what I keep telling myself. I remind myself that he had been one of the bystanders who just stood by and let his friend fuck our client"s daughter.

I bet he filmed it on his phone.

His phone…

I pick up his phone, bringing it close to his face so I can get inside his files, hoping the facial recognition still recognizes him after what Leo did.

To my luck, it still recognizes him, and then I search his files, finding the first video.

Bingo.

I don"t watch the video. It makes me sick. It"s not a video of our client"s daughter, but one of another innocent soul.

This bastard did deserve to die after all.

But there"s no point in trying to convince Leo of that.

Now he has an existential crisis, and it"s up to me to drag him up to his feet and haul him back to the car.

He"s a sobbing mess.

"I…. I"m a monster…"

Actually, we both are. But we needed the money.

I speak through clenched teeth. "No, we"re just cleaners ridding the streets of trash."

Well, that"s what I try to convince myself.

"Granny will be crushed…"

Again, I don"t remind him that his granny has been dead these last five years. Instead, I help him into the passenger seat, even buckling his belt for him like he"s a small child.

He really is like a child, and sometimes he makes me think that I may make a fine dad one day.

Yeah, when pigs fly.

I don"t need all that family bullshit. I already have my mate, Rian, and he is all the happiness I need.

But Leo, the poor bleeding heart, dreams of the day we will find our Omega. He even built a nest in the hopes that we find them one day.

If only he knew that we have already found them…

Leo weeps all the way home, and it looks like I"m going to have to knock him out with some whiskey when we get back. The Alpha will need it.

Hell, we both will.

I just need to see my mate first. I have missed Rian these last few weeks, and I swear I am going to make him cum so hard when I see him again.

The others won"t even get a chance. Not until I have had my Rian fix first.

The Beta is like cocaine to me, and I am always hard thinking about the ways I can make him scream my name.

Not long now.

I send Rian the images in my head through the bond, and once again, I feel his shyness.

Always so modest, but I know he is a freak in the bedroom.

We all do.

"See you soon, Rian."