Knot a Chance for His True Mate

Prologue

Vargkung

March: Three Months Ago

This puny little man is disgusting.

The number of people in my organization who thought they had what it took to rise through the ranks was astonishing.

This particular individual was pasty white and scrawny, hadn’t even bothered to cover the track marks on the inside of his arms, and smelled terrible—the stench of heroin that clung to every pore nearly stifling the scent of tobacco that seemed to be his unfortunate natural scent.

I could wring him out and make heroin out of his insides. Probably uses most of what we give him to sell.

His shaved head gave the impression that he wanted to look tough, but despite the presentation, he didn’t look remotely capable of doing the shit that sometimes needed to be done in our line of work.

Still, he was the first person to walk into this abandoned warehouse today with confidence. That had to count for something.

Years of experience told me that sometimes evil could hide right in plain sight.

If this idiot was picked up with drugs on him, authorities would quickly dismiss him as a user instead of assuming he was a high-ranking member of a criminal organization.

Low-level distribution at most. No head of an organization like mine would ever trust an addict with anything beyond grunt work.

Those assumptions could benefit us if he surprised me and turned out to be useful.

Plus, I like defying other people’s assumptions.

“Why are you here?” I asked him, stepping closer.

He reeked of fear and I relished it. The scent of fear—especially that of another alpha—was better than a single hit of any of the drugs we sold.

The only thing better than their fear was when it mixed with a tinge of urine when they wet themselves in response to their fear.

The combination was like a jolt of cocaine straight to my bloodstream.

I inhaled deeply, disappointed not to smell any urine in the air yet.

Oh well, there’s still time.

He bowed his head slightly, a sign of submission. “I’m here to request an opportunity to move up in your organization, Vargkung.”

Vargkung, The Wolf King. It had a nice ring to it; just edgy enough to leave people wondering who Vargkung was but not off-putting.

After all, being an approachable drug lord is important.

I lifted an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. Every low-level dealer in this ring wanted to move up.

I’d say it’s the pay and benefits, but, well, this is a criminal operation, so we clearly don’t have that shit. What we do have though is status.

I always hesitated to have a drug user at the top of my organization because giving them access to the good stuff was usually a recipe for disaster, not to mention the information people gained as they moved up.

The very fact that this guy was standing in front of me meant he had more information than most people in his position ever had.

Ragnar had vouched for this one, and I took Ragnar’s advice seriously since he wasn’t a complete moron like most of the other people who worked for me.

My drug ring spanned three of the towns in the Lakes Region of the Northeast: Mirror Lake, Crescent River, and Harvest Cove.

Each territory was led by a beta of my choosing: Silver oversaw Mirror Lake, Ragnar oversaw Crescent River, and Luna oversaw Harvest Cove.

The three of them had real names, but I didn’t particularly care to use them.

The less we called each other our real names, the less likely we were to fuck up and acknowledge each other in person somewhere we weren’t supposed to know each other.

I ran a perfectly coordinated and well-kept secret drug ring that I’d built from the ground up.

At sixteen, I’d made more money selling drugs in the bathroom between classes than my teachers did for an honest day’s work.

Now, I no longer needed to associate with the minions who did my bidding.

My orders were carried out by my lieutenants, the three people I trusted, and my involvement in anything beyond that was simply for the sake of my own entertainment.

Most days I laid low, let the foot soldiers do the dirty work while I maintained my personal life. My hands remained squeaky clean—depending on your definition—though sometimes there was a lot of clean-up work involved, and I had been known to be trigger-happy on occasion.

It had been a long time since I’d been entertained though and I was getting bored.

Hence why I’m entertaining a potential disaster.

After a pause long enough to make me think I’d rendered the poor idiot speechless, the alpha finally answered, “I believe I could be useful to you.”

His hands shook as he waited for my response. Despite the delicious fear pheromones permeating the air, it wasn’t nervousness making him shake. It was withdrawal. I could smell that too. His body was desperate for a hit.

I shook my head. “I highly doubt that. Addicts aren’t useful to me when they’re jonesing.”

I picked up a needle full of heroin from the table next to us. He’d probably already clocked the drugs as soon as he’d walked in, which meant he had better restraint than the first woman we’d brought in this morning.

Just because I want to play with one of my minions doesn’t mean I want to risk said minion consuming my entire fucking stash. Then again, I might enjoy making a game out of predicting their death.

I held the needle out to him, waving it just enough to waft that tempting scent of vinegar right under his oversensitive nose.

His nostrils flared.

There we go, little pup.

He scurried forward and snatched it from my hands, immediately looking down at his pale, red-splotched arms as if deciding where to shoot up.

He paused and took a deep breath, scratching the brown stubble on his face.

He made eye contact with me and then slowly lowered himself to the ground.

Still shaking, he set the needle on the floor and stood back up.

I lifted an eyebrow. Impressive.

“Well done,” I said. “Maybe you have some potential after all.”

I doubt it, but if I was certain, then I wouldn’t be entertained.

“Thank you, Vargkung,” he said, lifting his chin proudly.

“Might I interest you in a second and final test?”

He nodded vigorously. “Yes. Anything.”

“You have loose strings, alpha. If you want to rise through the ranks, you need to get rid of them.”

He paled, and the scent of his fear intensified, filling me with a sense of pleasure so intense it hardened my dick.

“Can you be more specific?” he asked.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. I need you loyal to me, and me alone.”

“I don’t know—”

“Do you want a chance to be more than a low-level dealer? The last three people shot up the second I handed them the needle, but I’m sure one of them can get their shit together if you don’t want this badly enough.”

“I want this,” he said, looking down at the floor in resignation.

“Good,” I said. “You are to sever ties with your omega. If you get yourself caught, I won’t allow any connection back to my operation. Get it done and show me that you can be smart about it. Then we’ll see what’s next for you.”

“But, how—”

I held up a hand and he stopped talking. “I don’t care how and I don’t want to hear any of the details.”

Stupid fuckers always trying to implicate me in their crimes. I made simple suggestions—requests, if you wanted to be a dick about it—what they did after that was on them.

“Get rid of the problem,” I said sternly.

He lifted his eyes once more, pupils wide with fear. “He’s not a problem. He doesn’t know anything about this.”

I stepped closer, inhaling his fear for one more satisfying hit before I kicked him out. “Your defense of the person in question is precisely the kind of loyalty problem I’m talking about.”

He looked at me and then at the two people beside me as if he expected them to side with him.

They won’t.

He looked down at his feet, ran a hand over his bald head, and finally made eye contact again before nodding. “Yes, sir. I understand.”

“Good. Get out.” I gestured toward the door.

This guy is never going to make it, but in addition to the enjoyment I’ll get out of watching him try, maybe he can at least get rid of a few problems for me.

First, he needs to get rid of his own problem.

I turned to my left where Silver stood, stoic as always. “Watch everything he does and report back.”