Chapter 5
FIVE
KNOX
My pretty little doll knew the truth.
I don’t know when, exactly, she’d figured it out, but she had.
Her soothing scent of frosted moonflower had switched from content to suspicious in the limo. The scent-dampening spray shouldn’t have worn off by now, but she was so dialled in… I wondered what had given me away.
I’d get it out of her, but not yet.
Right now, as I led her up the steps to my mansion, she was still pretending.
I wasn’t attached to this act of mine; it was far more about convenience than need. And I’d already got more from her than a reluctant toy would give in weeks.
I had vulnerabilities and weaknesses for Thistle Maverick that would last a lifetime.
She looked genuinely stunned as she took in the mansion, though. The place was massive, and an impressive sight, built on generations of criminal money. It had obsidian siding combined with rustic rich wood and expansive glass windows revealing canyon views that stretched around the property.
It had a long driveway, keeping it tucked away from the public eye, hidden between the craggy landscape, shrubbery, and a scattering of the best trees Nevada had to offer.
Within were four sprawling wings, a ballroom for the events I had to host to maintain appearances, and a basement designed for all kinds of below board activities. One of the wings was for staff quarters, currently lived in now by the crew that kept the place running. They knew I preferred to keep to myself whenever possible.
Thistle shifted incrementally closer to me as we stepped through the grand doors to the entry hall.
I led her down the hall and into the north wing. “This wing is your home. You won’t go anywhere else in the mansion without permission.”
She peered around at the ancient art pieces that I’d long become blind to. “What about to make food? Or… something?”
“Food will be made for you, and the fridge in the kitchen there stays stocked.” I pushed open one of the first doors on the left as we entered the wing, revealing the room within.
“Oh…” She looked confused, glancing around the kitchen for a few seconds before she seemed done. “Okay.”
Something about her nagged at me. Something out of place, even beyond her suspicion. She was acting nothing like she should be.
Well. No. That was a lie, but only by half.
She was nervous enough, and despair had been creeping in since she’d figured out my deception, all of which made sense for a trafficked Omega—but only half the time. I kept seeing little flickers of… something else. I wouldn’t call it confidence, but she was oddly unafraid.
I’d seen this part enough times, and for most people, having their freedom stripped away to be sold to the highest bidder was the worst day of their life. Even before her suspicion, however, the only thing that seemed to phase Thistle were rules, and the question of if I’d cuddle her—and the rules she wanted more of.
The last room on the right was hers, but when I pointed it out, she looked downright petrified, hugging her bunny close and refusing to step in.
“You don’t want to see it?” I asked.
She rattled the door handle, and for a moment I thought she was checking for locks, then glanced back at me.
“Where do you hang out?” she asked.
“Usually, my room or my office.”
“Can I see in your office?”
I cocked an eyebrow, getting the feeling she was stalling, and curious as to why she was nervous about claiming her bedroom.
That, I thought, would be an Omega’s first instinct.
“If you want.”
She relaxed as I led her back to the room we’d only briefly passed, and she seemed much more content as we stepped in, examining the shelves of books as I took a seat in my desk chair, pleased at her interest.
I tugged the gun I’d taken to the auction from my belt and tucked it into the top draw of my desk. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her fiddle with the Snake Plant on the windowsill, startling as a leaf tip snapped off. She stuffed it quickly into the pot, shooting a guilty glance my way.
I leaned back in my chair, tugging my phone out of my pocket as if I hadn’t noticed, and stifling the smile on my face. It had been a gift I didn’t want, and it was dying anyway.
“So, uh…” Finally, she crossed back to me, clearly done poking around. “What am I gonna do?”
“Do?” I asked, setting my phone on my desk and meeting her eyes again. It was getting harder and harder the further she stepped into my territory.
But I’d decided I enjoyed her confusion, and the more I engaged with her calmly while she was dressed in sheer-lace, collar and chain, the more confused she seemed to get.
It was no easy feat, either. She was a siren, with glossy midnight hair, and thick lashes, bottom lip constantly catching in her teeth.
Perhaps that’s why she’d refused to see the bedroom. Maybe she thought that would be when the spell broke.
“I just mean…” She tapped her finger anxiously against her plushie. “You paid a lot of money. I should be… doing something, right?”
I cocked my head, getting to my feet and tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re my Omega.”
Her fingers bit into the bunny as her eyes darted around. “Right… Of course…”
She jumped as my hands found her waist and I lifted her easily so she was sitting on the desk. “You belong to me.”
She wriggled slightly, chewing on her lip. “Are there… any others?”
“Others?”
“A pack?”
There it was. She was prodding for Rogue, trying to understand my deception.
“No pack.”
She frowned, but then nodded with a dry swallow, like she still wasn’t sure. “Have you ever belonged to a packless Alpha before, Little Doll?” I asked.
Ace had been in a pack with two others, but they’d died days before the criminal prince himself had. They’d paid the price for a vendetta against him, the way I’d heard it.
She shook her head.
Shifting my thumb, I tilted her chin up toward me and stepped so close I could feel her body heat brush my skin.
The way she looked at me right now, it was as if she couldn’t look away. She knew I was lying. She knew I wasn’t her scent match, and still that beautiful scent of frosted moonflower rose in the space, more curious than distressed.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking one Alpha will be easier to manage,” I breathed. “I am as touch starved as you, Little Doll. You are the only Omega I’ve ever craved.”
“Um…” Her eyes darted between mine and I could see her confusion. She hugged that ragged, blue plushie bunny closer, which was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. “The…” Her head cocked just slightly within my grip like she was struggling with that. “The only one?” For a moment, I thought her lip trembled. A trace of a nervous laugh slipped out, and she couldn’t meet my eyes. “I think there’s been a mistake.”
“A mistake?” My hand tightened on her neck and her eyes snapped to mine.
“N-not you. I mean…” she trailed off.
“There was no mistake.” I drew closer, holding her still while my breath tickled her ear. “I intend to use your sweet little body whenever and however I want, and I can’t wait to see you get on your knees and beg that of me.”
When I leaned back, her pupils were blown wide.
“Kiss me,” I told her.
She’d lifted her hands (ragged bunny along for the ride) and placed them on my cheeks, drawing close before even sensing the command. She paused, brows creased, and I saw the flash of insecurity in her eyes. Then she leaned up and pressed her lips softly to my cheek.
The low rumble of a chuckle in my chest was very real. “Are you teasing me, Little Doll?”
I knew that wasn’t it; she was trying to get out of touching me now that she knew I wasn’t her scent match. Her loyalty was hot in its own right, though, and pushing her on this was beautiful to watch.
“I’ll give you time to settle in. I have some business to manage. Meet me in my room in an hour.”
“ Your room?” Her eyes widened as she took that in, and I swear her hand jumped after me as I stepped out of her touch, but then it dropped.
I’d almost reached the door when she asked, “Are you sure there’s no one else?”
“Whatever do you mean?”
She frowned, and I could see the confusion on her face. I was throwing her off. I felt my smile widen. I was throwing her off enough to make her question a scent match.
“There’s another Alpha’s scent in the house.”
“I had a visitor,” I said, as if that could explain the way my true scent was deep in the very walls, but I was already stepping from the room and shutting the door behind me.
It wasn’t until I’d taken a few steps from the office that I noticed something was wrong.
I paused, examining the sense of unfamiliar unease.
What… was it?
I stepped back, cocking my head, and it took a while to realise what had happened. From the doorway, I could still catch the faintest trace of her scent. Calmer than it had been at the end of the car ride, if still on edge.
I ran my tongue along my teeth, working through that.
I was reacting to her, as if, from the moment we’d stepped into that car, she’d been attaching to me, tendrils of desperation awakening all my instincts in a demand for protection.
That was good.
Dependent was a light word for how I wanted to leave her.
Forcing myself to walk away, and shoving down the sense of unease, I made my way down to the basement.
By the time I’d reached the basement hallway with Rogue’s room, I’d already opened an app on my phone and had the surveillance feed of my office open. The scratching at the back of my mind calmed, but I shoved it away. This was about my plan, not these instincts, and I needed to see what she would do.
I found myself enraptured by the feed.
She was still in my office, sitting on the desk and kicking her legs back and forth as she hugged her bunny. Though… I squinted, it appeared, through blurry details, that her lips were moving. I grinned, digging my earphone pod from my pocket and thumbing the top open before pressing one into my ear.
“…Just doesn’t make all that much sense,” she was saying as the feed audio switched on. “Unless he doesn’t know…?” She let out that same nervous laugh I’d heard earlier when I’d made her flustered. “He has to know. Or… well…?” She scrunched her nose. “Hmm. I think that’s it,” she said as she slipped from the marble desk at last and set her bunny down on it. “He’s as mad as a hatter,” she said simply, and I snorted before I could stop myself.
As I watched, she did the thing I’d hoped she would—opened the drawer where I’d placed the gun. A wide smile appeared on her lips as she plucked it out and checked the clip, eyes visibly widening when she found it loaded. “Yup,” she declared. “Might even be as mad as we are, Bunny.” She paused, lifting the weapon and examining it closer. “I kind of like him, though…” She frowned, tapping the barrel on her temple like it would get her thoughts moving. “Oh, get over it.” She pointed the gun at the plushie, tilting her head and closing an eye. “You don’t get to be jealous—and he paid a lot of money for me .”
She pulled the trigger, then jumped violently with a shriek that sounded half fear, half mirth when it actually went off with a bang. Nothing else in the frame moved, though, as she leapt for the desk in a panic, checking over the bunny like it was her firstborn.
She’d missed, and it was much more likely my bookshelves were the casualty.
“Us!” She patted it roughly. “He paid a lot for us . We’re a package even if he doesn’t know it—do you think he’s gonna like you?” She straightened, shifting the gun from hand to hand, then seemed to check the safety—which was good, since I thought I’d left that on. “You’re right. Can’t get attached. Not until we know the deal.” She went on, voice dropping as she enunciated the last syllables while rapping herself on the head with the grip again. “He could be all lies and snakes and disa- fucking -pointment…” The words becoming quiet enough I couldn’t make them out, but I swore I heard something that sounded like ‘fucking Alphas’ .
When she was done, she grabbed her bunny, tucked the gun carefully between it and her chest, and hurried from the room, but not before she doubled back to grab a fistful of my mints from my desk bowl.
I shut my phone off and lowered it as I processed what I’d seen, my instincts oddly dazed.
She was absolutely fucking nuts, and I was so much more fascinated by her than I should be. She was all mine, and tonight was going to be the best night of my life. I would break her mad little mind.
Feeling a thrill of anticipation, I strode down the hall and knocked on the door to Rogue’s room.
I heard a non-committal grunt from within, and pushed the door open to see him glancing over at me from where he sat on the side of the bed, folding laundry he’d pulled from a hamper.
It was a completely ridiculous sight—an Alpha of his massive size, scarred topless torso of rippling muscle on full display while he paired socks with a great iron muzzle on his face.
He was a few years older than me, early thirties now, though I didn’t keep track. He had messy white hair that contrasted with his sandstone skin, and he kept it short enough that it didn’t get in the way of his piercing teal eyes.
“Take the week off,” I told him.
He paused for only a second, then nodded and returned to placing a t-shirt down in a neat pile.
It would be an impressive display of apathy in the face of his mate being claimed, all but for his scent, which gave away how tense he was almost as much as hers did.
“I’ll keep you updated on how she settles in.”
“I don’t care,” he grunted.
I ignored that. “She loved your scent, practically panting over me until she figured it out.”
I finally saw a trace of what I’d come for—the faintest flicker of a reaction as his eyes flashed, his grip on the clothes tightening.
Perfect.
“Come here,” I said, folding my arms and leaning against the door frame.
There was a long pause, and I could see him warring with the desire to argue. He rarely did anymore, so that told me exactly how on edge he was. The further he was from rational, the more his instincts would demand he fight my control.
Finally, he stood and crossed toward me, a tight set to his jaw as he reached the door and glared down.
“I’ll let her meet you if she does well enough keeping me happy.”
“Don’t bother. I’m fine.”
I grinned. “You know, I don’t have high hopes for any Omega scent matched to you —but then, she was Ace’s too—so I think she’s worth a taste.”
Rogue remained as he was, his scent giving away nothing but the tense violence it had when I’d first arrived.
“Ace kept her so touch starved I think I can have her begging for me on night one,” I added. “Even if she does think she’s yours.”
“She’s not mine.”
I cocked an eyebrow, lips twitching up. “No. She’s not. She’ll be attending the party tomorrow so the rest of the world knows exactly who she belongs to.”
It was a busy week. The auction tonight had drawn unexpected attention with Thistle as a last-minute addition, but tomorrow evening I’d committed to hosting a party. I hated letting vermin into my home, but what the job called for, I did—and I had to look like one of them.
Rogue had gone still at those words, and his jaw ticked. Was that fear poorly hidden in his eyes? He wasn’t such a good actor that I believed he didn’t care about Thistle, but the question was, how much?
His self-control may be obscene for an Alpha so close to feral, but the mention of my intent to parade his scent match like a trophy in front of some of the most dangerous people in the country clearly struck a nerve.
It didn’t matter, not from the moment I’d bid on her. To not take her would be to make a statement as much as taking her would—and if danger was a concern, flippancy over my purchase, enough to warrant me showing her off like I would, served to reduce her mystery and value. Hiding her would draw obscene scrutiny, especially with how intertwined I was with these circles.
Finally, I saw Rogue force his muscles to relax. “Do you have the key?” he asked, tapping the muzzle with his knuckle. “I’m sick of brushing my teeth through this thing.”
My lip curled as I stared up at him. “How about a game?”
He rolled his eyes, nostrils flaring.
“How about I tell her she can win your freedom if she chokes on my cock—” I cut off, enjoying the way his whole body flinched toward me and unhinged fury curdled with honied bourbon.
Perfect.
This was what I’d come for. It was a cold injection of sanity every time I saw him suffer the way he deserved.
“If she swallows every last drop like a good little slut, you’ll get your freedom. I’ll even send you a picture as an extra prize.”
He cracked again—only for a second. A low snarl rose in his throat, frame coiled with the need to pounce. With a deep breath, I watched in delight as he dragged himself back from the edge once more.
He was better at it than I’d believed possible—that iron clad fist of self-control, the only thing between him and tumbling right over the edge when I pushed. I lived in this very strange, nonsensical existence of perpetually trying to shove him over that edge, while simultaneously unsure of what I would do if he actually fell.
I banished that rather uncomfortable thought and went back to pushing.
“I doubt she will. Besides, she just stole a gun from my office. I don’t know what her plans are, but I doubt she’ll be winning many prizes this week.” I snorted. “Not that I care. Punishments and rewards are going to be equally enjoyable for me.”
There was a long, long pause as Rogue digested that, eyes darting between mine as if searching for a bluff he wouldn’t find. “I’ll pay any debt she racks up,” he said finally.
Ah.
We were getting somewhere. “I thought you didn’t care.”
He took a steadying breath, his shrug pitifully tense. “It’s her first week.”
“Precisely. If I don’t punish her, how will she learn?”
“Let her watch.”
Let her watch me beat the shit out of her scent match?
Well, damn.
Tempting .
I cocked my head, enjoying each moment of desperation in his eyes before I answered. “No.”
He took a step closer, a threat in any other circumstance from an Alpha his size. “This is about me.”
“It was— a few hours ago. Now I don’t know which I prefer. Forcing her to watch you take a beating or hearing her cry while I ruin all her tight little holes that should be yours to fuck.”
His lips drew back, curdled in the air—pure fury and hatred that brought a smile to my face.
Again, he did what he shouldn’t be able to and took a shaky step away, jaw still clenched, teeth bared. “Watch yourself.”
I cocked my head, eyebrow raising.
Was he threatening me?
His snarl turned to a sneer behind the iron rods of his muzzle. “I didn’t have to go near her to tell how touch starved she was.”
“And?”
“And I’m not the only one gambling with hormones.”
“ What are you saying?” I asked, trying to keep the tightness from my voice.
Through the muzzle, his sneer deepened, becoming an echo of cruelty that ricocheted into an abyss I kept smothered with darker shadows. His words weren’t a threat at all; instead, they were a taunt. “You’re one surprise heat away from losing your grip on that leash you hold so desperately.”
My lip curled as I stepped back, white knuckled fist on the door. “Every debt she racks up, consider it doubled.” Fury burned like bile up my throat, kept down only by the fleeting flash of panic in his eyes. “Enjoy your week, Mutt. I’ll make sure to send you updates—and I’ll double her punishment again for each one you leave unread.”
I slammed the door in his face, and my racing heart only calmed slightly as I heard his growl of fury from within, followed by the sound of an echoing thud and splintering wood.