Chapter 7 #2
“I’m out,” Dominic said with a bitter smile. “Someone keeps burning through my whole supply.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was already doing calculations in my head. Could I make it work without? We already had—
The sharp scent of eucalyptus drew my full attention.
I glanced over to see their omega, Matt, skulk into the room.
He was in his mid thirties, scarred from head to toe, one of which cut a line into his buzzed, dark hair, and he had an unnerving, crooking smile.
He was, however, most notable for the fact he was missing three fingers.
Rumours told of his own alphas biting them off during a heat in which he’d gone rabid, but I’d only heard hearsay, so who really knew.
It was hard not to be on alert in the room, since he was as feral and unpredictable as any alpha in here—but with far more immunity.
He shot me a lazy smile that was more threatening than pleasant, eyes flicking to the scars he’d left me, then climbed up onto his nest, which was stuffed with more contraband than any other individual in anarchy.
I was very lucky that a pack with this much power was content with Matt, or they’d already be sweeping our blood down the drain in the corner for claiming Crescent.
“You have the rest?”
“You know,” Dominic mused. “I do.”
I paused at that. He had… underwear for a female omega?
I’d been expecting to have to wait on another delivery. He laughed, then took another drag of his cigarette. “I wouldn’t usually share this, but the Bradford pack had certain… interests they didn’t want aired publicly. They died before I got my payment.”
Ah.
Right.
Dominic lifted a bundle at his side.
I took it, pulling back the fabric to confirm he was exactly right. Inside were a few sets of sweats that I assumed were small, and a bundle of lingerie. All of it aside from the sweats were beyond scandalous, but it would do.
I covered it up, looking back at Dominic. “Price?”
There was a shit-eating grin on his face as he flashed a crooked tooth. I knew the words before they were out of his mouth. “I’d like to see them put to use.”
“No.” The answer was out of my mouth before I could even think it through.
He wanted to see Crescent in this?
I’d die first.
“Come now,” Dominic mused. “We’re all dying to see what happened to what should have been Holden’s… What a show that would be.”
I’d been in enough of Dominic’s shows to know that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. Not the delicate, clingy omega that I’d carried back to our cell. And Karma and Phantom already hated it enough when I was in those damn cages.
They wouldn’t let her go in.
No way.
“There’s gotta be something else you want.” It was a challenge not to growl the words.
He chuckled. “You’ve already given me everything I want. Unless you have some trump card you’ve been hiding?”
My jaw tightened. I wasn’t yet out of options when it came to trade, but the time between now and our appeal felt eternal and I wasn’t willing to give it up yet. To do so might mean death, and there might still be other ways out of this.
“Thought so,” Dominic said into my heavy silence. “This’ll be the event of the century.”
It was hard, keeping his words from setting me off. Instead, I swallowed back my fury. “Who can come?”
“Anyone that pays the entry fee.”
“No.” That could mean Holden. “Besides, I’m not speaking for her if she’s not bitten in.”
“Then get her a pretty bite. Won’t that make the show so much better?”
I remained silent, mind working a million miles a minute.
Dominic continued, unprompted. “I’m going to see that omega in a cage, one way or another. The question isn’t if, it’s who will be ruining her when she’s there. Count yourself lucky, Sin, that I find you a desirable option.”
Still, I remained, trying to decipher the level of commitment he had to this threat.
“Take them,” Dominic said, nodding at the bundle.
Walking in here was a fucking mistake. He’d decided what he wanted before we even came, and I should have known what it would be.
All I could do was try and buy us some time.
“The deal isn’t complete until she’s bitten,” I said.
Dominic raised his eyebrows, then shrugged, taking the last drag of his cigarette before dropping it to the stone.
“Fine.”
I nodded. I would talk to her first. If she didn’t want this—if we had to fight the Redgrave pack… Well. That would be an all out war…
Fuck me.
I’d figure it out.
“If she agrees. That means protection,” I added. I wouldn’t take any deal without that.
“You’re spoiled.”
“You could set all of Anarchy on us—take her anyway. You know I don’t go anywhere without causing problems. If you want what you’re asking for, it means protection, plain and simple. Bite or no bite.”
There was a long pause as Dominic crushed the cigarette beneath his foot, humour dancing in his eyes. “Alright. I’ll keep an eye out. But the more of my protection you use up, the more it’s gonna cost you.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Vague as it was, it was more than I could have reasonably hoped for.
At the end of the day, this protection might be the only thing that kept our pack alive.
Art.
Entertainment.
That was the true currency second to only one—if you distinguished between entertainment and omegas.
But some in here—well, they didn’t distinguish at all.