Ocean was torn away from her a second later, followed by the sound of flesh hitting the hard ground. He snarled up at whoever had grabbed him, but we couldn’t get a visual.
“Fuck,” Kaos said, eyes wide and panic pulsing from him in erratic spikes.
“How sweet, Laurel, you have anadmirer.” The voice came through loud and clear.
I could start to feel a cold, sharp pulse of fear from Ocean, but I was frozen in my chair. There was nothing we could do.
Someone spat.
Kaos jumped to his feet, a low growl coming from him.
“Do we have a problem here?” came the voice of Thaddeus Fairchild.
This situation just got a thousand times worse.
“Thisguestjust assaulted my pack,” another voice said coldly.
“Fuck,” Ocean groaned. “I’m sorry, man. I musta lost my mind a bit. Instincts with a duchess and all.”
There was another thump and a groan.
“You don’t look at her. You don’t think about her,” snarled the first voice.
“Security. Take this trash outside,” Thaddeus said calmly, and Ocean was hauled to his feet.
I let out a breath, barely able to believe it.
They were letting him go.
Ocean was coming back to us.
The omega stepped forward, and I saw her place her hand on her father’s arm. She fixed a cold gaze on Ocean before she spoke. Her voice was smooth and beautiful. “Actually,” she said, blinking down at Ocean. “Could we keep him? I’d like to see him fight.”
The words seemed to echo in my ears, my brain trying to make sense of them.
“No,” snarled Kaos.
Thaddeus laughed. “Change of plans. Seems my daughter is fond of him. Take him to the cages.”
“Laurel?” Ocean said, his voice wavering.
She turned away from him and didn’t look back.
TWENTY
FINCH
I still hadn’t moved from my spot, my mind spinning. Kaos had managed to smash one of our chairs, and now he was methodically pacing between his room and the kitchen.
I pulled out a notebook, trying to calm myself.
The plan. Don’t think about Ocean, think about the plan.
The plan would have to be redone, and I would be the infiltrator, which meant creating a persona and backstory. I swear I’d had some notes here of a potential persona that I’d thought of before. The squiggles of my neat Hangul swam in front of my face as I tried to read them.
This would ruin the mission.
The pencil snapped in my hand. I went to pick up a new one but stopped when I saw my hands were shaking. “Dammit!” I hissed, standing up and raking my fingers through my hair.
