After that, Alison took a deep breath, glad he’d accepted the rejection so quickly. As she’d proven time and time again, she didn’t have a lot of willpower when it came to turning down the alphas, especially when she needed what they offered so much.
Her cuffs felt extra heavy on her wrists as she waited for whoever was to arrive. The alphas reviewed the details, because as much as they might seem relaxed, it was clear they still knew what needed to happen. Trent checked her cuffs, Kyle the weapons and Daniel the alarms to signal a problem to the backup who had parked a block down, far enough to not scare anyone off.
Her stomach was worse, though she’d hidden it from them. Sipping water all day and nibbling on small amounts of food had held the nausea at bay, though nothing had helped her headache.
Can’t even take ibuprofen anymore.Even a single day into finding out she was pregnant, she’d realized that of all the bullshit being a female came with,thishad to be the worst. It seemed like a personal attack, after everything else, that she had to suffer this badly. Alphas should have to carry the babies to make up for everything she’d already dealt with.
The ringing of the doorbell made her freeze. There could only be one person there.
“Come on, pet.” Trent’s voice got her moving, spurring her back to action.
They had to get through this, then the real work was over. Once they’d fooled the head of the slavery group, they only had to stay there for another week until the auction date, when they’d received the address and the authorities could swoop in.
Anne would be safe. The bad guys would be gone. Alison could disappear and figure out what she planned to do away from the alphas, without them hovering and clouding her judgment.
Trent didn’t hook her cuffs together as he helped her to her knees on the pillow placed again at the center of the seating. She took a deep breath and placed her hands on her thighs, eyes down.
“It’ll be okay,” he told her, as if he knew she needed the reassurance.
Too bad it didn’t help, because of all the things on her list of ‘not at all okay’, the meeting was only the smallest part.
He leaned in and pressed his lips to her shoulder, to the mark there. “I promise, pet. We’re almost done. Nothing will happen.” He ran his fingers through her hair, then pressed a hand to her back to straighten her stance before taking a seat beside her.
She strained to hear everything from the other room. The opening of the door, the exchange of words. Most of it was too soft for her to understand, and yet she tried.
The flooring echoed the steps as people came into the living room.
“Not chained?” The voice made her heart speed.
It sounds familiar…
“No. We only need to chain our merchandise at the start,” Daniel said. “If she needed to still be bound to behave, we wouldn’t be ready to go to auction.”
“Admirable,” the man said, his voice deep and aged. “We’ve had a lot of interest since adding her to the registry for the night. I don’t usually come out myself, but I admit, I couldn’t resist.”
“Thirsty?” Kyle asked.
“Yes, actually. I don’t drink alcohol, so water is fine.”
A snap of fingers drew Alison to her feet without even thinking.Thiswas why they’d done their training. She knew what the sound meant, didn’t need to consider it, didn’t need them to spell it out.
She couldn’t see the new man because she kept her eyes on the floor as she hurried into the kitchen. She took a water bottle from the fridge and wiped the condensation from it before returning. She left it closed, knowing people who didn’t trust one another wouldn’t drink from something open.
No one wanted to risk poison.
She bowed low and held the bottle out to the newcomer.
“Thank you,” he said as he took it, drawing her gaze up for a quick glance.
That face… The dark brown eyes, the black hair, the one she hadn’t seen in so long…
She swallowed hard as her heart pounded and her head swam.
Fuck.
Trent hadn’t expected Alison to freeze. He’d seen that same blank expression on her face a time or twobefore, when something hit her that she couldn’t process.
However, she’d managed the last meeting without it happening, and this seemed far less stressful than when she’d been forced to breathe in the drug last time.
