“Neither of us wanted that mate bond,” I went on. “We didn’t ask to be drugged into an artificial lust. There’s only one way to break that kind of connection, though. So, I’ll be getting my mating gland surgically removed as soon as it can be arranged. And then it’ll be like it never happened. You should talk to Heath afterward. Tell him what you told me.”
His face crinkled up with worry. I hadn’t noticed how many worry lines he had. Too many, for someone as young as we were.
“Itwon’tbe like nothing happened,” he said. “Your mating gland will be gone! Is that really what you want, Jez?”
My visceral, twisting revulsion at the idea of letting anyone take such an important part of me tried to surge up. I grabbed it in both hands, strangling it and shoving it back down where it belonged.
“Of course it’s what I want,” I said. “You think I’m going to stay mated to a rude-ass alpha that hates my guts because I tried to kill his pack leader? No thanks. You can have him.”
Tony’s face continued to cycle through too many emotions for me to keep track of. Not for the first time, I wondered how he’d managed to survive everything that had been thrown at him, without learning to project a poker face somewhere along the way.
I pushed my upper body off the desk, straightening in the too-large chair.
“Tell you what Iamgoing to do, though. Mister Moneybags wants me to playact at being his pack’s omega while he forges me a new identity, so I can get the surgery.” I rotated the chair left and right on its swivel, pasting on a devilish expression. “He literally just told me that he’ll pay for whatever I want while I’m here.”
Tony managed a weak smile. “That sounds like Knox, all right.”
I nodded. “Well, I figure he can afford it, you know? So, how about you and me go out to the fanciest stores in Chicago, and find out what it feels like to be rich snobs buying a bunch of posh shit that we don’t really need?”
“I already bought you a bunch of clothes!” Tony protested, but I was pretty sure there was a hint of laughter hidden behind the words. “And he didn’t say anything about paying formeto buy myself stuff.”
I waved the words away, already falling into the role of ‘spoiled omega.’ “Pfft. Like he’s even going to notice. We’re adecimal pointto him, Tony. Like, a... whaddya call it? Arounding error.”
“I’m not doing that without asking first,” he insisted.
“Fine, we’ll ask Gage,” I said airily. “He’ll think it’s agreatidea. You’ll see.”
The time I’d spent playacting at a normal life with Gage had been the best few hours of my pathetic life. I wasn’t above playing that role a little longer, while Knox pulled whatever strings he needed to pull to get me out of his pack’s life for good. And if it also meant I could playact at not having ruined my friendship with Tony—even better.
“I... guess?” Tony said uncertainly. “I mean, I’ve kind of always wanted to do a proper ‘gay best friend’ shopping spree with someone else’s credit card.”
“That’s the spirit!” I told him, trying to ignore the little flutter in my chest at his slip of the tongue. He hadn’t reallymeantto say ‘best friend,’ had he? “Let’s go find Gage and see what he has to say.”
I could be the Knockley pack’s mysterious new mate, throwing money around the city on my alphas’ dime. If nothing else, having some fancy jewelry to pawn when they eventually tossed me back on the street was good planning. And in the meantime, Tony and I would see how the one percent lived. What could possibly go wrong?
THIRTY-THREE
Jez
TO NO ONE’S SURPRISE, I’d been right. Gage thought the shopping spree was afantasticplan. His broad face had been pinched with stress and worry pretty much nonstop since he and Heath first found me in the hotel room, standing over Knox’s unconscious body. Now, it brightened like the sun coming out.
“Oh, yeah—we aresodoing this,” he said. “Shopping and dinner. Let me go tell the others where we’ll be.”
Tony, who was apparently still hell-bent on refusing to take money from the rich alpha pack he worked for, cleared his throat. “Gage... I can’t ask Knox to pay for me to buy stuff I don’t need. I could just tag along for moral support, or—”
