“You’ll get what you want once your Alpha’s father bends the knee,” she growled.
“What?” I asked, confused. “I thought you took over Ashford’s debt,” I said.
She sneered.
“Do you think I waste my time buying gambling debts? I purchased leverage,” she told me.
“If it wasn’t about Ashford, why did you take me?” I asked.
“Humiliation is a strong motivator. I needed to ensure he went to his father and not another backer,” she explained.
“It’s difficult to hide the loss of an omega,” I said.
I was just a pawn in some Pack politics game she was playing.
And that’s all I would ever be to her.
“Yes,” she said in agreement and pressed forward.
I had nowhere to go.
She bent towards me, and for a moment I thought she was going to kiss me, but she pressed her nose firmly into the crook of my neck and produced a growl that rumbled through to my chest.
I stretched out, offering her more space, instinctively.
“You’ve got to stop doing this,” she said, her lips against my skin. “Offering your neck to me,” she continued.
With her words, I became aware of myself and reached out, my hands pressing against her firm abdomen.
She pressed herself closer to me.
I pushed her back.
“Get away from me,” I said, my voice weaker than I wanted it to be.
She stilled and, after a lingering moment, lifted her head from my neck, freeing me.
There was a notification ding, and she growled frustratedly, pulling her phone from her pocket.
“You might get your wish sooner than you thought,” she told me, putting her phone back in her pocket.
“What?” I said, panic tightening my chest.
“Blizzard wants a meeting this evening before the official start of the assembly tomorrow,” she told me.
I took a deep breath, forcing my lungs to expand.
“Okay,” I said, straightening my shoulder.
Nothing had changed, not really.
Chapter twenty-three
It’s Been a While
The meeting room was within a community centre. We entered discreetly via a back fire exit, through a sports hall that was half set up, with various folding tables, boxes, and banners in rolls lying around.
Cole guided us, only the two of us—no Sara, or James, or anyone else—to the meeting rooms.
