“That’s a big con, if it’s the case.” Nik sighs and scrubs his face with his hands.
“But you vetted them, Mags.” Kaden’s worry radiates off him in waves. “You always vet our marks. How could they get past that?”
Mags shuts the laptop. “I … might have been distracted. I hadn’t run full backgrounds on the backup list. I sort of rushed the check I did right before we signed up.”
Even without the pack bond, I can see her shame. Slumped shoulders, red face, and she’s not making eye contact with any of us. Nik puts a supportive hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it off. “We’re boned. I’m sorry, guys.”
“Mags, two things: One, it’s not your fault. I pushed you into changing the con. And two: I’m not convinced they’re grifting us. I mean, what’s their objective?”
“What do you mean?” she asks.
I pause to consider it. The Langley family has unsuccessfully been trying to breed their omega daughters, who don’t act like typical rich omegas. In fact, they act almost like …
“Wait.”
Everyone looks at me.
“Are we sure the daughters are omegas? I mean, Nik, you’ve got the best nose of all of us. Do they smell like omega?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve been standing guard outside doors mostly. I’ve barely interacted with the daughters. I don’t think any of the guards have. Do you think they’re betas?”
I nod. “Yeah, I do. It would explain the difficulty breeding, and it would explain why they don’t seem to know how to throw their omega weight around. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say they haven’t been at this very long. The omega part, that is. I’m betting that Mr. and Mrs. Langley started billing them as rich omegas to reach a better breeding pool. Betas can get pregnant, after all, but it takes a lot of effort.”
Kaden picks up where I left off. “And stronger alphas have a better chance of getting a beta pregnant. Okay, sowhytry to get their kids knocked up? What’s in it for the Langleys?”
All eyes turn towards Mags.
“What? Why are you looking at me?”
Nik smirks. “You’re the master. No one knows how to run a con better than you, so I’m sure you can at least speculate why they’d go to these lengths.”
Mags sits for a few moments, tapping her fingernails on the laptop in a staccato rhythm. I can feel her mind running through different scenarios, things she might do if she were trying to con several people at once.
Her fingers stop tapping, and her eyes widen when the memories of the guards from our late-night walk through the gardens pass through her mind—and through the bond.
“What is it?” I ask.
She gets up and digs through her suitcase, tossing clothes and papers on the floor, then sitting down right on the tile to sort through all the paperwork. “Everyone, check your contract.”
Kaden frowns. “Why? You drafted those contracts yourself. Just look on your computer.”
Mags shakes her head. “No. Get yourprintedcopies, the ones you signed.”
We all go to our various hiding places and pull out our contracts, handing them to Mags for review.
“What’s wrong?” Nervous energy pours from Nik. And Mags. And us, too.
She scans each contract, one by one, until she gets to her own. Dread fills the bond to the point where I start to shake from fear.
“I messed up,” she whispers, “I messed up big time.”
Nik squats next to where Mags sits on the floor. “Just tell us what’s going on, Mags. We won’t get mad.”
“You might.”
She hands her contract to Nik and points to a paragraph. “When Kip and I went for a walk a few nights ago, the guards told us we couldn’t leave the grounds until the daughters’ heats were done. I didn’t think anything about it at the time—afterall, we’re heat helpers—but just now, I remembered that I didn’t add any such clause when I drafted these.” She picks up the other three contracts. “These all have clauses forbidding us from leaving until the omegas get pregnant. And if they don’t …” She swallows hard, and tears stream down her face.
“What if they don’t?”
