Ashley

“Down, beta. I don’t want anything to mark that pretty face,” the man with the clipboard cautioned him. “Now she has a reputation for being feisty. The crowd is gonna like that. You got her, Sylvester?”

A man grunted behind me, and my dress was once again hiked to my armpits. “No bite marks. No stretch marks. You say she’s a virgin?”

“Pure as the day she was born.”

“We’ll start her at three thousand. You get sixty percent of what she goes for. Sylvester, turn her around.”

Sylvester turned me as the man with the clipboard retrieved a hot poker from the fire pit.

I tried to fight, but it was useless. The man swept my hair up, and torturous pain seared in the back of my neck as I was branded. A hand wrapped around my mouth as I screamed, and when I was put back on my feet, all my fight was gone.

I swayed, not even sure I could walk. The man tossed the brand back in the fire, and I whimpered.

“Number six,” he bellowed, and Sylvester pulled me toward the other women. In shock, I stared as he looped a thick, coarse rope around my wrist and tied me to a post.

The sun had risen slightly, but I had no idea how much time had passed. What started as a small group in front of the stage grew larger and larger until the first girl walked up. Then the second and the third. Each of them was bid on before they were handed to their winners.

When I reached the stage, I thrust my chin forward and glared at the crowd. Maybe if I seemed unlikable and difficult, nobody would want me.

“Alphas, do we have a special treat for you! Number six may be unschooled, but she is also unspoiled,” the speaker began.

“Save it,” a voice boomed. “Ten thousand.”

The audience fell silent, and I closed my eyes in horror.

“Ten thousand, going once. Going twice. Sold.”

Kieran

Six Months Later

“Gurrzly!” Betty screamed. “Want Gurrzly!”

Behind me, Lucien muttered something under his breath. We all loved Betty, but the toddler phase was challenging, to say the least.

When we reached the clearing, Conrad had immediately trotted off to find wood for a fire, leaving Lucien and me with Betty.

“I know, Betty, but we couldn’t find Gurrzly,” I said again, striving to find some patience. “But we got you a friend for Gurrzly when we do find him.”

The stupid brown teddy bear was never far from her, but it had disappeared right before we took this trip. Three alphas, experts in tracking, hadn’t been able to find it, and now we had a two-year-old who would spend most of our annual camping trip screaming about her teddy bear even though we’d gotten her a new pink one.

“Bears not pink!” she shouted, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me.

Fuck me. Lucien let out a strangled groan, and I clenched my teeth. This was our first attempt to take Betty on a trip away from the hotel, and frankly, I was rethinking that decision.

These first few hours were not going well.

“I know bears in the wild aren’t pink, but your bear can be pink.” I looked her over and frowned. “Betty, where is your backpack?”

“Gurrzly has it.”

I’d seen her backpack. It was yellow with pink flowers all over it. She’d cried for days when she first saw it on the computer and screamed with delight when I finally bought it for her. She wore it every day, and I’d packed some of her essentials into it last night: a juice bottle, her toy phone, a notebook, and, most importantly, a GPS tracker.

“Betty, it can’t be with Gurrzly. I saw it this morning.”

She blinked innocent eyes at me. “Gurrzly took it.”

So she’d given her backpack to her stuffed bear and managed to hide both so well that we couldn’t find them. This meant that she’d known where her stuffed animal was all along, and it also meant that she no longer had a GPS tracker.

I turned to Lucien. “This was a mistake. We’re going back now.”

“No, we aren’t. The therapist said Betty needs to start spending time in the woods,” Lucien reminded me.

Fucking therapist, only she wasn’t just a fucking therapist—she was a godsend. Betty was an orphan and the only beta in our pack, and we had no idea what we were doing trying to raise her.

“We have plenty of woods around the hotel."

“Which I pointed out before you planned this excursion,” he muttered. “You were the one who said we had to leave the territory. You did extensive research into this park. It’s neutral territory. We’re safe. We’re alone. And it’s okay that she doesn’t have her backpack. We’ll keep an eye on her. We’re not going to lose her.”

“We can’t even find a teddy bear that a two-year-old hid,” I snarled.

“It’s in your closet,” Betty informed me.

I glared at Lucien, and his lips quirked in a smile. Damn it, was he enjoying this? “I’m going to kill you.”

“Betty.” Lucien bent down and swooped her up. “It sounds like Gurrzly went camping with your backpack, and this pink bear is all alone. She doesn’t even have a name.”

After a moment, Betty reached out for the bear, and I handed it to her. I held my breath as she studied it.

“Candy,” she announced. “This is Candy. She camp with us.”

Great. One crisis averted. I looked at Lucien. “You did pack her suitcase, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. Would you relax? We’ll have to put up some tents unless you just want to be wolves the whole time. Betty might like that."

We were trying to encourage a way to bring her wolf out, but it might be years before we saw it. The therapist right—most shifter children spent as much time outdoors as possible, even as infants. It helped them understand that the outside world was their home, so when their wolf did come out, they were comfortable running freely.

Pups in the house were disastrous, but some pups were too afraid to go outside.

“Let’s stick to the plan. Betty, can you and Candy help us set up our tents?”

A scream pierced the air, and my wolf surged to the surface. Lucien swept Betty up in his arms, and we turned.

“I’m on it,” Conrad said through the bond. A few minutes later, his fury came through. “Dead woman. Killer shifter. He’s on the run. I’m on it.”

“Catch him. We’ll get the woman.” Already, I was running through protocol in my head.

We weren’t on anyone’s territory, which meant there was no alpha in charge to deal with the killer, and we’d need to inform the woman’s alpha of her death. It was hard to identify the alpha of a dead woman, so our best bet was to catch the killer and get the king involved.

Kieran

The king’s involvement was a source of irritation for me. I did my best to avoid him, which had been easy for the past couple of years—he’d been giving me a wide berth.

Following Conrad’s scent, we moved carefully, keeping an eye out for any wolves who might be lingering, until we found a woman’s prone body bleeding in the leaves. I kneeled by the body and pressed my fingers to her neck.

“She’s alive,” I muttered. Blood poured out of her stomach. She’d been stabbed.

I inhaled sharply when a different scent hit me. Panic and surprise flooded our bond, and I hissed. “She’s an omega.”

Fuck. What the hell was an omega—an injured one—doing all the way out here? My instincts to race forward and protect her warred with my disgust. I wouldn’t let my alphas get involved with another omega.

I wouldn’t get involved with an omega.

Lucien dropped down to his knees next to me. Betty was still in his arms. “No,” I growled. “Get back.”

“She’s...” Lucien whispered. His alpha genes were starting to take over. She was an omega—he was programmed to help and protect her.

An omega, like Lana. My whole body tensed and heated. Just thinking of that name catapulted me back into the past. The fury on her face. The bodies at her feet. The gunshot.

I shook myself back to the present.

“You’re holding Betty,” I said to Lucien. That seemed to break through, and he took several steps back.

“We can’t let her die,” he said tightly.

No. No matter how I felt about omegas, I couldn’t just kneel by her body and let her bleed out.

“We need to make a tourniquet,” I muttered.

“She’s been stabbed in the stomach,” Lucien said through gritted teeth. “You can’t make a tourniquet for that.”

“Then we’ll pack the wound and see if we can get her to the car.”

“Do you think she can shift? She could heal.”

Against my better judgment, I probed for her wolf. It was there, deep down. I was about to call it forward when I inhaled deeply. My wolf jerked away, and the tug on my body was so strong that I nearly lay down beside the woman and pressed my body against hers.

No. No fucking way. With shaking hands, I reached forward and brushed the woman’s greasy, stringy blonde hair out of her face. She moaned faintly, and her eyes fluttered open.

Help me.

With a snarl, I jerked back and nearly fell into the leaves. Lucien hissed and prepped for danger.

“Alpha?” he asked in a low voice.

“What is it?” Conrad demanded.

I stared at the body. It didn’t even seem possible that she could be here, five hundred miles from where I’d last seen her.

Help me.

She’d haunted my dreams. Ever since I’d first laid eyes on her and felt the pull of our mating bond, I’d been haunted by her and the words she’d whispered to me.

She’d begged for help, and I’d turned my back on her. I’d fucking left her there because what the fuck else was I supposed to do? She was an omega.

It was a cruel fate—maybe everything I fucking deserved and more. Omegas were rarely mated, yet one would be fated for me after everything I’d done—and hadn’t done.

I’d failed to keep my pack safe. I hadn’t protected my wolves. They were dead, and this was how I was being punished—with a mate I’d never be able to trust.

So I’d turned from her and left her to whatever darkness had led her to the underground auctions. Drugs, most likely.

Omegas were pampered by nature, spoiled brats taken straight from the omega schools and crowned princess of whatever pack had shelled out the thousands of dollars to buy them. That kind of life had consequences. She wasn’t the first omega I’d heard of who’d turned to drugs.

Her blood had been with her. I sensed the beta standing next to her and the connection they shared. He’d been there to help her, and she’d tried to run. It was nothing I’d been willing to get involved with. I’d been there for one reason, and one reason only, and it had nothing to do with a mate.

Fate had a twisted sense of humor—here she was, right in front of me.

Dying.

Lucien

With a moan, she closed her eyes, and her head fell to the side. Guilt was a part of Kieran’s personality now. It lurked in our bonds and had become a fixture, but it seared through me stronger than ever as I stared down at the omega.

“What the fuck is happening?” Conrad shouted at me. Even through the bond, he sounded out of breath.

My reply—that I had no idea what was happening—was terse as I stared at the omega. Kieran wasn’t moving fast enough. Every fiber of my being needed to help, so I put Betty down gently.

“Sit here, Betty.” When I was sure that she wouldn’t toddle off, I stripped my shirt to pieces and began trying to pack them into the omega’s wounds.

Blood stained my fingers as it continued to leak from her, and I started to shake. Three stabs. Had they hit any vital organs? Was I only buying her a few seconds before she died in my arms?

She wouldn’t be the first.

I’d caught Lana before she even hit the ground. The gun fell to the grass—so goddamn harmless once it wasn’t in someone’s hands—but the damage had been done. Dead wolves littered the ground around us, and Lana...

She was our omega. She was supposed to heal us. How the fuck had she become so twisted? How the hell had we not seen it?

“Lucien, you’re growling through the bond,” Conrad said. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”

I ignored him. I wasn’t all right. None of us were, even though we’d done our damndest to pretend. Kieran locked himself in his room and stared at his security monitors as if he could somehow use them to look back at the past and see where it all went wrong.

Conrad barely spent any time in the hotel. He patrolled and patrolled and went off on his fact-finding missions. I could scarcely fucking relax whenever I wasn’t near Betty. Hell, I could barely relax when she was near—our only beta. And now there was an innocent dying, and I wasn’t sure I could save her.

Silently, I worked on the next stab wound as her scent wrapped around me. My wolf howled inside of me. Save the omega. Find the threat. Eliminate it. Protect the omega. She was a slip of a thing. All skin and bones, the white dress she wore turning more and more red by the minute. How much more blood could she lose?

I hated the voice lurking in the background. Was she innocent? Was there a reason someone had tried to kill her?

Had she betrayed someone, too?

What if I couldn’t save her? How many more dead omegas would it take before my wolf went insane?

“Last wound,” I said tersely to Kieran as I tried to stave off the desperation and focus. “Get the car. If you want Conrad back, you better call him now.”

My alpha was torn. I knew he wanted Conrad to catch who had done this. We all did, but he also didn’t want to leave us alone. In his eyes, we were just as vulnerable as his dead pack members had been.

“Returning,” Conrad broadcasted, and I heard the growl of frustration. He hadn’t caught the would-be killer.

The omega stirred again, and her eyes fluttered open. She held my gaze for just a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Her scent wrapped around me and clung for dear life. Defenseless. Innocent. No one had been here to protect her. My wolf howled in fury.

But I didn’t dare let it out. Instead, I watched Kieran as he jogged back. Wordlessly, he bent down to lift her, and I heard the smallest of whimpers come from him. It wasn’t her weight—I’d seen Kieran bench press four hundred pounds without breaking a sweat.

This was something else entirely, but he was actively stemming the tide through our bonds and not letting us in.

Darkness always lurked inside him, and I had a bad feeling that today, this omega had ripped it wide open.