She doesn’t even flinch as she utters this lie. Violet said there aren’t other viable offers. What I don’t know is why. I’m going to find out though.
I bring my free hand up and rake it through my hair, then shove it deep into my pocket. Damn it, I need to keep control here.
I lick my lips, then say, “Whatever you want. Cars, houses, boats, investments.” Yes, I’m probably about to get royally screwed over by Sage Steele, but I just can’t bring myself to care. The only thing I care about is that Violet comes with me now. I’ll spend the rest of my life working overtime if that’s what I must do to cover whatever crazy price is demanded.
Sage Steele gives me the first real smile I’ve seen all day. “Cash will be just fine, as long as there are a minimum of seven zeros in your offer. Now tell me, Alpha Miles, did you bring your checkbook?”
I nod, and just like that I’ve bought the perfect omega bride to complete our pack.
And whatever secrets Violet’s keeping will soon be mine to share, mine to protect.
Because this isn’t just a transaction to me. It’s the beginning of something big, something forever. It could be love at first sight, or maybe it’s just my raging pheromones getting the best of me, but I can’t undo what I’ve done now. I just hope the others will understand.
Once they meet her.
Once they see what I’ve seen.
It may take some time for them to forgive me, but eventually they’ll understand why this couldn’t wait. And then everything will be right, just as it’s meant to be.
I came to this meeting agitated, not knowing what to expect, and I’m leaving a mated man.
Violet is a Steele no more.
She now belongs to Pack Muldoon.
To me.
three
VIOLET
Idon’t want to like Alpha Miles, but I do.
Not enough to jump straight into bed with him and his packmates, but certainly enough to choose an uncertain future with him over another guaranteed awful day with my mother. Or worse, an eternity with Pack Fernando.
I don’t deserve someone so nice, especially since he’s been tricked into thinking I’m something I’m not.
My secret?
I’m not a good omega.
I’m not perfect and untouched as omegas are supposed to be when entering the mate market.
I’ve had a man inside me… and a baby too.
I was once the sweet, shy flower Alpha Miles believes me to be, but that was a long time ago.
Biology dealt me a really shitty hand.
An omega’s first heat isn’t supposed to come until after she turns twenty-one. That’s what all the textbooks say. Yet somehow, I got struck down just months after my eighteenth birthday.
And make no mistake, struck down I was. The pain of that unsated mating call brought me right to my knees.
I lost consciousness and woke up in the arms of a friendly male omega with striking emerald eyes.
I tried to fight it, but you’ve got to understand, the pain was like nothing I’d ever felt before. Mom once said that first heat can be worse than childbirth even.
Some omegas choose to end their own lives rather than suffer through a heat without a partner—and everyone says that the first is the worst by a wide margin.