He glares at me over the gag, and honestly, I don’t blame him. I grab his overnight bag from where it fell in the hallway and pull the door shut, leaving him in the dark.
My hands are shaking as I smooth down my borrowed shirt and take a deep breath. The omega’s room key card is in my pocket now, a small piece of plastic that’s my ticket into Suha’s suite. This is insane. This is absolutely fucking insane. I just assaulted and tied up an innocent person. I’m about to walk intothe suite of one of the most dangerous crime lords in Seoul and pretend to be an omega prostitute.
But I’m motivated by a track record of unhinged behavior and perpetual horniness.
I pick up the overnight bag and walk toward Suha’s suite. The camera in the corner tracks my movement, but I don’t look at it, keeping my head slightly ducked like I’m just another hired companion arriving for a discreet appointment.
The door looms in front of me, heavy and expensive-looking. There’s a doorbell mounted on the wall beside it, a small brass button that gleams under the hallway lights.
I ring it.
The sound echoes faintly and then there’s silence. My heart is hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.
Footsteps approach from inside the suite.
The door swings open, and my breath catches in my throat.
Suha stands there in an unbuttoned dress shirt and black slacks, and fuck, he’s even more devastating up close than he was in that alley. The shirt hangs open to reveal a sculpted chest and abs that look carved from stone, and I can see the edge of a back tattoo curling over his shoulder. His dark eyes sweep over me with immediate interest, but there’s also a flicker of confusion that makes my stomach clench.
I try to smile coyly, channeling every omega I’ve ever seen work a room, and slip quickly past him into the suite before he can say anything. The space is enormous, with floor-to-ceiling windows and expensive furniture. I set the overnight bag down by the door and turn to face him, trying to look demure and available instead of like my heart is about to explode out of my chest.
Suha closes the door behind him, his frown deepening as he looks me over more carefully. “You’re bigger than the omegas I usually request.”
Shit. Of course he’d notice. I’m taller than most omegas, broader in the shoulders, and even in Wooil’s borrowed clothes I can’t hide the lean muscle I’ve built from years of fighting. I shrug, going for casual. “Maybe the agency thought you might like a change of pace.”
His eyes narrow with suspicion as they track over me, taking in details I can’t hide. The combat boots I forgot to change out of. The tattoos crawling up my neck from beneath the collar of my shirt. The way I’m standing with my weight balanced and ready, too much confidence for a submissive omega who’s supposed to be here to service an alpha in rut.
“You’re not an omega at all,” Suha says flatly. It’s not a question. “Are you.”
Well. Fuck it.
I let my pheromones flood out in a wave, dropping any pretense of hiding what I am. The scent of dominant alpha crashes into the space between us, heavy and unmistakable. I watch Suha’s eyes go wide for just a second before his expression transforms into something dangerous, something that makes every survival instinct I have scream at me to run.
His own pheromones flare in response, so powerful they slam into me like a wall. My knees want to buckle. My body wants to drop and submit to the stronger alpha in front of me. But instead I grin, letting the thrill of it all rush through my veins like the best kind of drug.
“I heard you needed someone to help with your rut,” I say, my voice coming out rough. “Thought I’d volunteer. Figured surely a big scary crime boss can handle a little competition.”
The effect is instantaneous.
Suha moves faster than I can track. His hand shoots out and wraps around my throat, slamming me backward into the wall hard enough to rattle my teeth. The impact knocks the air frommy lungs but I’m laughing, breathless and giddy, even as his fingers tighten around my windpipe.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he snarls, and I can hear it in his voice now. The edge of rut creeping in, his control fraying at the seams. He’s already started, probably has been for hours, and the scent of another dominant alpha’s pheromones in his territory is sending him into a fury.
Perfect.
“Go on, dominate me then,” I manage to get out, my voice strangled but still defiant. I meet his eyes, refusing to look away even though every instinct screams at me that I’m staring down an apex predator who could kill me without breaking a sweat.
His grip tightens and black spots dance at the edges of my vision. His face is inches from mine, so close I can see the gold flecks in his dark eyes, can feel the heat radiating off his skin. He’s burning up with the beginning of rut, and I can smell it on him now, that heady scent that makes my mouth water and my body ache.
I release another wave of pheromones, stronger this time, a direct challenge to his dominance. Come on, I’m saying without words. Show me what you’ve got. Prove you’re strong enough to take what I’m offering.
Suha’s control snaps.
He moves like violence given form.
One second I’m pressed against the wall with his hand around my throat, the next I’m airborne. Suha hurls me across the suite and I crash into a side table, sending a lamp and some expensive-looking vase shattering to the floor. The impact drives the breath from my lungs but I’m already rolling, already pushing myself up as he stalks toward me.
His pheromones hit me in waves, each one stronger than the last. They’re suffocating, overwhelming, the kind of alpha presence that should have me cowering and baring my throat.My body wants to submit. Every instinct screams at me to drop my eyes, to make myself smaller, to show this apex predator that I’m not a threat.
