His smile was all teeth, the words landing like a shove—and he watched her brace for more. With an easy gesture, he pointed down a side alley. “This way.”
Reluctance tugged at her as she followed. The market’s lively hum soon faded behind them, swallowed by an eerie hush. Here, the stallswere sparse, wares hidden under faded cloths, and the vibrant colours of the main thoroughfare dimmed into shadowed corners and narrow paths.
Her hand slipped into her pocket, tightening around her blade, each step amplifying her fear. Here, shops were shabbier, offering only scraps and oddments, and the few people in sight passed without care, faces half-lost in the shadows of their head scarves.
She slowed. “Is this really the way back?”
Jodhar barely looked over his shoulder, a smirk playing at his lips. “Shortcut. You’re in a hurry to get back, right?”
Reiya hesitated, her instincts warning her to turn back, but the thought of navigating the maze alone kept her moving forward. She glanced back, hoping to glimpse the bustling market, but the twisting alleys had swallowed the way.
They reached a lonely narrow passage boxed in by high walls, strewn with broken crates and scraps of cloth.
A dead end.
Reiya’s pulse spiked. She spun to retrace her steps, but Jodhar’s hand closed around her wrist.
“Going somewhere, baby bird?” His voice curled with amusement, but there was an oppressive weight behind it—something darker lurking beneath the surface. His grip tightened just enough to remind her there would be no slipping away.
“I thought you were taking me back,” she said, keeping her tone even, though her pulse hammered at her throat.
Jodhar leaned in, close enough that she felt the heat rolling off his skin, smelled the musk of an Alpha, thick with leather and sweat. It coiled around her, but instead of stirring her instinct, it curdled her stomach.
“I am. Eventually.”
His eyes pinned her in place. There was no mistaking the glint—he was testing, probing, peeling back the layers she tried to wrap around herself.
“Those Betas have no idea what you are, do they?” His thumb brushed the inside of her wrist, the motion slow, mocking, like he was measuring her pulse through his fingertips.
Reiya stiffened. “They know precisely what I am—a servant.”
His laugh was a rough scrape of sound. “You can dress like one and act like one. You can even take suppression remedies to try tobeone, but your scent tells another story.”
Panic thrummed under her skin, but she met his gaze, unflinching. “You presume too much.”
His fingers flexed, pressing into a vein, a warning in the shift of pressure. He leaned in, stale air grazing her ear.
“Your scent speaks for you,Omega.”
The last word slipped from his lips like a snare tightening around her throat.
Reiya’s heart lurched, but her voice remained cold. “You’re mistaken. My name is Yara. Release my hand. Now.”
Jodhar’s smirk deepened, his eyes flicking over her—a wolf watching its prey bolt before the chase. “I don’t make mistakes,” he murmured, thumb dragging one last deliberate circle against her skin. “But I do enjoy watching a pretty Omega like you squirm. Let’s see how long you can keep up the act.”
He exhaled softly, tilting his head as if considering something. “You know, I’ve been meaning to thank you for that belt of yours.” His grip tightened, amusement darkening his gaze. “Do you know what I use it for?”
A slow, knowing pause.
“I wonder if you’d blush if you did.”
Reiya’s stomach lurched, revulsion crawling up her spine.Breathe. Don’t react.She schooled her features, her fists tightening until her knuckles ached.
“You’ve paid for the belt,” she said, voice smooth despite the bile rising in her throat. “What you do with it isn’t my concern. If you’re quite finished, I have no interest in indulging your twisted game.”
She yanked her arm back, but Jodhar was faster. His shadow closed in—sudden, inescapable. His teeth sank into her neck with brutal force, sharp and searing.
Reiya’s cry tore through the market’s din. Pain lanced through her veins, white-hot and blinding. Her mind recoiled, but somethingdeeper—primal, unwelcome—stirred low in her belly, rippling through her.
