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My throat was closing up.
“Hair dye,” the alpha’s distorted voice was half a chuckle. “Then it was nail polish, and makeup, and fucking outfits.” He snorted again, but I could see the pain in her expression.
“What have you got to say about that?” he asked. I saw him draw back just enough for her to catch her breath.
“I didn’t…” She struggled, voice thick. “I didn’t want you… taking anything else from me.” Her lip quivered, but she didn’t take her eyes from him. I saw a fierce hatred in them, one that lit the smallest spark of hope in my chest, even if I couldn’t identify why. “I didn’t want you telling me how I was supposed to look!” She was losing it, nails clawing at his arms as her voice became hateful.“Or how to be for them!”
The alpha snorted. “She’s going feral.” He slammed her back harder into the bed before I could snap my gaze away from the phone.
Drake shifted forward, though, jaw clenched with fury as he watched.
“And that’s all?” the alpha was asking. “The best you have to offer? A pretty face?”
“This is a taunt,” Drake hissed. “He’s playing with us. There’s no—”
I held a finger up, eyes fixed on the screen.
“Luckily for you,” the alpha went on. “It seems that might just be enough for them. Would you like to go back to your mates, Vex?”
She stopped fighting him, her chest heaving as she stared at the camera. That flash of desperation that crossed her face was enough to shatter my heart.
“But the question is,” the alpha murmured. “How badly do they want you back?”
And with that, the video cut off.
There was a horrible silence, and then I downloaded the video and sent it to Leighton, Ebony and Rook.
“It’s a challenge,” I said. “They’re… asking what we’ll give up.”
“We told them to name it,” Drake said.
“I get the feeling they’re about to.”
EIGHT
VEX
The Dragon Hunters interview played on Zeus’s phone as he sat beside me on the bed.
He’d just sent them the video he’d recorded, but I still didn’t know why. I almost shut my eyes as I saw Ebony and Rook on the screen for the first time in what felt like an eternity, my chest becoming tight. They were seated on interview chairs in front of a screen decorated with huge dragons flying across a landscape of mountains.
We watched only for a few moments before Zeus tapped out of the stream and went to his texts. I read the one already drafted.
“You get one chance to prove your devotion, and I’ll send her back until her heat. Then, maybe we’ll negotiate. But I want proof up front, tell Rook to announce on live TV that you’re dropping the Dragon Hunters contract.”
He pressed send, and my heart was in my throat.
Zeus was still too close, holding me against him. “What do you think he’s going to do?”
They wouldn’t… I knew their job was their whole lives. I was just… just a gold pack omega, who’d lied to them. They wouldn’t give up something like that for me.
“Why?” I asked. “Why ask that?”
He returned to the interview, and I couldn’t peel my gaze away from it, heart thundering in my chest.
“We have you, and some of them are still acting like playboys. I want to see them give up what they care about most.”
As I watched, Ebony glanced down to his side where he sat, subtly tapping on his phone and reading it. His gaze slid to Rook.
