Page 58 of Conquered Betrayal
Then we weren’t in Detroit anymore, couldn’t be at that other warehouse. I wracked my brain, thinking through my brother’s other properties.God, no.A cold, concrete holding room? The compound in Alaska was destroyed. So it could only mean…
“I see you might have an idea.”
Groaning, I adjusted my position until my spine pressed against the unyielding concrete opposite him, then pushed my blood-matted curls out of my face. “It’s too gruesome to voice.” I felt down my pant legs, searching for weapons they might have missed, but found nothing. They’d taken them all.
“I’d rather know,” he said after a beat, stretching his legs forward.
That’s when I noticed a flash of something metallic around his neck. The shadows had hidden it before. A chilled sensation sped through my veins as I stared at the collar. I pushed with my legs, used the wall at my spine to stand. A collar would be pointless on a human.
My heart pounded so hard in my chest it was the only thing I could hear. Blood pumped, making me lightheaded.
All the weird things I’d noticed over the past few days, hours with Landon, hit me upside the head: super speed, glowing eyes, fast healing. Why hadn’t I seen it before now? My brain had created rationalizations because I hadn’t wanted to accept the truth.
Mouth quirking at the corner, Landon lifted his hand to touch the collar, then let it fall in his lap. “A gift from your brother,” he said without humor.
“No.” The word whispered between my lips, a prayer that none of this was really happening. First Kane, and now him?
Landon stiffened, his jaw clenching, but didn’t move as my heart raced faster in my chest. Hands fisted, he stared at me, every part of him tense. I wanted him to deny it, to tell me the stupid thing wouldn’t work on him. He remained silent, the truth shining in his eyes.
He was one of them, the beasts, the shifters I’d feared since I was seventeen years old. For most of the past decade, I’d participated in my brother’s plan to expose and contain their kind—it had been one of the things we’d agreed on in the beginning. I’d seen what they could do to humans. Bile rolled in my stomach and up my throat.
“I would have tried to take it off,” he said, his tone remaining calm. “But then remembered it’ll explode if tampered with.”
It was true. Emerson had told me the same thing.
My stomach bubbled with acid as Landon stared at me. I’d worked for him, dated him, made love with him.
All this time and I’d never known. He’d kept it from me. The truth stabbed while the rational side of my brain told me he’d been smart to do so. What would I have done with that information four years ago? Told my brother? Kept it to myself?
I closed my eyes and returned to that time. With Landon, I’d been happy. It had felt like he was the only one who truly understood me, even while I deceived him. If I’d known then…
No.I wouldn’t have betrayed him. I wouldn’t have revealed his true nature to my brother. I would have protected his secret because back then, I loved Landon,stillloved him. And I probably would have abandoned my brother’s plan to protect him. I would have told Emerson I’d found nothing and taken whatever twisted punishment he thought up if it meant keeping Landon safe from his notice.
I tensed, a sickening truth swirling in my gut. My brotherwouldhave known. He always knew who the shifters were just by looking at them, and we grew up with Landon. When Emerson sent me to Vancouver, he’d known who he was sending me to.
And he did it anyway.
He’d wanted to be proven right. He’d wanted Landon to do something bad to me because of his nature. Emerson had put me in harm’s way on purpose, not caring what happened to me. Everything he did was an experiment of one kind or another.Set up the pieces. Watch them fall.
I pressed my palms flat against the cold wall, trying to regain control of my emotions. Across the space, Landon stood to his full height and rolled his shoulders back. I drank him in, the expanse of his bare chest, the width of his shoulders, every part of him familiar, but now I was looking at him with new eyes, new awareness. There was an animal hiding beneath his skin.
It didn’t matterwhathe was, because he was Landon. I knew him—or, at least I used to. The essence of the man hadn’t changed with whatever animal he could transform into. He could be a mouse or a snake. It didn’t matter.
Actually… My eyes drifted upward to the gap where the roof met the ceiling. If he were a small animal, or a bird, he could get us out of here if it weren’t for the collar.
“I don’t suppose you can change into something to fit through that?” I asked, gesturing to the gap.
His body stilled, then relaxed as he shook his head.
So, not something small. It had been worth a shot. My curiosity bloomed at which animal he could be. Would he tell me or keep it private? There was no reason for him to trust me. I pressed my lips together.
He ran a hand over his face and met my gaze. “Can you tell me where we are?”
“The arena. The place where my brother takes shifters to be hunted by his rich acquaintances.” And he’d brought Landon here. I tried to swallow around the dryness in my throat. “He sells them off to the highest bidder, usually in the millions.”
His muscles flexed with each word I spoke. “And you allowed it?”
“I only found out about it last week!” I pushed off the wall, then stopped, ashamed of what I’d let happen right under my nose. “I didn’t know about most of what my brother was up to until I returned from service.”
