Page 17 of Aries
“And when you didn’t?” Nikolai’s words had me stunned.
“There was no other option back then. I followed them because I saw what he’d done to others. That fear was enough. He took me to my first kill at ten. By fourteen, I was regularly used in operations and had an array of guns and blades in my arsenal.”
Luca made a noise and poured a stronger drink, swallowing it down. I waited for him to look at me before continuing.
“I was a pretty cute kid, the kind that you didn’t think much about. Everyone just assumed we were a normal family and that got us in and out of places that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. We blended into the background, were just unremarkable enough to not catch eyes.”
He opened his mouth to say something else but I waved it off.
“Let’s not talk about topics like this tonight,” I said, waving a hand between us. “I’d much rather focus on what’s to come.”
“Other than telling me I was going to be part of your team, you didn’t give me many details,” he pointed out.
“An alpha needs a little bit of mystery,” I shot back with another grin.
There was that look again, the slightly exasperated one that he loved to give me.
The one that told me he was going to be just fine here.
Chapter
Seven
Aries
Present Day
“On your knees. Heads down.”
The words echoed through the spacious room, bouncing off the walls and lancing at my ears. Beth was in a mood today, which meant we were going to pay for it.
She always pretended to be on our side, but any side that trapped us here in this mansion, turning us into little docile dolls, was an enemy.
When I woke up here, I was terrified. Knowing that I’d gone from one hell to another and no way out was a hard pill to swallow. I expected things to turn worse, for them to beat the lessons into us, and I probably complied a little too easily.
Consequences had been beaten into me long ago, and I knew that people like this would take those consequences a whole lot farther than my mother ever did. They tried to wrap it in a pretty bow for us, pretending like Gideon and his mansion was a huge favor.
They loved to say we were the lucky ones. They gave us a fancy mansion to live in, lessons on how to please alphas and be mindless dolls, and someday rich men would take care of us.
Take care of us… aka they paid to be able to use us how they see fit.
How any of them slept at night, knowing they were selling omegas into outcomes they would never have to be privy to, was beyond me.
Once the money changed hands, our lives would be over. No wholesome relationship starts with untraceable cash.
I discreetly glanced around the room. Lark was next to me on one side, Silva on the other. Silva’s sister Lexi, of course, was by her side. Luna and Briar were next to them, all in the same obedient position.
The six of us were close. We’d trauma-bonded in a way that felt like a sisterhood. I trusted them with my life.
Even more so now that we had a plan in place.
Freedom was only a few hours away.
In a few short hours, we’d be paraded around as our twenty-first birthday hit, dressed up, glammed out, ripe for the picking… and then while Gideon handled the sale, we would make our escape.
My main regret would be missing the look on his face when Beth told him we were gone.
It was like an out-of-body experience as we went through our lessons. Then in the blink of an eye it shifted to Beth speaking to us about how good we needed to be tonight.
