Page 155 of Traded

“Lauren.”

I heft the paperweight, holding it up. “I intend to keep in touch with your scent match. Consider it shared custody afterthe divorce. You were right about that, at least. Wedidneed to build up our own relationship. Truthfully, I’d pick her for my pack over you in a heartbeat. Funny how things work out.”

He stares at me.

“You won’t interfere,” I say tightly. “And if I get a single notion that you’re mistreating her—if you so much as lower your fucking voice around her—if she disappears, or stops returning my calls, or seems anything other than blissfully freaking happy, then I willdestroyyou, Liam Kessler. You hear me? You can tell Jonas, too.”

I drop the weight onto the desk with a thud and push to my feet. “Consider this your chance to be the decent alpha you pretended to be when I met you. A fresh start.”

My voice lowers. “I know the signs now, thanks to you. But there will be no warnings. No second chances. One single time, and I’ll ruin you. I’ll make sure your photo is plastered across every outlet, every morning TV show, every magazine on the newsstand. You’ll be a trending topic online. Your career will be over. Jonas’s precious brand deals will evaporate. You will not be able to breathe without everyone sayinghey, there goes that abusive, manipulative piece ofshit who used to be someone.”

When he doesn’t say anything, I nod behind him. “Time to go. I’d say thanks for the memories, but you can keep them. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. We can finish this discussion at the apartment after the game, but we’ll keep our little arrangement between us.”

Carter would kill him. He knows it, and I know it.

“Rosie.” Liam’s voice cracks on my name. “Don’t do this. Please. This is our pack.”

“I haven’t done anything.” He looks… small. “You did.”

“I’ll do better,” he chokes. “I’ll fix it.”

“Damn straight you will,” I say tightly. His face flares with hope. “But not with me. With your scent match, who has no choice but to be shackled to you.”

The intercom screeches to life above our heads.Kessler, report to the rink.

Fine. If he won’t go, then I will.

My chin stays high as I pass his bowed head. I don’t have any more words to waste on him.

I pull the door open—

My body slams into the wood, caught between the door and the alpha who just slammed it shut as the air sucks clean from my lungs.

He doesn’t have any words either.

He gives me something else instead.

The high-pitched scream that rips from my mouth is a noise that I’ve never made as Liam’s teeth—sharp, brutal and sohard—bite down into the right side of my neck with full force.

My body crumples, Liam’s weight holding me up as they tear free with a sharp jolt of agony.

Something punches through my chest. A keening wail pulls through my gasping lips.

Him.

I canfeelhim, an invisible thread tying us together. My hand claws at my heart.

“Shhh.” His voice shakes. My body is turned, hands carefully probing my neck as I whimper and try to pull away. “Fuck. Shit—Rosie. I had to. I love you.”

A mating bite.

A permanent bond. A tether.

Another leash.

Liam presses his forehead to mine. “I had to, Ro. You can’t go. And Carter—he won’t leave you. It’s the only way to keep us together.”

He backs off as I slide down the door, my choking, shuddering, gasping sobs the only sound I can make. Liam darts back, yanking a Titans scarf from the hook behind Gabe’s desk and wrapping it around my neck.