“Finally, we have something special. A matched set, if you will. An omega and her pup. The mother’s a rogue, freshly severed, which as many of you know makes her quite the omen. And the child, well, she’s young and trainable. Together, they make a fascinating package.”

No. No, no, no.

A guard grabbed my arm, shoving me toward the stage. Another one carried Nora, who was screaming and reaching for me, and I knew this night was about to change our lives forever. 

I just didn’t realize how much. 

-----

Dionne Parker has spent her entire life being invisible, just another omega servant scrubbing floors and swallowing insults. She’s survived the Bloodmoon Pack by keeping her head down, her mouth shut and her daughter alive. 

But when she’s framed for a crime she didn’t commit, survival means running… straight into the hands of traffickers where her life takes the worst turn. 

Standing on that auction stage under blinding lights, listening to strangers bid on their lives, Dionne thinks this is the end. Until a voice cuts through the chaos with an offer no one can match.

Her buyer is Kael, the five-hundred-year-old Lycan King whose reputation is built on blood and brutality. Cursed by dark magic and barely holding onto his humanity, he’s the last person Dionne should be around. But the moment he sees her, his beast who has been violent and uncontrollable for three centuries, goes completely still. As if it’s been waiting for her.

Now Dionne is trapped in a castle with a king who’s barely holding onto his humanity, enemies who are closing in from every corner, and a shadow who’s been organizing her destruction from the start.

Will she survive when her past and present collide, or will the love meant to save her become the weapon that destroys them both?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

One moment the King stood in the doorway, his eyes locked on the portrait in my trembling hands. The next, he was on me.


I didn't even see him cross the distance. There was no time to flinch, no time to step back, no time to do anything but gasp as his hand shot out and seized the portrait. He ripped it from my grasp with such force that I stumbled backward, my shoulder slamming into the bookshelf behind me.


The impact sent books tumbling to the floor, but I barely registered the sound. All I could see was him, standing there with the portrait cradled in his hands.


His thumb traced the crack running across the painted face. The movement was so gentle, so achingly tender, that it sent a chill racing down my spine. It was wrong, seeing such care from someone who radiated violence the way other people breathed.


Chapter 21 - 21. Punishment