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He turned to his Alphas and murmured blearily to them. "I think I'm pregnant." Then his body shifted back into its human form. He lay naked, curled up in the nest between the two wolves.

They lay quietly together for some time. Griffin broke the silence. "Tomorrow night you will accompany us to a meeting. You will keep this a secret. Telling anyone about this gathering and what you will learn there will mean certain death."

"Death?" Lars asked.

"Yes. For all of us. And many others."

"What is this about?"

"Don't ask so many questions," Phoenix grunted. "You wanted to know what your purpose is here. You'll learn."

"My purpose? To bear you heirs. I already know this."

"You'll understand," Griffin said.

The brothers shifted back to their human forms. Lars found that although the hum had subsided, his desires had not. The cravings for their sex had only grown more potent—his body still belonged to them. So, he indulged and submitted to them.

Something seemed different about the way they took him. Was Griffin's gentler than before? Did he feel more than just need for carnal release in Phoenix's touch? He didn't want to believe that could be the case. Even though they made him moan and beg for more, even though they could tap into his deepest needs and leave him gasping and his body quivering with pleasure, they were still his captors.

Chapter 7

Griffin and Phoenixwere gone the next morning when he woke. He opened the curtains and had the first good look at the nest he'd built. It felt slightly foreign, like something from a dream. Slowly, he tidied it up. He knew this one was temporary—this wasn't home, after all. Inevitably, there would be many others.

He remembered what they'd told him.

A secret meeting.

Griffin had said that telling anyone about it would mean certain death for all of them, and others as well. He couldn't imagine what this could mean.

He uncovered the bird cage and the warbler bounced around in the sunlight, chirping excitedly. He wondered if the little creature was lonely. When he'd kept birds, they'd been in the aviary with plenty of room to fly and many other birds to be around.

But then, wasn't an aviary just another cage?

A knock at the door surprised him; the room was still a mess and a nest wasn’t something to share with the world. He hurried around trying to brush the feathers into a pile and straighten out the ragged pile of sheets on the bed. Then a folded piece of paper slid underneath the door. When he looked outside, the hall was empty.

Lars unfolded the note, which had his first name scrawled on the outside in a fine script.

"Allow me to help you choose," the note read. "Meet me at the painting at sundown."

He frowned and crumpled the paper in his hand. Pym Longfang. Lars had thought he was a gentleman. Did Pym not understand how awful he'd made him feel with what he'd said? And putting a note like this under the door where anyone could find it?

Lars stewed. At first, he threw the note into the trash, but then decided it would be better torn to shreds and scattered from the window.

What was that man trying to achieve? More than that, who did he think he was? Speaking to him like that, and then making such a direct request. He hardly knew him.

Perhaps that was just how Alphas operated. When they saw something they wanted, they took it. Wasn't that how he came to be in this situation? His Alphas had simply taken him because they wanted an Omega. Was there no honor in this world?

And yet, Lars was curious.

He couldn't stop thinking about it the entire day, just as he couldn't stop thinking about the secret meeting.

Meet me at the painting.

He knew what this was referring to, and perhaps if Pym had asked him to meet anywhere else he would've been able to control his curiosity. But it was too much, and at sundown Lars left the room and hurried downstairs to the room where the painting of his parents was stored, hoping he could make it back before Griffin and Phoenix returned.

When he opened the door, Pym was waiting inside for him.

"You came," he said, sounding pleasantly surprised.