Page 169 of Eclipse Sector

My brow furrowed, my mind whirling with nonsense. It almost felt like…

My eyes widened.

It feels like a distraction.

One used to derail all of us from the truth.

Not too dissimilar to the night Kieran had killed my father. We’d lured him out into these hills with an Omega in heat. Or so he’d thought. We’d tricked him with the scent, then cornered him.

And Kieran had finished the task.

Now we’d been lured out here to track another Omega. A Z-Clan Omega. All on the basis of Grey knowing she was here.

“How?” I asked Grey, facing him. “Howdo you know she’s here? You can’t sense her. None of us can smell her. So tell me how you know. Is it your gift? Is she your mate? Or is it something else entirely?”

His icy gaze seemed to frost over even more. “I don’t need to explain myself to you.”

“Yes, you do,” I told him. “Because I don’t think she’s here. I think we’ve been set up.”

“You think we’ve run away with the fairies?” Cael interjected. “That we’re playing some sort of game?”

“No,” I replied. “I think Grey’s head has been fucked with.” It would explain the strange air of power that Ivana and I had picked up on. We’d assumed it was his gift. But what if it wasn’t his at all? What if someone had clouded his judgment?

And what if Granger was just another distraction?I thought in the next breath.Did he lie about Ashlyn being here? Is that why the memory was so vague about where he left her? Was it even real?My eyes widened.What if he’s the proverbial Omega in heat, the red herring that lured the prey right into a trap?

Kieran.

No.Not Kieran.

Quinnlynn and the Blood Sector heir growing in her belly.

Taking them out would end the MacNamara bloodline, and the enchanted barrier around Night Sector—and the Omega Sanctuary inside—would fall.

If Cael and Grey were right about this secret network of Omega auctions, then the Omegas were the target all along. And all these episodes with the estrus party serum were just distractions.

Ashlyn disappearing was another distraction.

Granger was a distraction.

Thiswas a distraction.

“We need to get back to Blood Sector right now,” I told Cael and Grey before looking at Lorcan and Kyra. “And you two need to go to Night Sector.” Because if someone was trying to end the MacNamara line, then others were waiting for the opportunity to attack the Omegas under Quinnlynn’s protection.

“What about Ashlyn?” Grey demanded.

“She’s not here,” I told him. “There’s nothing fucking here.” Which should have been our initial clue.

The Infected hadn’t ventured out here in a long while, which confirmed there hadn’t been any signs of recent life.

“She was never here,” I added. “Look deep down; you’ll find I’m right.”

Grey’s glacial gaze glittered with fury, immense power pouring off him. But rather than rage at me, he took a deep breath.

Then he tilted his head back andhowled.

I took a step back, his explosion of energy unlike anything I’d ever felt. Lorcan grabbed Kyra, his mind telling me he was about to shadow her to safety.

Only nothing followed Grey’s ripple of intensity.