Page 89 of Gold Sector

“Or we could ally ourselves with him,” Onyx offers, surprising me.

“Did he drug you?”

Onyx huffs a laugh. “I’m not completely incapable of making diplomatic choices, brother.”

My eyebrow lifts again. “Oh?”

He gives me a look, one that says he’s not amused by my disbelief. But rather than chastise me, he just sighs. “We need to let Rio bring his sister here, Oros.”

I gape at him. Not only did he dismiss the opportunity to try to rib me back, but he also just uttered words I never thought I would hear from him.

So I do what I need to do and take his advice seriously. “Tell me why,” I say to him. Not because I’m questioning his opinion, but because I want to understand how he arrived at that decision.

Onyx drums his fingers along the leather arm of the chair, his silver gaze taking on an earnest gleam as he stares at me. “I don’t like Rio. I never have and likely never will. But the archaic blood vows of the past deserve to burn. And from what Rio has said, his father disagrees. He wants Rio to send his sister to Wes.”

My jaw ticks, my gaze narrowing slightly. Our fatherwould have said the same—to follow through with the blood vow. If Onyx and I hadn’t rid ourselves of his influence at a young age, we might feel similarly.

But our Omega mother raised us.

And arranged matings are not our preference as a result.

“It would be the easier route,” my brother goes on. “Rio acknowledged that. However, he refuses to sacrifice his sister to a potential monster, and he has no desire to entertain an alliance with Obsidian Sector. The recent assault on Lanzarote solidified his opinion on the matter.”

“So you believe him when he says he didn’t let Basalt through Gibraltar,” I infer.

“Yes. Just as I think he might be onto something regarding Wes actually being in charge.” Onyx elaborates on why he feels this way, sharing with me all the details Keegan provided after waking him up at knifepoint. “It’s compelling information, particularly as he proved he’s more than capable of bypassing standard security protocols to spy on others.”

My lips twitch at the aggrieved nature of his tone. “I can’t believe you let him live.”

He grunts. “He didn’t give me much of a choice.”

“So he bested you?” I ask, surprised.

“Did you miss the part where I told you he vanished into thin air?”

“We can do that, too,” I point out.

“Yeah, except his knife didn’t disappear, and neither did his voice,” my brother replies flatly. “He was standing right fucking there, but all my blade met was air. It was like something out of a childhood nightmare.”

“Hmm.” I’m not sure I like this development. “Is he going to be a problem?”

“Only if you hurt his daughter.” Onyx’s gaze flasheswith knowledge as he takes in the crescent mark on my chest. “I assume you’ve made your intentions clear, too?”

“I have.”

He nods. “Then no, he won’t be a problem. Which brings me back to my ally comment—I think we need to work with him and Riordan. But if we’re going to accept Rio’s sister, then we need to make some arrangements for her safety.”

“Sounds like you’ve already started planning,” I say slowly.

“Not planning so much as thinking.” He frowns. “She’s going to need a guardian, and I can’t figure out who to assign to her.”

“I’m sure we have a few capable Alphas who won’t mind guarding her,” I say, not understanding his concern.

Onyx palms the back of his neck, his expression uncharacteristically wary. “I don’t think this is going to be a normal guardianship.”

He goes on to share some of the details he learned from Rio, each one impressing me more than the previous admission. “It sounds like she has a penchant for trouble,” I muse.

“Yeah. Oh, and she can ash,” he mutters. “Which means she needs an Alpha who can leash her like Rio does.”