Page 124 of Psycho Alphas: Part Two

Earlier, I’d caught Knox’s eyes sliding to me at the hint that Ace had leverage on some of the partygoers. I’d filed that away like he had. He held all his cards close to his chest, but I thought I’d clocked his plan. But now Thistle was gone, and not one of the Alphas or Omegas in the room was coming to our defense.

Ace had failed.

And yet, he quietly sat back down as if nothing was wrong at all, lounging in Carrion’s chair.

To my horror, the great screen flickered to a camera feed. Thistle’s screams—the faintest echoes from a room away—suddenly lit the space.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the second show of the night,” Bella said, victory in her drawling voice. “A pack of traitors—unwilling to follow our rules. I’ll make an example of them and their inbred Omega.”

It was a rerun of what I’d already endured.

Thistle let out another shriek, trying desperately to pry Rodrick’s grip away. He was a monster compared to her, though.

Desperately, she sank her teeth into his arm, a spray of blood coming with it, but it only seemed to energize Banner, who laughed before dragging her off him and easily tossing her against the wall.

Her wounded, involuntary squeak of pain was enough to make me shut my eyes for a moment. Bella’s scent of Absinthe was too close, though, and I felt her nails dig into my hair as she forced my neck back.

“After all the damage you did to my pack, Manzo,” the warmth of her voice tickled my ear as she leaned in, “every second, youwillwatch.”

THIRTY-TWO

ACE

Thistle had always been different.

When I first met her, I tried not to face her truth—tried to ignore the pieces of the puzzle that would show me the inevitability of falling for her.

But there wasoneday when I’d realised it went deeper than trauma or circumstance. The day I’d realised what a soul match truly meant—even if I’d spent too long after, trying to run from it.

It had shaped the picture I’d finally painted of the Omega I was destined for.

Four years ago

I was hosting a gathering at my mansion when they finally found him. There were a few guards around, guests who were due a show, and I was happy to provide. Glade attended too, seated at my side, perfectly poised.Everything—down to theinfallible mask of serenity she could keep in place so well—was arranged perfectly.

At last, Thistle appeared with a guard. She spotted me first, breaking from him and crossing to me.

“You wanted me, Alpha?” Her violet eyes were bright. Her eyes shone—until she saw the man my security team had just dragged in.

“I have a… gift.”

Dark hair ran in the family, and the man was a mess, straggly locks standing up this way and that. His light eyes looked tired, their lustre dull.He was sporting a few bruises as well, his weak form frail as the guards held him up.

When Thistle caught sight of her father—a man who’d given away his own daughter—all the excitement drained from her face.

I knew the story.

He’d owed money to the wrong kind of people.They’d left a note for drop-off, but Thistle had found it, and she had been the one to go to his place.

Whether it was because she’d planned it well or because they’d underestimated the tiny Omega who’d arrived, I didn’t know—but that meeting hadn’t gone the way the two street thugs had expected.

“I want to hear it for myself. You sold her off because she killed the men coming after you?” I asked.

“Killed them?” Her father looked wild, his eyes bulging, darting across the room sporadically. Thistle shrank further, panic stark on her expression as her eyes fixed anywhere but on him.

“T-they said they’d h-hurt you…” Her voice was weak. “I was trying to… to fix everything… I thought you’d be proud of me f-for once.”

“Proud?” Her father’s tone was so incensed it seemed he thought he might win the upper hand if he convinced me. His weathered face twisted further as he looked back at me. “Do you know what I found? She didn’t just kill them—she’s unnatural—a freak!”