Page 5 of Pack’s Prize

Ava

I had thought,from the assessing way they looked at me, from the clear lust in their eyes, that it was a sure thing, and soon.

“She’s perfect,” their pack alpha had said, and I’d smiled.

And then they–actually Michael, their leader, all green eyes and dark hair and coiled intensity–had sat me down with them at their table and explained what, exactly, I was perfectfor.

An inheritance. A will. A family business. A contingency: that the inheritor would be mated to–or, at least, courting, with the intention to claim–an omega.

That would be… me.

“You want me to be your pack’s… fake omega?” I asked, my heart doing a complicated twist, my brain grinding to a halt.I must be misunderstanding.

“Oh, you’re a real omega,” Theo, the alpha from the bar, had murmured, and I dropped my eyes onto the polished tabletop before us as I blushed.

“I want you to pretend to be the omega we are courting, yes,” Michael said, as if it were the most normal proposition in the world. “Temporarily. Just for a period of about three months, maybe four at the longest. Until the paperwork is complete.”

“And you can inherit your grandfather’s business.”

“That’s right,” he said, matter-of-fact. “There’s a clause in the will that dictates that I–and therefore, we–must be‘mated or courting with the intention to mate’in order to inherit. It’ll take a little while before the estate is settled, and during that period, we need someone to play the role of cherished, treasured omega. Of course, you’ll be well compensated. This business means a lot to me, and if I don’t inherit, it passes to a distant cousin, with barely any connection to the place, so I’m willing to entertain any requirements you may have…”

I saw his mouth moving as he continued, but I didn’t hear him as my brain crashed into gear and I realized that this was the solution to my own problem, too. The way to rebuild my life after Roman had crushed it under his stupid fuckboy heel.

I’d wanted to fuck him out of my system, but this arrangement? This could be more than just a series of weekend hook-ups.

You’ll be well compensated,he’d said, and I knew what that meant, coming from a pack that had an expensive membership at Ardor. I could get out of the sad studio apartment I’d just subleased, get a bigger place with a roommate, maybe, and not have to spend every night from now until the fall worrying about where next month’s rent would be coming from. They would have connections to other packs, probably, they could introduce me around, help me get a job. Find a new pack, maybe, after the three months were up.

I could restart, rebuild.

That should have been the reason. It was a damn good one.

But it was something else that he had said that made my heart flip flop in my chest, that made me open my foolish mouth to agree.

Cherished.

Treasured.

“I’ll do it,” I heard myself say, as if I was listening from outside my own body. “On one condition.”

CHAPTERSIX

Elias

“Anything,”Michael said, leaning towards her over the table, his elbows on its smooth surface, hands loosely clasped in front of him. “Name your price. I know this is an unusual arrangement, but…”Thatwas an understatement. “You have rent you need paid? You’ll be doing me a very lucrative favor, so we can work out an allowance, or a lump sum, or I can get you a cushy job at the business I’ll be inheriting–”

“I want you…” she said, interrupting him, and then seemed to hesitate, her dark eyes turning serious, glancing between Michael and Theo and I.

I didn’t know how Theo had managed it, but she–Ava, she said her name was–wasperfect.Beautiful, classically so. Long, glossy brown hair fell down between slim shoulders, revealing a pale, unmarked neck. Her breasts swelled from her low-cut dress, tight around her small waist and round hips. A scent like an orchard full of sun-ripe fruit, sweet and heavy, tinged with the faintest boozy undercurrent–and that slight vinegar sourness that spoke of fear or sadness and made me want to scoop her up, to search out whatever it was that was making her feel that way and destroy it. I searched her pretty face for worry; her rosy lips were parted softly, and as I watched, her tongue peeked out to swipe over her bottom lip. My breath caught in my throat.

I stared–because I couldn’t help myself–and that voice in my head that sounded so much like my father whispered to me that this wasright, that this omega was for us, for me, for Michael and Theo to cherish, to protect–

“I want you to fuck me,” she said, and–

“What?” I said, stupidly, the first word I’d said since I’d introduced myself tonight. I blushed, hoping none of my packmates or the gorgeous omega would notice in the low club lighting. I knew I wasn’t as worldly as Michael and Theo, but I sounded like a country boy fresh off the farm.

“Yes,” she said, and despite the flush creeping up from her chest to her cheeks, her voice was firm. “I… I came here tonight because I, well…”

Her sparkling eyes turned from Theo, to Michael, to me, and sweetness bloomed from her, making my cock harden painfully against my zipper.