"You accept the deal?For him? Oh, Killian... you have no idea who you’re asking for."
What was that supposed to mean?
I’d had enough riddles.
Enough smug jerks treating me like I was playing a game I couldn’t understand. I already got that from my aunt.
I didn’t need more of it from Emiliano.
I didn’t start our afternoon conversation with Lucrezia in the most diplomatic tone.
"What the hell, Lucrezia?"
Her sigh on the line was slow and theatrical.
"You better watch your language, boy. I raised you. I can dispose of you anytime. I just happen to be sentimental about family. Don’t make me do something about your attitude."
"Why did you do that to Damian?"
"That little parasite?" she snapped. "I don’t need a spy who’s begun working more for you than for me. Because of you two idiots, I lost my marriage into the Prime Minister’s family."
I swallowed hard.
"Is he dead...?"
"Don’t make that face. We both know he was just a flower for you to bloom at the nearest convenience. Don’t get mushy on me—it’s disgusting."
"IS HE DEAD?"
"Ugh. No. I still have enough grace for his family to let him live. Far too generous for a filthy omega, in my opinion."
My throat burned.
"What did you do to him?"
"I packed him up nicely and sent him to Emiliano. Let him learn what life is like without my protection."
A pause.
"I might buy him back—eventually."
My hands curled into fists.
"WHY WOULD YOU GIFT HIM TO OUR SWORN ENEMY?"
"All this yelling gives me a migraine," she drawled. "You’re a grown man acting like a toddler who lost his favorite toy. Everything is strategy, my idiotic nephew. Sanchez has a drug I’m interested in. A hand washes the other."
I stared at the wall, disbelief seeping into my bones.
"You sold him to a garden?"
"I have no idea what Emiliano will do with him," she said flatly. "Never met the man. All I know are stories."
Then she shrugged—casual, like she’d tossed out a broken clock.
"I do find your loyalty one of your very few redeeming traits. But you’re impulsive and reckless. Just like your wrench of a mother. You got Damian in trouble too. Did you at least manage to seduce that arrogant little heir?"
I exhaled sharply.
"I tested the new drug on Luther. It worked—until stage two."
She scoffed.
"Why not stage three? Is your little buddy limp for the little arrogant virgin?"
I flinched. Shifted in my seat.
She laughed—dry, scornful.
"You’re not even good enough to pounce. Got it."
"I’ll reach stage three soon. Once he’s found. His father’s out there flipping the city. If I strike the wrong nerve, this whole thing could go nuclear."
Damian was sold because I helped Luther slip through Lucrezia’s blackmail.
Now Luther’s gone, and I traded our new omega pheromone-blocker drug to a lunatic just to get Damian back.
Probably a waste of a perfectly good leverage chip.
But whatever.
It bought me time. Space to think. Or at least to try.
My head’s pounding. I’ve been running on caffeine, whiskey, and rage for days.
Every time I close my eyes, I think about that kiss.
Just once—that was all it took. Luther’s mouth tasted like something illegal. Addictive. Like something I’d sell my soul to taste again.
He didn’t bloom. I don’t even know if he can. But it haunts me anyway—the way his body locked up, the way his pheromones punched the air for a split second before he pulled away. Like he was terrified of what he might become if he let himself go.
That fear? It excited me on more than I’d ever admit.
And now he’s gone.
Damian was just a distraction. A warm body. A revenge against Lucrezia for planting him as a spy since I was a teen, I used him. He let me. He knew the rules.
But now I’ve got to clean up the mess, because if Lucrezia figures out how much I let slip, she’ll gut me.
Still. None of it matters—not really.
Luther is the one I need to find.
And if someone else has already touched him, if someone else gets to see him bloom first—
I will ruin them.