Forget Me Knot (PoisonVerse #2), page 3
No. We had no intention of getting on his bad side. Although he might have proven himself a monster, he wasn’t a liar, and if he said he could get us what we needed, then he could. We did what he wanted, kept it clean, then he wasn’t a threat.
“Anything else?”
“Nah. That’s all.” He straightened.
“The USB?” Arsenal asked.
“This thing is too valuable. I’ll drop it back here in a few days.”
“When?” Arsenal demanded.
Riot didn’t answer. When he passed, he clapped King on the shoulder. “Night, lads.”
The tension in the room vanished the moment the front door closed.
“That’s all he wants?” King asked.
I shrugged. “Not a small ask. Think about it. Might be easy for us, but the Institute’s a fortress. The Institute only lets us in because we’ve never violated our terms. We’re perfect choices.”
King still looked a little pale as I walked over to Ice’s nest door and stomped on it a few times.
“Right.” King looked back at us. “Ready to deal with her wrath?”
Fuck. What the hell was up with that? I still didn’t know the whole story.
We’d heard nothing from the woman locked in our vault; with the second door closed, it was completely soundproof.
“Give it a few minutes,” Arsenal sighed. “Don’t want her storming out and Riot seeing her anyway.”
I was still stuck on the job. It felt too easy. I didn’t care how much it made sense; it was impossible to look at the deal Riot had just offered, and not be suspicious. What he said he’d do, it was everything. It was a new start.
There had to be a trick. The universe was never that kind.
Viper
I had lost.
I was a broken alpha. My pack bonds had been shattered, and my once-mate had long forgotten me.
Right now, I sipped an energy drink in the old car, a finished noodle box from a nearby takeout at my side as I watched a rundown garage poorly lit by flickering street lamps.
Onyx was in there right now.
The woman I loved.
The woman who didn’t remember me.
There was no way for me to know if she was safe, but I only had four days left, and today everything had gone all wrong.
Money wasn’t an issue. I’d picked the car up in an old lot today, knowing it wouldn’t stick out in the Gritch District. I had her electronics covered. My hacker, Kai, was on it. He was good, not to mention all I could find without my father discovering what I was doing. Discretion was necessary, because if my father so much as heard Onyx’s name, this would all be over. I wouldn’t survive it, not this time. Or worse, she wouldn’t survive it.
But Kai’s pack owed me, and it was the only sure thing I had on my side. He had her phone, laptop, and the surveillance cameras in her house locked down. The problem was, this stalker ruining her life, he was good. Good enough that he hadn’t found a trace of anything. My skin prickled at the thought of him, my aura wanting out like a storm shuttering old, worn windows.
It had been like that all day, ever since Kai had found an update I hadn’t been expecting. She had gone to the Institute to match a pack.
I wanted to be sure she was safe, so finding out she was actively searching for a match… I could shove back the part of me aching for blood, desperate and furious at me for letting her go. I could focus on the reality that when I was gone, there would be no one else to look out for her.
I read the updates as Kai sent them. I knew the candidates the Institute had offered, and I knew the mistake they’d made with the vial.
I knew that Onyx was now trapped between two impossible choices.
She had pushed away everyone after the accident, focusing on nothing but her job. She had no one watching out for her, no one but me. Now threats were closing in, and my time was running out.
“You burned down the Oxford mansion.” My father was a tall, slender man wearing a neat, dark suit as he rested against the wooden countertop in my kitchen, setting a bottle down. He didn’t fit here. He was wealth personified, and this place—this was a place money couldn’t touch.
Behind me, two of his thugs took up the doorway. I barely spared them a second glance.
“You tried to buy me into a pack with a dark bonded omega,” I snarled. “It was fucked up and I was never going to—”
“That’s not your problem, Viper.” My father’s sharp voice cut me off. “Whether the omega was dark bonded? No. You’ve sabotaged every attempt I have made to set you back on the right path. This is the last straw.”
“What are you going to do now?” I tried not to let on how much I had been dreading the answer. I knew I was out of chances. “Have you found another terrorised omega you want me to bond with?”
My father just stared at me coldly. “I booked you a flight to England.”
I paused, having not expected that. “I won’t get on it.”
“You will.” He plucked a stem of lavender from the pot on the window. I watched him, stifling a growl, my heart racing. “Or I’ll be forced to change tact.” He snapped the flower in two.
I took a step toward him, a snarl on my face, but the two brutes in the doorway shifted forward, drawing me up. “You won’t go near her.” My voice was low.
I’d known that this would be the outcome one day.
“Board the plane, Viper, and never come back.”
“Don’t make me leave this place.” This house—small and worthless to someone like my father—was everything. But he knew he’d won. That he was the one threat I wouldn’t be able to protect her against.“It’s mine,” I rasped. It was theirs as well, not just mine. The pack that now existed only in black ink upon the arm of a woman who remembered them no more.
Remembered me no more.
But I’d stayed for them all. Hart had been left the house by his grandparents. His family wasn’t rich like mine, but this place was everything we wanted.
Everything she wanted.
“And the Oxford mansion…?” My father said, tugging a match box from his pocket and knocking over the bottle he’d brought. Clear liquid spilled onto the wooden floors as he struck a match. I stared at it, confused until I caught the powerful scent of gasoline.
“NO!”
My aura struck the air, but the two thugs were ready and I barely made it a step.
I was too late.
The match tumbled to the ground as my father strode past where I was being held back, speaking to me as he passed. “The Oxford mansion was mine.”
The memory shook me to the core. I blinked away the rest of it. The pain as I’d twisted my arm free from the bodyguards’ grip and crashed into the cottage. The way the smoke burned my lungs, aura shivering in the air around me, threatening to get away.
Danger, it whispered.
It was broken. Strength and endurance. That’s what an aura was made of. I had one half left, but if I overused that strength, I might not survive the aftermath.
I hadn’t cared as I’d shoved through burning wood and creaking walls desperate for… For what? My knees crashed to the floor, my vision blurring. I was too late.
Too late, again.
For them.
For her.
I’d lost. My father had finally won.
So I was left with four days to rid New Oxford of anything that threatened her before boarding that plane and removing the final danger she didn’t even know she faced.
It was late. I wasn’t very good at this whole… surveillance thing. Not in real life.
But I had to know she was safe, and I didn’t care what it cost me. There was nothing left for me to claim from this world, but she deserved happiness.
Kai had pulled up every scrap of information he could on the pack Onyx had matched with, apparently not a huge task, since he and one of his packmates had grown up in this area and knew of Arsenal Gray.
On the seat beside me was his folder with all the gritty details.
Each of them had been bundled into a juvenile detention centre before they hit 18, which—it appeared—was where they’d met. After release, they’d packed up.
But their pasts weren't pretty, and Onyx was still in that building with them. Again, I glanced down at the papers, rifling through them like they might offer me some comfort.
King Hansen: Incarcerated at fourteen years old for murdering his twin sister. King was found beside her body and confessed at the scene.
Malakai St.James: Incarcerated at the age of fifteen for armed robbery. Kai’s scrawl across the page read ‘Classic Harpy Gang: He fucked up, they cut him loose’.
Arsenal Gray: Incarcerated at twelve years old for losing control of his aura and killing one of his pack fathers. The body was almost unrecognisable after being bludgeoned repeatedly with multiple blunt kitchen objects, including an iron.
There were more bits and pieces. A long list of jobs they’d taken after release, most short-lived—their past catching up to them. Kai had also added another little tidbit that grated a little every time I looked at it.
Upon his release at eighteen, King was welcomed back into society with the Steamy Aura’s Weekly Vote: New Oxford’s Hottest Bad Boys.
I was drawn from that thought as I saw another figure approaching the garage. It was a tall man wearing a trench coat and hood. He took the steps before tugging a hand from his pocket and banging loudly on their front door.
He entered and I waited.
Could it be one of the pack members returning home?
I glanced around the street. It was quiet, flickering streetlamps illuminated cracked pavement and graffiti. For a brief moment, my gaze snagged on my own face in the mirror of the car. My dark hair was buzzed short, and I wore an oversized hoodie that covered most of it. My skin was sallow against sharp cheekbones and there were bags beneath my bright yellow eyes—the colour that had given me my name.
Would Onyx have even been capable of loving what I’d become?
Nothing.
Hollow.
Silent.
I dropped my gaze to the old tattoos that wound up my fingers as I tapped the steering wheel.
A tiny little heart blurred on my knuckle, tucked into the design.
Her addition.
She’d wanted to get tattoos together that day. That was so, so long ago now…
A long time passed, and I turned on the car's engine to run to heat up, only for all of the vents to choke up the space with burned dust. Coughing, I rolled the windows down for a moment to vent the space. After that, it took a while for the car to heat up in earnest.
The tall, trench-coat man left, gravel crunching under his boots as he slipped away in the night. A visitor then?
I waited.
She had to come out soon. Not that I could do anything, unless she was in real danger. She could never see my face.
I hadn’t slept properly for days, not since I learned my flight was booked, and the warmth of the car was getting to me. I had to drag my eyes open a few times.
Where was she?
Was it possible she wouldn’t come out? That she’d taken one look at them and fallen in love?
I hugged my propped up knee to my chest, fighting the hammering panic in my chest at that thought.
If that happened, Onyx would have finally replaced me completely.
FOUR
Onyx
Scent blockers and adrenaline didn’t mix. Adrenaline had a tendency to burn away the drug like salt in water. Even trying my best to remain calm, I caught my own scent rising in the small space.
I sunk down once more in the dim light of the pale bulb above, my handbag in the crook of my arm as I ran my fingers along the silk that lined it for comfort. With my other hand I traced the lines upon my forearm.
A scar and a forget-me-not.
Over and over I followed them, the stems, the leaves, the petals, and then the thin silver line of a scar down my arm at the forget-me-knot’s side.
The longer the time stretched, the more I traced the lines, desperate not to think about what would happen when the door opened. Finally, after what felt like hours, I heard a faint bang outside. Then the sound of creaking metal.
Okay.
I dragged myself to my feet. The blockers… Perhaps they hadn’t worn off completely. I could just slip by them and leave straight away.
If I told them I was afraid, I could ask them to stay back so I could leave.
That would be reasonable. They had to listen.
Right. Says the woman shoved into a metal box.
They were clearly super reasonable human beings.
Brighter light from the garage beyond flooded the space, and it was King that met me, along with his heavy scent of apricots and champagne.
Fuck.
His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened.
“Fuck… me.”
I was pressed into the far corner, but clearly it wasn’t enough to stop the very thing I feared.
“Shit.” His hiss was low, but carried to me all the same. “Oh… Shit.”
We stared at each other for a long, long moment.
“What’s going on?” I heard a voice call.
I shook my head desperately. He collected himself enough to reply. “They’re going to know. Your perfume is heavy.”
I swallowed.
It was over.
I’d just… wanted to come to see them. I hadn’t considered the possibility that they might find out. It wasn’t just embarrassing, it was dangerous. They were a pack of alphas with no obvious regard for laws. Alphas like that sometimes let their possessive sides go too far.
King registered the terror on my face. “You’re going to be okay.”
I heard Ice’s voice closer now. “What are you on ab—?” He cut off as his figure appeared behind King.
His mouth fell open.
“Fuck. Me.” Ice sounded as dumbstruck as he looked. He didn’t look like he could find the words as he stared at me. His pupils had blown, clearly tense.
It was over. The last shred of my denial crumbled away.
Then Arsenal appeared, tugging the door open. They were all staring at me like a rabbit in a cage. A rabbit that also scared them a little.
“Alright, back up, you oafs.” Ice shoved Arsenal and King away.
“But…” King couldn’t take his eyes from me. “Not… possible.”
Arsenal hadn’t said a thing. His eyes were fixed on me, his mouth still parted slightly. Ice, who was clearly paying more attention to my discomfort, closed a fist around Arsenal’s sleeve.
“Give her some fucking space. All of you. Back the fuck up,” Ice hissed.
“What is going on?” It was a new voice, and it came with an earthy aroma that reminded me of cloves and walks along the riverside. I wasn’t in a state to be soothed, no matter the scent.
I took in the last member of the pack who was leaning against one of the pillars at the edge of the kitchen.
He was tall, with mid-brown skin and his black hair was tied up in a bun. I recognised Malakai from the picture, but in real life he was show stopping. Now he was here, I identified the last scent in the garage: riverside and clove.
It was lovely.
I didn’t know if it was the hormones colliding with panic, but I had to catch a laugh from bubbling up my throat at the wild thought that popped into my mind as I stared at him. He’d have a 20 foot wing-span—at least—if he were a character in the magical books I read before bed. Just missing the strange coloured eyes. He would look good with purple, though. I think I had one in my handbag right now to compare descriptions—
“A mate?” Malakai demanded, turning on Arsenal and King. “Why the fuck is our mate in our vault, and no one decided to mention it.”
The word mate seemed to drop the reality right on Arsenal’s head. He turned on Malakai. “We didn’t fucking know when we shoved her in there.”
“We don’t have time for a—”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Arsenal snarled.
Those words were an irrational blow that snapped me back to myself.
Right.
“I should go.” But the moment I made a move, every eye in the room snapped to me.
Shit.
This was why this had been a dangerous plan. Of course, it would be illegal for them to keep me here against my will, but I didn’t exactly know them as law-abiding citizens.
Society could dress it up as much as it wanted to—civilised we were, and refined. In control, so says the Institute. But right now that was stripped away. I was an omega facing up against three massive alphas, who had all just realised I was their mate.
I saw a flash of something in Arsenal’s eyes that had me taking another step back. It was gone in a moment. Same with the others. King took a step away from me, as if to give me space, but he looked wounded.
“Wait.” It was Ice that spoke first, moving around King to take a step toward me. “Could you… stay a bit. Just let us figure it out.”
“Figure what out?” My mouth was dry.
“Veronica—”
“It’s Onyx,” I corrected Ice before I could stop myself. “Onyx Madison.”
“Right. We believe you this time,” Arsenal said, the darkness in his eyes from more than the raven sweep of hair shadowing them.
I should be backing out of the door right now, but instead I was fumbling in my bag. I found my wallet and tugged out a card, handing it to him. He scowled down at it. I didn’t realise until too late that it was the Elite Valkyrie membership card that were handed out selectively. Oh dear… That made it look like I was bragging.
“A duchess?” Arsenal looked up at me, incredulous. “You’re a fucking duchess?”
Shit.
“I…”
Dammit.
People didn’t trust me when they found out I was a duchess. It was more than just a job, it was my title, and my aura carried evidence of that.
This was spiralling out of control.
“I… am, yes,” I tried for more confidence this time as the elephant landed squarely in the room as my second chance mates—something most omegas never got—stared back at me, stunned.
