“Francesca?” I breathed, convinced that she was a hallucination my drugged mind had failed to separate from reality. Or a ghost, here to taunt me, to remind me that I’d failed her and our daughter yet again.

She didn’t answer me, only stared in that passive disapproval I knew so well. I watched as the others entering the room moved around her, trying to determine whether any of them could see her.

“Hello again, Jack,” Franny said calmly, her hands folded as she stood in the middle of the room the men who came in behind her were searching. Boris and Milan looked half as bewildered as I was as their little trade quickly got out of hand.

“How the fuck—?”

“You two know each other?” Boris asked, suddenly all business.

“He’s my husband,” Francesca said, casting the man beside her an apologetic glance she’d used on me plenty of times. “Or rather he was before I had a death certificate.”

“And who the hell are you?” I asked the man, more confused than angry even though I got the feeling I had reason to be plenty of both.

“This is Ansel Crow,” Franny answered for him. “He’s my destined mate. The man who helped me escape from you.”

“Escaped from me?” I cried in disbelief. This was all too much. Too fucking much of everything. I’d grieved this woman. I’d buried her body in the earth and held our daughter while she sobbed as the casket was lowered. I’d picked up the pieces of the life her murder had shattered.

Now she was here, very much alive, and claiming to belong to some pasty-faced dick in a poorly fitted suit.

“Come on, Jack.” She said it in that casual way she’d delivered so many soul-crushing blows as she sat on the mini bar and kicked it open with her heel. She rummaged around and pulled out a small bottle of vodka. “You didn’t really think I’d be happy slumming it in a shitty town with a shitty man like you if I had a choice, did you?”

I stared at her in disbelief. Not because the words came as a shock or seemed even the slightest bit out of character. I’d always suspected that was how she felt, but she’d at least had the decency to mask it in wispy little lies like, “Of course I’m happy, dear,” and, “I know you try your best.”

“You’re dead,” I choked. “I buried you.”

“You buried a crackwhore,” she said flatly, taking another chug of vodka with her legs crossed over the fridge. “Not a very good one, I might add. I compelled you and the necessary bumpkins that it was my body at the morgue, and that you should have a closed-casket funeral to avoid upsetting Allen.” She paused. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is she still going by Ellie?”

“You’re sick,” I breathed. It wasn’t an accusation, just acceptance of what I should have known all along. This woman—this Alpha, who’d deceived me about her identity at every level, up to and including letting our daughter think she was dead—wasn’t just cruel, she was twisted. I hated her, but I pitied her more.

“I’m not the one who reeks of mating pheromones and death, love.” Her gaze swept over me with a shake of her head. “Marked by two wolves and loved by none. Then again, that is less than you deserve for breaking your promise.”

“My promise?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“To stay in Clarksville.” Her tone turned icy as she cast aside the empty bottle. “I didn’t run to that little hick town and fake my own death to get away from Nicolae and my parents just to have you drive our son back into their clutches.”

“We don’t have a son,” I seethed. “And you don’t deserve to call her your daughter, you frigid, psychotic bit—“

Ansel had been silent the entire time like a good little lap dog, but he backhanded my face hard enough with his ring that I tasted blood. My right ear was still ringing from impact by the time I saw Francesca give him that “we’re talking about this in the car” look she’d given me so many times.

“Patience, Ansel. After all, he is an omega.” Her melodic words were meant to humiliate me. It had always been her favorite sport. Why should now be any different?”

“You knew,” I muttered.

“Of course I knew. Only an omega would be pitiful enough to roll over for a woman he isn’t even attracted to who treats him like shit and raise another man’s child without ever questioning it,” she laughed, propping her knee up on the bed to straddle my lap. She wrapped her bright red claws around my neck and pushed my head up against the wall. “Tell me, Jack, didn’t you ever once ask yourself if it was all a bit too good to be true?”

My windpipe felt like it was ready to collapse, and she’d drawn blood with all five talons, but I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of blinking. “Baby, there were a hell of a lot of things that crossed my mind about you, but that was never one of them.”

Her eyes narrowed and the look in them had me convinced she was gonna kill me then and there. Why not? She’d killed everything else. My spirit, my pride, my hope in the family I’d been trying to hold together for years.

“She’s not yours. You know that, don’t you?” Her sweet tone was dripping with vindication.

“I figured when I realized she wasn’t dumb enough to put up with your bullshit.”

Boris cleared his throat. “About the money,” he interjected, probably saving my goddamn life.

“Ah, yes. Forgive me,” she said, climbing off my lap to face him. “What was it we agreed upon?”

“Ten million,” Milan answered stiffly. “But that was before we knew there was a connection between you two. You know, a human omega’s exotic as hell. We could get that much easy at an auction.”

“Of course,” she said in a sweet tone. Only Ansel and I seemed to know that voice meant a hurricane was coming. “Ansel, love, hand me my pocketbook, would you?”

The blond wolf smirked, offering the sequined black clutch to her. She opened it and fished around for a second before pulling out a small handgun and firing directly into Boris’ heart. “That’s one,” she said, turning to do the same to Milan before he could pull his own. “And two. They’re solid silver, boys, but I’ll have to owe you the rest.”

Francesca’s heavily armed entourage was already dragging the bodies into the bathroom. I didn’t even want to know what they were going to do with them, since a similar fate was probably going to befall me soon.

When I’d made the mistake of sending up a prayer that I wouldn’t die of cancer, I really should’ve been more specific.

“Ansel Crow,” I muttered, eyeing the other poor bastard Franny had sucked in. “I assume you’re of the Crow pack Nicolae considers his closest ally?”

Ansel smirked. “My father has other ideas about the direction of our pack’s future. You’ll go a long way toward helping with that.”

“So you’re going to use me to blackmail Nicolae?” I laughed. “I’m dying. He’s not gonna pay you shit for another few months with a man he only marked to protect our daughter from your parents,” I said, looking back at Franny. “Just out of curiosity, do they think Nicolae killed you, too?”

“Of course,” she said without remorse. “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve been used all my life, first by them and then by Nicolae. I’m not the villain just because I got sick of it and decided to take my life into my own hands.”

“And what about mine?” I growled. “What about Ellie? Were you just going to let her think you were dead forever?”

“Of course not. When Ansel gained control of his pack, I was going to bring her home. Until you got the brilliant idea to leave.”

“Good to see your ability to twist literally every scenario until it’s somehow my fault hasn’t changed in death,” I taunted.

Dead or alive, the woman got on my last fucking nerve.

Before she could respond, one of her guards chimed in with, “We’ve got a situation on the ground floor.”

“What is it now?” Francesca snapped. “If it’s security, just kill them.”

“It’s not that. There are wolves.”

“Of course there are. He’s an omega in heat, he’s like a lighthouse. Kill them too.”

The humiliation still stung worse than the betrayal, especially in front of her. At least now I knew why she’d always seen me as a second-class citizen. In her mind, I was below human. The way Nicolae talked about omegas made it sound like some sacred thing, but on her lips, the truth was clear. To her, being an omega made me disposable.

The entourage had been gone all of one minute before I heard snarling through the window. Given the fact that I was in heat, I doubted any wolves who’d pursued me there had any noble intentions. At least the humiliation and shock were keeping my mind off of the fact that Francesca was here.

Franny. Alive. Here. Being the sociopathic asshole she usually only revealed herself to be in my dreams.

The window shattered behind me and a shard of glass sliced into my eyebrow, turning everything black with blood and blinding me as a soul-shaking bellow filled the room. I could see just enough with the right to watch Francesca and Ansel transforming in tandem. It was the first time I’d seen her as a wolf, and under any context, I might’ve found her ethereal even as a snarling beast. Now she was the stuff of nightmares, all teeth and fury. It took me a moment to make out the object of their rage, but when I did, my heart leaped. Nicolae. He towered over the other Alphas, the black fur on his chest soaked in the gore that hung from his bared fangs in ribbons. The sight should’ve terrified me, but it didn’t, not even when he effortlessly tore off the head of the guard who’d just entered the room.

I stayed hunkered between the bed and end table as Nicolae turned on Ansel next, knowing that if I dared to move, I’d be wolf chow. They wrestled fearsomely, tearing and slashing, but Ansel was no match for the larger beast until Francesca threw herself into the fray with a vicious roar. He went down under their combined weight, but they didn’t have the upper hand for long before he rose up with Ansel’s head between his massive hands. With a sharp turn and a deadly snap, Ansel’s life was extinguished.

As the Alpha’s body sank to the ground, Francesca let out a cry of pain and regret I was sure she’d never felt a fraction of on anyone else’s account, but her grief was short-lived. It morphed into horrifying rage as swiftly and violently as she’d physically transformed. She lunged and her claws drove into Nicolae’s broad shoulders like knives. He roared and slammed her against the wall, trying to throw her off, but she held on with everything she had left and plunged her fangs into his throat.

I lunged for the fallen Alpha’s discarded gun and managed to curl my finger around the trigger without firing prematurely. I had to wait for an open shot and the blood running down my face had rendered me half-blind, but time was running out. I could see Nicolae’s life draining before my eyes as the she-wolf tore at his flesh, her face buried in his bloodied mane as every bite brought her closer to his jugular. I was terrified of hitting Nicolae instead, but if I didn’t take a shot, she was going to finish him off regardless. I trained the gun on the she-wolf, willing myself to fire, but seventeen years of history held me back. Everything she’d done to me, all the ways she’d used me… none of it was enough to convince me to pull the trigger.

Ellie was. Nicolae was. I could forgive her for what she’d done to me, even though I knew she would never ask for it if she lived for all of eternity, but knowing that she would bleed them both dry for her own happiness was what I needed to see the she-wolf for the monster she was and not the woman I’d devoted my life to.

The shot rang in my ears and the fighting ceased all at once. The she-wolf fell from Nicolae’s back and landed on the floor beside Ansel. The bullet hole in her back was still smoking as she stared lifelessly at the only other person she’d ever come close to loving. Not her daughter, not her parents, not me.

Nicolae’s shaggy head turned and he fixed his smoldering eyes on me, and for a moment, I wondered if he was going to turn on me even though I was the one who’d rescued him. I’d saved him from her. The woman he loved. The woman whose death he’d been trying to avenge all this time. The woman who’d held his heart long before I ever had.

He reached for me, and when I didn’t flinch away, he pulled me into his arms with a gentle, saddened growl. I let him hold me against his massive chest, enveloped me in black fur and blood. I didn’t care. In that moment, I didn’t even care about Francesca, or Ansel, or the fact that I was somehow inexplicably an omega. I only cared that Nicolae was with me. That he was alive, and this goddamn hunt was over, and he didn’t hate me for killing the woman we’d shared and grieved and suffered for.

I realized only then that the heat and the fever and the pain were gone.