CHAPTER 2

SONYA'S POV

I wake up to seventeen missed calls from Derek and a text that makes my stomach drop.

‘Derek:’ We need to talk, Sonya. NOW. Come to the packhouse. Alone.

It's seven in the morning. What could possibly be so urgent that…

My phone rings. Derek's name flashes on the screen.

"Hello?" I answer, my voice rough with sleep.

"Sonya, thank goddess." Derek sounds panicked. Actually panicked. "Where are you?"

"Home? Where else would I be?" I sit up, pushing my red hair out of my face. "Derek, what's wrong?"

"I'm in trouble. Serious fucking trouble." I hear him moving, a door closing. "I need your help."

My chest tightens. "What kind of trouble?"

"The kind that gets you killed if you don't fix it in the next forty-eight hours."

Now I'm fully awake. "What did you do?"

"I can't explain over the phone. Please, Sonya. I know I don't deserve to ask, but you're the only person I can trust with this."

The only person he can trust. Not Brittany. Not Parker, his best friend. Me.

I should tell him no. 

I should hang up and go back to sleep and forget about the guy who friendzoned me for six years. 

But I can't. 

Because despite everything, despite Brittany and the fountain and the way he's never once looked at me the way I look at him, I love him.

I really do.

"Fine," I say. "I'll be there in thirty minutes."

~~~

The packhouse is a massive stone mansion on the edge of Grey Crest territory. 

I've been here dozens of times for pack events, but never this early, and never through the back entrance like Derek instructed.

He's waiting by the service door, looking like he hasn't slept. His black hair is disheveled, his eyes bloodshot.

"Derek, you're scaring me. What's going on?"

He pulls me inside, checking to make sure no one sees us. 

We end up in some kind of storage room, surrounded by folding chairs and boxes of decorations.

"I fucked up, Sonya. Bad."

"How bad?"

"I owe the Rogue King fifty thousand dollars bad."

I blink. "I'm sorry, what?"

"There was a poker game. I thought I could win it back, but I kept losing, and now…" He runs his hands through his hair. "He gave me forty-eight hours to pay him back or he's coming for me. And he doesn't just kill you. He makes an example."

My mind is racing. "Fifty thousand dollars? Derek, how could you…"

"I know! I know I'm a fucking dunce. But I need help. I need someone who can loan me the money or…"

"I don't have fifty thousand dollars! I'm a schoolteacher!"

"But you know someone who does."

I stare at him. "Who?"

"Reign."

Oh, hell no. "Absolutely not. I just met your brother last night, and he's… he's…"

"He's rich as fuck and he owes me," Derek says desperately. "Please, Sonya. Just ask him. He'll listen to you."

"Why would he listen to me?"

Derek's jaw clenches. "Because I saw the way he looked at you last night. Like he wanted to devour you whole."

My face heats. "That's ridiculous."

"Is it?" Derek steps closer, and for the first time, I see something in his eyes I've never seen before. Jealousy. "Promise me something, Sonya. Whatever Reign offers you, whatever he wants in exchange for helping me… don't take it. He's dangerous. More dangerous than the Rogue King."

"Then why are you asking me to go to him?"

"Because I'm really desperate right now." He cups my face, and my breath catches. "But I need you to promise me you'll be careful. Reign doesn't do anything without a price. And the price is always too high."

Fuck.

~~~

Reign's office is in downtown Crestfall, on the top floor of a clean glass building that screams money and power.

The receptionist takes one look at me in my jeans and sweater and raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but I need to see Reign Savage. It's about his brother."

She picks up the phone, murmurs something I can't hear, then hangs up looking mildly surprised. "Top floor. He'll see you now."

The elevator ride feels like it takes forever. My wolf is pacing anxiously, and I can't tell if she's nervous or excited. Probably both.

When the doors open, Reign is standing there waiting for me.

He's in a black suit today, no tie, the top two buttons of his shirt undone, revealing a glimpse of tanned chest and the edge of a tattoo. 

He looks like sex and danger rolled into one devastating package, his broad shoulders filling the space, making my pulse quicken.

"Sonya Alba," he says, that same smirk from last night present on his lips. "What a pleasant surprise."

"We need to talk."

"By all means." He gestures to his office, all dark wood and leather furniture and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. "Come into my lair, little omega."

I bristle at the nickname. "Don't call me that."

"Why not? It's what you are." He closes the door behind us, and suddenly the massive office feels very small, the air thick with his pine-and-darkness scent that makes my pussy clench. "Now, what brings you to me at nine in the morning? Did you finally decide to take me up on that fountain offer?"

"Derek's in trouble."

His expression doesn't change, but his eyes darken slightly, pupils dilating as they rake over my body. "Is he now?"

"He owes the Rogue King fifty thousand dollars. He has forty-eight hours to pay or…"

"Or Ronan's men will hunt him down and make an example of him. Yes, I'm aware."

I squint. "You know?"

"I make it my business to know when my baby brother does something monumentally stupid." Reign walks to the bar cart in the corner, pouring himself a whiskey even though it's barely nine a.m. The way his fingers grip the glass makes me imagine them gripping my thighs. "Let me guess… he sent you here to beg for money."

"He said you owe him."

Reign laughs, but it's not a pleasant sound. "I owe him nothing. If anything, he owes me for all the times I've cleaned up his messes."

"So you won't help him?"

"I didn't say that." He takes a sip of his drink, studying me over the rim of the glass, his eyes staying on my lips, then lower to where my sweater hugs my breasts. "I'll help Derek. But not for free."

My stomach sinks. "What do you want?"

"You."