Who Wants a Broken Mate? (The Fae Omegas, #4) [SAMPLE]

Chapter 1

Nina

"I know what you are."

Although my heart skipped a beat, I didn't laugh nervously or pull at the hem of my uniform like I really wanted to. Because those were things that guilty people would do.

Instead, I casually looked around the back alley we were standing in and perked up my werewolf hearing to ensure that no one was listening in on our conversation. Because if Miro, a middle-grade guard in Lord Westhouse's trafficking organization's headquarters, knew what I thought he knew, I would have to end his life.

When he invited me to the cafeteria's back alley for a talk, I'd thought Miro was yet another guard who had taken a fancy to me after they'd had their fill of all the other personnel in the enclosed trafficking den we were stuck in and was ready to reject him only to get his confession about knowing what I was.

As a trafficked victim turned battle balloon technician in my trafficker's den, I had many secrets, but from the smug look on his face and the confident way he was standing akimbo, Miro probably knew the secret that could get my brother and me killed or worse.

Thankfully, the cafeteria's back alley, a hot spot for many illicit activities among Lord Westhouse's trafficking headquarter personnel, was fairly enclosed. The back alley, which was directly behind the cafeteria, was tacitly managed by the person in charge of the cafeteria and the cafeteria workers, and since Guard Miro and I were the only ones in the grove, he had probably paid for solo use of it.

This was both good and bad because I could probably get away with killing him if I needed to, but it also meant that a couple of people knew I was the last person he met before he died.

Even though I was calculating the possibilities of getting away with murdering him, I didn't actually want to murder Miro for obvious reasons like the fact that I could get caught doing it and non-obvious reasons like my fear of my alter ego who would inevitably have to do the killing.

So I gave Miro the deadpan look I'd mastered in my one-year stay in this hellhole of a supernatural trafficking den. "I'm sorry what?"

Then I sighed as though I was concerned about his mental health. "Special Guard Miro, did you touch the Iza drugs from Guard James again?"

"Don't play with me! I didn't touch any drugs!"

Well, someone was anxious.

I finally looked him in the eyes, then studied his face, pretending to be trying to confirm that he wasn't on drugs, even though I was trying to stop him from yelling, which could alert any of the cafeteria workers. I knew that he probably knew either of the two secrets that could get me killed or worse. "Okay, okay. So what do you think you know?"

I was still using that deadpan look as usual, as though I felt like he was playing with me.

"I know you're a woman. Do you know what Lord Westhouse will do when he finds out that one of his balloon technicians is a woman who has been pretending to be a man all along? Ha ha, he'll order the guards to ravage you in front of everyone in the left house."

"I don't have any time for your nonsense. Do you think Lord Westhouse would believe your drivel?" I turned away as though I was going to walk away.

"You better not walk away. I have a friend among the slaves watching your little brother, so you can't escape even if you want to."

His words shattered the pretense I was holding on to and I turned to him. "How did you find out?"

"Saw ya taking a bath at Mistress Holland's." It took a lot of effort to prevent myself from grimacing in disgust at the thought of him watching me bathe.