Page 19 of Knot Heirs: Serenity's Reign

Serenity's fingers closed around the pepper spray concealed as perfume in her purse.

Tonight would indeed be educational—for all of them.

5

KINGS AND PAWNS

~SERENITY~

The Society agent's fingers dug into Serenity's arm like he was some glorified bouncer lucky enough to be dragging her around.

His Alpha scent was choking, a nauseating mix of gun oil and a cologne that tried way too damn hard. He practically shoved her through the towering reinforced steel door of the safe house, making it clear she wasn't here on a summer retreat.

With a condescending smirk, he kept his hand clamped on her, thinking he had her all figured out.

"Easy on the merchandise," she snapped, jerking free of his grip like he was the one contaminating her. "This Burberry costs more than you make in a month."

She smoothed the sleeve of her tailored blazer, ignoring the tremor in her fingers. Her heart hammered against her ribs like it wanted to escape, but she'd be damned if she'd let them see it. The golden flecks in her eyes—her father's legacy—caught the light as she surveyed the room.

Minimalist. Secure. Expensive. A gilded cage was still a cage.

"Miss Vale," the female Beta attendant said with practiced deference, "the Alphas will arrive momentarily. Please make yourself comfortable."

Serenity arched an eyebrow.

"Comfortable? While I'm being auctioned off like a prize breeding mare? How thoughtful."

Her prestigious MBA in Finance had taught her how to dismantle a company's defenses in a boardroom, but it hadn't covered how to survive as the hunted prey of a pack of ruthless Alphas. An unclaimed Omega with a multi-billion dollar criminal empire dangling from her neck like an irresistible piece of bait—this was no ordinary hostile takeover. She imagined the prestigious halls of her business school and the irony twisted like a knife in her gut. There were no case studies on how to navigate being the sweetened prize for territorial maniacs with god complexes. No lectures on what to do when your life's work and freedom depended on one-upping the most dangerous men on the continent.

Serenity Vale. The name was like an invitation to chaos and a magnet for the cutthroat. She wondered if the professors who marveled at her intellect and raw ambition could fathom her current lecture series: Advanced Survival in a Sadistic Power Struggle 101. She couldn't help the grim smile that tugged at her lips, even as her stomach churned with anger and disgust. Despite every primal urge screaming to bolt, her face remained locked in a mask of bored indifference. Maybe in the end, that was her greatest skill—looking unfazed when the world flipped upside down.

She was raised believing the Vale name was a distant ghost from a father's past she hardly knew. Now, it was an empire built on drugs, blood, and dangerous loyalties, every piece a calculated move in her father's final game, with her at the epicenter. And these goddamn Alphas—all thinking they couldjust come and grab both her and the legacy she'd barely begun to understand. Alphas who thought that because she was an Omega, she must be weak, fragile, and desperate for capture like a caged bird ready to sing.

She'd show them. Maybe the gilded cage had them fooled, but it wouldn't hold her. She'd already escaped from worse, and she still had that 24-hour head start. She didn’t need to win. She just needed to outsmart them long enough to turn the tables.

Three exits. Two visible cameras. Likely more hidden.

Her mind cataloged escape routes even as she took a seat on the sleek leather couch, crossing her legs and arranging her features into what her college roommate had called her "resting bitch face."

The door swung open, an ominous creak slicing through the room as it exposed her to the wolves on the other side.

Serenity felt her entire body clench with the sudden rush of pheromones. The air thickened, oppressive and smothering, so saturated with raw Alpha energy that she tasted it on her tongue, metallic and electrifying. Her jaw tightened, and she focused on drawing shallow breaths through her mouth, refusing to let a single hint of weakness seep through her carefully constructed armor.

God, she hated them — the primal bastards and their suffocating power plays. She hated them for thinking they could claim her, for believing her father's empire was theirs for the taking, and most of all, for making her feel so cornered and powerless.

Serenity silently cursed the Omega biology that betrayed her, the way it responded so eagerly to the invasion of dominance in the air, despite every effort she'd made to train it out of her.

She braced herself, reminding her racing heart that she’d been in tougher spots and survived, even if she'd never faced anything quite like this.

Her jaw hurt from clenching it so hard, but she wasn't about to give these assholes the satisfaction of seeing her unravel. Her fingers dug into the sleek leather couch, and she was thankful for the stability it offered as she grappled with the overwhelming pheromonic assault. The Vale blood ran strong, her father’s legacy a curse and a challenge.

This is just a fucking intimidation tactic, another page from their macho playbook.

But damn, they were good at it.

The air was alive with a tension that was almost audible, a hum that vibrated against her skin and pulsed through her veins. She stifled the instinct to bolt, the one that screamed at her to use the escape routes she'd already mapped out and run like hell while she still had the chance.

Five Alphas filed in, each radiating dominance like it was their personal brand. Her Omega senses registered their power before her eyes could even process their faces — primitive biology she couldn't quite suppress despite years of suppressants and training.

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