Coming Full Circle Read online

  The Omega Auction Chronicles

  Coming Full Circle

  Kian Rhodes

  Nom de Plume Publications, LLC

  PO Box 31506

  Aurora, CO 80041

  www.NDPPublications.com

  Coming Full Circle

  ISBN: 978-1-945854-97-2

  All content including, but not limited to, characters and situations are the intellectual property of the author and may not be used in any way without prior written approval.

  Copyright © 2019 All Rights Reserved

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Faded from months of exposure to the seasons, lengths of tattered yellow crime scene tape still fluttered in the breeze where it was caught in the branches of the shrubs dotting the old Omega auction house grounds.

  The building itself was mostly boarded up, water-damaged copies of the county condemnation order declaring it unsafe were slapped onto the plywood screwed over the side and back entrances. A plastic-sheeted copy graced the only remaining access, the front door that I was unlocking.

  When the key turned, I pulled the heavy steel door open and Colby shoved a large rock in place to hold it as we filed inside.

  Now that the intertwined criminal cases that the Council of Packs, Security Division had spent years investigating were closed, and the sentencing hearing scheduled for the following day, all of the crime scenes had been officially slated for demolition, but I’d received special permission to bring a few of the victims into the burned-out auction house for one last visit.

  To bring their experience full circle.

  For a chance at closure.

  “Watch your step,” I said automatically as I picked my way through the charred rubble. “The floors are still holding, but some of the walls aren’t very stable.”

  There was a murmur of acknowledgment from behind me as I led the way to the center of the building. The wall that used to separate the pre-sale floor from the auction floor was nothing but a few charred two-by-fours, leaving the space pretty much open.

  Colby walked past me, his boots stirring up dust as he made his way down the hall to the room that he’d been held in, pausing at the gaping hole where a door had once blocked access to the secure room.

  “The cage is gone,” Colby mused, barely loud enough for me to hear as I walked up behind him. The room had been refitted as an additional exam room at some point. The heat of the fire had melted the plastic exam chair into a blob that remained bolted to the burnt floor, but I knew that Colby saw it as the prison it had been when I found him, chained on his hands and knees to the floor of the cold, steel cage, every orifice violated. “I guess they didn’t need it anymore after you rescued me.”

  When my Omega turned to me, his blue eyes were bright with tears that I knew he wouldn’t shed. To the best of my knowledge, he’d still never cried for the Hell he’d been through, choosing instead to focus on the good things that had followed.

  “I wouldn’t be here today if you hadn’t opened that door, Alpha,” Colby murmured, his words squeezing my heart. “Thank you for taking a chance on me.”

  All I could do was shake my head. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, to the Blood Valley pack,” I disputed. “I didn’t take a chance, baby, I knew from the moment that I laid eyes on you that we were meant to be.”

  Taking his hand, I led Colby back out to the others.

  Trevor was standing in Colt’s protective embrace, staring at the pile of debris that had once served as the auction stage, tears dripping down his face as his Alpha whispered in his ear. Along the far side that had housed the pre-sale stages, Kenny stood between Colin Tarling, the Alpha that he’d been stolen from when he was sold at the auction, and Haldrian Christof, the Alpha that had purchased him and restored him to his family, tightly gripping each of their hands in his own.

  Trey, the dragon Alpha who had answered Trevor’s summons to bring me to the auction house on the night of the fire waited stoically in the center of the room as Cian, his Omega, walked slowly around the perimeter, gently touching pieces of scorched wood and whispering to himself as his large gold eyes took everything in.

  The final member of our party, Jackson, had come as far as the front door before deciding not to enter. He was the only Omega who hadn’t been sold as a mate. Instead, he’d been one of those illegally sold to the humans. They’d used him as bait for the Alpha fighting ring and, while the others who had eventually found their happy ending might have viewed the auction house visit as bittersweet, for Jackie, the memories were only painful, so he waited outside in the comforting arms of the Alpha he’d met in the fight ring. Looking forward, he said, to the day he could watch the wrecking ball tear it down.

  Closure comes in many forms.

  Chapter One

  Omega Auction House

  Six Months Earlier

  Rafe

  A faint breeze ruffled the thick fur around my face as I lifted my muzzle to scent the air. An intentionally opportune power outage had left the surrounding buildings in the dark, the perfect camouflage for my coal-black coat.

  Hunkered down in the shadows on the south side of the sprawling building that had housed the Omega Auction House for decades, I waited patiently for the signal announcing the coast was clear. I wasn’t sure exactly what the signal would be, but Lachlan, a veteran of the Council of Packs Armed Services and one of the best reconnaissance people I’d ever known, had assured me that I’d know it when I heard it. It was the way he smirked when he said that that made me pause.

  Still, I kept my ears up, sifting through the usual midnight sounds – the occasional call of a nocturnal bird, the chirping of the crickets, and such – until the plaintive cry of a kitten made me do a double take.

  Chuckling inwardly, I rose from my hiding place and began to pick my way through the thick grass. Slipping through the partially open door, I eased it closed and threw myself into my shift, waiting until I was in my human form to flip the lock and turn on the small
flashlight I’d hung on a cord around my neck.

  “Really? A fucking kitten?” I snorted at the man balancing on one leg as he strapped a prosthesis just above the knee of his other. I’d long since stopped wondering how he managed to always have one stashed where he needed it.

  Lachlan’s teeth nearly glowed against his dark skin as he laughed. “You knew it, didn’t you?”

  “Asshole.” I jostled him with my shoulder and swept the room with my flashlight. “Where to start?”

  Lachlan cocked a brow at me and nodded in the opposite direction of the offices. “If I was keeping something off the books, I think maybe I’d be stashing the evidence somewhere other than the room I kept the legit records in.”

  “Good point.”

  Lachlan stepped away from the wall. “I’m going to head for the other end of the building,” he said. “That way, we can clear it faster.”

  I nodded. “Keep alert,” I advised him. “They run a skeleton crew at night, but there are still security guards.”

  Lachlan nodded and slipped down the darkened hallway, leaving me alone in the small storage room. Deciding to start with a quick inspection of the offices, I made my way down the opposite hall and, holding my flashlight in my teeth, began to rifle through file cabinets.

  Other than neatly organized files that were separated into categories and hanging in just as neatly organized drawers, there was nothing to see — certainly nothing to take note of. I had just pushed the last drawer closed when the faint cry of a kitten made my ears perk up.

  Lachlan had found something.

  Making my way down to the other wing of the building, heard voices approaching and ducked into an empty office.

  “You sure about this, Paul?” the first man said, his voice tinged with annoyance. “Can’t say as I’ve ever seen a fucking cat in these parts, much less a stray.” He grunted. “Too many predators to keep the population down.”

  “I know what I heard,” the other man, Paul, snapped back. “I heard it outside earlier when I was taking a smoke break, too, Darren.”

  “Sure you did,” the first man, Darren, huffed. “What the fuck do you need me for, anyway? You can’t handle a fucking stray cat?”

  The bickering continued as they passed my hiding spot, walking the opposite direction that the kitten sound had come from. Obviously, not the sharpest spoons in the drawer.

  Once I was sure that the coast was clear, I slipped back into the hall and followed my nose to the room emitting the wolf scent.

  “The guards fucking heard you,” I hissed under my breath. “You’re gonna give us away.”

  Even in the dark, I could see Lachlan roll his eyes.

  “To those two half-wits?” Lachlan snorted. “They walked right past me and didn’t even notice.”

  “One of them sounded familiar,” I mused, “but I can’t place him.”

  “Worry about it later,” Lachlan suggested, his eyes gleaming. “I found something that you need to see.” He strode over to a dilapidated cupboard that looked to be held together by baling wire and tugged on the door. I flinched when it gave with a squeal.

  Reaching under piles of old magazines and bags of what looked like rags, Lachlan tugged free an expandable file, the kind you might use to store receipts and the such, and passed it to me.

  Each pocket was labeled with what seemed to be the name of a pack.

  “Check out the third one,” Lachlan hissed.

  I thumbed through the tabs, my breath catching when I saw the label – Silver River. That was the pack that Colby had been sold by.

  “Why would Colby’s records be here?” I wondered, pulling out the sheaf of papers.

  Lachlan tapped his finger on a note in the margin, silently drawing my attention to it.

  “Suitable for breeding project,” I read aloud, my stomach dropping as I realized there was a list of dates labeled DNA draw scribbled underneath. “Fuck! You don’t think they used Colby in their Frankenstein creep show, do you?”

  “I don’t know, man,” Lachlan said softly, “but there is one other entry that might interest you. Check out the last file.”

  I flipped to the tab he suggested and felt my eyebrows creep up. The pocket was empty except for a single sheet of paper, but the label said Coruscation Omega Acquisition Request and the date on the blank form was two days earlier.

  Well, fuck.

  I whistled under my breath, forgetting myself until Lachlan grimaced and shushed me. “I need to warn Clint and Trevor.”

  “There’s more,” Lachlan said grimly, lifting a thick file folder from the cupboard.

  “Shit.” I ground my teeth in frustration. “I don’t have time to go through all that and we don’t dare take it with us.”

  Lachlan shrugged. “You have a cloud account, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  Lachlan rolled his eyes and mumbled something about Neanderthals under his breath before easing open the door behind us to reveal a small computer workstation. “If we’re quiet, they’ll never know we’re here.” With that, he wiggled the mouse, waking the computer, and slid the keyboard over to me. “You log in and I’ll start feeding the scanner.

  Chapter Two

  Rafe

  Two days later, I was back in my office when a firm rap on my open door brought my attention up from the jumble of purloined papers that I’d been combing through.

  “You got a minute?”

  “Of course,” I agreed, holding back the sigh that rose at the sight of Ralph Coraine, the Director of Council of Packs, Security Division and my boss. It was never a good sign when he appeared in my doorway instead of summoning me to his office in the heart of the building. “Come on in.”

  Hooking the guest chair across from my desk with his foot, Ralph pulled it out and lowered his large frame into it. Then he waited.

  After the first few minutes passed in silence, I realized that Ralph was waiting for me to start. The problem was, I had no clue what he wanted to talk about. I finally gave up and shook my head in defeat. “What’s on your mind?”

  Ralph’s brow quirked and he seemed to be holding back a smile. “What? Can’t I just drop in to say hi?”

  I couldn’t help but snort. Ralph was a lot of things, but a casual chatter just wasn’t on the list. “Actually? No. No, you can’t.”

  Ralph laughed. “Well, shucks. In that case, should I remind you about the status meeting?”

  “Oh, shit! I forgot,” I huffed, reaching for my calendar. “When is it?”

  “About an hour and a half ago.”

  Oh. Well, that definitely explained why the boss was in my office.

  “Sorry,” I apologized sincerely. “I lost track of the time.” I snuck a glance at the desk calendar. “Oh, hell. Is it really Thursday?”

  Ralph nodded silently as I scrubbed my fingers through my tangled hair. “I guess that means I lost track of more than just the time, huh?”

  Another silent nod.

  “Is the meeting over?”

  “It is,” Ralph responded calmly. “All of the other investigators are convinced that you must be on the verge of a breakthrough since you missed it.”

  “I wish.” I reached for my coffee cup and took a swallow, wincing when the taste of stale coffee flooded my mouth.

  “Not today’s, huh?”

  “Nope,” I agreed after spitting it back into the cup and taking in the collection of disposable coffee cups littering the surface. “I think it’s safe to say I need to get out of the office.”

  “You think?” Ralph smirked a little. “When was the last time you ate?”

  I shouldn’t have had to think about it, but, sadly, I did. “Lunch, yesterday, I think,” I admitted. “Colby took the kids to a movie this morning, so I worked late.”

  Ralph stood abruptly and gestured for me to follow him. “Let’s go grab a bite.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but the no-nonsense look he shot me made me close it promptly.

  “It�
�ll be a working lunch, Rafe,” Ralph said calmly. “You still owe me a status meeting, remember?”

  Twenty minutes later we were hunched over a two-top in the main room of the pub down the road, plowing our way through two of the special house burgers in relative silence. I’d started to update Ralph on the spiderweb of entangled investigations I was trying to head up as soon as the waitress walked away with our order, but Ralph had shaken his head.

  “Take a break, Rafe,” he’d ordered gently. “You’re better than this. You know that you need to let your brain rest.”

  I’d blown out a breath and nodded, the action jerky. “You’re right,” I’d admitted. “I just feel like I’m spinning my wheels, and every day we aren’t ready to move, we’re one step closer to the bastards getting away.”

  Ralph had grunted noncommittedly and nodded pointedly to the television mounted on the wall. “You should relax more. Maybe you need a hobby.”

  I’d followed his gaze and couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Really? A Bedazzler? Is this your way of telling me that you think my clothes are boring?” I’d snorted. “You want me to add pink rhinestones to my motorcycle jacket?”

  Ralph had shrugged, the twinkle in his eyes the only indication that he was screwing with me. “Maybe it’s time to update our uniforms.”

  “We don’t wear uniforms,” I’d laughed, rolling my eyes. “And somehow I don’t think we’re going to strike fear into the heart of the criminal element by adding sparkly designs to our attire.”

  “Hmm,” Ralph had murmured as the waitress returned to plop our plates down in front of us. “Let’s eat.”

  Once the last fry had been dredged in ranch dressing and the plates shoved aside, Ralph leaned back in his chair. “Go.”

  I nodded, amazed at how easily the thoughts were aligning once I’d forced myself to quit obsessing for a few minutes. “This can’t be handled like a traditional investigation,” I began. “There are too many players, too many locations, and too many unknowns.”

  Ralph nodded but stayed silent, so I continued.

  “Every time we shut one group down, another shows up.”

  “Hydra,” Ralph said softly.

  I felt my head tilt briefly before I caught his meaning. “Greek mythology,” I said.