Chapter 27 · No Collar

"Put it on him." The man dropped the collar on the iron table so hard it rang. "Or I read his file out loud, right here, to every man in this room."

Levi didn't move. He didn't even look at the thing — black leather, a silver clasp shaped like a lock, the kind they strap on Omegas at the registry so everyone downwind knows what they're smelling. His hands stayed flat on the table like he was bored.

"No," Levi said.

"No isn't an option, Kade." The man's name was Orlov, mid-tier enforcer from the Northern crews, here to collect a debt he didn't actually think he could collect. He smiled like he already knew he'd won. "Twenty years you hid it. I get to be the one who ends that. Put it on, or I put it on for you."

I was standing against the wall behind Levi's chair, arms crossed, doing the job Levi paid me to do, which was mostly standing there looking like something that bites. That was supposed to be all I did tonight.

Then Orlov reached across the table for Levi's collar — his actual shirt collar, to grab him by it —