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She smooths a hand down the front of her workout clothes and straightens her shoulders. “Claudia. Claudia Poole.”
Surprise hits me. “Claudia Poole, the daughter of Benton Poole?”
She beams at me. “The one and only.”
Benton Poole is a billionaire, who makes his money off the backs of others. He’s from the east coast and far enough away from us that we’ve never had to cross paths with the shady motherfucker. “What are you doing in Granton? Shouldn’t you be in New York or something?”
She shrugs and glances around, a shiver working over her body. “I got bored. Wanted an adventure. Decided randomly to come here, and look! It was meant to be. Fated! Because here I am walking through a park and I find my scent match alpha! I never would have met you if I’d stayed in New York!”
She says it like I’m silly for even questioning why she’s here. It makes me grit my teeth. No one fucking talks like that to me. I’m a little surprised she hasn’t realized who I am, who we are.
Ethan glances at me, and then tugs his phone out of his pocket. I don’t have to look to know that he’s pulling up whatever he can about this woman, her father, her reason for being here. Just getting bored seems like a flimsy excuse for flying halfway across the country, but then I’ve never not had responsibility thanks to who my father was, who my pack was.
I couldn’t just take off because I’m bored. And now, with Sadie in the picture, I wouldn’t want to. I have a responsibility to her to stick around and make her safe, to provide for her. Though I suppose if I wanted to take a vacation, Sadie could just come with me now.
My brain flashes to us on a sandy beach somewhere, Sadie wearing one of those teeny little bikinis, her skin turning golden in the sun, our bonding marks on full display, claiming her as ours. Maybe the little swell of a baby bump curving over the flimsy strings holding up her bottoms. Yeah, I like that fucking idea. A lot.
My cock does too.
Claudia notices my burgeoning erection and smirks at me. “Admit it, you’re happy you found me. Or at least part of you is.” She reaches out like she’s going to touch my cock right here in public, and I catch her fingers before she can make contact.
“No,” I growl at her, readying to tell her that no one will ever touch my dick again but my omega, but Claudia immediately tips her head to the side, revealing the pale column of her throat to me in the perfect display of submission. A waft of cherry pie hits me hard now that she’s within touching distance. Apparently, my alpha likes that enough to cut off my rejection.
Sadie’s never bared her throat for me. Hell, she never even drops her eyes from mine when we’re arguing. She always meets me head on, and while part of me loves that, there’s also a part of me that really fucking wants a submissive side to my omega. One that will let me take control, one that trusts me enough to do that.
Ethan works his way between us, turning to face me and press on my chest, creating distance between us. “Maddox, think of Sadie. Think of our omega.”
I do as he demands and think of Sadie last night on the couch. The way the put herself in my hands, trusted me to edge her for hours knowing there would be pleasure at the end. I think of how quickly she told me she trusts me after I’d asked. How she melted into my chest and the sweet moans she’d gifted me.
She might not have shown her neck to me, but she’s submitted in a far more significant way. With her whole body.
My mouth drops open, breathing through my lips instead of through my nose, cutting off as much of the almost too sweet smell of Claudia. It’s not exactly the same as Sadie’s. There’s something a little… off about it. I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to Sadie’s version of the scent or if it’s something else, but either way, it still affects me the same.
And isn’t that fucked?
Ethan glances over his shoulder at Claudia. “Stay here.” She huffs her displeasure, but he ignores her, pushing me farther away before peering up at me. “What do you want to do, boss?”
I grit my teeth. I hate when he calls me that. Even though I know it’s right. I have to decide here. “We need to figure out what’s going on. Maybe Logan can do some tests.” We need answers. More for Sadie than anything. Part of me prickles at the idea of someone out there sharing her scent. It’s fucking mine and no one else should be able to smell it but my pack.
But based on what Danielle told us, Sadie’s actually the one wearing Claudia’s scent. Which means… I shut off the thought before it can fully form and look at Ethan again with a nod. “We’ll bring her back to the penthouse. Have Logan meet us there. He’s been looking into what was done to Sadie, so maybe he’ll be able to figure out what the fuck is happening.”
“And if he can’t?” Ethan glances over his shoulder. “Based on your reaction, there’s an instinct here that’s going to be hard to ignore.”
Shame fills me. I should be stronger than this, should be able to stay loyal to Sadie. There are very few times when I resent my alpha instincts. Overall, I love being an alpha, love being dominant and feeling in control. But this? This is not one of those times. I should be fucking able to resist this, especially with how I feel about Sadie, how it goes beyond instincts and into deep emotions.
“If Logan can’t find us answers, then we keep moving forward with our plan for Sadie. We’ll track down Dr. Schwab and he’ll tell us what we need to know.”
Ethan is typing away at his phone, but that doesn’t mean he’s not invested in this. He is. “I doubt there’s a way to undo this, Dox. I doubt they’ll be able to take a medicine that cancels out whatever the fuck they did to Sadie and Claudia and magically tells us which one is your real scent match.”
My heart thunders in my chest at the implication. It might not be Sadie. It might be Claudia, and if that is the case and there’s a way to undo this, to block the scent or something, would we still want Sadie? Would she still be ours?
Everything in me responds with a resounding, ‘yes!’ and I relax slightly.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. If we come to it,” I say, motioning for Claudia to join us. I feel a lot more in control, the thought of not having Sadie sobering me up from my alpha instincts right fucking quick.
The omega beams at me as she joins us, giddily bouncing from foot to foot. It would be cute if Sadie were doing it. I would smile back at her and give her whatever she fucking wants. But this is not Sadie and not my omega. So I only fold my arms over my chest and say, “I think you should come with us. One of our packmates is a doctor and I want him to check you out.”
She giggles. “Oh, good. I want to check him out, too.”
