“Okay.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “So, he didn’t say any of that but he looked toward Row’s bar, then back at this door” —he motions toward the stairs– “pointed, then gruntedthereat me.”
“That’s more on brand for him.”
Styx nods. “I can’t say I don’t appreciate a man of few words but the big guy’s face speaks volumes even if he decides to stay silent.”
“Also true.” I smile and hand Niko his mask. “I’m just a text message away.”
“I know. I’ll be fine.” He lifts the soft faux leather covered in studs to his face but hesitates briefly as his eyes bounce between mine. “I promise.”
Niko dips his chin and gives me a sweet kiss, one that makes my heart flip in my chest, and I can’t help but feel a little at ease because of it.
Plus, Styx knows we’re a pack.
Well, he knows we’re together. We still haven’t exchanged bites, and we haven’t done anything with Rune that wouldindicate to anyone else that he’s more than an overprotective alpha who will fuck up literally anything that looks in our direction, but Styx knows we’re something more to each other than friends.
This is the first time there’s been real confirmation, though, and the small wave of happiness that rolls off of him as he watches me press one more quick kiss to my omega’s lips before he masks up and heads down the stairs makes me blush.
And not just because he watched that happen.
“He’s going to be okay, Row.”
I nod as I watch the door close before looking up at my beta. “I know. I know he will, I just, I can’t help but worry about him.”
“I get it.” When I look at him skeptically, Styx laughs. “Indirectly. I feel your worry the same way I felt how much you love him, and that is something I do understand.”
“You have a… Do you have someone you love that you worry about until you’re crazy, too?”
“I do,” he says, his expression turning a touch dreamy as he pushes a hand back through his red hair. “He probably makes me more crazy than anything else in my life right now.”
The fact that he has someone like that, that the male I view asmy betacould be in love with someone else has me feeling unjustly annoyed.
It makes me a huge hypocrite.
He just said he knows I’m in love with Niko because it’s obvious I am. I’m sure he assumes I’m in love with Rune, too, because I go all clingy omega when he’s around, and he wouldn’t be wrong for thinking that. That gigantic alpha’s actions have been more than enough for me to fall for him whether we’ve acted on those feelings or not.
So, being annoyed with Styx for having a mate or whatever he has is total bullshit on my part. I can’t stop it, though, and he is clearly reading that on my face right now.
“So adorable,” he says as he reaches out and takes my chin between his thumb and index finger. “Jealousy looks good on you, but I can assure you, it’s not necessary.”
I free myself from his grasp with a huff. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Were you this stubborn about Mikhail and Rune, too? Or do I get special treatment because we have theemployer/ employeedynamic on top of things?”
“Whatthings? There are no things. None.”
“Mhm.”
“Seriously. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Styx takes a step toward me, just one as he smirks in my face. “I know what it looks like when someone is attracted to me, Row.” Then he leans in and breathes deep, whispering close to my ear on the exhale. “And I might be a beta, but I know what it smells like when a sexy little omega slicks every time she sees me, too.”
My heart rate kicks up a few notches, beating a little faster as I turn my head to look into those gun metal grey eyes. “I don’t… You’re… I’m not?—”
“Ready to admit you want me as badly as I want you? Still denying you need me in your pack as much as I need to be a part of it?” Styx grins as he straightens up, smoothing out the front of his tight black t-shirt as he tilts his head. “All in due time, love.”
My jaw drops as the cocky shithead chuckles then winks before he walks out of the stock room.
Fuck.
