Anton.
My stomach drops so fast it feels like I'm falling.
Hugging my notebook tight to my chest, I shift so I’m behind Cliff and try to think. What did he say our story was again?
I'm not an omega.
The guards overreacted.
Was that it?
Fuck. Why won't my brain work?
Anton steps out of the kitchen, dressed casually, dark jeans and a plain shirt, like he just happened to be in the neighborhood. He looks around the room with the unhurried ease of a man who's been waiting for a while.
Has he been hiding in the apartment this whole time? Or was he waiting in the parking lot? Has he been here for days?
I hold my breathas his eyes move over the pack one by one before settling on me.
"Elowen." He says my name like a period at the end of a sentence.
"Hey, Anton." I try to keep my voice even and fail miserably.
Then without a word, the whole pack shifts. Raff steps forward and to the left, positioning himself beside Cliff. Perrin slides to Cliff's right, and suddenly there's a wall of bodies between me and Anton.
Hell, even Adam shifts closer, his arm nearly brushing mine. If I wasn't so terrified, I'd be touched.
"Is there a reason you let yourself into Elowen’s apartment?" Raff asks.
"I'm here to check on my employee." Anton's voice has an edge to it, like he walked in here ready for a fight. Then his dark eyes find the gap between Cliff and Raff's shoulders where he can barely see me. "Are you okay, Pérez?"
I blink.
That's not the question I was expecting.
"Yeah. I'm fine," I say.
"You sure?" His eyes move over what little of me he can see. "Nobody hurt you?"
"No.” I shake my head. “Nobody hurt me."
He's quiet for a moment. Then something in his expression shifts, and he almost looks…annoyed? "Yeah," he says, more to himself than anyone. "I figured."
I blink, not sure what’s happening anymore.
“You know,” he continues, and his expression completely changes. It looks incredibly pissed. "At first, I thought that Cliff had snatched you for ransom." His eyes cut briefly to my mate, and I feel Cliff’s rage through our bond.
"Pharmacists who know how to keep their mouths shut are hard to find,” Anton says. “I thought maybe he figured you were valuable." He pauses, his jaw working as he and Cliff glare at one another. "But then I started thinking about what actually happened. And the way these guys were acting,” he looks at Raff and Perrin, before settling back on me, “and thescentrolling off all of you. It was brief, and everything was falling into chaos, but Ismelledit, Pérez.” His eyes narrow. “You weresoakedin omega pheromones.”
Every muscle in my body locks, his words hitting me like a stone dropped in still water.
"She's a fucking doctor." Raff throws a look at Anton, making it clear he thinks this line of questioning is a waste of oxygen. "All the patients are omegas. Of course she's going to pick up pheromones in a camp full of omegas. It's not exactly shocking that she'd smell like them."
I press my lips together hard, fighting back the reflex to tell him I don’t actually interact with the patients at the market. I did in the real world, but the Morder is very different.
"She’s the fuckingpharmacist,” Anton snaps. “The pharmacists don'ttouchthe patients,” he snarls. "Plus, she was on the other side of the camp. Away from the omegas. Filling orders for the medical staff." His voice drops as he growls, "So try again."
The room smells like a fight that hasn't started yet. Sharp. Almost acidic. And I press myself closer to Adam's side. Thankfully, he doesn’t move away.
