“It means we get to sit in the back, duh.” Hayden grins, grabbing my hand and pulling me into the back seat with him.
“No arguin’,” I give Sam a look in the rearview mirror. “We gotta make sure we’re at Thornfield by the time Ozzy and Fuzzy secure Hudson.”
“I know, Trouble,” Sam grins as he meets my eyes. “I’ll get us there.”
I send a wave of love through our bond. “Of that, Sammy-boy, I have no doubt.”
thirty-seven
Ozzy
4:23 p.m.
I’m glad Roland is staying in the van, otherwise his scent would get me killed.
I’ve been around omegas before, but nothing’s ever felt likethis.
Even under the de-scenting cream I know Helaena gave him—which has to be expiring soon, because I shouldn’t be able to scent himat all—something about it calls to me.
My throat bobs as I show him how to communicate with us through our earpieces. “Hold down this button, and you can let us know if anyone is approaching. We’ll take out the one lone guy standing guard, but if there are others Leslie didn’t know about, it’s very important you let us know.”
Roland nods, his jaw tight as he stares at the screen. His light brown eyes shine with determination as his gaze roams over the screens in front of us. Right now, it shows a video feed of the exterior of the van.
Fuzzy brakes hard, causing him to fall into me. Somehow, I keep my balance as I brace his arms. “Whoa. You okay?”
Eyes wide, he nods again before clearing his throat and sitting upright. “Yeah, thanks.”
I pat his arm in a way that even I recognize is awkward. “Good.”
When he has a handle on the surveillance equipment, we sit in a tense silence.
It’s not that I want to fuck him. I don’t. Even if he’s an omega, and I’m alpha, and his lemon scent draws something out of my chest I haven’t felt in twenty years.
The instinct I have…it’s more like I want to draw him close and keep him safe.
Sam shared a little bit of his story with me, but it’s hard to believe that he passed as a beta for so many years. I’m surprised nobody spotted him—he’s too pretty for his own good.
He’s also young. Early forties at the oldest. A far cry from my fifty-two years.
“So,” Roland breaks the silence, “what’s it like having the world's toughest omega as a daughter-in-law?”
I bark a laugh. The question catches me off guard, but it’s strange, I don’t have any qualms about opening up to him. “The first time she shook my hand,” I chuckle, shaking my head, “she was covered in the blood of the men who had been sent to kill me.” Roland’s eyes widen nearly to saucers as he takes in my words. “Then she wiped the blood off her hands, fixed her hair and shook my hand. Introduced herself as my daughter in law.”
“That’s…wow.” Roland shakes his head.
“The first time I met her,” Fuzzy calls from the front seat, “a beta patient at the facility had just reached around and copped a feel. Before I could do a single thing, she had his hand on the table and had stabbed a kitchen knife through it.”
I’m not surprised.
“What did you do?” Roland asks, releasing a laugh of disbelief.
“Told the asshole to quit dicking around and get back to work.”
I snort. That onereallydoesn’t surprise me.
We fall into an easy conversation, Roland telling us how he fell in love with a female alpha, Naomi, and how hard it was when she left.
I tell them about my late wife, and how it nearly broke me when she died.
