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“She told you she wanted to go out with you. I doubt she’ll stand you up, love.”
The endearment slipped out and I grit my teeth. Fuck. Distraction was impeding my actions far too much tonight. I never called Cas the sweet pet names I wanted to refer to him as, because it would give him the impression that I was in love with him. Which was the truth, but ideally I would keep the truth a secret. He deserved better than me. If things were different and Freya was a normal woman, I would be all but shoving him in her direction.
As it was, I was jealous.
Both of the fact that she had asked him out and not me, and that Freya got to spend time with Cas in a way I never got to. On a romantic date. How perfect. I was jealous of both sides of the relationship.
“Isn’t it odd she asked me out all of a sudden? You’re usually the suspicious one.”
“Considering her situation, I’m not shocked about her asking you out.”
She was an Omega. Had to be, based on the information Jude had given me. And her true designation explained so much. What it didn’t explain was how the fuck she was alive and functioning. The woman had to be on the edge of a breakdown. I hadn’t gotten around to giving Caspian that information yet, and he looked at me in confusion. Though he ought to have those details on hand, I wasn’t in much of a mood to explain. And part of me didn’t want to ruin their future date by telling Cas she was hiding her designation, so I would let them have their fun first. “Come on,” I said, strolling up to the VIP area and making a beeline for Matthias’ office. “We’ve got work to do, remember? There’s a reason you’re not allowed to drink.”
For me, the drink did little more than burn my throat on the way down. Angels didn’t have to eat, drink, or breathe, and thus they also couldn’t get drunk. We liked to keep up appearances when in places like nightclubs, though.
“We’ve made absolutely no progress on the case, Shan,” Cas said, complaining. “Where are we supposed to go from here? There are no leads.”
Freya was our lead. Our only one so far. I had a feeling neither Caspian nor Matthias would appreciate the direction my line of questioning was about to venture in. Knocking once on the door to his office, I didn’t wait for a response before entering. With the bass vibrating the entire building, even our enhanced hearing wouldn’t register a voice from inside the soundproofed room. Unlocked, the door slid open to reveal the owner of Club Chaos sitting behind his desk with his Omega mate in his lap.
They’d obviously torn apart seconds before, cheeks flush with colour and breath coming faster than normal. Matthias’ hair was rumpled and there were wrinkles in his ironed white shirt, his eyes black with lust. Both for blood and sex, I could imagine. His fangs were on display, too. The man in his lap was perfuming up the room with the scent of strawberries and cream, but his scent did nothing for me. Not like how I basked in Freya’s scent. Blonde hair fell over his shoulders as he turned toward to face the door with a smirk and a chuckle before sliding off his Alpha’s lap.
“Sorry, baby. I didn’t realize you had business to attend to tonight,” he said, pressing a kiss to Matthias’ neck.
The club owner glared at us, reluctantly letting go of his Omega as the black retreated from his eyes. “Neither did I,” he grumbled.
“The simple solution would have been to lock the door,” I said, leaning against the doorjamb with no intention of giving them privacy again. They were fully clothed and would have plenty of time to finish later. “It would have taken more effort than simply turning a knob for me to enter.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that you would have figured out a way in, regardless. You two are like fucking cockroaches.”
I’d been called worse plenty of times over the years. Caspian rolled his eyes, stepping past me and into the room. He levelled his flirty smirk at the Omega, who looked him up and down with no small amount of interest. Subtly, I shifted myself to block some of his view. Cas didn’t notice, but Matthias’ Omega did. “You’ll have time to finish feeding later,” Caspian said. “Believe me, I know it sucks to be interrupted. I’m sure Shan has a wonderfully important reason for this visit.”
“Thereon, come back in thirty minutes. That’s the time limit for these pains in my ass.”
“And then you’ll be a pain in his ass? It looked like that was the direction you two were heading,” Caspian said teasingly.
“Every second you spend taunting me is a second you can’t use for whatever questions you came to ask,” Matthias said dryly, while Thereon chuckled on his way out of the room. He brushed his shoulder against Caspian’s chest in a way that made a growl rumble in my throat, irritation slicing through me. Flirting was one thing. Touching was another matter entirely.
The Omega took note of my grumble and brushed his fingers along my collarbone as he slid past me, rolling his eyes with a quirk to his lips. How Matthias handled him, I had no idea. If Freya were going around flirting with everyone, I would have plenty to say about that. None of the words would be good and all of them would be extremely controlling. We were at odds as it was; having her as our Omega would make the hate-lust vibes explosive.
No matter how many reasons I came up with for why we weren’t a match made in Heaven, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting her.
Closing the door after Thereon, I locked it this time and then made my way over to Matthias’ desk. It was a large dark mahogany piece, intricately carved and aged beyond what you would typically see in the office of a nightclub entrepreneur. His chair behind it was in stark contrast, a supportive plush office chair in the style of ultra-important CEOs. On our side of the desk, there were two small chairs that were intentionally uncomfortable, likely so no one would stay and chat with him for long.
Off in a corner of the space was a lounge area with a loveseat and two matching armchairs in the same blue as the night sky. Not the city’s night sky, where light pollution ensured the sky never truly darkened, but the sky from remote locations where big cities had yet to take over the landscape.
I took a seat in one of the tiny chairs and Caspian stood behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder. The touch was more to soothe his own nerves than to comfort me, but I revelled in it all the same. If we were meeting with anyone else, I would have shaken off his touch for a more professional appearance, but Matthias had seen us grinding together out on the crowded dance floor. No point in hiding our entanglement now.
“You’re wasting your time,” he said dryly, watching as I got comfortable and crossed one ankle over my thigh.
“I’m sure we’ll get through all my questions,” I said.
I was stalling, though. He saw right through my projected nonchalance. These questions were ones I didn’t want to ask, but had to for the sake of our mission. “If you don’t start talking, I’ll cut your time down to fifteen minutes.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I made sure my back was resting against the flimsy back of the chair. “Does Freya frequently take vacations?”
Matthias blinked at me a few times, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his desk. Caspian’s fingers dug into my shoulder as I’m sure he fought to keep the surprise off his face. I already knew the answer to the question I’d asked. She had to, since she was an Omega. Freya couldn’t very well work while she was in heat. Unless her mysterious protector was also an Alpha who knotted her — I doubted it, considering she was unmarked, and I couldn’t imagine anyone could knot her for long without claiming her — she would have frequent heats. Her body would cry out for an Alpha knot and throw her into a needy state as often as she could physically handle. Or more often than that, depending on how long she’d gone without.
“Why is this relevant?” Matthias asked.
