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“Tomorrow. You’ll see me tomorrow.”
“OK, see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”
Darting up the stairs before I could make any more awkward small talk, I listened for the door before I let myself out of the stairs on the second floor.
Chapter 18
Caspian
I’dfloatedbacktothe hotel in a blissed out bubble of happiness, not needing to wake Shan up to feed me. The one taste of Freya had been enough to soothe the hunger that had been plaguing me for weeks. At least until we went back to Club Chaos. I was sure seeing her would make me more desperate to sample her again. Becoming addicted to her was a forgone conclusion.
Waking from my sleep to a featherlight touch on my shoulder, I rolled over into Shan and kissed him once before realizing what I was doing. Then my cheeks went pink and I pulled back, embarrassed. I had to remind myself that he was affectionate, yes, but he wasn’t in love with me. Not like I was in love with him. I was cursed to love three people who didn’t feel that back, because I was well on my way to falling in love with Freya, too.
“Your date went well enough that you didn’t need to wake me to feed,” Shan said.
His hand reached out to pull me closer again, tucking my head under his chin. My body relaxed with the contact. “We didn’t really… I ate her out in the stairwell of her apartment building.”
“I bet that got you extra horny, didn’t it? My little exhibitionist.”
If I didn’t know better, I would say Shan sounded jealous. Actually, maybe he was. He was as interested in Freya as I was and I’d gotten to taste her. I would be jealous if I were in his position. “Not that risky,” I countered. “Only a couple people out and about after one in the morning.”
He laughed. “In this city? Plenty of people are out at all hours. If you were in the building, why didn’t you go to her unit?”
“She didn’t want me to know which one was hers. Originally, she wasn’t even going to let me walk her all the way home.”
I’d been shocked and thrilled when we’d stopped in front of the entrance to her actual apartment building. She must be finally realizing I’m trustworthy. It made me intensely guilty that I was hiding anything from her at all. At multiple points during the evening, I’d nearly blurted out everything she could want to know about our mission. Instead, I’d settled on telling her about myself, something I rarely wanted to do.
“I think I know why she didn’t want you upstairs,” Shan said, sliding from the bed and stretching his arms up on his head.
I salivated at the way his muscles stretched taut, showing off every inch of tattoos covering his torso. How was I supposed to look at his tantalizing bare skin and not drool? Especially when there was a bulge in his tight fitting boxer briefs. Shaking my head, I tried to focus on the conversation. Shan smirked at my distraction.
“She’s private. If I had a home, I doubt I’d want all sorts of people in it either.”
“It’s more than that.”
He sighed, strolling over to the dresser to pull out a shirt. I lamented the loss of my eye candy, but this was better for my focus. We were having a conversation, not jumping into foreplay.
“I think she’s an Omega.”
Blinking a few times, I sat up in bed. The sheet fell down my chest, exposing my hard cock. Unlike Shan, I didn’t wear underwear to bed. All the better for jerking off in the middle of the night when I hadn’t fed in a while. There was less of a chance of waking Shan up if I didn’t have to shimmy underwear off my hips. He tossed a shirt and loose pajama pants in my direction. They landed on the bed beside me, but I didn’t reach for them.
“An Omega? Didn’t we talk about this? She’s twenty-four. There’s no way she would have survived this long without an Alpha.”
“Originally I thought so too, but I’ve looked into it a bit more. If she’d revealed later, at twenty instead of right at eighteen, she would have a chance. And don’t tell me she isn’t the strongest woman you’ve ever met.”
I slid out of bed, putting on the clothes. My erection was going down, slowly but surely. It was a good thing Shan and I had learned to ignore my obvious signs of arousal when necessary. Because I was aroused at inopportune times often. “That’s crazy. From what I’ve heard, she would be at death’s door. Besides, she doesn’t smell like an Omega.”
“She doesn’t smell like a Beta either. I didn’t notice until I was looking, but there’s something about her scent. You can grasp the more prominent notes of it, the vanilla and roasted coffee. Beneath that, though, there’s nothing. Not the Beta hint that’s usually present, just nothing. It’s not noticeable because no one pays attention to Beta scents. People only care about scents if it has the underlying Alpha or Omega notes.”
He had a point. From the beginning, I’d had a feeling at the edge of my conscience about something missing from her scent. I couldn’t put my finger on it and by the second time I met her, I was so invested I didn’t pay attention to her scent. Well, I paid enough attention to note it made my head spin and limbs heavy with arousal. I’d assumed that was simply because she was gorgeous and sassy and had intense domme vibes.
“What made you look for inconsistencies in her scent?”
“The contact I reached out to the other night informed me Kylan Jitara is after a secret Omega who hangs out at Club Chaos. Why would Jitara’s henchmen go after Freya if they don’t believe she’s the Omega they’re looking for?”
Sometimes I wondered what kind of contacts Shan had. The man could get all kinds of information. What was he giving in exchange? I wouldn’t be surprised if he was blackmailing people. Blackmail would be on brand for him.
“A compelling story, at least,” I said. “Do you think…”
