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Snow was falling again, and I cursed when I got close enough to make out her pale face and reddened nose. She’d been crying. My throat was clogged with so many conflicting emotions, I wasn’t sure what would come out if I spoke, so I didn’t say a word. I just picked her up and carried her to the Hummer.
I’d never touched her before now, and our skin didn’t come in contact, but the scent of her—vanilla and cinnamon, though it was sharp with notes of distress—traveled straight from my lungs to my heart, and wrapped around it.
She had never smelled like this before. I’d known she wore some sort of scent blocker, as most omegas did, but it was a crime to cover this. Her natural perfume was like breathing in one of the first mornings of the winter holidays, when the kitchen was rich with the scents of baking, and the house filled with laughter and joy, expectation and delight.
As I sat her on the back seat and pulled away, her ice-cold hand shot out and stopped me.
And the world stopped turning.
I gasped as a bolt of pure feeling—pure bliss—shot through me, and she echoed the sound. Her hazel-green eyes, red rimmed and tear filled, went wide, and her nostrils flared, trying to take in my scent. When she couldn’t pick it up, her nose scrunched up, and her tiny, perfect face creased into a frown.
Thank god I’d picked up the scent blockers. If I hadn’t, she would know what I did.
That she wasn’t just my charge. She was my true mate. My omega.
My life.
And she’d been hurt. Maybe even… My alpha nature roared inside me, ready to find the one who had taken her and left her here in the snow, and tear out his heart for her. But her eyes were glassy and unfocused, as if she were going into shock.
Quickly, I shut the door behind me, closing us into the back seat together, then reached under the long bench for one of the blankets we kept there. Omegas were rare, but the Paxson family had more than their share, and when omegas had a bad day, they needed comfort. Which meant blankets, warmth, sweet foods and drinks, and safety. I’d added a few extra blankets to the stash, just in case.
My gut twisted as I wrapped one around her shoulders, covering her up almost entirely, then turned the heat to its highest setting.
“Th-thank you.” Her whimpered words felt like a knife in my gut. She shouldn’t thank me. I’d allowed her to be taken.
My voice trembling with rage and shame, I managed to ask, “Do you need a hospital? Valentine, sweetheart, are you hurt?” She shook her head slightly, after a slight pause. “Did he… Did he touch you? Did he—” Fuck. “We’re going to the hospital.” I tried to pull away, but her grip was surprisingly firm on my arm.
“No,” she gasped, sucking in a quick breath. “He didn’t even touch me. I’m just cold.”
Shit. “You could have hypothermia.”
Another head shake. “I was only out there for a few minutes. I don’t want—I just need?—”
I cupped her cold cheeks in my hands. “What do you need? Anything. I’ll give it to you.”
Her eyes met mine, and something sensual flared in her innocent gaze. “Take me home?”
I opened my mouth to answer. Did she mean the hotel? Her apartment in Denver?
My alpha nature had me growling at a third option. Home to my cabin in Aspen Springs. To my bed, for the rest of our lives.
But my phone rang. I knew the ring tone.
“Mr. Paxson, I have her. She’s unhurt, but cold. She’s asked to be taken home.” I gave him a quick explanation of what had happened. Or at least, what I thought had happened.
He snarled. “I’ll expect a full report in the morning, and your fucking resignation afterward. How could you let her be taken?”
I wasn’t going to bother to explain myself. He was right. I had left my charge, and no matter what the circumstances had been, I deserved to be fired.
I sure as fuck didn’t deserve her.
Suddenly the phone was snatched from my hand. And my world turned upside down again.
“Nicky, you will shut your… your fucking mouth right now and listen to me.” I’d never heard little Valentine curse. I didn’t like it.
But my cock did. Hearing that word fall from her lips was apparently all it took to have me rigid. I shifted, the position I was wedged into in the back seat becoming painful as my dick grew hard, and listened to Valentine quietly put her brother in his place.
“I went to a club with Nessa and Tori.” She hesitated, and the dim interior lighting showed her face going a rosy pink. “I’m more or less off the suppressants. I needed a beta. Yes, needed. Dr. Grantham prescribed it.” She closed her eyes, not looking at me. “Because I’ve never… had it.” A longer pause. “Sex, you idiot. I’ve never had sex and I didn’t want my first time to be in my heat. Or with an alpha.”
