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“Is everything alright?”
He shook his head.
“It’s the police. They called the other night and I forgot to listen to the message.”
Tapping the green button to answer, he brought his ear to the phone. He only said a few pleasantries before his scent turned to a burned sugar smell. I moved into his space and put a hand on his back. As I rubbed soothing circles along his spine, he leaned his shoulder into my chest, the light contact filling me with satisfaction. I hated not being able to hear what was being said but if this was all I could do to help, then I’d do it.
“Okay, thank you for telling me but I—I’m going to need some time to think about it. Sure. Bye.”
He ended the call and dropped his phone back into his pocket, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. The burnt sugar scent was lessening in his perfume, but I didn’t want to risk upsetting him further, so I just stayed there and kept my hand on his back. He opened his eyes and looked up at me. The slightest bit of red leaching into the veins in his eyes gave away how close he was to tears but also made the green in his irises more prominent than I’d ever seen it. Then again, I’d never really been up close like this with him when I wasn’t in a blind rage or practically catatonic.
“Tell me?”
His sigh had a slight shake to it, and I couldn’t resist the temptation any longer to pull him into my arms. He came willingly and his arms wrapped around my waist at the same time mine went around his shoulders. There wasn’t enough of a height difference between us for him to rest his head on my chest, like he would have been able to with Theo or Trevor, but he leaned his head on my shoulder, forehead against my neck, breath tickling along my skin as he spoke.
“They said that the Alpha who took me, Clint, is refusing to cooperate with their investigation into the drug, unless I come and speak to him.”
My growl came out so quickly that a nearby family startled and moved further away from us. My arms tightened around Ethan as a soft whine escaped him.
“You owe that man nothing, Ethan. You do not have to go.”
“I know but what if he could help people like Cat and Theo and the others. What if something good could come from his research? Don’t I owe it to them?”
“Absolutely the fuck not. If he wanted to help people, to begin to atone for the shit he did to you, he would willingly help. Not put bullshit conditions on it or you.”
I felt more of the tension bleed from his body as his scent returned to its normal sweetness and his breathing evened out. I continued to just hold him until he spoke.
“Thanks, Miles.”
I stepped back from the hug but kept an arm on his lower back, steering him toward the car again.
“We can talk about it with the others when we get home if you want. Whatever you decide, we will have your back. If you decide to go, you won’t have to do it alone.”
He nodded as I opened the door for him, and he sank into the seat with a far-off expression on his face. I resolved to bring back that smile he’d had most of the evening, on the way home. It was time for me to accept that I wanted this man to be my Omega, to date him and give us a chance for more.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TREVOR
I sat in my office with the door closed, my thoughts spinning over how much had changed in the last month. Fuck, even the last week. We’d gotten our Sunshine back, and that seemed to have pushed everything between the pack and Ethan into overdrive.
Before Shae had been taken, I had started meeting with Dr. Bea, the matronly woman that Drake House employed for its employees’ mental health services. It was insane how much the therapy had helped me sort through the fucking mess my mind had become. We’d started with three sessions a week, which was a lot at first. Jade had been there for a few of the ones where I knew we would be discussing what happened with Poppy. But little by little, I was starting to feel like myself again.
Theo had been right; I had lost myself. I’d made sure that only Jade and sometimes Shae saw the other side of me anymore. The side I never hid from those I loved before Poppy had taken so much from me—before I’d let what she did take so much from me. By blaming all Omegas, letting that hatred fester, and refusing to get help, I’d let her have power over me. Dr. Bea had helped me fully separate Omegas in general from what had happened to me, ensuring that I only held responsible the one Omega who was actually to blame.
Apologizing to everyone in the pack for not going to therapy sooner, and all the things I’d put them through as a result, had been easy enough. I’d been able to face everyone, except Ethan. Jade and Theo had agreed with me that it wouldn’t help if I wasn’t ready to work on building a friendship with Ethan. The chance that either of us could inadvertently trigger the other was too high. Then everything had happened with Shae and that was all that mattered for any of us. Now that we had Shae back, though, I wanted to fix things with him. That night when Shae was taken, as we’d left for Drake House, he’d moved toward me like he wanted to say something or comfort me. I’d felt my pulse skip for a moment until his steps faltered and I saw the almost fearful look on his face before his hand dropped. It had felt like a dagger to my already aching heart.
He’d taken my words at face value and cared for Miles when he wouldn’t, couldn’t listen to anyone else. He’d kept Miles going and I was as grateful for that as I was for how much he’d helped my team run down leads and locate Shae. The day we all were together in the hospital was equal parts fever dream and fear. We’d had Shae back but didn’t know what would happen to Theo. I’d been the last to fall asleep, afraid that, if I did, I’d wake, and my brother would have been lost in the night or something else would happen to my pack. I’d laid my head on the bed, a hand on Theo and one on Jade and had let go of my reservations, pressing my face into Ethan’s legs, letting the combination of his cinnamon roll scent and the rest of my pack’s scents calm me. My dreams had been filled with what our pack would be like if we were together like that all the time. Dreams I’d stopped letting myself have had roared to the front of my mind again as the Omega I’d always wanted finally had a face.
A smooth rap on my door told me that Jade had arrived. She came in, knowing she didn’t need to wait for my permission to enter. There was nothing in life that I could possibly hide from the woman who owned my soul so completely. Not to mention that we were at work and she was technically my boss. Thoughts of things she could get me to do in this very office had me getting hard so fast my head spun.
She took a deep breath, recognizing the arousal her arrival had inspired through my scent and the bond. Smirking, she moved over to perch on my desk, forcing me to move my chair back to give her room. Jade slipped one of her heels off and crossed her legs, pressing her foot lightly into the bulge in my slacks, and purred. Fuck.
“Is that for me, love?”
I nodded fast, completely under her spell and ready to do anything she asked. She hummed a throaty, sex-drenched sound of approval and leaned into me, threading her hands through the looser strands of hair in the messy bun at the back of my head. Tightening her grip, she forced my head back as she pressed her foot more firmly into my cock. I hissed at the pleasure-pain combination, and she dived in to catch the sound with her mouth.
I hadn’t come since before Shae had been taken, so if anything happened here it would be over embarrassingly fast. I needed to shut it down, anyway. There was a reason I’d called her down here and, as much as I wished that reason was sinking into her pussy or making her come on my tongue, I knew Cole would be waiting for me to call him to my office. I pulled back from her perfect, full lips and groaned lightly because I really wished I could just disappear with my mate for a few hours.
