Chapter 5
Fenrir was brought a change of clothes and ordered to get ready while Oberon left to officially sign the contract. Trying to avoid the cameras, Fen had gone into the attached bathroom, where he’d cleaned up first and then gotten dressed.
The process hasn’t taken long. This wasn’t the first time he’d been put into a three-piece suit, though he admitted part of him was a bit disappointed by the implications.
Then again, it was his own fault for momentarily thinking too highly of the alpha.
After dropping that much coin on Fen’s body, of course Oberon wanted to parade him around.
He was no different from Michelle, no matter how much better he smelled or how good his touch had felt.
The conversation between them hadn’t been lacking either. Fenrir couldn’t believe he’d cursed the man out. He never would have dared swear at Michelle for fear of retaliation, but there’d been no anxiety afterward when he’d told Oberon to fuck off.
To his credit, the alpha hadn’t seemed all that upset about it either. He’d even laughed. As though he enjoyed Fenrir’s temper.
Fen met his own gaze in the mirror across from him and stilled. Oberon wouldn’t be fond of his temper if he truly experienced it. If he had to deal with Fenrir during influx. Would the alpha even be able to recognize what was happening, or would he wrongly assume Fenrir was going feral?
Would he put him down like a rabid dog first, and ask questions later?
Fenrir couldn’t risk it. Couldn’t lose himself like that in front of a member of the White Frost. This mission he’d been given had to be completed fast, before there was even a chance of him slipping.
Already, his pheromones had been put to more use tonight than usual.
If he wasn’t careful, could he lose his grip on the energy coursing within him and end up overloading?
His palms flattened on the sink counter as his stomach clenched painfully.
It’d been months since his last episode, and there was no reason for him to worry about suffering a relapse.
The whole reason Michelle was loosening the leash and allowing him to attempt this was because he’d finally stabilized.
She hadn’t needed to pull him back from a violent outburst in a while.
So long as he was careful, didn’t overdo it, he’d be fine.
Wiping his damp brow with a hand towel, Fenrir urged himself to get moving.
Hiding in here, freaking out about all the potential what-ifs, wasn’t conducive to his goals.
He smoothed his palms down the crimson silk suit jacket he’d been given, then adjusted the beige vest, and straightened the red tie.
Satisfied that he looked his best, he pulled open the bathroom door and entered the room.
Only to be assailed by strong alpha pheromones that knocked him back a full step. His arm immediately went to his nose, trying to block out as much as possible, his eyes seeking out the source.
Michelle stood by the bed, beautiful features twisted into a look of disdain.
She was a classic beauty, with curly dark hair and a signature red lip.
More than once, she’d been mistaken for a movie star, told her looks were wasted running the Wardrobe when she could easily be famous on the big screen.
Sometimes she humored the flatterers.
Sometimes she used her dominant pheromones to bring them to their knees.
It depended on her mood.
And it was abundantly clear that right now, her mood was shit.
An alpha could use their pheromones any number of ways, but there were bonds that could be formed between them and an omega, making their smell more potent. During his darkest time, she’d appeared and pulled him from the darkness, leaving her mark as a result.
Fenrir had lost time in the lab. Weeks bleeding into months, until a whole year had been stolen away. There were mere snippets left, moments he could barely picture properly, but one thing was devastatingly clear.
Michelle, standing over the dead body of the head researcher, reaching out to Fen.
Her pheromones had felt different from all the others. Soothing in a way he hadn’t ever experienced before. It wasn’t like he enjoyed the smell or the feel of them, per se, in fact, mentally, he’d rejected them time and time again. But something about her pheromones could do the impossible.
They pulled him back from the brink of insanity. Coaxed him into the world of the sane.
She was both his jailer and his savior, a cosmic joke that wasn’t lost on him.
If ever there was a chance to truly escape her, he would take it in a heartbeat, as it were…
Leaving her was impossible. She’d proven that over and over again.
It was her favorite lesson to teach him whenever she was displeased.
Influx on its own could typically be treated and managed. If Fenrir was a born omega, or if he was pure alpha and nothing else, not only could his condition most likely be fixed, he wouldn’t even suffer from it in the first place.
“You let him put his filthy hands on you.” Her angry gaze swept down Fenrir’s body.
“I was trying to be obedient,” Fen lied, knowing better than to let on that he’d gotten swept up in the moment. That he’d welcomed Oberon’s touch for no other reason but that he’d wanted to experience it. “The alpha had yet to sign the contract.”
Whether she believed him or not was impossible to glean. It was never easy to decipher what she was feeling or why. To an outsider, it might even seem like she was jealous of Oberon, but that wasn’t the case.
There was nothing romantic between Fenrir and Michelle, despite the various rumors floating around about her secret lover, known only as the Wolf.
It was a nickname born of calculation, however, not fondness.
She’d needed a way to refer to her future weapon in public without risking unveiling his identity.
Up until this point, she’d only used him on small things. To take out a pesky defector or silence the competition.
As a damn ice maker when her drink got warm or she found her tea too hot.
If people knew what really happened behind closed doors, that she used the Wardrobe’s “secret weapon” so frivolously, there was little doubt they’d both become laughingstocks.
Yet another reason Fenrir was putting himself through this little test of hers.
If he passed, he’d been promised a proper seat at the table.
He had no desire to become an enforcer for the company or to use his skillset against weaker beings.
But ten years of captivity had chipped away at his morality, and he’d shifted his beliefs.
Convinced himself that by doing this, he could at least help the rest of the product locked up in the compound with no hopes of ever getting free.
If Fenrir worked his way up, earned a position where his voice could be heard and his opinions held weight, he might be able to convince Michelle to reconfigure the restrictions placed on the product. She’d listened to him with the contracts. It wasn’t a complete impossibility.
“Oberon King has insisted on taking you off the property,” she stated. “You know what you have to do?”
“Yes, mistress.”
“If you fail—”
“I won’t.”
“See to it that you don’t.” She sighed, arms dropping to her sides as she walked toward him.
“The White Frost aren’t to be taken lightly.
I’ll do what I can to help you, but you’re going to be in the midst of the lion’s den.
I’d hoped auctioning you off on Heated Hearts Day would better our chances, but all it’s done is summon the worst kind of monster to our doorstep. ”
Fenrir was aware of her plans. The White Frost threw a massive party every year, so she’d assumed their upper tier would be busy in attendance there.
Only lower-ranking members of the mafia had been given an invitation, with the hopes that if they attended the auction, it meant they were horny thanks to the holiday.
He’d been given permission to seduce the highest bidder with his pheromones and rush them into bed. On the one hand, that plan had still sort of played out—Oberon had been more than willing to fuck him—only, they hadn’t procured his signature yet.
Without the contract, there was the chance the alpha could have screwed him, then refused to pay up. If Fenrir had been able to complete his mission during that encounter, it would have been fine, however…
“Oberon is known for relying heavily on his assistant,” Michelle said, probably thinking the same thing Fenrir currently was. “If there’s a chance for you to access another device owned by a different White Frost, take it.”
“Understood.”
“Avoid the Dominus.”
“Okay.” Fen didn’t want to be anywhere near a man like Leviathan Morningstar anyway.
She reached up to cup his cheek, the touch too hot against his chilled skin. “Remember what I’ve done for you, Wolf. What I’ve sacrificed to keep you alive.”
The scientist she’d murdered, who’d been worth ten times what Fenrir had earned at this auction.
The one who’d conducted illegal experiments on Fenrir as soon as he’d realized what Fen was.
As soon as he’d seen that the drug was finally taking and his alphaness was slipping away to make room for his new omega presentation.
To her and the Wardrobe, he’d been an asset. Helping to create the first working version of Rebirth.
To Fenrir and many others, he’d been a monster, uncaring how many lives he took or how many souls underwent torture for his experiments.
Still, Michelle had been the one to stop him in the end, and by doing so, had spared Fenrir further torment. He did owe her, and even if he didn’t, the months that passed after that had proven one thing if nothing else.
He needed her.
Arguably more than she needed him.
Which was why he couldn’t fuck this up.
“Jose will tail you from behind for as long as he’s able,” Michelle told him. “We’ve planted a few of our own at Evergreen, so even if he’s forced to retreat to avoid exposure, you won’t be completely alone.”
Until the alpha took Fenrir somewhere private to complete the contract. She didn’t say it, but she didn’t have to.
“He’ll obviously book a room there. Other members of the mafia will be enjoying the holiday in a similar fashion.
If you must, find a way to satisfy him and then slip free to complete the mission elsewhere.
But under no circumstances are you to engage in sexual activity with anyone else.
We have no way of knowing what that will do to your system.
If you’re forced into influx again, I’ll be too far away to help you. ”
Fenrir would be left to deal with the consequences, was what she really meant.
She may have gone out of her way to create him, but that only made him slightly less disposable than the rest of the product.
“No one else is allowed to touch me. It’s in the contract,” Fen reminded.
A clause they’d put in there specifically to ensure he wasn’t forced to interact with too many different alpha pheromones.
The omega side of himself didn’t mind, but the other part…
the part that still sometimes craved domination…
“My energy is stable. When I’m in heat, the omega side takes control. I’ll be fine.”
The door burst open with no warning then, but Michelle didn’t move away. She stared Fenrir down in silent warning, keeping her back to the alpha who’d just intruded for a long spell before finally turning to greet him.
“Mr. King.” She dropped her hand from Fenrir’s face. “Is everything in order?”
“It will be,” Oberon slipped his hands into his front pockets, mirroring her cavalier attitude perfectly, “once you hand over my omega.”
She giggled, the sound mocking and fake. “You’ve only purchased a single heat. I’d hardly call him yours.”
“Is that an offer to buy him off the Wardrobe’s hands?” Oberon was joking.
He had to be.
Fenrir pursed his lips and then crossed the room, not wanting to let things get any more heated. As soon as he was within range, the alpha captured his wrist and tugged him roughly against his side. When Fen tried to straighten and pull away, his grip tightened.
Oberon grinned at Michelle. “Happy Heated Hearts Day.”