18. The Call
The Call
I was pacing the living room, kicking couch cushions out of the way, when the phone rang. "Shit."
"Who is it?" Archer looked up from his phone, brows drawn together.
"The director." I tapped my phone. "James speaking."
"What's going on with the missing omega? I thought you were bringing her back."
"We've been holed up with the snowstorm. The roads aren't cleared around here yet, but I'm pretty sure we can get out tomorrow."
"Good. You need to keep me apprised of these things."
"She's going into heat, but it seems pretty irregular. We've been busy trying to reduce the effects, but I'll keep you in the loop better from here on out."
Laura's cool voice sounded more interested as she asked, "When did that start?"
"Just yesterday. She's been alternating between being incoherent and hot to cooling down and yelling at us."
"Sounds like an omega in heat. Have you knotted her yet?"
"Fuck no!"
"Don't sound so surprised, you wouldn't be the first retrieval officer to help an omega through her heat," she said, sounding amused.
"For the record, you're authorized to do whatever it takes to get her through this.
In fact, don't rush back . . . you and your pack can get her through the heat and then return. "
"That sounds dangerous. I'd rather just bring her in."
"An omega in heat doesn't travel well. It's dangerous for everyone involved. I'm ordering you to stay put until she's passed the heat."
I took a deep breath. "That's not . . . we don't want an omega."
"No one said you have to claim her, though if that happens, we'll make it official or you can dissolve the bond. Don't worry about it."
That brought a niggling thought up, Quinn's naked body flashing into my mind. "Laura, what exactly do you do to omegas in the ORC?"
"We prepare them to better serve their alphas," she said smoothly. A line she'd said many times, no doubt.
"She has scars. Dozens of them, from what look like tasers or something. And she's terrified to return."
"River, we take in omegas who have been rejected by their packs.
That's not a decision to be taken lightly and there's a good reason they're rejects.
These are the omegas with problems who didn't fit with their pack.
You have to understand that they don't respond to simple lectures, they need punishment to keep them on the straight and narrow.
You'll find that any omega who has gone through our program is quite malleable and willing to please her alphas. "
"She mentioned you're sending her to the heat dens?"
"Well, as she's currently in heat, that won't be necessary after all," Laura responded.
"I need to get going, but River? Full permission.
Do as you please . . . test out some of that training we've instilled in her.
I highly recommend requesting a blow job.
" She hung up and I stood staring at my phone.
"What did she say?" Archer was watching me with a worried look.
"She said we should take full advantage of Quinn's heat. That she would worry about any repercussions. And that we should consider taking her as our omega." I shook my head. "I've told her dozens of times that we don't want an omega!"
"What about the heat den thing?"
"Apparently, since Quinn's had her heat, she doesn't have to be sent there anymore. She'll be assigned a pack." Somehow that didn't feel as good as I thought it would. Another pack might be just as sadistic as her first one . . . the best packs didn't take rejected omegas.
Archer was still watching me and it pissed me off. He looked like he knew what was running through my head.
"I'm not keeping her here. I don't fucking care if she's in heat. She can go in the back seat and I'll get her to ORC just fine. Then she's their problem."
Kade had drifted into the room, carrying his damn chicken salad, munching away. The rest of us hadn't even eaten after the fireworks with Quinn and now my stomach was too messed up to bother with food.
"You're taking her back now?" Kade asked curiously.
"Yes." I ran a hand through my short hair, irritated this woman was twisting everything up in my pack.
It was best to get her back to ORC and let them do whatever they had to.
She wouldn't be going to the heat dens now, at least, so she was safe from that.
I'd look into that whole situation later and sort it out.
When a perfuming omega wasn't ruining my life.
Right now, what mattered is the snowstorm had died down and we should be able to get out of here if we left right now.
I headed upstairs, bursting into Orion's room.
They were in the bathroom, of course. I could hear his low voice talking to her.
He was telling her about Alejandra, something that filled me with a sudden rage.
Orion barely talked about his previous pack with us, but now he was sharing it all with this omega?
Pushing through the bathroom door, I found Quinn sitting in the tub, head tilted back, arms wrapped around her knees as Orion talking about dancing with his omega.
"What's wrong?" Orion paused in rinsing her long hair, giving me a hard look. He knew something was up.
"I just got off a call with the director. I'm taking her back now."
"No," her whispered plea was filled with terror. "River, not yet, please. Let me get through the heat first."
"Fat chance of that. You think I don't see through your plan? Seduce my pack, get them to knot and claim you, and then you never have to go back. It's so fucking obvious . . . even the director gave me permission to claim you. Said she'd handle the paperwork after the fact."
Orion stood, his dark eyes flashing. "She gave you permission to rape Quinn? And you want to take her back there? No."
"It's not your call, Orion," I warned. "She's my asset, and it's time she's returned to the ORC." I pushed past the man, grabbed a towel and held it out. "Get out of the water." My bark made it impossible for the omega to disobey.
She tried. I could see the muscles in her neck straining as she tried to resist, but an omega in heat is even easier to influence with a bark than a regular omega.
She gave in and scrambled out of the tub again, all her scars on display.
There were new ones, too, long shallow slashes where the icy snow had cut through her skin during her earlier escape.
I wrapped the towel around her and pulled the reluctant omega from the bathroom. Orion watched us go with a look of disgust on his face. That would be something to address later. All part of cleaning up the mess she'd made of our lives in just a few short days.
"Get dressed," I ordered, tossing one of Orion's t-shirts at her. I handed her some boxers, too, but it quickly became obvious they were far too big for her.
"Here." Archer appeared in the doorway, holding out a pair of his sweatpants. They were tight on him, so they managed to stay up on the omega, with her hips.
When she was dressed, I led her downstairs. She was obviously sulking, her eyes downcast, brow furrowed. Still, she was obeying and that was all I needed.
"She's going to freeze," Orion said when we reached the door.
Everyone was waiting there, even Kade. He looked uncomfortable, but his pale eyes never left Quinn's face as I shoved my feet into boots.
"We're fine. The car is heated," I said shortly.
The omega scent of honey and spiced apples suddenly turned sour and I looked at the woman in front of me. She was pink and I laughed at myself for thinking she might be cold outside. She was in heat, she would melt the snow before it ever touched her.
"Say goodbye." I pulled my own coat on.
Archer gave me a look that told me this wasn't over. I knew he was the only one who had never truly bought into the no omega pact, but he'd gone along with us because we were his pack. Now, he'd fallen for this woman with all her delicate wiles.
"You'll be fine," I told him. "We'll get back to normal after this."
"Will we?" He turned to Quinn. "Stay strong, okay? We'll figure this out."
She just looked up at him with glazed eyes, the heat already taking over again. Archer scooped her up for a hug and she buried her face in his neck, sniffing deeply, like she was memorizing his scent.
"Sorry we met under these circumstances," Kade said when Archer set the omega down. He reached out a hand and awkwardly patted her shoulder. "I'm sure the center will find you a good pack now that you've had a heat."
Quinn tilted her head, scenting his arm. She was too far gone.
"Orion?"
"Hey, I'm . . . god, I'm sorry. But we can't get River fired, not yet," he murmured to her, almost too quiet to hear. He pulled her into a hug and let her sniff his neck too as he inhaled her scent, which was still soured.
I finally picked her up, nodding to Kade to open the door. He did so, watching carefully as I waded through the snow to my truck. It took a little manuevering to balance the omega and open the door, but I managed it and put her inside.
By the time I made it around the truck to the driver's side, there was a layer of snow on my coat, proof that the snow wasn't done with us yet.
It didn't matter, we'd be back at the ORC soon enough and then I could just go home and get some real sleep.
This had definitely been one of my more challenging jobs.
"River, please . . . " Her voice trailed off as I glared at her and started up the engine.
"Put your seatbelt on. It's slippery out here."
She fumbled with the seatbelt, so I reached over, pulled it across her and snapped it into place. She was burning up. I could feel the heat eminating from beneath her shirt, but she was shivering.
After debating for a moment, I turned the heat on low and started driving slowly out of the driveway.
None of the streets here had been cleared, so it was slow going.
More than a handful of vehicles were jammed off to the side, pressed together or jammed against a fence where they'd slid off the road.
It took nearly an hour to make it to the freeway, which was mostly cleared. I breathed a sigh of relief and glanced over at my passenger for the first time since we'd left the house.
She looked miserable, slumped against the window, her skin a blotchy red.
Dull eyes stared unseeing out the front window and her hands lay on either side of her, like she had nowhere to put them.
Dressed in the oversized clothes from the pack, she looked like a homeless waif and something pulled at my heart.
"We'll be there in about 8 hours," I told her. "You ran pretty far."
She didn't respond, just kept staring.