27. Kade
Kade
A mara had been the one for me, I was certain. Thoughts of joining a pack fled my mind when she looked at me. Touched my arm and asked for help with her math. Everything about the omega was perfectly meant to pull me in.
"How did you meet?" Quinn asked.
I took a deep breath and wrapped her in a towel, lifting the little omega to sit on the counter while I dried off. This was a story I'd never told anyone and had figured I would take to the grave. Something about Quinn drew me in though and made me trust her.
"We were in the same Calculus class. It was way too advanced for her, so I tutored her.
But she had me caught in her web before we formally started tutoring.
She was beautiful and sweet, but with a cutting edge under it all.
While it was aimed at other people, I didn't really notice. But later it turned on me."
Finishing up with the drying, I grabbed some shirts I'd brought in. We needed to get Quinn some clothes of her own soon. She couldn't keep wearing our stuff, since it was all too big.
"At first, she acted kind of shy and asked for help.
I was happy to give her lessons and work through her homework with her.
I liked helping people, especially her. She told me she felt safe around me.
That I was the only one she'd ever trusted this much.
" I snorted. "It was all lies, of course.
Her scent was amazing at the time. She'd purposefully perfume around me and then pretend she hadn't noticed how turned on she made me, but still touch me until I was ready to explode. "
At the time, I'd thought we might be scentmatches, she made me so hard and made me want to spend every waking minute with her. The thought makes me shake my head as I step between Quinn's legs and pull the shirt over her head, covering those luscious breasts.
"She had a heat coming up and she wanted me to be the one to get her through it.
She told me she was a virgin and wouldn't trust anyone else to help her with her heat.
I was an idiot, thinking she'd done her previous heats alone, but I bought every lie that fell from her mouth.
Then she gave me a handjob one night and I was hers.
She didn't want to go all the way until she was in her heat. "
I shook my head, remembering.
"Then one day, I was off-campus and I saw her walking with three alphas. Holding hands. Kissing them."
"What?" Quinn gasped, leaning back to look at my face. I kept my eyes down, fiddling with the hem of the shirt she wore.
"Yeah."
"Did you confront them?"
"Not then. I waited until she came over that night and told her I'd seen her with them. She started to cry, told me they were her pack, but they were abusive. It didn't mesh with what I'd seen, but I believed her. After months together, I thought I knew her."
"I'm sorry, Kade." Quinn's hands cupped my face, soft palms against three days' of stubble. "You didn't deserve that."
"It gets worse," I said bitterly. "She came to me three nights later, begging for help.
She had a black eye and told me one of them did it.
That they wanted sex now, before her heat and when she refused, they beat her.
But it wasn't true. I gave her all the money I had and took her to the bus station so she could get away.
I offered to go with her, but she said I could come after.
It would be too suspicious if we both disappeared at the same time. "
"Wow."
"Next thing I know, I'm being dragged in front of the ethics commitee and getting expelled from the college."
"Wait, what? Because you helped her?"
"No, because she reported me for abuse and sexual assault.
I never did anything apart from kissing her a few times and the handjob, but she had it all down as full on rape.
" The word caught in my throat and my normally bitter scent turns almost unbearable.
"I lost everything. She just went back to her pack with the money I gave her.
Found out later that I wasn't the only sucker she'd played.
She had three other guys at the same school going, took money from all of us, then reported us.
We were all brought up on rape charges, which they couldn't prove because it never happened, but it was enough to kick us all out. "
"What happened to her? And her pack?"
"Fuck all. I've searched for them since then and there was no sign of them. They probably changed their name."
Quinn's hand stroked down my neck and she gave me a squeeze on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Kade. That was unfair. I can see why omegas aren't your favorite."
"They were all so manipulative." I looked down at her. "I know I'm naive and easy to fool, but those women took full advantage of that. You haven't, at least not so far."
She shrugged. "Not like I wanted to. I just want to be free."
"Even now?" I frowned. "I thought you might want to stay with us."
"Kade, this heat would have killed me if you, Orion, and Archer hadn't stepped in, but I don't belong with your pack."
I stepped back, betrayal flooding my chest. "Seriously? After what I just told you, you're going to walk away?"
"I'm not using you," she promised. "I guess a little, in that I needed you all. But I . . . I would stay if I could."
"Why can't you?" My voice turned cold. It was another excuse. Something else she wanted. I'd fallen for an omega's manipulation yet again.
"River would never allow it." She took a deep breath and reached out to me. "Please, Kade, don't think I'm like Amara. I loved every second with you. But come morning, the ORC has another agent coming to take me in."
"Is that what this is about then?" I froze. "You want my help to escape. That's why you did all this."
"What? No!" Her gray eyes well up with tears, but she blinks them away, looking fierce.
"Kade, I have no choice in my life. As a rejected omega, I'm going to be dragged back to ORC no matter how many times I run.
I can't be with your pack because they'll never let me.
River would have to agree and he's obviously not going to do that. "
I spun and threw open the bathroom door, lunging out and pinning River to the wall with one hand. "Is it true?"
"What?" he croaked, not bothering to fight me. I was just as strong as he was and it wouldn't have helped.
"They're sending someone to take her back?"
He nodded and my grip tightened.
"Kade, nothing's going to change if you choke him out," her soft voice sounded by my elbow. "Let him go."
"You wanted her to die. You sat there in that truck and did nothing to save her," I snarled. "If we didn't show up, you would have let her burn to death right there on your chest, you bastard."
River didn't say anything, he just watched me with narrowed eyes.
After a minute, I let my grip ease, and he stayed seated. "Why?"
"I don't know. I fucked up." He glanced over at Quinn, who still stood in the bathroom doorway. "I thought, I don't know. I didn't want to mess things up and take her without her consent. I wasn't going to be a rapist."
"So you wanted to let her die," I confirmed. "And now, you've got someone else to come pick her up because you can't face up to the fact that she belongs with us. She belongs with our pack."
"You only think that because you fucked her," he said steadily. "It was your first heat, of course you feel that way. Knotting doesn't equal love, Kade."
Staring down at the man who had put our pack together and made it strong, I shook my head. "That's cold, even for you, River."
"You should understand," he told me. "You've always detested omegas. Can't you see she has all of you wrapped around her little finger just because you got your dick wet? You're all brainwashed. So, until you can make coherent decisions, yes, I will continue to make decisions for this pack."
"That's not fair," I told him. "She's more than just a booty call." Rage simmered just under my skin and for the first time since Amara, I wanted to punch someone. And that someone was my pack leader.
"Don't fight," Quinn said sadly. "I only have a few hours left, Kade. Come lie down with me."
I twisted to look at her, furious still. "Don't. You don't need to interfere here and you're leaving anyway. You just needed me for a heat and now you're fine, you're ready to head back to the ORC."
She looked stricken. "That's . . . I don't want to go back!"
"Hey." Archer stepped up to Quinn and tugged her into his arms. "No one is happy with this situation and there's no clear way forward here. Instead of tearing each other a new one, let's think about solutions."
"There are none," River said flatly. "She has to go back. You can't just keep government property.
Quinn sucked in a breath at that, but didn't say anything. When I looked over, her face was pale, eyes bright with tears, but she didn't let any of them fall.
"Orion?" Archer said desperately, turning to the one person in our pack who knew how packs worked from previous experience.
"I think we should keep her. The director said we could claim her, right?" Orion looked at River steadily, his accent thickening with emotion.
"We're not fucking biting her!" River snapped. "That's ridiculous. We just met her and now you all want to bond her?"
"I think she's our scentmatch," Orion told him quietly.
"What the actual fuck?" River jumped up and started to stomp around the room. "This is getting ridiculous. First you want to keep her, now it's all scentmatch?"
"Maybe we're not all scentmatches," Orion suggested. "But I'm pretty damn sure she's mine. Her scent hits me right here, and you all know how much I loved Alejandra, but her scent never touched me like this." He tapped his heart.
Quinn's eyes widened. "Scentmatches?"
I contemplated what Orion was saying. The other omegas I'd met either smelled nice or their scents irritated me.
Quinn's honey and apple aroma was something I could happily breathe in for the rest of my life.
Maybe Orion was right, because there was something about this omega that had me gripped and while it certainly wasn't comfortable, I couldn't imagine never seeing her again, even while mad at her.
"I think he's right," I said slowly. "She's our scentmatch."
"Okay, you're all insane." River turned and left the room, shutting the door hard behind him.
We all stood there, staring after our leader. Then Quinn took a shuddering breath and said, "I'm not going to break up your pack."