Chapter 7 To the Salon!
To the Salon!
Ondine
Jake is not letting up. I fear he’s getting obsessed.
He’s never once referred to me by name. He’s never asked a single question about me.
But he has suddenly become very interested in how many orgasms I have every day, if I’m eating enough, if I have everything I need for a bubble bath, and now there are stacks of new sheet music on my bed.
I’m afraid I don’t know what to do with this kind of attention.
It’s Tuesday when I’m sitting between his legs, head on his thigh, while he works.
He’s taken to stroking my hair and neck.
Playing with my earlobe. I can’t help the purr that comes out of me.
Omegas are such suckers for being touched.
He keeps touching me in ways that continue to make me purr. I finally have to stop him.
“Alpha Meier,” I say with my stupidly soft voice.
“Yes, baby?” he replies halfway, listening. I can feel the rumble of his voice on his thigh.
“I have a hair appointment this afternoon. Can I take a car into the city?”
He pauses and then types out a message to someone on his computer.
“You don’t like it much longer than this?” he asks, tugging my hair. It surprises me since he never asks me a question about myself like this.
“I don’t like the feel of it on my neck.”
“Can it wait until Friday?” he asks, eventually.
I can’t really form an answer. “No? My appointment is today. Why Friday?”
“I go into the city on Fridays to visit my mom. I could take you with me.”
A sudden realization that Jake is human and has human parents hits me.
“Make your next appointment on a Friday,” he says. “My mother is in a care facility in the Riverfront District, so if it is nearby, that would be even easier.”
Jake visits his mother in a care facility every Friday. That’s where he’s been these last two times. I am also hung up on the fact that Jake thinks I will still be around the next time I need a haircut. And did he just imply that I would see his mother during this time, too?
Sebastian enters his office as I am trying to decide how to tell him I won’t have another cut until after my next heat.
“What’s up, Jake?”
He looks at me on the floor and smiles.
“Ondine has a hair appointment in the city this afternoon. Can you take her?”
Sebastian shrugs his shoulders. “Boone and I were going to go shooting, but we can take the little omega into the city instead.” He seems excited.
“What neighborhood, baby?”
“Kestrel Burrow,” I reply.
He stops stroking my hair.
“Where I saw you crying and reeking of some male?” He pushes his chair back and away from me. I stand up and move away. Looking at both alphas.
“Yes, that’s my neighborhood. Where my apartment is.”
The mood has shifted
“Where your apartment is?”
“Yeah, did you think I fell out of the sky? Fully formed?”
“Maybe,” he whispers. “Who’s watching your apartment now?”
“No one.” I had it cleaned up for my heat. I was planning on being at the Heat Clinic for four or five days. It’s been a few weeks, but it’s fine there until I go back. My landlady keeps the area pretty secure. She’d call me if there were issues, I think.
Jake does something odd. He growls. I notice he has fisted his hands. His jaw is tight. Why is this a problem?
“Is everything ok, Alpha?” I ask slowly.
Then I look at Sebastian, who looks worried as well as upset.
“No, I’m fine. You’ll go to your hair appointment and come right back to me? And listen to Sebastian? He’s there to make sure you’re safe.”
I nod. “Yes.”
He relaxes, but only slightly. “Does that man, the one who had you, does he live in that neighborhood?”
He means Arnie. The man that had me is such a weird way to refer to Arnie. Did he have me?
But Jake is acting possessive. Is this part of the fun of a temporary placement? Pretending like you are bonded? Is that what’s happening?
“I don’t know.”
“How do you know him?”
“I’d rather not say. You’re scaring me.”
He growls, but it seems like it’s mostly at himself. My hands are sweaty, and I wipe them on my skirt.
“Fine. Sabbies, don’t let her out of your sight. Bring her right back here. You understand?”
He smiles like he knows a secret. “Yes, Alpha,” he answers a bit sarcastically.
Jake turns to me, “Ok, well, don’t cut your hair too short. I’ll see you this evening.”
I don’t know why, but that comment suddenly makes me come unglued. “I’ll cut my hair however short I want,” I bite at him.
He’s taken aback by my tone, and his eyes are wide like discs. “Excuse me?”
Sebastian jumps in, “Jake, you don’t tell women what to do with their hair. You know that.”
Jake grumbles something indiscernible. “Yes, of course.” He turns and gives me a fake smile. “Do you need money for the service?”
He’s only offering because he messed up.
“Yes, please.” I have no shame.
He opens a drawer and pulls out an envelope with some cash. “How much?”
I don’t know why this number pops into my head, but I say it anyway, “Five hundred dollars.”
Jake only hesitates for a moment before pulling out five one-hundred-dollar bills and passing them to me. As soon as they are in my hand, I say thank you and dart out of the room.
***
Sebastian
I turn to Jake, who looks a bit lost.
He asks, “A haircut doesn’t cost five hundred dollars, does it?”
I try my best not to laugh. “No.”
He grumbles some of his favorite swear words and then goes back to his desk. “I handle her better if we aren’t talking.”
“I don’t know. I think she’s just as thrilling when she has something to say.”
It’s really entertaining to see Jake meet his match. He waves his hand, dismissing me and this idea. “Boone will be with you?”
“Yeah, is that a problem, Alpha?”
“No, I have no issues with Boone. If he wasn’t available, I would have asked you to take a team. You’ll be good with just the two of you?”
“You’re doubting my ability to keep the omega safe?”
Jake sighs dramatically. “Of course not.”
I heard about the missing omegas as well.
Both were unbonded. Taken in plain sight as the sun was shining.
I called my contacts with the police to get the rest of the story.
They’d been taken and then both bonded to different alphas.
One with a pack, and one with a single alpha. My contact assured me they’re fine.
Jake is clearly worried about her.
But I have to address the larger matter:
“Shadow isn’t getting any better,” I say to my pack lead. “Our bond is still heavy. He’s spending less time out of the house. More time alone. He’s not finishing his meals.”
Jake acts like he isn’t listening to me at first. He’s moving things around his office, cleaning up from the day.
“Jake?”
He sighs. “I know. He just needs to…” He can’t finish his sentence. We don’t know what to do.
“What are we going to do?” I ask anyway. Maybe rhetorically.
He looks at me this time. He doesn’t know. When has Jake ever not known what to do?
I leave him alone in his office and go to find the little omega.
Shadow may not be getting better, but she sure is establishing herself.
It’s been weeks, and I’ve never seen her act that way around him.
Hell, she’s never once talked about her life outside of here.
I’m with Jake. I started to believe she fell out of the sky and was at our mercy.
But that’s largely to do with the fact I’ve been avoiding being alone with her.
She’s here for Shadow, and I don’t want to get in the way of that.
Doesn’t mean I don’t want to be around her.
She’s like this pretty little fairy creature flitting through the house.
Appearing in rooms suddenly. Smelling like a vanilla ice cream sundae.
The only time I indulge is when Jake asks me to join them.
I’d love to crawl into her room at night, lie at her feet…
kiss her knees. But she’s not here for me.
She’s here for Shadow. And in a month, she will be gone.
I know he said to go there and back, but we are totally going to this apartment. I want to see if this place smells like vanilla ice cream—Ondine’s sweet scent.
I find her in the music room at the piano, playing a soft melody.
She’s got a floral skirt and a tank top on.
It’s so spectacular having a girly girl in the house.
The other day, she wore a headband with a bow.
I think she looks good. I think she looks like we go together.
I’ve got my blue jeans and a white shirt.
Maybe she’d like earrings to match my one.
I grab her, and we head out. We pick up Boone at his office. He’s a lawyer when he’s not a renegade. He’s got his cowboy hat and boots on. We look like a bunch of hicks, honestly.
His smile is from ear to ear when he sees Ondine in the cab of my truck.
“Well, we ain’t going shooting, are we?”
“No, we got a little mission. We’re taking this little omega to her hair appointment in the city.”
Boone zeroes in on her, and she responds by squirming in her seat.
As we are driving over the bridge to the city, held up by some traffic, she leans over and asks quietly, “Boone is an alpha? Is he in your pack?”
It is a bit odd to be friends with a stray alpha.
It’s one of those exceptions I have for my affiliations.
Boone is a good alpha. And we met when he was looking for a pack.
Jake’s parents know his parents, and they grew up near each other.
Boone on a ranch and Jake in the suburban neighborhood nearby.
He’s been my friend for a while, despite the fact that Boone and Shadow don’t get along.
“He’s an alpha. Unattached. Unbonded. He’s vetting out packs. We offered him a spot, but he declined us. Wants to keep his options open.”
She glances quickly behind her to the smiling Boone. “Yes, maybe you should contract with me next, sweet omega. What do you say?”
I drop my smile when I see a blush creep up her face. “Stop that, Boone. That’s really inappropriate behavior.”
“Why? Isn’t this a temporary placement? Or did something change?”
I don’t answer him. Nothing has changed. She’s gone in a month. Or whenever her next heat is. She’s just a nice smelling omega, so my alpha brain gets confused.
And there’s no way we can keep her if she’s not helping Shadow.