Chapter 11 Sky Nest #2
Freddie couldn’t deny her pleas to come to the city and take care of things.
He kind of owes her for making her deal with a lot when he was younger.
Our mother had to send him away when he was only 13.
He was always picking fights, stealing shit, using his alpha voice on people, and getting into trouble.
She sent him off to the Man-ho Alpha School for Boys.
But he ran away. He never made it. He was missing for years.
Freddie popped up just a few years ago as this—a less-unhinged, self-possessed man. Still an asshole, though. He found himself at a different sort of school, and they taught him how to focus his feral behavior into something workable.
“I want that fucker flayed and burned.” Freddie has his own personal vendetta against Lee Man-ho. Not just this last incident.
“Well, he’s got us backed into a corner,” I respond. Man-ho kept his hands clean, so there’s nothing within the law we can do. But that won’t stop Freddie, I’m sure. “What’re you going to do?”
“I’m going to beat the shit out of him. What do you think? I was going to organize his workers’ rebellion? Come on, little Shadow. We’re alphas.”
I roll my eyes, but don’t let him see. No one can beat Lee Man-ho. He has more alphas surrounding him, loyal to him, than any man in the city.
Jake comes strolling into the main room, eyes glued to his phone screen. “Morning.”
He looks unkempt. For Jake. Maybe no one else would notice, but I do. His tie is in his hand and not on his neck. His belt is loose. His shoes look scuffed. Honestly, he’s a wreck for Jake.
“Morning, Jake. Any word? I need his location. As soon as he leaves his house, I need to know.” Freddie flexes and then shadow-boxes an invisible opponent.
Jake pops his head up, confused for only a moment. He was clearly not doing work on his phone. Was he texting Ondine? I wonder if she’s awake.
If I were home, I would know if she was awake. If she’s eaten. What she’s wearing. How she has her hair done.
“Is Ondine awake?” I ask over my cup of coffee.
Jake pours himself some coffee and looks over at me. “Yeah, she’s awake. She sent me some photos last night. I put them in the group chat, didn’t you see?” My face flushes hot. Yes, I did see. And yes, I did fucking yank my dick to them.
It’s unnerving to feel this attracted to a woman. She’d sent those photos to Jake (and he sent a screenshot of her permission to share them with us), but if I’d asked her, would she have sent different pictures? Ones posed just for me?
“I saw them, but that was last night.”
We didn’t talk after our blowup last night in our kitchen.
Sebastian had come at me in a way I had never seen from him before.
He asked me what Ondine and I had been doing during our time together, but he was openly criticizing.
He said she was there to help me. I know that’s why she is here.
I know. But instead of telling him that, or explaining myself, I accused him of being just like Jake, already half-crazed. He didn’t deny it.
She’s gotten to him, too.
“Well, I’ll have her send more this morning if it’s so important to you.”
Freddie falls down and starts doing push-ups. “Who’s Ondine?” His stripey kitten leaps up on his back and holds on as he continues his push-ups.
“Our omega,” Jake answers, and I hold still. Watching Freddie for his reaction. He stops midair.
Jake, you fucker.
“Shadow, you have an omega?”
Oh crap. Freddie still lives at the place he wound up 20 years ago. It’s a monastery for alphas. He meditates for ten hours a day. Studies martial arts for all the other hours of the day. As far as I know, he’s never even spent time with an omega.
He’s also six years older than me.
“Freddie, don’t make it weird.”
“I’m not making it weird.” He starts his push-ups again. “When did you bond with an omega?”
I clear my throat. “It’s a temporary placement. Two heats.”
“Through the Institute?”
Freddie wants to know if us psychopaths qualified for Institute placement. He wants to know for his own sake. If our group of misfortunate renegades got approved for Institute placement, maybe he could do it too.
“We did it privately.”
Jake butts in, “Shadow, don’t tell your brother our business.”
I snap my mouth shut. It wasn’t me talking about Ondine’s dirty pictures in front of him only moments ago, but whatever.
Jake’s phone pings. I can’t help but move over to him by the table and look over his shoulder. Ondine is at the piano. Her head resting on the keys. The morning light haloed around her ashy blonde hair. I like her haircut. Her short hair suits her.
I make an accidentally pleasant noise, and Jake responds with his own.
“What?” Freddie asks, coming over to see.
“Freddie, you’re paying for our services, not for access to photos of our omega.”
Freddie scoffs. “Your omega? Sounds like she’ll be a free agent soon enough. Have you thought about what will happen to her then? If she can handle your pack of disturbed, aggressive alphas, that opens up her options. She’ll be highly sought after.”
My heart sinks. We’re running out of time. That’s all I can think of suddenly. We don’t have any time at all. But I can’t let myself be open to her. She’ll tear me apart, and it’ll be worse than it was with Jake.
Jake waves my half-brother away. “Worry about your own life, Alpha Wong. Don’t you have a father to avenge?”
“That and more—“ Freddie mutters.
I don’t get the chance to ask what he means by that. Sabbies calls in. Man-ho is on the move. Sabbies is handling the team, keeping Man-ho watched. Jake and I are on Freddie duty.
Princess the cat darts up my leg and gets all the way into my hair. She’s too cute to be mad about it. And she also starts to purr as soon as she’s tangled in my hair.
I grab the back of the chair Jake is sitting in and lean down to his ear. “Did Sabbies like the pictures?” I ask Jake while he’s also listening to our pack mate on the other end of the phone. He turns slightly so I can see his smile.
“That’s good to hear. Sounds like you got the area covered. What about the photos from last night? Was it enough to keep you warm?”
There’s a pause.
“You fucker,” I hear from the phone. “Get her to do it again.”
“Already on it. Sounds like you got Man-ho all handled for a few hours. Ondine mentioned going back to her apartment instead of staying at our house. If it’s not too much trouble, can you burn her apartment to the ground? And then go visit her. Make sure she’s well.”
Jake asks everything in one deadpan tone. I chuckle and untangle the cat, letting her down to the ground gently.
“On it,” Sabbies says.
Jake ends the call.
This is a serious move. Is he planning on trying to keep her?
“You’re not serious, are you?”
“As a heart attack, Shadow.”
Freddie starts laughing from his place on the floor. A maniacal cackling laugh. “Oh, she’s going to fucking suffer for having let you psychos into her life.”
I suddenly can’t breathe.