Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
FINCH
“What do you mean, you’re staying here?” Laurel asked, trotting after me as I moved back into her office.
She had the audacity to sound affronted, and I looked at her in annoyance.
Her scent was potent, swirling around me in a cloud of temptation.
It was saturated in her sweet, floral scent, potent enough to wake up my body and send blood rushing south.
She was our scent match; it was inevitable that we would feel attracted to her.
Still, I may have underestimated the intensity of the pull.
She had changed into a light, airy pantsuit that clung to her hips, and the silky shirt that paired with it hugged the shape of her breasts in a distracting way.
I’d bitten her on her side so the bite could be easily hidden, but now I couldn’t push from my mind the sight of the creamy, smooth skin of her waist, or how her hips had felt as I’d held her still.
It wasn’t a moment I was proud of, and the sinful thoughts of her only added to my shame.
Just biology, I reminded myself as I glared down at her. She was still complaining, and for a moment, I considered ordering her to shut up.
But despite how much I hated her, she was pack now. I’d chosen to bond her to us, and that meant I was now responsible for her. I didn’t have to like her, but I also wasn’t going to abuse the dark bond with petty commands.
“We need to be close,” I said as I started to set up a spare monitor she’d had stored away.
Her villa was way nicer than our shoddy apartment. I doubted we’d have to worry about power failures here.
Kaos was leaning against the wall, silent, tracking her with his eyes. She was smart enough to keep well away from him.
“I only have one bedroom,” she said, glancing at the living room.
Whirling around, I crowded into her space, and she flinched back. I paused, taken aback as she stumbled back a step and lowered her head in submission, her breaths coming in short, terrified pants.
I regretted turning to look at her again; she was triggering every one of my protective instincts.
She was undeniably pretty, with wide, bright eyes, a cute upturned nose, and hair falling like a golden river down to her waist. It had been easier to ignore when she’d had that hard, haughty expression, but right now, she looked scared and small.
I shifted on my feet, my alpha side distressed at watching an omega so clearly terrified. Her scent was curling in the air, slightly soured and bitter. I wanted it to go back to normal, to that wild, earthy, alive scent that I’d smelled at first.
I bit back the apology my alpha was screaming at me to make. I hadn’t hurt her, and I didn’t have to make sure she was happy.
Turning, I walked away, leaving her to collect herself.
I nodded to Kaos, and he sat down to unpack his equipment properly.
I yanked out the cords of her monitor, and she let out a little outraged gasp.
I glared at her, and her face flushed as she lifted her chin.
She gave a little stomp of frustration before she marched off to her room.
So she did have a bit of defiance in her, despite her fear.
With her in her room again, it was finally quiet, and Kaos and I made ourselves busy reconfiguring the workstation so we could use it.
Kaos was trying to keep his emotions shut down but was failing.
At the best of times, he was a simmering storm, one we could soothe into a peaceful roil, but right now, it was sharp, electric.
Unstable. Every so often, a spiral of panic would start, and I’d join with Ocean in trying to settle him again.
I was hoping that giving him jobs to do would keep him distracted.
“Right,” I said when I was done. “I’m going to sort out the sleeping situation.”
Kaos grunted and plopped down on the seat at the workbench.
“See you later,” I said to him, and he gave me a salute before pulling down his goggles.
The thought of dealing with that omega again wasn’t a pleasant one, but I gritted my teeth and left him to it. I poked around the apartment until I found a set of spare bedding at the back of the linen closet. I slung it over my shoulder and set it up in the living room.
I went to her bedroom and opened the door. There was a large pile of blankets on the bed, in a vaguely human-shaped lump.
As I took a step forward, her head whipped up. She bared her teeth at me, and I noticed she had unusually sharp canines. “This is my n—” She choked off, face reddening before she bounced back. “My bedroom. You can’t come in here.”
“This isn’t your nest?”
She ground her teeth, but she was unable to lie. “No.”
Then where was it? I’d been through the rest of the apartment, and there were no other rooms that could be one. Unless she had a hidden one somewhere.
Whatever.
It worked out nicely for us. Kaos wouldn’t be able to sleep anywhere else but in a bed. He needed comfort and enough room to have his pack around him.
Which just consisted of me now.
Whoopee.
I stepped through the door.
“No, stop!” she said, a whine slipping into her voice. Her scent was becoming distressed, and I felt myself tensing in response.
I pushed forward, steeling myself. “Huh,” I said. “Funny, because I bet Ocean sure isn’t in a nice bedroom right now. I think you’re getting off pretty lucky.”
“No, you can’t be in here,” she repeated, and I took another step.
“That’s enough,” I snarled, my hand slashing through the air. The distress in her scent sharpened to terror, and all the blood drained from her face.
I flushed at my slip in control. Being in this house, surrounded by her sinful scent, was putting me on edge. She scooted to the back of the bed, arms wrapped around her knees, and wouldn’t meet my eyes, staring at the wall.
“That wasn’t necessary,” she muttered.
I reminded myself firmly that the omega in front of us was our enemy.
Her distress wasn’t my responsibility.
“Come with me,” I said, leading her out to the pile of bedding on one of the couches.
She wrinkled her nose but edged over to it without protesting, sitting down gingerly. I saw her shoulder loosen a bit, and some relief leaked through her side of the bond, perhaps at the fact we wouldn’t be sharing a bed.
That would be a terrible idea for all of us.
She ignored me as she started making her new sleeping area more comfortable.
I went to the kitchen, trying not to watch as she fussed and tutted, arranging the pile of bedding into a weave around her.
But I couldn’t help how my eyes were drawn to her.
Her thick hair was tumbling down her back, and I drank in the sight of her slender ankles as she padded across the carpeted floor to grab another throw cushion.
A lock of her hair fell in her face, and she blew out, trying to puff it back into place.
She leaned over the pile of blankets, reaching for a smooth cushion and exposing the full curve of her ass in that tight pantsuit. My heart hammered in my chest, electricity skittering down my spine as she arched her back to reach it.
I turned around abruptly, leaning on the kitchen counter and squeezing my eyes closed, firmly slamming the bond closed before she got a hint of my arousal. Just biology.
Picturing Ocean trapped in a cage was enough to cool my body off. I growled in frustration and stomped over to the office to tell Kaos it was time to sleep.
He wasn’t speaking, but he was cooperating, so I’d take that as a win. I hadn’t thought to change the sheets and regretted that when I climbed into the bed, the arousal I’d just tempered flaring up again in response to her strong scent.
Kaos collapsed onto Laurel’s bed, taking the side nearest the door.
Once again, I willed my body back under control and focused on the task at hand.
Kaos had been plagued by night terrors when we’d first got him back, and we’d eventually found having the pack sleep with him helped immensely.
But really, Ocean had embraced that role.
I often found them curled up or sprawled over each other when I eventually came to bed late.
Kaos stayed on his side of the bed, fiddling with the blankets.
How did we get here? I never knew what to say to Kaos if we weren’t discussing our mission. We were left with uncomfortable silence.
“Good night,” I finally said. “I’ll fix this, Kaos. Don’t worry.”
Kaos shifted some more, and I froze as I felt his arm thread through mine. His cheek came to rest on my bicep.
I waited, wondering if he’d moved by mistake, but he tugged the blanket up and glanced at me. There was a tightening in my chest, and I swallowed uncomfortably.
“Thanks,” he said, his voice quiet.
I grunted. “Just get some sleep,” I said, and he nodded, lapsing into silence.
I settled in, trying to sleep, reaching out tentatively to check on Ocean in the bond. He was tired, his feelings muted. He was usually a peaceful pool of content, but now worry and sorrow muddied his waters.
I had almost drifted off when a weight landed on my legs, causing me to jolt up in panic.
A skinny, long-haired black cat looked at me in absolute horror.
For a moment, we just stared at each other, the cat’s ears flicking back, and then it was gone, darting out of the room like a little streak of black lightning.
LAUREL
This was torture.
I couldn’t settle.
My side was throbbing where Finch had bitten me.
Instead of slowly getting better, the pain seemed to be getting worse.
They’d claimed me, and a deep, instinctual part of me had claimed them back. But everything about them screamed hostility. Their scents were laced with anger, and the feelings down the bond were sharp with disgust.
Every cell in my body was screaming at me to make this right.
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. The only balm in my system was the connection with Ocean, the only one who seemed settled. There were traces of worry and fear, but mostly calm.
I huffed and kicked off my blanket.
It was too warm in my living room.
And their scents were saturating the air, an unwelcome temptation that was hard to ignore. I was just as affected by their scents as I had been with Ocean’s, and my mind kept wandering back to that night in his hotel room, when we’d shared that heated kiss.
I growled and squeezed a pillow in frustration. I was so distracted, I didn’t notice the sound of someone approaching.
Something touched my hip, and I bit back a scream as my head snapped up, searching.
It was the touch of soft fingers, leaving prickles of pain in their wake, care of Kaos from where he stood behind the couch.
Some weird side effect from the dark bond?
But I hadn’t heard of anything like that before.
He was shirtless, the moonlight making his pale skin glow, the shadows defining every rib along his thin chest. His long hair was shadowing his face, only the tip of his nose and the glint of his eyes visible in the gloom, making him look like some ghastly apparition.
He was behind the couch, leaning over it and resting his weight on one elbow.
His other arm was dangling down, long fingers now touching my thigh.
His scent was heavy in the air, prickling static and the sharp pull of wormwood.
His image was striking, sending a shiver down my spine that wasn’t entirely fear.
He’d only said a few words to me this night, opting to ignore me for the rest of it.
He’d been the one to hunt me down, toss me to Finch, and then… nothing.
Until now.
We stared at each other, the only sound the ticking of the clock on the mantel.
“You’re cold,” he said, sounding amused. “You’re shaking.”
He trailed his fingers up the silk of my nightgown, over my hip again, and despite the prickling pain it left, the sensation went straight through to my core, causing me to pulse with need.
Fuck.
This was embarrassing.
How long had it been since I’d been properly taken care of?
I liked getting relief at least once or twice a week, choosing my bedmates when I had a clear head, because otherwise, I became overly responsive to any alpha’s touch. And Kaos wasn’t just any alpha; he was my scent match.
These alphas hadn’t wanted me earlier, but my omega was desperate to soothe them.
Kaos chuckled as my perfume rose in the air.
The light hit his feral grin, his teeth glinting in the dark. “You like?” he asked, twisting a strand of his hair in his fingers and holding it out to me like an offering.
I opened my mouth to say no, but a painful prickling sensation started before I could get the words out, cutting me off. When I tried again, the painful sensation struck as I was about to speak. It was like earlier, when I’d tried to claim my bedroom was my nest.
“Oh,” he said, his head tilting further to the side. “You’re trying to lie.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I hissed. “Of course I don’t like—” I broke off as the pain struck again, and my cheeks went hotter.
“You should enjoy it, Omega.” He withdrew his hand, cocking his head at me. “This is the closest you’ll ever get to me.”
“I can’t control my body’s response,” I managed to say, somehow both relieved and offended he wasn’t going further. I was his scent match, and he didn’t want me? “I don’t want to get close to you, so go fuck yourself.”
His eyes narrowed, and the fear took over, freezing my veins. He could literally do anything he wanted to me right now.
Instead, he chuckled and stepped back into the darkness, leaving me hot and burning with humiliation.