Chapter Twenty-Six
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
LEAVING BEA AT her parents, I push my car to its limits to get to the DAU headquarters. The faster I get this meeting over with, the quicker I can get back to my omega.
Lex’s blacked out Jeep Rubicon is already in the lot when I arrive. Snickering, I grab a small bag of paint chalk from my back seat and walk over to draw penises all over his side windows. He takes meticulous care of his ride. A trait he and his military buddy, Creed, have in common. Every time they meet up for a drink it’s all car talk.
I’m not a car guy. As long as it will get me from A to B, I don’t care what the brand is or how much horsepower is in the engine. Sports talk is where I’m at. I played a different sport every season. Football, baseball, and hockey. Being out on the field and playing as a team taught me to be a better person. To give every task my all. A perseverance and confidence I can’t wait to pass on to my own kids one day.
If Bea wants kids. If she doesn’t, I’ll join one of the local mentor programs instead.
Headquarters is bustling with DAU and FCDA agents. Meeting rooms overflowing with whatever they found in the Pastor’s office in New Hampshire. It’s a hectic time to work for either organization, but the justice served to Grant Montgomery and his followers makes every moment of frustration worth it.
Knocking on Donovan’s open office door, he waves me in from across the room. I step inside and sink into the chair next to Lex. He grunts and gives me a firm nod in acknowledgment while we wait for Donovan to finish his phone call.
“Sorry for keeping you waiting,” he says as he walks over and perches on the edge of his leather desk chair. “Straight to the point, we’re removing you from the security details for Omen and Bea Powell.”
Smothering my grin is difficult. Finally, I am free to claim my omega!
“As reluctant as I am to push you into a third assignment without a break, we’re in an all hands on deck situation.”
My hands clench into fists on the arms of the chair. Donovan looks at me and nods, a weary sigh falling from his lips.
“You have every right to say no, but before you decide, I need you to look at these.”
Two files are pushed across the table, one for each of us. I pry my fingers loose and grab the one closest to me. Flipping the front open, my mouth dries and my stomach churns at the images paper clipped inside. They are clearly from inside the building where the kidnapped omegas were being held. Evidence of pharmaceutical genius Doctor Harrison’s presence is also documented. The wounds he left…
“This is fucking disgusting,” Lex growls.
My head bobs in silent agreement. I’m afraid if I try to speak, I’ll puke all over Donovan’s floor.
“Most of our staff will be assisting with the dismantling of the Montgomery cult. Our friends at the Pharmacuetical Protection Bureau are attempting to determine whether the claims of tampering with Harrison’s products is true. And the FCDA is assembling a team to track the doctor down, but their focus is on bringing down the trafficking ring. They have requested our assistance.”
Donovan rests his elbows on his desk, entwining his fingers in a tight grip beneath his chin. He knows we won’t be able to back down when this madman is on the loose. Likely targeting other omegas to continue his work.
What would happen if he set his sights on Omen? Or Bea? A possessiveness so furious it has sweat beading along my hairline sweeps through me. I will never let him lay a hand on my mate.
“I promise a full month off after the doctor has been captured. Or killed.”
“We’re in,” Lex grunts. He turns a fierce look my way, silently demanding I agree. As unwilling as I am to delay binding myself to my omega, this is a threat we cannot put off facing.
“Yeah, we’ll go.” I run a hand through my hair, trying to shake the guilt my decision brings. Bea will understand. She’s mine regardless of whether I bond her tomorrow or a month from now.
It’s late morning by the time we head to Bea’s apartment. Her parents dropped her home an hour ago according to the text she sent me.
My knee jumps, knocking against the door as we drive across town to see her. I don’t know how she is going to react to me asking her to wait to bond until this mission is over. I know it isn’t fair. I am the only mate she’s met who hasn’t pushed her away. The one who promised my mark would cover her throat as soon as I wasn’t her bodyguard.
But I can’t bond her and still leave on this new mission. It would hurt us both to be separated too soon after bonding. Assuming my instincts would even let me walk away when our bond was so fresh.
Leaving now, without her soul tethered to mine, I can keep her safe. Track down the madman who is trying to destroy omegas and has a personal vendetta against her roommate.
This is the best course of action, even if it hurts like hell.
The car door is open and I’m jogging towards her apartment door before Lex has shifted into park. He shouts his displeasure, and I flip him off over my shoulder. If his head wasn’t shoved so far up his ass, he’d be racing to hold our omega, too.
Bea’s gorgeous blue eyes light up when she opens the door. The sultry smile curving her plush lips has my cock aching in my jeans. Fates-dammit, she isn’t going to make leaving her easy.
“You are a sight to behold, sunshine,” I murmur as I kick the door closed and crowd her against the island in her kitchen. Her soft skin brushes against me with each rise of her chest, and I can’t wait another second longer. My lips slam to her, all tongue and teeth, bruising her with the molten desire her presence sparks in my soul.
“Alpha,” she whines, her head tilting to the side and baring her throat to me.
Fucking Fates.
The air wheezes from my lungs, and my forehead falls to her shoulder. Her body stiffens at the soft rejection. I brush my lips against the spot she offered me, an unspoken promise and apology.
“We’ve been called out on another assignment.”
Bea’s jaw locks, her eyes pinned on me. The fire in her deep ocean orbs burns me from the inside out, but it’s the slash of pain that reduces me to ashes.
“The DAU and FCDA are spread too thin. They need us on the task force tracking Doctor Harrison.” I straighten, dragging my hands from her hips to cup her cheeks. My eyes bore into hers, begging her to understand this isn’t me brushing her off. “If we lose his trail, he’ll start kidnapping omegas again. Experimenting on them the way he did the ones held captive in New Hampshire.”
A noise of disgust slips from her tight lips. Bea knows too well what the doctor is capable of. Her best friend nearly died at his hands a few days ago.
“They also believe he may target Omen in retaliation for exposing his true work.” My thumb brushes against her lips, pulling them apart and easing the tightness in her jaw. “There is a possibility he could try to get to you instead.”
“They think he will come after me?” She looks skeptical, like the idea of her being used as a pawn to hurt Omen is unbelievable.
“Yeah, sunshine, we do. He won’t, because Lex and I are going to catch him. We’ll make sure he can’t ever threaten you, Omen, or another omega ever again.”
Her eyes flicker between mine, tongue darting out across her lips. “What does this mean for us?”
I let my forehead rest against hers, pressing her harder against the island until our bodies are flush as they can be while we’re standing. “It means it’s going to be a bit longer before I can sink my teeth into this pretty throat. But make no mistake, Omega, you’re mine.”
She shudders, eyelashes fluttering from the growl in my voice. “I’m yours,” she repeats before pressing her lips to mine.
My hands wrap around her thighs, lifting her to perch on the edge of the counter. I need her taste on my tongue and the sound of her screaming my name fresh in my memory before I walk out that door. She goes easily when I press on her sternum and guide her to lie back on the warm granite. The silk pajama shorts she’s wearing are already soaked in her slick, nearly translucent as they cling to her sweet pussy.
Gripping the top, I slide them down her long legs and drop them to the floor, pocketing the lace panties that came with them. A groan reverberates from my chest as I bury my face between her thighs. Absolute perfection. Using my fingers to spread her lower lips open, I try to memorize the way she clenches around air. The gleam of her slick soaking her skin.
“Take a picture.”
My eyes fly up, meeting hers where she is leaning up on her elbows to watch me.
“Take a picture,” she says again. “A whole album if you want. As long as it’s my image in your mind every time you get yourself off while you’re away.”
“No one could ever compare to you, Omega, but I’ll gladly fill my phone with delicious snapshots of your pleasure.” I dig the device from my pocket. She spreads her legs, feet resting on the outer edges of the island giving me an unhindered view of her entrance.
Picture after picture, I capture her. The swell of her breasts, and the look of euphoria on her face when I roll a peaked nipple between my fingers. Stretched limbs, her body contorted to showcase every curve, taunting me with her beauty.
When my patience reaches its end, I drop my phone onto her discarded shorts. My fingers dance up the inside of her thighs until I reach her core. Leaning down, I lick a line from her entrance to her clit, laving over the small bud in sure strokes. She jolts, hands burying in my hair and tugging. Holding me against her.
I push two fingers into her core, thrusting them into her relentlessly. Each of her moans drives my need higher. The urge to drown myself in her slick and coat every inch of my body in her fruity scent is almost unbearable.
“Give it to me, Omega,” I growl. Her back arches off the counter as the sound vibrates against her clit. “Come all over my face. Mark me in your pleasure, and know exactly who you belong to.”
“Alpha,” she whimpers, canting her hips to force my fingers deeper. I press two more in, stretching her wider and curling to press against the area my knot would lock inside of her.
A few thrusts is all it takes to send her careening over the edge of oblivion. My name tears from her throat as her release slides down my wrist. I pull my fingers away, tongue darting into her entrance to catch as much of her as I can. Greedily, I swallow her down. Letting the taste of her soothe the ache of our separation.
She’s panting, collapsed against the island when I lean to press my lips to hers. As much as I would love to fuck her, knot her so deeply she won’t be able to go a single day without feeling the echo of me between her thighs, I know if I don’t leave now I’ll convince myself it would be better to stay.
“I love you, sunshine. So damn much it makes my chest ache.”
Sweet, soft kisses are exchanged. Filled with all the emotions and longing we share.
“I love you too, Ridley.”
Slipping my arms under her back, I help pull her to her feet. She has her shorts pulled halfway up her thighs when I stop her, cupping her pussy. I slip two fingers back inside of her, twisting them to coat them in her slick.
Bea raises one brow in my direction when I pull them out and take a step backwards.
“A gift,” I explain. “For your reluctant mate.”
Her eyes blow wide, a burst of her perfume making my cock twitch uncomfortably. She hurries to pull her shorts up and follows me to the door, watching through a small gap as I jog to Lex’s car and climb inside.
My roommate groans when I climb into the passenger’s seat. I reach across the car, swiping my slick coated fingers across his lips before buckling myself in. Lex’s eyes are wide, his pupils dilated until the steely gray almost looks black.
“What the fuck, Ridley,” he growls.
I let a shit-eating grin stretch across my face. “Just wanted you to have a taste of what you’re missing.”
“I’m going to kick your ass,” he grumbles, adjusting himself. His eyes fly to Bea’s door, meeting hers. My sweet mate offers him the most seductive smile, waving and blowing a kiss in our direction before she lets the door swing closed. “Fucking Fates.”
The loud rock music he blares through the speakers drowns out my laughter. I stare at Bea’s apartment through the side mirror until it disappears around the corner, taking the most important pieces of my soul with it.
A new countdown begins. One without an end date, but still holding the same goal. Soon, my omega will bear my bite and hold my bond.
I just have to catch a psychopath first.