17. Lucy
CHAPTER 17
Lucy
After the doctor left, Frankie showed me where the bathroom was and that all my stuff was in there, but Liam was the one who had my phone.
Irritating prick.
I did my best to ignore him, but it wasn’t easy. Even without saying a word, or letting a single trace of his pheromones leak out, his presence was heavy. His eyes never left me and it was starting to make my skin feel flushed in a way I didn’t particularly like because I wanted him to look at me.
God, I was so fucking stupid.
“Cassius is going to take me back to the office so I can finish the rest of the interviews,” Frankie told me as she leaned down to tug the long white shirt I was wearing a little lower. “You have your laptop, so you can work from here for today. If there’s anything else you need, just ask Liam. I won’t be able to respond while I’m doing interviews.”
I stared at her in disbelief as she straightened like all this was normal. “You’re going to leave me here?”
Frankie’s smile faltered and she glanced over at Liam, as if she was worried he might yell at her for upsetting me.
This was fucking ridiculous. “Stop looking at him like he has the final say in my life.” I hated myself for making her flinch at the tone in my voice, but I couldn’t fucking take it anymore. “Stop treating me like I’m an invalid who can’t make her own decisions. Even the doctor said I can work if I want to.”
“What if you run into another alpha?” Frankie tried to take my hands in hers but I took a step back.
“So what?” I demanded. Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at her and did my best to ignore Liam who just stood there like a piece of furniture. “I’m getting tired of this discussion, Frankie. Nothing has changed. I’m still an omega living in a world where alphas work alongside me. I’m not going to stop going outside just because one might be an asshole.”
My anger stumbled when she covered her mouth with her hand and coughed just like someone being forced to submit to an alpha’s pheromones.
What the actual fuck was going on right now?
“Maybe you could have Liam take you to Gideon’s house then,” Frankie managed, coughing again when she had to inhale. “But I have to go. I’ll see you tonight?”
“Frankie.” She turned on her heel and headed for the door like she might just die if she didn’t put some space between us. “ Frankie .”
My jaw dropped when she stumbled and Liam had to catch her before she faceplanted into the door. “Lucy, your pheromones are too much for her. Could you pull them back a bit?”
“What?” Panic slid through my veins and Frankie actually groaned as she collapsed in Liam’s arms. “Call that doctor back! Can’t you see something’s wrong with her?”
“Get her out of here.” Liam’s red eyes flashed and just like that Cassius appeared out of nowhere, taking Frankie from him.
No, they couldn’t just take her away. Frankie couldn’t leave me here alone with an alpha we barely knew – a client .
Before I knew it, I was trying to pull her away from Cassius but the look Frankie gave me …
“Just let me go,” she begged, yanking her arm out of my hold. “I can’t breathe in here, Lucy.”
She slipped through my numb fingers and I watched Cassius carry her out of the room like I was an outside observer – nothing more than the person watching the footage of the events as they unfolded.
Neither of them spared me a single glance and the click of the door closing was so loud in the following silence that I actually flinched.
I couldn’t believe it.
“What the fuck just happened?”
“Lucy.”
“This is all your fault.” I shoved Liam but he didn’t resist at all like I expected him to so his whole body slammed into the door and I found myself staring up at him in shock. “What is wrong with you?”
“Your pheromones are too potent for her which is why I had Cassius remove her from the room,” Liam stated, his face so blank and unbothered I was instantly furious all over again. “But if you want to run after her, you can.”
Just like that he stepped aside, giving me access to the door.
I stared at the doorknob and tried to tell myself there was no way Frankie had reacted like that because of me.
There’s no way…
But even I couldn’t smell Liam’s pheromones right now and he was right next to me. I glanced at his neck and saw there was a slight sheen where his scent blockers were. Instantly I reached up and slid my fingertips over the bare skin where mine should be, remembering how he’d ripped them off for me the night before.
“How could it be me?” It made no fucking sense. “We’ve been living together for so long…wouldn’t this have happened before?”
“Are you going to run after her?” Liam asked, completely ignoring my other questions. “I can have Cassius drag her back here if you want even though she’ll choke.”
I shoved him again. “What’s wrong with you?”
His small smile was anything but reassuring. “It’s up to you, Lucy. Everything is up to you. If you want her back here, I’ll get her for you. If you want to leave, I’ll go with you. I’ll even make sure to stay three steps behind if you hate the idea of having me walk at your side. And if you’d rather have Cassius, then I’ll have him take you to my sister-in-law’s house instead, but going out there alone? I can’t allow that until the doctor says you’re healthy enough to do so.”
Every word he spoke felt like ice-cold needles sliding through my skin until I was pinned in place like a dead butterfly, absolutely helpless before him. There was nothing I could do or say that wouldn’t sound insane when he was so willing to cater to my every whim.
I didn’t understand .
“Why?” My eyes burned with tears, but they didn’t fall. I’d never let them fall. Especially in front of him. “Why do you even care? You’re not my alpha, and yet you took me here against my will.”
“Actually, I did get permission.” Liam’s smile widened slightly and it was sharp enough I took an involuntary step back. “You were incapacitated last night and your emergency contact is Frankie who also happens to have the legal right to make medical decisions for you if you happen to be unconscious. She’s the one who agreed to bring you here after seeing how much you improved in my care. I have her verbal consent recorded. So, if you want to leave, you may now do so.”
“But not alone?”
“No, not alone.” Liam checked his watch. “You have five minutes to decide before Cassius leaves the property.”
I was still angry and hurting, but his logic and all the choices he was offering made me hesitate.
What was I supposed to do? Did I really believe it was my pheromones hurting her? Did it even matter when she’d been so insistent this was the right choice? Frankie was doing the work on this case I couldn’t do, and I did have my laptop.
I was even in Liam Valor’s personal residence so I could take a look around before going to see Gideon’s house.
Looking down at my wrist, I could barely feel the platonic bond between me and Frankie. The scent of tangerines was already fading even though she’d held my wrist just a few minutes ago. “What the hell is happening to me?”
“Have you decided?” Liam looked up from his watch to pin me with that icy red stare. “You have three minutes left.”
“Don’t call her back.” I shook my head, not sure I believed him, but at the same time…the doctor would have some answers in a few hours no matter how much I hated the idea of leaning on an unfamiliar alpha. “But…I still don’t understand.”
“Would you like to hear my theory?” Liam took a step toward me and I inhaled sharply when he suddenly looked hungry .
He was massive when he wasn’t slouching against the wall or letting me push him around. Liam’s shoulders were so fucking wide and his tapered waist…
The smell of oranges clung to the fabric of his clothes, but it was just a little different than what I’d scented the day before. Did he use some kind of soap that matched his pheromones or was I really, truly losing my mind right now?
“You’re not defective, Lucy.” He didn’t try to touch me, but he did get closer, crowding me enough I took another step back to avoid the heat emanating from his body. It made my heart race every time he said my name and I didn’t trust myself not to reach out for him if he got too close.
“Would you like to hear what I think?” This time he reached out and stroked one of my curls longingly, but he still looked dangerous .
“Why not?” I did my best to sound like I didn’t give a shit what he thought, but it was impossible to take another step away from him when he was looking at my hair like that. And I didn’t smell any pheromones coming off of him at all. How the hell was I going to react if he decided to take off his scent blockers?
“Do you know what a dominant omega is?” Liam asked, releasing my hair to slip his hands in his pockets. His expression shifted until he looked as cold and unfeeling as I’d always thought he was.
It wasn’t easy to focus on his question with him so close, but I racked my brain for any memory of reading about something so ridiculous.
“I’ve heard of it,” I admitted, remembering one of the more obscure medical journals I’d read over the years in my endless search for answers. “But they’re extremely rare, if any of them are left at all.”
“Dominant omegas are very similar to legacy alphas,” Liam explained, as if I hadn’t spoken at all.
Why did he always choose to be such a prick?
“They don’t respond to weak alphas, and their pheromones can make those alphas submit, much like a legacy can.” He tilted his head then and that sharp smile widened. “It’s said that only a dominant omega can survive a strong legacy alpha’s pheromones without losing their mind. Would you like to test that theory?”
There was a glint in his eyes that made my racing heart simply stop, like a rabbit before a fox.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I managed, suddenly remembering I was wearing nothing but an oversized shirt that barely covered my ass.
“But don’t you like solving mysteries?” Liam asked, reaching out to grab hold of the white shirt before I could take another step back. He didn’t pull me forward, but it was enough to wonder what the fuck he was trying to accomplish.
“I do like solving mysteries,” I admitted slowly, torn between making him suffer and finding out if he was right. “ But what makes you think I could possibly be one of these dominant omegas? It’s not like I haven’t already been confirmed as an omega. So, why would it manifest now?”
“Dominant omegas are special for quite a few reasons.” Liam smirked and released the shirt. “Most of their pheromones don’t manifest their true potential until they find an alpha strong enough to handle them. It’s a very caring and empathetic omega trait if you think about it. Otherwise, you would have been making those around you suffer this whole time, right?”
…that did make sense, even if it fucking terrified me to know what it implied. Just because he was a strong alpha, that didn’t mean he was my alpha, right? I did like his scent and I found it calming, but…
It was impossible not to laugh, especially when that weird vertigo hit as my entire world fell apart around me.
Just like it had in that courtroom.
Everything was changing again and I had no fucking control over it. I really hated not being in control of my own fucking life.
“This is all your fault.” My finger trembled when I pointed it accusingly at Liam, hating him more than I’d ever hated anyone for doing this to me. “If you’d worn your scent blockers properly?—”
“Then what, Lucy?” Liam gripped my wrist and yanked me closer. “Are you saying we never would have run into each other despite the fact that you go everywhere with a legacy alpha at your side?”
I tried to yank my arm out of his grip but he was just too fucking strong.
He pulled my hand closer to his mouth and I froze when he bit down on my finger with just enough pressure to leave a mark, but he was very careful not to break the skin.
What the fuck was this?
“Take off my scent blockers,” he suggested, in a tone that made it obvious he didn’t think I would. Those deep red eyes glittered dangerously at me and he didn’t once blink as he watched me absorb his words.
Shit . If Frankie had been able to scent my pheromones enough to choke on them, then Liam had to have been breathing them in this whole time. I had no idea why I couldn’t tell when they were out, or why I couldn’t contain them, but Liam had to be drowning in them just like Frankie had.
All the doors and windows were closed, and I didn’t hear the sound of an air filter either.
“Come on, Lucy. Take them off. Let’s see if my theory is right.” Liam grinned as he settled my hand on the side of his neck. “Help me solve a little mystery.”