46. Chapter 46
Rosalina
And here I thought this place was supposed to be a secret.
Considering the group of alphas making themselves comfortable on the porch as we pulled up behind the newly arrived Porsche SUV, it didn’t seem like much of a secret to me.
The muted light from the sconces cast an eerie glow across the three men.
One made his way toward the stairs in a dark suit, his sandy blond hair flashing in the light.
The other two looked like hired muscle, their dark hair and casual attire blended into the shadows.
I doubted I could run from them any easier than I had from Nico.
I was going to have to wait this shitstorm out.
A twisted grin wormed its way across the suit’s face as I shimmied off the bike, trying not to flash anyone, and pulled Oliver’s helmet off.
“I see you got the bitch. She’s just as pretty as they said she’d be,” the blond said, leering at me with an unsavory smile.
“What do you want, Marcel?” Nico asked as he set his helmet on his bike and unzipped his leather jacket.
“We came to see the prize, of course.” The blond in the suit, Marcel, stepped off the porch in a bid to get a better look.
Nico moved first, standing between the approaching alpha and me like a shield.
Oliver and Cruz followed, creating a meat wall blocking the wandering eyes of the visitors.
I couldn’t complain. Stomach-churning whiffs of black licorice and dirty motor oil wafted to me on the night breeze.
There was no chance I wanted to be any closer to them than I already was.
“There’s nothing to see. You shouldn’t even be here.
Knowledge of this location is on a need to know basis, and there’s no reason you need to know it.
” Nico kept his hands relaxed at his sides, but that stance was all the more unsettling as the moonlight glinted off the steel hidden snug in the waistband of his pants.
Was that the gun he fucked me with earlier? A completely inappropriate tingle trickled up my spine, and Oliver glanced over his shoulder at me with a puzzled look before turning his attention back to the new arrivals.
Marcel held his hands up. “Easy, kid, your dad sent us to bring her in. Something about you recovering from your omega’s heat.” He chuckled and shot a lecherous grin in Oliver’s direction.
Ew.
Nico’s hands flexed into a fist before relaxing against his thighs. “As you can see, that’s unnecessary. Everything is in order. We’ll bring her in tomorrow.”
A whisper of fury thrummed in my chest. Was that an echo of the pack’s emotions spilling over into me?
Fucking weird. But also terrifying. The bond was tying me to them one gossamer thread at a time, as if I wouldn’t notice, as if I would just accept this thing he forced on me with no regard to what I wanted.
Cruz had one hand tucked under his jacket, and Oliver shifted his weight in front of me. The night had gone silent. Even the crickets were choking on the tension.
Marcel took a step back, his hands still raised. “Yeah, okay. You gonna let us in? Show some hospitality. It’s the least you could do after we drove all the way out here for nothin, dog.”
Oliver reached back toward me, and after a moment’s consideration, I slid my fingers into his hold.
He gave my hand a soft squeeze and pulled me closer.
Nico glanced over his shoulder at us in some sort of silent communication that I didn’t understand before striding up the steps and unlocking the door.
Marcel and the other two followed him inside with Cruz on their heels.
Oliver leaned into me, his breath ruffling my hair. “Keep your head down and follow my lead. These guys are the worst of the worst, and the only reason they would’ve found this place is if Francisco sent them. And that’s real bad.”
I stuck close to Oliver as Nico led everyone to the kitchen.
We lagged behind, staying quiet. The urge to hold my breath weighed heavily on my chest. I didn’t want to be here, back in this house wrapped in the addictive scent of Nico’s pack.
The bond was squirming its way into my heart and setting anchors that I might never be able to untangle myself from.
Marcel and the other two men slid onto stools at the island as if it were their right, and my hackles went up.
It was as if they were polluting this space just with their presence.
Their foul odor leached into the sweet-scented air, poisoning it alongside the occasional whiff of gas from the now dormant stove.
This wasn’t my house, never would be if I had any say in the matter, but it felt like they were desecrating it just by sitting there.
Marcel sniffed the air, turning to look at me with a calculating stare. “Smells like gas in here.”
“We had a minor issue with the stove at breakfast this morning,” Nico said as if it was nothing.
Cabinets opened, bottles clanked, and glasses clinked as Nico and Cruz served up whiskey. Oliver guided me over to the breakfast nook and pulled me into the banquette next to him, remaining silent.
After dusting off a few glasses and commentary on the score of the big game last week, Marcel’s eyes wandered to me, lingering uncomfortably on my bare legs.
“How about some entertainment? I don’t understand what you see in that one,” he lifted his glass in Oliver’s direction, “but get the girl up here on the counter to dance for us, eh?”
The air in the room congealed, thick and cloying.
Blood fled from my head in a rush of ice water.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek, reminding myself that Oliver told me to follow his lead.
He was smiling in an unhinged sort of way that chilled me further, but I managed to force a placating smile onto my face.
The crack of a glass bottle landing on the stone island broke the silence like a jackhammer.
“How about some eighteen-year-old single malt, and we send the omegas away for the night? Oliver, lock Rosa up and go to bed,” Nico said, drawing the attention of the alphas back to the bottle he put on the counter.
There was some grumbling, but no one stopped us when Oliver guided me past them and down the hall.
“I don’t suppose you’d want to sleep in my nest tonight?” Oliver whispered, looking hopeful.