I hold Icarus’ shirt to my nose, breathing in his warm, spicy apple scent.
My nest is built out of a ragged suit of clothes that Icarus gave me two years ago, when I was first sent to stay here. I wove them between my ripped up, thin gray blanket.
I wince at the memory of the beating Icarus received for pretending to have lost that suit, when he needed to request a new one.
Icarus tries to hide his pain from everyone, but that time, he hadn’t been able to. Michah and Ollie had needed to carry him back to his room, while he’d pretended that he was actually walking with his chin still held high at the same time that he could hardly get his feet underneath himself.
Yet Icarus had allowed me to disinfect the deep welts on his back for once.
Then to my surprise, at the same time that my eyes had glistened with tears as I’d dabbed at the worst wounds, he’d actually glanced over his shoulder andsmiled.
Then he’d said the two words that had always been my battle cry. “Worth it.”
I am abad influence but only in thebestway.
After that, Icarus wiped his ties over his scent glands and then cut up them up into small pieces.
He claimed that guests had spilled wine on his ties or that they were fraying.
He still has the cost deducted from his salary every time (and he barely gets paid as it is). The pay and conditions in this industry suck since Maya took over.
If I ever get the chance to take my rightful place as owner, it’s the first thing that I will change.
Actually, the second.
The first will be abolishing the use of Hotel Omegas and the rule that stops staff from finding love in pack bonds.
Icarus distributed the pieces of his ties between the HOs, along with each new one that arrived alone and in shock, to ground them with an Alpha’s scent and help them through their heats.
He granted them safety, claiming them as part of his Sinner pack.
I can never be jealous of my fellow Omegas. They’re my friends, and without pack bonds, they need Icarus.
We’re all pack.
I snuggle down, curled around Bird who has even deeper shadows underneath his eyes than I do. We’re already dressed in our uniforms. We were up so much of the night that it didn’t seem worth getting changed into pajamas.
Zoe sits between Bird and me, as bright and awake, as if she’d had a full night’s sleep.
She always has energy. I wish that she could share some of it with me.
I lean over and indulge myself in kissing the crown of her little head, and she begins to purr.
I love her sweet baby Omega smell of strawberry marshmallows.
Despite my anxiety about her biological dad being somewhere in the hotel right now and what will happen if I run into him (does he want to see Zoe?), as well as worry about what is happening to Icarus, my breathing steadies.
Zoe calms me. I would do anything for her. I understand Dad better now.
When I was a kid, there were times that I didn’t understand how he could have married Maya. I was angry with him for it. I wanted him to stand up to her and leave.
Yet she is the Head Alpha of the Frosts. Now that I am an adult, I know he couldn’t have done that. Even if he had been able to escape, it would have meant leaving behind the kids who he loved like I do Zoe.
I would do anything for Zoe.
And I could never leave her behind.
Zoe has tanned skin, taking after Logan, but with large aquamarine eyes like me. She is dressed in a secondhand, faded red dress.
