“Stop thinking so much and lie down.” Kyle’s voice came a second before the light in the room clicked off. He left the bathroom one on, as though he knew she might need it. The bed dipped beneath his weight as he settled in, and Alison did the same, her back to him and the large distance between them evidence of just how little she trusted him.
Him? What a joke. Clearly, I can’t trust myself, either.
* * * *
Daniel let out a low growl as he stared at Trent. The man wouldn’t evenlookat him.
Alison was up in the shower, which meant Daniel hadn’t gotten to see her shoulder, but Kyle had explained it well enough.
“Youmarkedher?”
Trent’s shoulders went rigid, as though the very words bothered him.
Good. He should feel guilty.
“Not on purpose.” Trent stirred his coffee, not facing Daniel.
“What the hell does that mean? You agreed to the rules! Hell, you made them.”
Trent finally turned, leaning his back against the kitchen counter. “To be fair, I didn’t kiss her.” His deadpan delivery only drove Daniel’s temper more.
“Don’t play that game with me. What the hell were you thinking?”
Finally, Trent sighed, his shoulders falling. “I wasn’t thinking, okay? I was fucking asleep. So was she. Neither of us made some big plan about this. As it turns out, when you’re horny and have an omega in your bed, sometimes shit happens.”
Daniel snorted, crossing his arms. “Shitdidn’t happen. We aren’t talking about a wet dream here. You bit her. You haveneverdone that before to any woman.”
“I know, and I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say. I didn’t plan it, I don’t know why it fucking happened, and I never wanted to bite her in the first place. Yell at me all you fucking want, I’ve already been kicking my own ass over it all morning.”
The misery on Trent’s face was the only reason Daniel managed to wrangle his frustration at all. Trent looked about as happy about it as Daniel felt. A claiming bite…something rare that only happened between mates, and often not even then. It was some holdover from a more primal side of alphas, something most alphas had even shed over the millennia of evolution they’d gone through.
Why did it surprise him that if any of them had that drive still, it would be Trent?
“This is exactly why you aren’t with the FBI anymore,” Daniel snapped.
Trent narrowed his eyes at that. “Are you really going there? Don’t try and turn this into some proof of shit.” Trent’s voice was low, a warning there that Daniel didn’t mind trampling over.
“Isn’t it? Alison has a claiming bite on her. Forget how fucked up that is for her, how complicated it makes any of us working together, but how the hell do we explain that to the person who is supposed to come and examine her? Lot harder to pass her off as merchandise whenyourclaiming bite is on her, isn’t it?”
Trent’s jaw popped, and for a minute, Daniel thought the other alpha might sail across the kitchen.
It wouldn’t be the first time he and Trent had gone head-to-head. Neither of them were hotheads, yet they seemed to be the only ones to end up fighting. Maybe they were too different—or too alike—but it wasalwaysthem.
“Always worried only about the job, aren’t you? Somethings never do change.” Trent shook his head and left the kitchen, coffee in hand, steps angry and loud.
“Look at that, we’re back to normal.” Kyle’s voice was breezy as he came in, letting Daniel know the bastard had listened to everything.
Which wasn’t shocking, because Kyle was nosy.
“You can’t tell me you’re okay with what happened. You were the one to bandage her.”
Kyle hopped onto the counter, his hair still damp from his own shower that morning. “Am I thrilled? No, but shit happens when you house alphas and omegas together. “
“None of that deals with the fact that Alison didn’t agree to that.”
Kyle waved off the concern. “Alison isn’t the fragile thing you think. Exhibit A?” Kyle waved at his face, at the bruising still there.
“Yeah, and all you were trying to do was help her when she did that. I’m pretty sure leaving a permanent claim on someone’s skin is a little different.”
