My dad’s sharp hazel eyes, the same shade as mine, cut to me, and I immediately move to open the door.
“Took you long enough,” Jett grumbles.
In his arms is a large rectangular box-looking thing with a dusty blanket tossed over the top so I can’t see what’s inside.
That blanket does nothing to hide the delicious perfume that instantly fills the entire room.
Strawberries.
Fuck, I love strawberries.
The scent makes my blood thrum through my veins almost as much as the dose I just took. It’s like a drug in and of itself, and I know instantly what it is.
An omega’s perfume.
My gut twists with dread as Jett drops the box onto the floor and a soft gasp comes from inside.
Oh no.
My eyes go wide as my gaze cuts to my brother and my dad’s faces. They both share an excited grin.
“Got the goods, Dad,” Jett smirks before he tears away the blanket.
My brother just brought in a fucking cage.
A cage with a naked omega.
She’s curled into a ball, trying to hold herself together. Herstrawberry scent sours as she glances up with big emerald eyes at the surrounding room.
My mouth goes dry as I stare at her. At her auburn hair and the pale expanse of the skin along her back, freckles dancing across like a constellation.
She’s stunning. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
And my fucking family has her curled in a dog cage. Naked. Terrified out of her fucking mind.
“She’s prettier than I expected for the price we got her at,” Dad hums, standing up from his desk to get a better look at her. “Still cost a fucking arm and a leg, but omegas who no one will look for are pretty rare, so we got a good deal, in my book.”
Omegas no one will look for?
What in the world does that mean?
“She is, isn’t she?” Jett adds, slapping the top of the cage and making her flinch. “Cute tits, but she’s got an especially nice ass. If an omega like her can’t tame the dogs, then I think nothing can.”
“What the fuck?” The words leave me before I realize what I’m saying.
Jett and my dad’s gazes cut to me, with genuine surprise on their faces. Maybe it’s because I’m normally a wallflower at these sorts of meetings. I know better than to question whatever insane plans they have going on.
“Do you have something to say, Rowan?” My dad asks, raising a thick, expectant eyebrow.
The omega looks at me, her arms crossed over her chest to hide her modesty the best she can. She telegraphs every single emotion she’s feeling with that one look.
Terror. Confusion. And there, hiding beneath the depths of all of that negativity? Hope.
This omega sees something in me that she doesn’t see in either of the alphas in this room.
It does something to me. Rewires my brain chemistry.
I don’t know whether it’s the high from the booster dose Itook or the high of being on the receiving end of this omega’s pleading gaze, but it makes me want to do something stupid.
