“Have you had to use the collar on her much?”
“No, not at all, really,” Rowan answers, stiffening at the mention of the collar around my neck.
Honestly, I forget it’s there most of the time. Especially when I’m just with Rowan. He doesn’t use it at all.
“Hmm, interesting,” Norman says.
“I honestly think it’s a little pointless to keep on her,” Rowan shrugs casually, but the statement weighs heavy on my brain.
I swallow down the hope when Norman just lets out an amused chuckle.
“It’s got other purposes outside of just shocking her. There’s a tracker there, so if she gets off the compound, we don’t lose her,” Norman says, before taking a bite of pizza so big two two-thirds of the slice is gone.“It’s important you don’t fall into the same traps I did with your mother.”
Rowan’s body stiffens. This is the second time I’ve seen his expression morph into something unreadable at the mention of his mother.
He doesn’t talk about her. I wonder what happened. Is she still alive?
I assume she was an omega and that she’s no longer here on the farm, based on the way Norman and the doctor talked about her.
“Jett’s strategy takes after the way I treated her, and she, well, she ran away. Didn’t have a tracker on her, thought I wouldn’t have needed it after the five years we were together.” Norman says, waving his hand. “So the collar stays on, but maybe a softer approach is better.”
Rowan’s hand clenches into a fist under the table. His father won’t be able to see it, but I do. His hand is trembling.
I can’t scent the difference in his mood as well as I can with the alpha fighters, but there’s a bitter, almost antiseptic,medical aftertaste to his normally pleasant scent. He’s really upset right now. I’m surprised he’s keeping it together.
I lean my head against his thigh, trying to distract him from the words that’ve obviously brought up something unpleasant for him.
Rowan’s hand gently pets my hair, and some of the tension in his body leaves him.
“Loyalty is invaluable,” he says slowly. “If you ask me, cruelty ain’t the way to earn it.”
“Hmmm, interesting,” Norman says. “Tell me, how were you able to tame the new fighting dog so quickly? I hear from Jerry and Jett that he was unruly when we first got him.”
Rowan shrugs, dancing around the question. “Maybe I just have a gift. I know this is my first time taking part in the family business, but I’ve done an awful lot of watching over the years.”
“You have, have you?”
With my head tilted this way, Norman can’t see the face I’m making. Which is good, because it probably looks like I tasted something sour. I don’t like the casual mentions Rowan’s dad makes that show that he really hasn’t paid his youngest son any attention.
“Well, anyway,” Norman continues. “I wanted to let you know I sent Jett away. He’s going out on a little mission for me, probably be gone for a while.”
Rowan stiffens, his hand that’s settled on top of my head stilling.
“You—you sent him away? Why?”
“Well, mostly because I needed someone to learn more about what the hell happened to the omega facility this omega came from and what to do now that it’s been raided and shut down. But also ‘cause I thought it’d be best if you two had some space after the stunt he pulled the other day,” Norman says, nodding towards the bruises that’re still obvious on Rowan’s face.
My heart stutters in my chest. The facility was raided?
What in the world happened?
That place always felt like it was indestructible.
Are the girls okay? What happened to them?
“Oh,” Rowan says, waiting for Norman to continue.
“That means we’ve got a trainer position open. Doubly so since Tony’s spine got all fucked up after the stunt Ash pulled. You ready to finally pull your weight around here?”
