The one I gave her.
She’s had months.Monthsto take it off. To forget us. To forget me.
But she didn’t.
The belt of leather is still right there, pressed against her delicate throat, covering her mating gland. There might not be teeth marks decorating her neck, but with the little nametag dangling at her throat, it screams to anyone who looks that she’s claimed.
My inner Alpha prowls with smug possessiveness.Mine. My Omega.
She stammers through an answer, her voice soft and uncertain. “I… well… with the way that I left things, I don’t want to presume…”
She’s nervous. Sheshouldbe. But not for the reasons she thinks.
I raise my nose, deliberately scenting the air. The sweet aroma of her pooling arousal is blooming through the small room rapidly.
I arch a knowing brow.
She might not have the words, but her body’s speaking to me loud and clear.
She watches with wide eyes, and the flush deepens, spreading over her cheeks and up into her hairline.
She smells like needy Omega. Like a sweet little thing that’s been missing her Pack desperately and wants them back.
It takes everything in me not to show my satisfaction. Instead, I take a bite of my roast dinner, chewing the meat slowly, not looking away for a second.
My pride needs her tosay it. To ask for more. To tell us what she needs.
Tobegfor it.
Viper ruined that part of my strategy with his eagerness. Jumped the line and let his instincts outrun his patience.
She gave herself to him quickly, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. Sex between an Alpha and Omega is instinct. What we need from her is achoice. A deliberate, undeniable decision.
Halley and Viper have always had a cosmic connection. I get it. They met in a life or death situation. It felt inevitable that they'd come together. But he should’ve shown more restraint. Held the line.
Previously, I would have punished Viper for blatant insubordination. I wouldn’t have understood why he broke rank.
Now I see what it really is.
Love.
He loves her. Plain and painful.
My lieutenant is in love with our Omega, and I'd be a monster to stand in the way of that.
I’m not that kind of Alpha anymore. At least, not to her.
I’ll always be a soldier. A killer. That part of me was built too young and buried too deep to scrape away. It’s in my bones.
Shade and Viper are watching me. Waiting to see where I’m going with this. They know me. I never go into an interrogation or negotiation without a strategic plan.
Phase one: admission of feelings.
‘She needs to say it,’I tell them, and I’m met with subtle nods of agreement.
She can’t just hint at it. If she wants us to be more than her instructors, she has to name it. She needs to say explicitly that she wants to be part of our Pack.
Blaze makes a low sound beside me, something feral and impatient. I know that tone. He’s about to say something that’ll throw gasoline on the fire.
