He doesn’t let go. “And I can come in your nest?”
“I mean, I’d prefer you come in me,” I tease him before pulling open the door and racing out to meet the security guard.
ChapterForty-Seven
HEIDI
Goodbyes with my Scorned Girls are always hard, but not today. Simona and Tristan leave before me, heading in a different direction. Raney and I give them a send off full of hugs and promises, they barely drive off and she’s pinning me with a near feral glare.
“Does Koz need to accompany you home?” she hisses at me.
“What?” I gulp, trying to figure what I said to give myself away.
“You’re about to go into heat.”
Oh, she’s on a totally different track to what I thought; I recover in a flash and embellish her accusation with a dash of unnecessary snark. “Wow, no crap? I thought it was the garlic in the pesto making me feel out of sorts.”
“You’re not using suppressors?” she asks, not as miffed but still not happy.
“You’re right, I’m not,” I hiss back.
“Settle the fuck down, Ho, I’m trying to make sure you’re okay. And I want to know why Kai or any of Pack Alastor are not travelling with you.”
I cringe at her. I thought I was doing a super job being sneaky and avoiding the issue but Raney’s like a sledgehammer, and she won’t let up until she gets an answer. “How does ‘it’s complicated sound’?”
“Good complicated or not?” She takes a step closer.
“Good complicated. I promise.”
“Ho, you know you can tell me anything,” she softens, her eyes searching mine.
I shrug at her in answer, before rolling my eyes ending our conversation on the matter and grabbing another hug. “I’ll be fine until I get home. Seriously, everything is okay there’s just lots of moving parts that need to fall in place. Similar really to how you had to resolve your past before you could move on.”
She flicks her chin up in typical Raney dismissive behaviour but it’s not that she doesn’t care, or that she doesn’t like me bringing up her past, it’s that she knows only too well what I said is true.
“And you’ll share all your secrets with me?” she pushes.
“Soon enough,” I suggest with a soft smile. “Or not. You’re a blabbermouth, Omega Siderno.”
This time she lets me go because she’s distracted by the title and its meaning. If you use the latest look on her face as evidence, she’s off thinking of her new pack.
The ride to the airport seems to take forever. Work does nothing to keep me occupied, and I spend the flight home ticking off each physical and emotional change as they happen, confirming my heat is coming.
Shooting off a text to my security team and letting them know I’m experiencing a heat spike, I wait in the small bedroom on Koz’s plane until everyone is off the aircraft. Too many Alphas around me right now would feel wrong.
Ronnie lets me know it’s safe to come out, and he advises we’re using two separate cars: one for him and me, one for the rest of the team. The man is going to get a huge pay rise. Since the first day he arrived he’s consistently treated me better and more respectfully than my other team ever did.
He doesn’t ask a lot of questions. He doesn’t look at me, and he waits until I’m sitting in the back of the Escalade before he drives off. But he does it without freaking the hell out too and speeding off.
“Can you please put the AC on?” I ask when we’re only past the halfway point, and the relief against my skin is instant, but it doesn’t do much to cool the steady rise of my temperature or the growing need infecting my body and mind.
My heat is moving like it should, there’s nothing untoward happening but at the same time I’d like to be anywhere but here. Ronnie’s phone rings and he answers it through the Bluetooth, letting me hear so my emotions don’t start getting paranoid for no reason, like what can happen when Omegas start their heat.
“We have an issue coming up on the first access gate at Verdune. The team are reporting a white SUV blocking the entrance road. We sent a secondary team to mediate,” one of the guards from home updates.
“Are you listening to this, Heidi?” Ronnie asks.
“Yeah,” I answer, my fingers already flying over my phone to Kai then Ramses.
