He'd realized immediately that she was going to be a challenge, but not for the reasons he’d anticipated. Their charge wasn’t just a rich, spoiled omega who would bore them with vapid conversation and fancy events. Oh, she was definitely as rich and stuck up as he’d expected, but she was far from boring. Bianca Bonnycastle was anything but boring. As a matter of fact, she was positively fascinating. Dangerously so.
What struck Dante most about Bianca in their initial meeting was her rage. She positively radiated anger. Oh, she was icy cool on the outside, but anyone with half a brain and reasonable observational skills could see that beneath her perfect poise lay a coiled snake, ready to strike.
Dante had met many, many angry people. Between the distant relatives, foster families, and unsavory folks he’d crashed with before and after he and King met, Dante knew all about anger. When it had nowhere to go, that anger would eat you alive. And Bianca’s was dangerously close to consuming her.
It reminded him of King during those last, desperate years before they turned eighteen, when they’d been dropping in and out of the wretched public alpha academies in the slums of Smyrna City. Things had gotten more and more risky, and it was clear they were nearing the end of youthful antics and well on their way to becoming full-fledged criminals. King had been so full of rage that Dante could feel it festering, eating at their bond. That’s why he’d decided they needed to join the military. He’d had to find an outlet, a healthy avenue to channel that rage. It’d saved them both.
Looking into Bianca Bonnycastle’s silver-gray eyes, Dante saw that same festering fury. And it seemed like hers had nowhere to go.
One of the cyborg twins had shown them around the swanky penthouse, ending at an office where they could set up shop. They’d already met with hotel security to coordinate coverage and get access to the building’s surveillance cameras. Once they shared the plan with Bianca, they’d install more cameras throughout the apartment.
Of course, Bianca Bonnycastle didn’t like the plan.
“Are internal cameras really necessary, Mr. King?” the omega demanded in a voice dripping with disdain. “Surely if a perpetrator makes itthis far, you’ve failed at your job. I shouldn’t have to lose every modicum of my privacy because of your incompetence.”
Dante had to cough to stifle a laugh. He wouldn’t have believed there was a person alive who’d have the balls to talk to King that way on a first meeting. Or ever. But this omega had already surprised him with her impenetrable demeanor. She’d barely looked at any of them when she’d finally deigned to be introduced, hadn’t offered her hand to shake, or come any closer than the threshold of their makeshift security office. She’d been silent as King introduced them and gave her the rundown of how they did things. Her responses to his questions had been curt, condescending, and impatient.
It was pretty fucking hot.
It was also annoying and inconvenient, because Dante didn’t have time for Bianca Bonnycastle to be hot. He’d known that she was beautiful, but pictures hadn’t conveyed the raw energy that crackled around her, sparking viciously in her moonlight eyes. Online photos certainly didn’t capture the dangerously sweet scent that had hit him like a wrecking ball the moment he’d entered the penthouse.
Bianca was slender and athletic, with creamy skin that contrasted beautifully with her dark hair. Her features were striking, almost severe in their elegant beauty. Thick, perfectly sculpted brows over arresting gray eyes, high, sharp cheekbones, and an aquiline nose that was slightly upturned at the tip. Her lips were a bit imbalanced, the top a perfect cupid’s bow that was slightly thinner than the bottom, but they were both plump, pink, and inviting. She obviously spent plenty of time in her home gym, as evidenced by the well-defined muscles of her arms and back, her small waist, and her pert little ass. Not to mention her immaculate rack, which Dante refused to let himself dwell on. That way lay madness.
Everything out of her mouth was laced with annoyance, her words were somehow more cutting because of her subtle, posh British accent. Dante would’ve thought it was an affectation, but he knew she’d spent her early years abroad while her fathers tended to their most exclusive and lucrative hotels. She’d moved to the states when they opened the Smyrna City location, then moved to London a decade later to attend a prestigious omega academy, spending only a year in the U.S. after graduating early before heading back across the pond to earn a degree in something calledphilanthropic studiesat Oxford. It seemed the accent had rubbed off on her, without any of the Brits’s famous politeness.
Dante didn’t have time for Bianca Bonnycastle to be hot and smart-mouthed with a scent like oleander and apples. There was something fascinatingly dark about the exotic, powdery vanilla fragrance of oleander mixing with the familiar, cozy scent of apples. Oleander was beautiful and resilient but deadly, and Dante would be willing to bet that this poison apple omega was too.
He needed to focus. They had a job to do here, and unraveling the mystery of Bianca Bonnycastle wasnotit. They were building a business and weren’t in the market for an omega. Even if they were, this particular omega was way out of their league, in too many ways. She was rich and well-bred, and Dante and King were street kids turned jarheads. Even Van had had a modest upbringing on a farm in the Corn Belt, with only his brief football career to introduce him to the finer things in life. Now, they were comfortably middle class and only just barely getting a small business off the ground, and they needed jobs like this to make that possible. Meanwhile, the hotel Bianca called home was ridiculously opulent, as were all the Bonnycastle hotels and resorts. This penthouse alone probably cost more than Pack King’s collective net worth.
The reminder jolted him back to reality, and he decided to intervene in the conversation. King wasn’t the best choice for customer service. That was Dante’s job. Or Van’s, when he wasn’t too busy having the time of his life listening to King get his ass handed to him by an omega that probably weighed a hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet and wearing combat boots.
“Why is the big one grinning like an imbecile?” Bianca snapped abruptly, cutting off the explanation King had been giving her about the necessity of internal cameras.
She glared at Van with eyes like molten silver, her back ramrod straight. Though the top of her head barely reached Van’s chest, she gave the distinct impression of looking down her nose at the big alpha. And he obviously loved it.
“Daniel is just incredibly friendly, Miss Bonnycastle,” Dante interjected, attracting the omega’s sharp glare.
It was like being caught in the path of a viper, knowing that one wrong move would leave you with a gut full of venom. Bianca was far more terrifying than that big ass python she kept in her gym. Dante had to remind himself to breathe.
“We’re here to keep you safe, not to rob you of your privacy,” he went on, keeping his voice low and earnest. “The indoor cameras may be a bit excessive, but King’s Guard likes to do things by the numbers. We have contingencies for our contingencies. I promise that once we’ve established a routine, you’ll hardly notice us.”
Dante gave her his most charming smile. Bianca stared at him for a long moment, her pretty gray eyes hard and cold. Then she curled her lip in a sneer and turned back to King.
“The pretty one is an idiot too, if he thinks I won’t notice three hulking cretins ruining my life, but I’ve had enough of this conversation.I have an event to get to this evening, as you know, so I cannot waste any more time on this nonsense.” Bianca turned stiffly to leave but paused to give them a final side eye. “Do whatever you have to do. I don’t care. You won’t be around long.”
Without another backward glance, Bianca Bonnycastle stalked from the room, leaving silence and the scent of oleander in her wake. Dante’s packmates had to be as thunderstruck as he was, because nobody said a word or even looked away from the space she’d vacated for several long moments.
“She’s going to be a handful.” It was Van who broke the silence, of course. He grinned as if things were going even better than he’d hoped. “Good thing I got big hands.”
King shook his head and sighed. “Get back to work. I want everything operational before we escort Ms. Bonnycastle to the ballet.”
Dante nodded, snapping back into business mode. “Her parents will be in attendance as well, so it’s an opportunity to make a strong impression. We want them to see us as money well spent, so they tell all their buddies how safe they feel with their daughter in our hands.”
Van clapped him on the back, making Dante wince. The monster of a man didn’t realize his own strength sometimes. His smile was wide and white as he squeezed Dante’s shoulder affectionately.
“You have the heart of a carny and the relentless drive of a con artist,” Van declared. “This is going to be fine. You two stop worrying and scheming and do what you do best. King, call the play. Papito, watch his six. And I’ll bring the sexy.”
Dante laughed. Van always knew how to break the tension. He balanced out the pack in ways Dante had never expected. He’d always thought that he didn’t need anyone besides King, but now he couldn’t imagine them without Van.
