“Yes!” he answered, his voice rising. “And I don’t have anyone walking around with my scent and my marking.”
“Please, it’s not like I actually marked the girl. Barely a nibble, a bruise gone in a day or two,” I defended.
It had been difficult not to mark her the previous night. Not to bite down into the soft flesh of her skin until I tasted blood. Theway she offered her neck so freely, so easily. I couldn’t get the image out of my head.
“That’s beside the point,” he growled. “This is about optics. What does it say if you have some omega, of all things, running around like that? Our marriage isn’t merely convenient; it secures the future of both our futures. Sandstorm isn’t the only pack facing succession issues.”
“Andrew, calm down. She’s just an omega. I’m simply borrowing her for a while, taken to humiliate a lesser alpha. I’ll be returning her come the National Assembly,” I told him.
He huffed.
“Don’t allow this to interfere with us, Colette. We’re to be married. I know you have your preferences, and I’m willing to allow you to indulge privately; perhaps we can even share in such indulgences, but I intend to have a real marriage. We’re to embrace the role of Alpha of Sandstorm jointly; this marriage is not only on paper,” he said, and it took an effort to school my features.
“You do not allow me to do anything,” I reminded him.
“We are a partnership, whether you like it or not,” he told me.
“I’m quite sure neither of us like this, Andrew,” I said.
“That may be, but we both want something only the other can provide: to secure the future of our packs. I’ve been trying to make this as painless as possible for both of us. Control yourself.” He stood. “Or I’ll have to intervene. I’m sure neither of us wants that,” he said.
I stood too.
“Is that a threat, dear future husband?” I asked.
“Not at all, future wife.” He walked towards me and kissed my cheek. I growled. He laughed. “Don’t make this more difficult for either of us than it has to be,” he said and walked towards the door.
“Tell Sara I said good morning,” I said, knowing his next stop was to my sister.
I sat back down as I heard the front door close and ran my hands over my head.
This was a problem.
I hadn’t put much thought into taking her that night. She was small and scared, and that Blizzard boy wasn’t scared enough.
Did part of me know what she was?
I was attracted from the start. The first scent of her pheromones almost drove me to lose control within the Pack House kitchen. I could have taken her right there if I hadn’t heard the fear in her voice.
It was difficult to believe that she was truly unaware of what she was doing until I learned of her lack of shifting. Stephan had explained that she had effectively stunted the natural progression of her wolf abilities, that she hadn’t learned to recognise or control her instincts as a result of not shifting at all since her first baptism under the moon.
What kind of alpha allowed their omega to avoid the full moon for so long?
The more I learned about the Blizzard boy, the more I disliked him.
A true mate.
What was I meant to do about that?
I growled in anger. My phone rang, and I retrieved it from my pocket. Chloe could wait. Everything could wait today. I wasn’t in the mood for dealing with any more problems.
Harriet was enough.
I got up and ready to leave to find my upset omega. She couldn’t have gone far.
***
Harriet was not on the estate.
