I became rigidly still. Had I spoken aloud?
“I, ugh…” I stammered.
“Do you disagree?” she asked.
“No, it’s just… I mean… yeah, I’m not… big and scary like, like, ugh—”
“Like me?” Cole asked, and Sara laughed.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I said quietly, an awful mixture of anxious and embarrassed.
“Calm down, puppy,” Cole said, the edge to her voice softening. “There’s no need to whine; I’m sure you’ve got teeth, but I doubt you pack much of a bite.” She smiled, and I couldn’t think of a response.
I was insulted, and part of me riled at the challenge, wanting to protest; I was nopuppybut… Ridiculously, she had a smilelike a damn movie star. Like something so perfect it shouldn’t have been real. But there she was, Cole, the Storm of Sandstorm, mocking me and causing an antagonistic kaleidoscope of butterflies to ignite into existence inside me.
Sara cleared her throat, and Cole turned her attention away from me and back to her sister, completely unaware of what she had done to me.
“You know the threat doesn’t come from an omega directly. It’s the disruptive nature of their presence,” Sara said. “If you're going to keep her until the National Assembly, what do you plan to do with her?” she enquired. Sara had not acknowledged my existence, speaking of me as if I weren’t in the room, standing mere feet away from her.
“I was thinking she could work in housekeeping. Alan was complaining just last week about a lack of staff,” Cole answered.
Sara nodded as if that was answer enough.
I was going to be put to work in housekeeping. It could have been much worse; I might have been expected to follow Cole around as a personal assistant like Ashford demanded. I wasn’t sure if I could stomach Cole the way I tolerated Ashford.
“Fine,” Sara said and stood. “But she is your responsibility, Cole. The National Assembly is only five weeks away, and I expect you to complete your current objectives before then. This omega best not interfere with your responsibilities.”
“When have I ever let the pack down, sister?” Cole asked.
Sara only smiled knowingly in response before she walked past me and towards the entrance.
Cole didn’t follow her sister as she left, and we stood quietly until I heard the front door open and close.
“It’s just the two of us now,” Cole said and turned her eyes back to me. The kaleidoscope reignited.
“Hmm,” I hummed in agreement.
Cole breathed in, scenting the air, and stepped closer to me.
I held my breath.
“Sara’s frustrations are valid,” she said, stepping closer to me until there was barely any space between us. “You weren’t part of the plan.”
“Do you usually go off-plan?” I asked, trying not to breathe too deeply. Trying and failing to avoid scenting her. Ashford threw his pheromones around like a slap. Cole was fresh, a light breeze I wanted to lean into and chase; a fleeting memory, a feeling of something wild. I controlled myself.
She shook her head. “Never.”
“Ashford upset you that much?” I asked, my voice low. Her smile faded to a grin.
“Your alpha isn’t capable of upsetting me,” she answered.
“He isn’t my alpha,” I told her. “I’m his omega, but that doesn’t make him my alpha.”
Her nostrils flared slightly as she inhaled.
“You’re wrong,” she told me, and somehow closed the space between us further, leaning over me. “You’re not his. Not anymore. You’re mine.”
I swallowed hard. The way she claimed me, quietly assured, was unsettling. Ashford needed me, needed everyone, to know that I was his, like it wasn’t true otherwise. Cole said I was hers, as if it just were, as if it were a natural law.
