“Okay.” The wariness in her tone matches the uncertainty in her gaze.
“There’s a reason we’ve hunted you for years.” I draw a circle against her hip with my thumb, the touch one that Noah often does to me. But it feels appropriate to do it now to her, to try to soothe her while I speak.
She swallows, the movement catching my gaze for a beat before I return my focus to her pretty brown irises.
“Laz was livid when he realized someone had stolen money from us. That’s never happened before, primarily because he hasme.” My jaw ticks at the memory of the day I discovered that someone had hacked our system. “No one has ever been able to pull off something like that under my watch.No one. Until you.”
Her cheeks pinken a little. But it’s not from embarrassment. She’s proud.
As she fucking should be.
“It took me years to track your work through the web. While I may not have been able to focus on it one hundred percent of the time, I definitely devoted a lot of hours to figuring out what the fuck happened. And when I finally did, I told Laz and Noah.”
They were both ready to drop everything to track the culprit down and rain hell on the bastard’s head.
Except I had to inform them that “Lark” was a woman, not a man.
And not just any woman, but Aurora Bianchi.
“It’s one of the few times I’ve ever seen them speechless.” I grin at the memory. “Noah demanded to see your profile, I think because he wanted a photo. Meanwhile, Laz said we’dfound our queen. No hesitation. No debates. Just a declaration of intention.”
“Because he wanted revenge?” she asks, clearly guessing at his motives despite the fact that he already discussed some of them with her. He told her about the other offers he’d received and why he’d rejected them.
But I’ll elaborate again for her now if it’ll help her accept this. Acceptus.
“He didn’t want revenge. He wanted you because you bested him. And he loves that.”
She blinks. “He does?”
“We all do,” I inform her, my nose skimming hers. “We want an omega who will fight us and hold us accountable. Someone we can rely on to help our organization thrive. Who challenges us more than she submits. And who is strong enough to handle all three of us.”
I pause, considering that for a moment.
“Well, primarily Laz and Noah,” I amend. “As the only one who has been taking care of them these last few years, trust me when I tell you it’s not an easy task. I’m very much looking forward to having some assistance in that area.”
She frowns at me. “Why don’t they just fuck each other? Or take another…?” She trails off. “I don’t want to think about that, actually.”
“They’re too violent to fuck each other. As for the latter, you don’t need to think about it, as they haven’t taken anyone else to bed—other than me—since the night I revealed the truth about your hacker identity—the night they learned aboutyou.”
It just didn’t make sense to any of us at that point. We were consumed with the desire to hunt her down.
But that didn’t curb Noah’s and Laz’s urges. Same with mine.
So I saw to their cravings.
Lark stares at me. “They haven’t been with anyone else since learning about me? Anyone other than… the pack?”
I nod. “There wasn’t a purpose. We knew who we wanted, little hacker.You.”
Her eyes search mine. “Because I challenged Lazarus.”
“Yes.”
“And because of my name?”
I consider that for a moment. “It’s more about your experience in our world. The fact that you know what we’re capable of yet you chose to steal from us anyway. That marked you as bold, intelligent, and daring. All traits we admire. You being a Bianchi just adds to the allure.”
Laz already told her that he would have rejected an offer from her father, just like all the others he’d turned down.
