Page 58 of Vendetta

Ascent-match would explain everything. The magnetic attraction, the wanting to rip my clothes off every time I was around them. The fact that they were strangers, enemies, kidnappers—and I still wanted to fuck them all the time.

I swallowed the lump growing in my throat. I’d rather not have it confirmed, but I had to know. So, against my better judgement, I opened my big mouth and asked the question that could destroy my life.

I might as well rip the band-aid off. “You’re their omega, aren’t you?” There was no need to specify. Their pheromones were all over his nest.

Oliver carefully secured a bandage over the cut on my foot and gave me that sweet, dimpled grin that was really starting to grow on me. “Can you blame me?”

No.

I mean, yes. For so many reasons.

My fucking scent-matches kidnapped me. Not only that, but the Morenos killed my brother and the rest of my father’s pack. They’d nearly killed me, too. My mother left us because of them. Every fucked up thing in my life could be traced right back to Nico Moreno and his father. I wasn’t going to tell their little pet, though. Not yet. Did he even know who I was? He’d called me by my name earlier, a name I hadn’t given him, so he must.

I pulled my legs away from him and huddled on the edge of the bed, unsure what to do with that information.

Noticing my retreat, he closed the first-aid kit and took it to the bathroom. “Yeah, they’re definitely rough around the edges, but don’t blame me for their caveman tendencies. They came that way.”

When he returned, he crawled past me much closer than was necessary. His scent fell across me like a translucent spiderweb, luring me to my death. I closed my eyes to block out his cat-like prowl, but that only made it worse. His features were burned into the inside of my eyelids, and his pheromones were branded into my core.

Could a pack even have two omegas? Did I care?

It didn’t matter. They were my enemies. Period.

I hated Nico and everything his family had done to mine. And I hated Cruz for taking advantage of me when I was desperate. But I was finding it very hard to be mad at the gorgeous omega that cooked me breakfast, brushed my hair, and bandaged my foot so carefully.

I forced my eyes open.

Ollie propped himself up with a mound of fuzzy blankets and was watching me with that dimpled grin of his. “You okay?”

“I’m just… I don’t know. No, probably not.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” He fluffed up a pillow and set it beside him.

That spot looked inviting, warmed by his body heat. “Not right now.”

He patted the plush sheets at his side. “You want to come sit next to me and finish this movie?”

With the way he was grinning at me, I had zero interest in the movie. All my attention was on his soft, pink lips. A cool bank of air shifted over my heated skin, and I shivered. I narrowed my eyes at him as I crawled closer. “Oliver,” I settled into the blankets beside him. “Did you turn on the air conditioner when you got up?”

His eyes wandered over me in a lazy swipe before turning back to the movie. “Maybe.”

Oliver

Fuck yes, I turned on the AC. How else was I going to get her closer to me? She’d been teetering on the edge of my nest as if she thought I was going to bite her. And you know, that didn’t sound like such a bad idea. Too bad I’d need to convince Nico to bite her to make it permanent, but it couldn’t hurt to try. I was dying to know what she tasted like.

I’d never had a scent-match before, but so far, I was enjoying it. Her, less so. But that’s where I came in. All I had to do was show her how amazing I was. Then she’d be begging to pack up.

Mission accomplished.

As she eased into the pillow I’d fluffed for her, the intoxicating scent of Nico’s bourbon pheromones engulfed us. Her lips parted and her chest expanded. That’s right, babe, breathe him in. I leaned across her, grabbing the corner of a blanket and pulled Cruz’s spiced amber along with it.

Was I an asshole for drenching her in her scent-matches’ pheromones? Probably. Was it working a little bit? Seemed like it. Maybe a little too well.

Her lashes fluttered, her lids drooped, and she sank further into the faux fur throw I’d stolen off Cruz’s bed.

They were pricks, but they smelled good. I was going to blame the omega instincts on this little habit I had—stealing stuff off their beds—but mixed with her scent, it was all coming together in an unavoidable realization. She was meant to complete my pack. She was the missing piece. We weren’t scent-matches without her, but with her, we’d be inseparable.

That concept had never been as enticing as it was right now. I didn’t even like them most of the time, but they were pack. With her, we could be a family. The family I’d longed for since my mother died of an overdose, leaving me alone on the street when I was still a child. Addiction had numbed the pain for years until Nico dragged me out of the gutter and told me to make something of myself.