Page 3 of Welcome to Bone Town

I glare daggers, silently challenging him to look up. “Let me get this straight. You’re sendingtwoof your professors off in the middle of the semester? Why? Who’s going to cover her classes?”

“Who’s going to cover yours?” He still doesn’t lift his gaze. “How I manage my department is not your concern.”

“It is when it affects me. I can’t work with her.”

“Why not?”

I growl and throw myself down in the seat opposite his desk without answering. He knows why not. Anderson has been more than a colleague since I started working at Woodhurst University. He’s been a mentor and a friend. He knows my whole sordid history and why I avoid working with omegas if at all possible.

He’s always respected my preferences, or at least let me get away with them. Until now.

He finally meets my eyes, crossing his arms on his desk and leveling me with a hard look. “You need to get over your hang ups. This is a big opportunity for the university. The fact we’ve been invited to take lead on this dig is a miracle unto itself, not to mention the potential funding and notoriety that comes along with it. We’re going to be the ones to figure out what happened to those people.Us. We need all our best minds on it.” He tilts his head and lifts his eyebrows. “And frankly, I want you to stop being such a stuck up asshole and work with omegas for a change. This will be good for you.”

He’s got it all wrong. I’m not being stuck up. I’m being cautious. I thought he understood that. I’ve seen the way sensible alphas can fall apart over an omega. I won’t risk it. I have no intention of getting my heart ripped out the way my brother did.

But it’s clear Anderson isn’t going to listen to reason.

I stand up and stomp to the door, turning back to him with my hand on the doorknob. “Just make sure she takes her scent blockers.”

It’s a university policy that everyone takes scent blockers. No one needs a professor scent matching with afucking student. But those same rules don’t always apply in the field.

“I’ll pass that along.” Anderson nods his head.

“If I catch one whiff of her scent?—”

“I understand. She’s a very reasonable person. I’m sure she’ll see the necessity of keeping such things under control in a work environment, as she always has during her tenure here.”

“She better.” I slam the door behind me with a sick, foreboding feeling stirring in my gut as I storm down the hall. Fucking biology.

Pulling out my phone, I quickly search flights to Ekdoti International Airport. I might not be happy about who I have to work with, but Anderson isn’t wrong about the importance of this dig. The mystery of it all has me eager to get there and see it for myself. I can be out of here nearly as soon as my last class finishes for the day. A quick trip home to grab my go-bag, and I’ll be on my way.

I’m so preoccupied looking at airfare, I barrel right into someone. My phone slips from my hands just as I hear a feminine squeak and the clatter of metal on tile.

Dr. Cora Whitlock drops to her knees, picking up her phone before I can set my thoughts straight and realize what happened. She’s wearing blue dress slacks and a blouse buttoned all the way to her throat. For a moment, I wonder if it’s hiding a bite mark, but I know she’s unbonded. We all might be required to keep our scents under wraps while at the university, but our designations and bonding status are well documented and known.

Her brown hair is in a neat bun at the top of her head, and for some inexplicable reason I have the urge to pull itout and mess it up. She’s too put together for a dig site. She might fit in here at the university, but she’ll never survive out in the wild.

She looks up at me through long lashes with a scowl that has my blood heating.

“Don’t you watch where you’re going?” she snaps.

“Don’t you?” I reply, cooly bending to pick up my phone, holding my breath just in case. But I don’t catch any scent coming off of her. Good. At least she follows the rules here.

She doesn’t look chastised by my curt remark. She’s staring too intently at her phone, which thankfully isn’t cracked. I’d pay for a new one if it was. Not that I’d be happy about it, but I can admit I’m as much at fault as she is.

“They found two more bodies,” she says so quietly it’s not clear if she’s talking to herself or to me. Until she looks up again, still on her knees, eyes all wide and excited.

Fuck, I need to get out of here. The image of this pretty omega on her knees isn’t something I need in my mind.

“Get the fuck off the floor. You’re in the way.” Against my better judgement, I offer her a hand up.

She frowns like she only just realized she’s on the floor in the university hallway. Is she really this dull? She looks back at her phone and doesn’t bother to stand. I let my hand drop.

“Aren’t you curious?” she asks. “How many died there? What were they doing? Wh-what else we’ll discover?” Her voice shakes a little at the end in a way thatmakes me curious, but I can’t quite read the emotion behind it. It’s probably idealistic hope that we’ll make some kind of grand discovery.

I cross my arms and stare at her. I’ve worked in this field long enough to know most of the time all we’ll find is old pots and cutlery. Important things, helpful for learning more about where we come from, but nothing like the movies. No monumental reveals. No booby traps and rolling stones. Just dirt.

A helluva lot of dirt.

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