Page 40 of Hide or Die

FIFTEEN

Leona

IT WASN’T THE HotelEpoque in Bucharest by any stretch of the imagination, but there was soap, shampoo, and a towel. I wasn’t sure if Kam would want to shower with me or not, and in the end, he didn’t. It was pretty likely that he’d been glued to my side continuously for the last week or more. I couldn’t blame him for needing a bit of space.

Wonder of wonders, Alex had brought our—admittedly slightly battered—luggage along with her when she’d returned from Bucharest. They’d been able to salvage it from the destroyed car, apparently, and the Samsonite suitcases and carry-ons had, in fact, lived up to the promise of toughness from the over-the-top TV commercials. I scrabbled at the zippered interior pocket of my carry-on with shaking fingers and drew out an innocuous looking bottle of painkillers.

The irony wasn’t lost on me as I shook them out on the top of the dresser and started sniffing them one by one. The heat-blocker mocked me when I found it about halfway through the bottle’s contents... but it would still be useful three months from now, for my next heat. I put it with the normal pills and kept going until I found one of the pheromone suppressors, which I swallowed dry.

It bothered me inordinately that I would have to get used to taking my suppressors on a different day of the week than I’d been doing for the past fifteen years.

Nevertheless, in an hour or two, all trace of my omega perfume would be gone. Back to normal. The thought shouldn’t have made me cringe the way it did.

Freshly showered and dressed in something that didn’t smell like an alpha in rut, I made my way to the cabin’s front room, figuring I could wait there for Kam to get out of the shower. Unfortunately, I hadn’t banked on finding Flynn sprawled across the battered sofa, fast asleep.

My scent wasn’t suppressed yet, so it was with a sense of inevitability that I watched him blink awake from his post-heat snooze.

“Hey. Good morning, sweet thing,” he said, the gravel of sleep roughening his deep voice.

Something low in my belly clenched, and I silently cursed all things hormonal and heat-related. It suddenly seemed deeply unfair that I knew exactly how his cock looked right after he’d come all over himself and popped a knot.

“Good morning,” I said, frankly amazed when the words didn’t emerge breathless and girly-sounding.

He rolled into a sitting position, muscles rippling beneath dark brown skin. He was wearing a T-shirt identical to the one I’d woken up in, along with black, military-style pants.

His feet were bare.

“Oh, shit,” he said. “Sorry. Alex says I’m supposed to start calling you Madam Ambassador again. Blame it on the heat hangover, I guess.”

I swallowed, reaching for professionalism and probably falling several miles short. “While I’d appreciate that in public, it does seem a bit ridiculous in private. Maybe we can compromise on Leona.”

A smile tugged at his sensuous lips. “Sure thing, Leona. I’d like that.” He scrubbed a hand over his close-shorn black hair and stretched, vertebrae popping.

I tried not to stare.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. “Are you hungry?”

My body feels like it’s been turned inside outseemed like a bit too much information, so I ignored the first question in favor of the second. “I think my stomach’s still processing the canned pork mush Alex brought me earlier, honestly.” With a deep breath, I plunged onward. “I wanted to thank you. Not just for agreeing to help me without taking advantage... but also for watching over Kam. I can’t imagine what he’s been through emotionally since this mess started.”

Flynn nodded, not trying to sidestep the subject or make it out to be no big deal. “He’s strong, Leona. He’d have to be, to survive what they did to him as a pup. I just let him be an omega for a bit, that’s all.”

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