Page 10 of Shades of Scars

Wren had hinted at there possibly being some underlying trauma that might be holding her back from seeking us out. I want to kick in her door and demand answers so I can fix it, but I know that isn’t what she really needs.

Caito’s soft hum distracts me from staring up at the entire front side of her building and the single little window that apparently leads to her bedroom, information gathered by the Irish weirdo now fiddling with his phone. “What are you doing?”

Naturally, like the creeper he is, he smiles like the serial killer he’d just accused me of being. “I’m ordering some food for my omega to be delivered. Omegas need food like they need air.” He shrugs, and I quirk my lips up into a small grin. I wish I had thought of that first.

“Don’t you have interviews to be conducting for Wren?” This is my not so subtle way to try to get him to leave so I can take over stalking our omega. I mean guarding. Yes. Guarding sounds less creepy.

“Wren can suck my dick if he thinks I’m leaving her unguarded.” Caito says without even looking up from his phone. I peer over his shoulder to see exactly what he’s ordering, and I’m impressed at what I see.

“Are you buying her a car? A car is not food.”

“She doesn’t have one. I’m not about to have her walking all over the city or taking fucking Ubers everywhere.” He shrugs like buying our omega a seventy thousand dollar Mercedes isn’t all that big of a deal. Which it isn’t. His reasoning’s are solid enough for me. Wren’s richer than God, thanks to his daddy’s hand-me-down empire as well as the one he’s steadily building. He can afford to buy her seventy of those things.

“You know,” I start with a drawl. “I’m not chopped liver. I can take over guard duty for a while if you have other things to do.”

“No. No one else can be trusted to keep an eye on her as diligently as I have.” I roll my eyes when he slips his phone back into the pocket of his dark, ripped jeans, before stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“She’s my omega too, asshole. I’ll guard her just as fiercely as you.” I would’ve taken offense to Caito’s apparent lack of confidence in me when it comes to our omega’s safety, but I can’t say I blame him. He’s an obsessive fucker. We’ve only been pack brothers for the last six years, not nearly as long as he’s been with Wren, but I get it.

“Something else is bothering you.” I take note of the way his entire posture is tense as he stares up at the window as if he can somehow see through it. It’s partially cracked, probably to let in some fresh air since the weather isn’t as crisp as it has been over the last several days. I want more than anything to see her appear in that window, just so I can get my first real look at her. I can only go off the description that Wren and Caito had given. That, and the memory of her fresh scent that had clung to the both of them like a second skin.

It’s not nearly enough.

The only thing holding me back from storming into her apartment to wrap her up in my arms, is the warning Wren had given me just before I left. I don’t want to scare my omega. So if it’s space she wants, it’s space she’s going to get.

I just hope she doesn’t take a lifetime to choose us.

I refuse to think about the alternative.

Caito’s jaw clenches even as he keeps that unwavering stare on the cracked window. “She smelled…offwhen I held her in Wren’s office for those brief moments the other night. I don’tknow how to explain it, and I’m fucking praying I’m wrong about the feeling in my gut.” He admits then, and I feel my brows furrowed in confusion. Her scent hadn’t seemed off to me when Wren had come home that night, coated in it from his time spent in her presence.

“What’s your gut telling you?”

“My nose touched her neck as soon as the suppressants wore off.” He’s starting to get more agitated the more he thinks back on the memory.

I narrow my eyes on him. “What are you saying?” I demand, because there’s a sick feeling twisting my gut from the expression he now wears when he turns to give me a look. I don’t like the way anger is vibrating off of him in palpable waves as our gazes lock.

“I smelled another alpha on her. I smelled a fuckingbond mark.”

I feel my world fall out from underneath me, shock rippling down my spine at his revelation. “Excuse me?” Now I understand why he’s suddenly so angry and acting more obsessive than usual.

“I know what a bond mark smells like on a bonded omega. It carries a hint of the alpha that put it there when you get close enough. She was wearing a jacket when she came into the office. She hadn’t been when she performed on stage, but I’d been at the back of the club when I watched her. I wouldn’t have seen it. She was hiding it under that jacket. It’s why she looked so damn petrified. I’m sure of it.”

I shake my head, trying to make sense of it. “She’s not living with an alpha. Her roommate is an unbonded omega. It’s just the two of them. You’ve been standing out here for three days with hardly a break, and when you’re occupied, Wren’s here. Either one of you would’ve seen an alpha coming and going from her apartment.” I can’t seem to wrap my head around it.

“Which means she’s hiding herself from the alpha that’s bonded her.” Caito growls, and realization dawns on me. It makes that nauseating feeling festering in my stomach morph until I feel the bile rising in my throat.

“You think she’s been bonded against her will?” I whisper the words, almost afraid to voice them out loud. I don’t want to think about the implications of that.

“I can’t confirm it without hearing it from her lips, but I’m almost certain that’s what’s going on. She wouldn’t actively distance herself from her scent matched alphas unless there was a good reason. In her mind, she can’t accept us if what I believe is true. If she’s hiding from an alpha that’s forced a bond on her, then she won’t want to bring us into that. I’ve seen it more times in my life than I care to admit.”

“I can’t believe this. What kind of sick fuck would bond an omega against her will?” Caito gives me a look like he thinks I’m being deliberately dense.

“There are plenty of them out there that would do it. Omegas are rare. Omega flesh trading does exist.” I know that to be true all too well. It’s why unbonded omegas are regulated through the system here in the states. But things are different in Black Tide Valley. This is the city where anyone and everyone that doesn’t have a place in the world comes to escape life. It’s the exact reason our pack wants to call it home. Every single one of us has something to hide away from.

Apparently, so does our precious little omega.

“If she’s hiding from someone that’s forced a bond on her, then she isn’t safe in an apartment where the only other defense she has is another unbonded omega and a flimsy fucking dead bolt.” My entire body is buzzing with the need to go to her. I need to scoop her up in my arms and cart her back to the safety of our pack penthouse, where we have enough security measures in place to make sure nothing and no one will ever touch her again.

---