Page 107 of Your Wild Omega

“Who?”

“The car?”

“Oh.” He laughs. “No. Guys giving their cars a feminine name is a cliché, right?”

I shrug. “Guess it is, but I wouldn’t know from experience.” I never thought to ask Callisto if he named his car, but at least hedrives a more sensible black sedan. Could be just as expensive, though, now that I think about the leather interior and driver assist functions.

“Did something happen back there?” Brad asks, resting his hand on my headrest as he looks over his shoulder to reverse. Totally unnecessary since he has a reversing camera in the dash.

“Um, just a bad memory, I guess.” I click in my seat belt and rest my elbow on the windowsill, wanting to forget about what just happened.

“Want to talk about it?” he asks, still probing. “I can be a good listener.”

I seriously doubt that, but no wonder he’s fooled half the world into thinking he’s charming with this sugary demeanor. “No thanks,” I mutter into my palm. I can sense him looking at me, but I ignore him.

“No worries. We all have things we’d rather not talk about.” He turns the car stereo on but swivels the volume down low. “It’s just that I’m curious about you. No one knows where you came from or what you’re going to do next.”

“To be fair, I don’t even know what I’m going to do next.”

He laughs, the pleasant sound rolling easily through the car as we drive slowly through the gate.

I grin despite my desire not to talk to him.

The crowd parts reluctantly around the car, reporters holding up cameras as we pass. I hope the tinting is dark enough to stop them getting pictures, but I realize too late that all these press people saw us walking toward the parking lot together. But they can’t see around the brick walls to know I got in Brad’s car, can they? That could spark all kinds of rumors.

I shudder and fold my hands over my lap.

As the car slips through the crowds and I scan their faces, a strange chill settles over me. Even if Ray was out there, would I recognize him? A couple of taller people stand out in thecrowd, their heads turning as we pass. One with sunglasses, another with a broad-brimmed hat. One black-skinned, another with shoulder-length blond hair. Alphas? Hard to say from this distance.

I wouldn’t know if Ray’s among them.

Because the truth is, I can’t recall his face. Not because I never saw it, but because my brain has blanked it out like some kind of protective censoring. Some things are just too painful.

Chapter forty-one

Rickon

Zack rolls over on the bed to face the ceiling and growls, and his unease ripples through me. It’s both profound and bizarre to feel another person’s emotions in your body and even stranger to pick through the sensations and identify two different sources. Now I have a link to both Red and Zack.

I drag my fingers gently across his head, which rests on my bare stomach. “Yeah, I know, alpha. I feel it too. Our omega hasn’t had a good day.”

Guilt weighs on me, even though I don’t have the strength to carry it. Zack kept me in bed all day, sucking on the bond mark, which led to fondling, sex, and cuddles. I’ve lost count of how many orgasms I’ve had, some probably in my sleep as exhaustion caught me. Even our super-stamina alpha seems to have tired himself out, napping on my belly for the past two hours as we wait for Red to get home. But knowing our omega is alone out there, it’s been hard to enjoy the companionship completely.

Red texted throughout the afternoon; the messages getting shorter and shorter, but the flash of her alarm that boiled through just after five p.m. disturbed us both. The big alpha rolls again and shifts to lie between my legs. Vibrations run through Zack’s chest, translating into my thighs as he tugs me close and kisses the bond mark.

I’m too spent to even get hard, so I just massage his scalp, whispering that everything will be okay—for my sake as much as his.

I wonder if I’ll ever get used to this sensation of shared emotion. It’s beautiful and powerful, but also quite life changing. Usually a person’s thoughts center on themselves, but now it’s like Zack’s installed a circuit breaker, turning my thoughts continually toward the fizzing sensations that aren’t mine. I’m always circling back to check the bond and confirm what my mates are feeling.

Mates.

The word makes so much sense now. I’ll never be truly alone again, and I can’t wait to tell Red she won’t be either. But it also makes me somber with the realization I’ll be carrying my pack’s well-being. Maybe that’s not the right way of putting it. More like, it makes me think of that line in the traditional wedding vows,for better or for worse.

Zack lifts his head and tenses.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

He drops another kiss on my hip and then rolls off the bed. Things like clothes don’t register high on Zack’s priority list, so he stalks right out of the room in his birthday suit.

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