Page 9 of Tying the Knot
He blinks. “And?”
“And nothing. Your man shoved me into the back of his car before he told me lies about my pack. They didn’t do this. They aren’t bad men.” I bite my tongue when his eyes harden. I pull back into myself, wishing I’d kept my mouth shut.
“He told you what?” he asks coldly.
I realise I just threw the beta under the bus, and I feel bad. He tried to be kind in that detached sort of way officers of the law have.
“I made him tell me. I threatened to call my uncle if he didn’t and have his arse fired.”
Commander St Clair snorts and looks decidedly like he believes that could be true. “He told you that your pack have been selling drugs on the black market and that they’ve been linked to the deaths of at least half a dozen omegas that we can tell, amongst illegal rut suppressants, dangerously cut heat suppressants, and illegal birth control, they are also responsible for seventy per cent of the street drug trade in the city of London?”
Having it laid out for me again is too much. I feel the bile rise in my throat and push my chair back, stumbling to the bin in the corner and throwing up what little is in my stomach. As I kneel over the bin, retching, I feel a cool hand on the back of my neck that instantly soothes the raging of my churning stomach.
“Here.” His soft voice is almost apologetic as he hands me a bottle of water and helps me to my feet. He gives me a tissue from the box on the corner table. I take it and wipe my mouth, feeling like such a fool.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter. “I’ll clean that up.”
“Don’t worry about it. Sit. I’ll take care of it later.”
I look up at him, his green eyes almost the same colour as mine. He is tall, really tall, like six four or five. His expression is one of pity, and it’s more than I can bear. He thinks I’m pathetic and weak.
He’s right.
I am.
How could I live with these men and not know anything about who they really are?
I hate myself for losing faith in them, but suddenly all the secret meetings behind closed doors, the stopping conversations dead when they saw or heard me coming. The lack of any real information on their jobs, just citing investments when I asked. It’s all adding up to something that isn’t what I thought. My happy home, while it had its tensions with Adam’s temper and particular ways, was still mine, and I was still happy.
Wasn’t I?
ChapterSix
Kaleb
Leaningover on the desk next to where Nik is working on the paperwork for the Happs pack arrest, I can’t tear my eyes away from the closed door of the interrogation room where Eli is with the omega.
I’m being called, by whatever runs my alpha engines, back into that room to grab the omega and see if what I’m feeling is true.
Her scent.
Fuck.
That delicious aroma of chocolate and orange combined is as gorgeous as they come. Not to mention, she is gorgeous, and even though her sparks of fire are few and far between, I can tell she has an inner strength that will be formidable when she gets over the shock of this. I don’t think for a second that she had any clue what was going on in her home. I don’t think any less of her for it. This pack was good. Too good. For years, we’ve been chasing our tails as they gave us the runaround.
Now we have them, but we’ve pulled the rug out from under this slightly wounded omega, unintentionally hurting her. That doesn’t sit right with me. Not that it makesanydifference. She is taken. Mated to the Happs’s, and that’s all there is to it. It’s a shame. A waste, but it is what it is.
What it does drive home, is thatourpack needs an omega to be mated with. We have waited around for Eli to get his shit together, but enough is enough.
“When this is over,” I say to Nik. “We’re having that talk with Eli again.”
“Oh, thank fuck,” he mutters, his head down, still working. “I am so fucking sick of going through the rut with a temp. We need someone full time. This is just beyond.”
“I know. Dylan feels the same, although I doubt he would stand up to Eli about it. It’s up to us.”
“Deal. This time we don’t take no for an answer.”
“Too right.”
