Page 34 of The Sterling Acquisition
Orionhadrun.Andstole his spare blanket.
Well. That was to be expected.
The smart, tactical choice would have been to follow, to press his advantage while Orion was still reeling from what happened between them. Instead, he allowed him to leave, though he’d be lying to himself if he hadn’t hoped Orion would join him in the shower.
Or maybe you knew he needed to process. Maybe you knew he needed to go back to his cage and spend the night thinking about what competent hands feel like.
Either way, the result was the same. Orion was back under Leo’s supervision, lying awake on that narrow mattress and reliving every moment of being pinned against the wall. Probably fighting theurge to touch himself while remembering the promises Dante whispered in his ear.
Good. Let him think about it. Let him remember the difference between Leo’s fumbling brutality and someone who knows what they’re doing.
Dante moved through his morning routine with mechanical precision, though his reflection in the bathroom mirror showed evidence of their encounter. The bite mark on his arm was an angry red crescent, the imprint of Orion’s teeth still visible against his pale skin. He traced the edges with his fingertips, feeling the slight swelling and smiling to himself.
Most Omegas would have gone limp with gratitude after an orgasm like that. This one wanted to leave evidence of resistance even in surrender.
It was a perfect response. He’d given Dante what he wanted and then immediately reminded him that it didn’t make him owned.Yet.
The SVI phone Leo gave him for “emergency corporate exchange communications” buzzed against the nightstand—three short pulses that meant Leo was having another crisis and needed his Gensyn expertise to solve it. Dante almost ignored it on principle, but maintaining his cover required a certain level of availability.
And finding out what new disaster Leo had created for himself might be entertaining.
The message was typically Leo—rambling, panicked, heavy on corporate buzzwords:
Leo James
Need urgent consultation at facility. Dr. Morrison is accelerating timeline on vaccine oversight. Situation becoming critical. Your expertise invaluable. Please advise soonest.
Situation becoming critical.How wonderfully vague. Critical for whom?
But the timeline acceleration was concerning. Dante had been counting on weeks to extract both the technology and Orion. If Morrison was rushing the Project Tether trials, that window was collapsing rapidly.
Which means decisions need to be made. Soon.
Dante mentally mapped out his options, weighing risks against benefits with the precision that made him Gensyn’s top corporate espionage specialist. Duckie Chang could provide access to sublevel three, but Dante would need to move before fully understanding the security systems. Extracting the technology alone would be challenging enough; adding Orion to the equation multiplied the complexities exponentially.
An Omega in pre-heat could normally be hidden with suppressants, but even now Dante could still smell him through the thin walls. Apparently, an orgasm and suppressants couldn’t tamp down the chaotic pheromones of a 26-year-old unclaimed virgin. Then again, he highly doubted any commercial suppressant had been formulated with someone like Orion in mind.
Their escape route would need to avoid all biological scanning checkpoints. Transportation would require isolation chambers or experimental suppressants. And that assumed Orion would cooperate rather than fight every step of the way.
Logically, the mission should take priority. Extract the technology, destroy SVI’s research, and return to Gensyn with the prize they sent him to acquire.
But logic was becoming increasingly irrelevant where Orion was concerned.
He composed a reply that struck the right balance of professional concern and corporate cooperation:
Available for consultation this afternoon. Will require detailed briefing on timeline changes and resource allocation adjustments.
“Resource allocation adjustments.” Leo could interpret that as him needing to spend more time at the facility. What it actually meant was that Dante could find himself with more time alone with Orion, so he could convince the most interesting person he had ever met to come with him when he left.
Keep telling yourself this is about intellectual fascination instead of the fact that you want to own something that magnificent.
The truth was becoming harder to ignore. Yes, Orion was valuable for intelligence purposes—he knew SVI’s internal operations, understood the territory layout, and could probably even provide insights into corporate security protocols. But those were justifications for a decision Dante had already made on a much more primitive level.
He wanted Orion. Not just sexually, though last night confirmed that particular compatibility in spectacular fashion. But there was something about that brilliant, defiant mind that made the idea of leaving him behind unpalatable.
He’s not part of the mission. He’s a complication you can’t afford.
Except that wasn’t true anymore. Because if Morrison was accelerating the timeline on Project Tether, then Orion was about to become either a perfect intelligence asset or a chemically compliant shell of his former self.
