Page 57 of Their Knotty Pack
"You listen here, Damien Silva," her pale eyes shine with indignation, "you are not 'just' anything. Miles and I? We are more than our designations, and so are you. So are Brody, Kieran, and Hunter. I'm not just an omega, and you're not just a beta. You are a man with more layers than I could have imagined. Funny, flirty, yet surprisingly sweet. I'm looking forward to getting to know the boy from Idaho. Because as much as you've changed and grown since then, he deserves to know he always would have been loved with us."
Did she just say…love?
Her gaze darts from my eyes to my mouth for just a second, and my cock stirs in my shorts. Her eyes scream "fuck it", and then she's lowering her face to mine.
The kiss is brief and tentative, nearly making me whimper. She has complete control of me right now, andfuck, I'm here for it. She lifts her face from mine, her expression unsure. "Was that okay?"
"More than okay, bright eyes." I tell her, reaching up and taking a strand of her hair between my fingers. As she pulls away, I let it go, standing from her bed and stretching my arms over my head. “I could help you, you know.”
She starts putting all the first aid supplies back into their little box. "Help me with what?"
"I could get all the scents you could ever want. I took over everyone's laundry a few months ago because it was more efficient, and none of those heathens can fold to save their lives."
Her smile is blinding. "Well, how could I turn away an offer like that?"
Chapter 24
Hunter
With a sigh, I hang up the phone, replaying the conversation I just had with Damien in my mind. He's right, I'm not sure how I expect to get close to the omegas if I'm not ever there, but this case has been going on for too long.
For nearly four years, ever since the detective originally handling it retired and passed it off to me, I've watched helpless as more and more omegas disappear. What would I do if it was Miles or Bethany that went missing? Any lead that comes up, I need to follow it.
So when my partner and I got a call a few hours ago that there was supposed to be a drop in the warehouse district tonight, we jumped on it. "Was that Damien?" Georgia asks, a smile tilting at her lips as she types on her phone from her spot on the passenger side of the unmarked police car we're in. She had just gotten off the phone with her own omega a few minutes before I had called him.
"Yeah," I grin, running a hand through my hair. "He's stress cleaning again."
"Stress cleaning?" She arches a brow. "You'd think with two omegas and a beta as salacious as Damien, there would be…other ways to relieve his stress."
I snort. "Yeah, except that's the source of the stress. He needs to be more patient." Georgia and I went through the academy together and have forged a friendship closer than siblings. She was hanging out with Damien and I when her scent-matched pack walked into the bar we were drinking at, and the rest is history.
Her eyes are fixed across the road, to the spot we were informed an exchange would happen later tonight. It's getting dark, but there's still some daylight peaking above the roofs of the buildings around us. "How are you doing with all of that?" She asks, her eyes scanning the street. Partners have no secrets between each other, and unfortunately, that includes the nature of my sexuality.
"I feel like I'm ten steps behind everyone else." I sigh, rubbing my eyes. "Though I'm aware that most of it is my own fault. Obviously this case takes priority right now, but when Iamhome I don't seek them out."
"Why not?" She frowns, looking me over. She knows me far too well.
"I don't know," I shrug, "maybe…maybe I feel inadequate, that I can't give them what they want right away."
It's not even that I don't want to. Hell, I want to. But how do I know what's the scent match and what's real? Just the thought of Bethany's pale blue eyes…
Georgia snorts. "Please. You're too full of yourself. You're not trying to spend time with them because you're so irresistible that they won't be able to help themselves?"
My mouth drops open. "No!" I shake my head. "No. I don't want them to feel like I don't want them because I'm not trying to get them into bed immediately—like the rest of my packmates."
"You know…." Georgia says seriously, "I have a crazy idea that just might work."
I frown. "What?"
"You couldtellthem."
"Fuck off."
"I'm being serious, Hunter. They would understand. In fact, it might be preferable to them, to know that you're not just after them for the scent match."
"Something is wrong with the world when you start to sound like Kieran." I mutter, my eyes catching on a large van that stops in front of the warehouse we're watching…but then keeps going.
Dammit.
