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“Then why aren’t you answering these fucking messages?”

“Don’t pressure me!”

“Tut-tut, Em.”He shakes his head.“Playing hard to get.Something tells me that’s not the best approach to take with an alpha.”

“What?I’m not playing hard to get.”I shook my head emphatically.“I’m just…processing it.”

His eyebrows crawled up into his hairline.“Well, don’t process it for too long.Did you at least read the messages?”

“No,” I lied.

“We’ll have a look at them together.”

“If I look at them, then I’m going to have to answer them, and I can’t answer a message like this under pressure.He’ll know I’ve read it.”

I picked up my coffee on what I hoped would bring an end to the discussion.Outside the window, it was daylight.

“He’s probably already calling his backup.”

I nearly spat my coffee out.I scowled at Jude, who laughed so hard, he had to hold his belly.“Don’t be an ass, Jude.You only want to look because you’re nosy.”

“Guilty as charged.Come on, hand it over, girlfriend.You know you want to let me handle this.I’ve handled all your relationships so far.”

“All my previous boyfriends were chumps, and I didn’t care if you messed up.”

“Ouch,” he said, rubbing his chest.“You know how to wound a guy.”

“You’re not wounded,” I said.

Even without his grin, I knew he wasn’t upset.Jude was the most resilient person I’d ever met.His parents disowned him when he told them he wouldn’t marry a ‘nice’ girl and churn out babies.He took it in his stride and said he’d always expected that response and was glad to be himself.I admired how Jude had built a network of caring people around him for support.We were both orphans, just in different ways.

Unlike me, I didn’t think he was pretending to be happy.I thought he genuinely was.He still saw some of his family, like his sister and grandma.But yeah, Jude was one of the good ones, and I was grateful to have him as my friend.

He was also still staring meaningfully between my cell and me.

“No,” I insisted.

He smirked.“You really are sweet on this alpha.”

I took a sip of my coffee.“I really am,” I agreed.

ChapterNine

Ryder

Breakfast was going about the same as breakfast always did when you hadn’t had enough sleep.Dane was still brooding about me abandoning him, but the miserable fucker could get over it.

Then Jace had turned up with Sloane, Emma’s sister, and my mind blanked the fuck out.She was an omega.I could scent her from all the way over here.

What the fuck?She hadn’t been an omega last night, and Emma hadn’t mentioned it.I mean, shit like this didn’t happen.Omegas didn’t live freely on the other side of the fence, and they sure as shit didn’t waltz into the alpha zone and party in a club.

A fucking omega?

I was trying to keep my shit together, but inside, my beast was going nuts.I was staring at Sloane, but it wasn’t her I was thinking about.It was her sister—the cute as hell brat I’d booted out of my apartment after the mother of all put-downs.

Way to go, asshole!

I’d let her go.Why?Because my inner beast had snarled at me, telling me to mark her as mine.If I’d pushed things, would she have revealed?The genetic markers were buried deep and didn’t always manifest in the alpha or omega type.Plus, it could skip generations sometimes.She’d even looked like a fucking omega, small and fragile, although they came in all shapes and sizes.Sloane was taller, the average beta, yet she’d just fucking revealed, if I was right.And I must be right, because there was no other explanation.