Page 30 of Brave New Omega, Part 2

Chapter 30

KATIE

M ax squeezes my hand and leads me through the house, with Callum and Loren talking in hushed tones behind me.

“Don’t worry about them. They’re all bark and no bite.”

“From what I’ve seen of Pack Bellrose, they have a stick shoved so far up their own asses all they can taste is bark.”

Max laughs out loud. Like guffaws, drawing several stares and a few wrinkled noses in our direction. At first my shoulders hunch up, the weight of those looks uncomfortable against my skin.

He squeezes my fingers and nods toward a hallway off to our left.

“If you need space, there’s at least three or four pleasure closets down that hallway. And several little getaways out in the gardens. We don’t have to fuck, although godsdamn woman that dress makes think things . But we can just go to get away and have some breathing room from these vultures.”

“Pleasure closets?” I glance back over my shoulder. The hallway looks like any other hallway in a mansion: rich scarlet carpet over a polished wooden floor, a few closed doors with framed art hung between them.

“What, don’t tell me you don’t have designated pleasure closets on Earth?” Max says, laughing. I shake my head.

“Oh, Katie, you are missing out! These are designed for, well… you know how Alphas and Omegas can be. Especially when they’re courting or newly bonded, or it’s in the weeks leading up to a heat. They need… lots of quality time. But, business has to continue, so most rich families have little hideaways for…” he shrugs and smiles.

“For what?” I ask, guessing the answer, but wanting my suspicions confirmed.

“Fucking.” Max’s gaze turns hungry. “Want me to show you?”

“Down boy,” I say, pushing his lusty face away playfully. But, now that he mentioned it, a zip of heat shoots up my spine. It would be so easy to pull up the fabric of my dress and fuck Max right here…

No. I need to focus. I’m on a mission. Show Pack Bellrose not to mess with Loren or any of Pack Murphy.

We emerge from a wood paneled hallway into a large room wallpapered on three sides with a jungle print. Palm fronds and vines weave in and out with tigers, zebras, and monkeys peeking out from the foliage. It’s a giant game of hide and seek. I choke back a giggle. It is such a whimsical print for such a dour family.

“You’re managing wonderfully,” Loren says, before planting a kiss on the tip of my nose. “My warrior queen.”

I press my fingers against his cheek. Those blue eyes are full of emotions – tenderness, frustration, hurt, fear, protectiveness. My gentle professor. How could he have come from such bristly people?

“You are a marvel,” I whisper back to him. “You could have been as sour as they are and yet, you are…” I can’t find the words. Sweet doesn't do the intense gentleness of Loren justice. He’s strong but not overbearing. Tender, but not a wimp. So I do the next best thing: I roll onto my toes and press a soft kiss against his lips.

It ignites a fire racing under my skin. My body loosens, tense muscles softening, hungry for more of his kisses. I press my free hand against his chest, his pulse thrilling under my touch. The tip of his tongue brushes my lips before he pulls away. I lick my lips, tasting him there. My skin radiates heat.

Damn, I’m going to ruin my panties if I’m not careful.

“Oh, isn’t that sweet.” A high, grating voice cuts through my moment with Loren. A woman stinking of sticky sweet flowers and sour apples flounces forward. A cotton candy pink dress floats around her like a sugar haze. Callum tenses beside me and growls low in his throat. Max squeezes my fingers, sliding closer to me.

My hand against Loren’s chest curls, until I have a fistful of his shirt collar, as though I could drag him back behind me and out of the reach of this toxic sugar plum fairy.

“Genevieve, I didn’t know you were invited to Pack Bellrose dinners,” Loren says flatly, but every muscle in his body is taut underneath my grip.

Genevieve.

The woman who broke Callum and Loren’s hearts. The Beta who wheedled into their lives, only to steal their secrets. The woman who made it so damn hard for Callum to be vulnerable.

I didn’t realize how small she was the first time I saw her. She’s a tiny thing, not much taller than Molly Beth, with wide green eyes heavily lashed and lined. Her platinum blond hair frames her face and shoulders in gentle waves. She is the picture of childish innocence.

Except for the dangerous smirk on her bubblegum pink lips.

“Oh little Loren,” she laughs with a high, false titter. “Don’t you know that I’m courting one of the Alphas in Timothe’s pack?”

“You always were a weasel,” Loren says cooly. Beside me, Callum’s knuckles are white.

“Bitter much?” She tosses her hair over one shoulder. “Poor Golden Giant, can’t keep the belle of the ball. But that’s all in the past, when you have this delicious Omega, no? Or are you having regrets?”

“Our Omega is of no consequence to a Beta like you,” Callum snarls. Max presses two fingers against his arm, a warning.

Genevieve frowns at the mention of her designation. “We can kiss and make up anytime, boys. You’ll remember that I can be quite magnanimous. Or did you forget so quickly?”

A wave of her scent hits me full in the face, like an intentional assault. I close my eyes against it. It’s cloying, laden with a false sweetness that must be chemical enhancers. I want to gag.

“Stop trying to perfume like an Omega. You're just embarrassing yourself,” Max says.

She frowns, then laughs again. “Oh Max, are you being a good little guard dog? Can’t let the mean old Beta hurt the precious little Omega pet.”

Oh, fuck this bitch .

I pull my arm back, read to break the tiny bitch’s nose, then Max stays my arm.

Fine, if I can’t use my fist I’ll use the next best thing.

“At least I’m getting pet,” I say, venom dripping from every word. “Seems that you must be pretty hard up with your new Alpha if you’re still sniffing around here. What, looking for the dinner scraps?”

I channel every mean girl I’ve ever met or seen in a movie as I stare down the pint size terror in front of me. I force every ounce of condescension I’d learned as an officer into each syllable.

Genevieve bares her teeth, tiny little pearls in her pink mouth.

“Watch yourself, Omega. Some Betas bite.”

“And some Omegas know how to break your nose without blinking,” I say back as sweetly as possible, batting my eyelashes. Turning away from her, I grab Callum’s face in my hands.

“I’m bored of her. Can we go now?”

Then I kiss him. Not the gentle brush of lips like with Loren. No, nothing with Callum is ever done by halves. I kiss him with all the force that burns beneath my skin. I kiss him with the heat that has built over the last week of wanting but not quite having him. I kiss him with the anger that I want to direct at Genevieve but know won’t do any good.

My lips part and I let him ravage my mouth, my heat matched by his hunger. He takes all I have on offer, wrapping one hand around my back, pulling me away from Loren and Max to press fully against him. The hard length of his arousal presses into my thigh even through the layers of my dress.

Fuck . I want him. I feel my hips soften, my legs parting slightly in his grip. I whine reflexively, so ready for this man to finally come to me.

With a growl into my mouth, Callum pulls away. His eyes burn with heat. His pupils are blown to an almost mirror black. God above, he looks feral.

“If you keep kissing me like that, I am going to truly make a scene.” He kisses each of my cheeks.

“I think we’ve made enough of a scene for one night.” Loren wraps an arm around me. “The little imp has flitted off to her newest conquest.”

“You warned them about her,” Max says behind me, one hand trailing up my back to rest on my shoulder. “How can they just let her join their Pack?”

“They probably don’t believe me,” Loren sighs. “Timothe has always done everything possible to get under my skin. And she can be very convincing.”

“Not if you’ve spent five minutes in intelligence training,” I say and shake my head. “She screams operative. She’s playing a part. And when she talks she sucks her lips in, a clear sign she’s holding back information–she’s lying or manipulating her words to be half-truths. But she’s not sweating at all. She’s either a sociopath or undercover.”

“How do you know that?” Callum raises his eyebrows, his gaze traveling back and forth over my features like he's reading a dense report.

I shrug. “I told you, I was in the military. Intelligence wasn’t my specialty, but you cross train for deployment. I was in logistics, so they wanted me to be able to spot irregularities with the locals I worked with. Reading body language was like a 101 seminar.”

“You are incredible.” Callum leans in and kisses the tip of my nose.

A different kind of warmth floods me. Not the heat of wanting, but of care. A flush of… of pride. Of being seen by this man – these men – and finding that they like what they see.

For the first time, I can see what Aurelia meant when she told me that having a Pack would help me be my fullest self.

I smile and lean into their touches.

“Alright men, once more into the breach.”