Page 10

CHAPTER 10

Soren

Joining the Genesis Armed Detective Agency was easier than I anticipated, and as I’d hoped, I was assigned to Frankie James for my training and onboarding.

I’d gotten lucky with the timing thanks to her previous partner taking a leave of absence.

My senior didn’t like this arrangement though and so she was making things as difficult as possible for me.

Despite that, she liked how quietly I worked.

But every time it seemed like she might open up to me, she got an attitude and ignored me again.

One step forward and then two steps back.

Now I finally had her full attention and I didn’t know what to do with it.

“Anything goes?” I asked, not sure what to expect in a situation as bizarre as this.

“Yeah, anything goes,” she confirmed, gesturing for me to come at her again. “Just don’t disappoint me.”

I hated how much I wanted to show her how capable I was just so she’d tell me I’d done a good job. It wasn’t an impulse I was familiar with and I was pretty fucking sure I’ve never felt it before she’d called me a good boy just for wrapping her hands for her.

Francesca Lopez was a very compelling individual and if I wasn’t careful, she’d have me wrapped around her little finger, fucking up the best job I’ve ever gotten.

I took a moment to see how she wanted to play this and she didn’t attack first, sticking to the same strategy she’d used with Taylor. I’d expected that, but I still didn’t like it.

Attacking first would broadcast my intentions and knowing how good she was at reading people, it wouldn’t take her long to figure out how to take me down just as quickly as she had Taylor.

Best thing would be to unbalance her at the ankles or knees, but then I’d have to get close to her.

There was no good way out of this, and as such, the best thing to do was just get it over with.

I took the initiative and went for the back of her left knee, bringing her to the floor as quickly as possible and reaching for her throat with my right hand to pin her down.

Her eyes widened when we hit the floor with a loud smack but she didn’t look surprised by it. I gritted my teeth to brace myself and moved to pin down her thigh with my knee.

Frankie grabbed the fingers around her throat with one hand and yanked back hard enough I had to let go if I didn’t want them to break. Her strength wasn’t anywhere near mine, but her speed was just as brutal as I thought it would be.

My arm came up and my elbow went for her face, but she was already moving, pulling me harder in the direction of my fingers as she wrapped a leg around my neck.

It took less than a second for her to get me on my side with my arm yanked back in the perfect position to dislocate my shoulder, and that’s when I caught her scent.

It was subtle, but the smell of tangerines and lavender wafted over me, mixed with something sweet and spicy too, like clove and honey. It was such a soft scent for an alpha as powerful as her, but the acerbic and sharp note at the end perfectly suited her.

Her bare thighs were around my throat, squeezing so hard I couldn’t breathe but I closed my eyes instead of fighting back.

Francesca Lopez may not have inherited the red eyes of a legacy alpha, but there was a reason her asshole of a father had named her his heir anyways.

I wanted to stay like this until I was drenched in her floral tangerines, rubbing my face in her bare skin to see if it tasted as good as it smelled.

My fucking mouth was watering and I had to swallow it down if I didn’t want to drool all over her but I couldn’t even do that with how hard she was squeezing me.

I had to tap out if I didn’t want to make some colossal mistake that would make this job fucking impossible before it even really started.

Licking my lips, I went to do just that but she must have thought I was going to try to get out of her hold because she flipped us both over until I was on my back with her shin across my throat and her fist coming straight for my chin.

I caught it just in time, but now my head was all messed up thanks to her scent.

This wasn’t a normal reaction to another alpha, I knew that, but it didn’t seem to matter.

My body was straining toward her even with the knowledge it would really fucking hurt if I couldn’t pull myself together to get out of this.

It wasn’t like I didn’t know how – it wasn’t like I couldn’t just grab her with my free hand and pick her whole body up as I got my feet under me again. Francesca wasn’t heavy enough for me to really even notice her weight, but her scent was making me stupid .

And the apex of her thighs was right there.

The source of the sweet yet tart smell that had my mouth watering like I was no better than an alpha going through their first rut.

“What the fuck are you doing, Hart?” She sounded pissed when I didn’t try to get her off of me and she grabbed my hair with her free hand, yanking my head forward to increase the pressure on my throat. “Do something already.”

I was fucking trying . God, I was trying but all I could think about was how soft her skin was and how good it felt to have her fingers in my hair.

What the fuck.

I didn’t understand.

Why was she affecting me so damn much?

This was bad. I had to do something or I was going to blow this job.

I yanked her fist toward me to throw her off balance but that instantly backfired when she lurched forward, catching herself before her tits smashed into my face.

My hand slid up her arm against my will and I forced myself to look at her face instead of her tits even though they were right there .

Francesca was staring down at me, practically frozen in shock.

That certainly made two of us.

I was not in control of my own thoughts let alone my fucking body.

Sweat slid down her face and neck, and my attention instantly fixated on the movement. One drop fell onto my lips and my tongue darted out, licking it up before I could stop myself.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see her reaction to that when I was appalled enough for the both of us.

Why the fuck was I reacting like this? It wasn’t like she was an omega. Not that it really would have mattered, but that might have made more sense.

I was the kind of person who didn’t care about anyone . Omega or otherwise. So what the fuck was this?

“Soren, are you okay?” She released me and moved to get off, but froze when I grabbed her.

I didn’t realize what I was doing until it was already done.

She’d finally said my name and the weight of her on top of me was oddly comforting even if her scent made me want to bury my face in her thighs.

My instincts were all over the place and the only thing I could really focus on was the look in her eyes.

Francesca looked scared.

“Sorry,” I managed, forcing my hands off of her. “I’m sorry…I didn’t mean…” I trailed off when I heard just how tense and gruff my voice sounded.

It made me want to whisper just to make sure I never saw that look in her eyes again.

She slid off me and I rolled away from her, tucking myself up and into the waistband of my sweats before she could see how hard I was.

Fuck, this was mortifying.

I used to be the perfect soldier, and now here I was, falling apart because a woman smelled like my favorite dessert.

“Did I hurt you?” Francesca put her hand on my shoulder and I wanted so badly to reassure her but I couldn’t.

“I’m fine,” I insisted as I shifted my weight onto my knees. I made sure to keep my eyes down so she wouldn’t see just how close I was to grabbing her again. “I apologize for disappointing you.”

The silence between us was awkward and she reached for me again, but this time her hand fell to her side before it could make contact. She must have read something in my demeanor that told her just how desperately I didn’t want her to touch me.

If she did…

I swallowed, my mouth watering again.

“You didn’t disappoint me,” she whispered as she crossed her arms over her chest.

It didn’t look like she was mad, but almost like she was hugging herself. Like somehow I was the one disappointed in her .

I clenched my hands into fists so I wouldn’t grab her again.

What the fuck was this? Was it just her scent?

Who knows. Maybe I was finally losing my goddamn mind.

“Time’s up anyways.” She jumped to her feet before I could say anything else. “We’ll work on this again tomorrow.”

I watched as she practically ran back to the locker room.

This was bad. I needed to figure out why I was reacting like this before I did something really fucking stupid.

Like asking her to sit on my face until I was drenched in her scent.

I licked my lips and glanced down. My dick was still rock-hard and my skin was itching to have her pressed against it once more.

This was a fucking job. I couldn’t afford to let anything personal affect it and on top of that, Francesca Lopez was engaged to someone else – the perfect legacy omega.

Even if I wanted to, I could never compete with that.

But I couldn’t rationalize this feeling away like I normally did either. I couldn’t logic my way out of the sensation coursing through my body.

The reminder that this was a job didn’t seem to be enough to calm myself down.

All I could think about was following her into the locker room to reassure her that I didn’t hate her – could never hate her.

Didn’t know why I felt that way when I hardly knew her, but I was sure it was physically impossible for me to hate Francesca Lopez no matter how insane that might sound.

I forced myself to my feet and ran my hand through my hair, ignoring all the looks from the other rookies. I didn’t give a fuck what they, or anyone else, thought. They could all think I was a disappointment and honestly, I couldn’t care less.

But Frankie?

The thought of her ignoring me again actually made me feel a little crazy. Like I might have a mental breakdown if she refused to look at me ever again.

I really had to put some distance between us and scrub her essence from my skin, no matter how much I didn’t want to, because if I didn’t, I was pretty fucking sure I was going to abandon the job of a lifetime for an unavailable alpha – one who was part of a real legacy pack.

The kind of pack that would never consider a disappointment like me.