Page 28

CHAPTER 28

Soren

I set Frankie down on the couch and dumped my backpack on the floor before sitting down beside her. Then I pulled her leg up and set it on my lap, untying her laces.

She didn’t argue or try to protest this time. She just watched me slowly and carefully take the boot off her injured foot. Her sock came off next and I studied the slightly swollen area around her ankle.

It wasn’t bruised yet, but it was puffy.

“Does this hurt?” I held her foot and moved it this way and that, watching her face closely for any sign of pain.

“It’s sore,” she admitted, grimacing slightly when I pushed her toes toward her knee. “But I think it’s fine. It probably just retraumatized me more than anything.”

I raised an eyebrow instead of verbally asking what the fuck she was talking about.

“This was the leg I broke back during that…incident,” she explained.

So, she’d been buried alive with a broken leg?

I released her just in case I accidentally lost control and hurt her.

Every single thing I learned about this so-called pack was infuriating.

Did they really put their children through that kind of trauma?

I wasn’t born into a legacy pack, but I’ve heard the rumors. I knew how violent they used to be and that a lot of them still trained their alphas like they might have to go to war tomorrow, but it had always seemed a bit far-fetched.

All of them were trained? Even the ones who didn’t have the red eyes?

Most of them had very normal jobs. Francisco Lopez was a lawyer for fuck’s sake. The Lopez law firm has been around for a few hundred years now and they were philanthropists – always donating to some cause or another if they weren’t funding it themselves.

The most successful suppressant in the country was developed by Genesis Pharmaceuticals which I’d found out was owned by the Lopez pack through all my digging.

So, for Frankie to be just as trained as me, someone who has spent the majority of my adulthood in the special forces…

She pulled her leg off my lap and got to her feet.

Despite how badly it had to hurt, she didn’t let the pain show.

I resisted the urge to yank her back down and watched as she pulled her hair out of her ponytail.

“Thanks for taking me all the way up here.” She gave me that weird little half-smile again before tugging on the shirt she was wearing. “I’ll wash this and return it tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I wanted her to keep it and wear it again even though there was absolutely no reason for her to do that.

“I need to take a shower.” Frankie waved at the front door. “Feel free to wait here for the cab. Once I hear back from Garcia, I’ll message you.”

She didn’t wait for me to respond before limping down the hall.

I sat there and listened to her turn on the water, going about her business like a strange alpha wasn’t sitting in her living room.

It reeked of omega and alpha pheromones in here and the sweet, musky scent of roses mixed with Frankie’s lavender citrus was making me irrational.

I knew she was close with Lucy Parker and I’d known they’d lived together before the omega had moved in with her alphas, but knowing it and smelling it were two very different things apparently.

A low rumble escaped my chest and I rubbed at the spot, not sure why I was acting like this.

I had no claim on Frankie. She wasn’t mine. She just happened to be someone I was hired to spy on.

Yanking the baseball cap off, I ran my hand over my hair and tossed my hat on the coffee table. Then I pulled the phone she’d given me over my head and turned off the recording, setting that next to my hat.

What was I going to do about this?

I was supposed to find any weakness Francesca Lopez might have and report it to my employer.

Somehow, I’d finally gained her trust.

Now here I was, in her apartment with no supervision whatsoever. I could dig through her stuff and find whatever might be lying around, but that was honestly the last thing I wanted to do.

Never in my life have my feelings ever contradicted my job and I had no fucking idea what to do about it.

I peeled off the scent blockers on the other side of my neck and then studied the clear material before tossing that on the table as well.

I’ve never tried to use my pheromones on anyone before either.

For any reason.

I’ve honestly never had to.

So, why was it so easy for me to do it earlier? Why had it been so easy to calm her down? And why did I like that it worked as much as I did?

I liked Frankie as a person and yeah, I found her attractive, but that was par for the course with legacy alphas.

She was objectively gorgeous but it was the look in those big blue eyes whenever I surprised her or the way she laughed when she found something genuinely funny that made her truly stunning.

The way everyone around her acted rubbed me the wrong way too.

She may be a legacy alpha, but she was still human. There was only so much one individual could do on their own. It didn’t matter how strong or powerful she was. Frankie deserved to have someone to rely on just as much as everyone seemed to rely on her.

Now I just had to figure out why I wanted to be that person.

I sighed and aggressively ran my hand through my hair, forcing the strands to stick up straight. It didn’t matter why I wanted to be that person because that wasn’t a role I could ever fill.

She was a job and I was the asshole spying on her.

But I didn’t think I could hand over her weakness no matter what it was. I just couldn’t. This insane feeling boiling in my chest wouldn’t let me and I would honestly hate myself for the rest of my life if I ever hurt her.

The only other option was quitting the job, but I didn’t know how to do that without putting her in even more danger.

At some point she’d find out who I really was. I didn’t know how or when but I did know she had the resources and intelligence to figure it out eventually.

What was I supposed to do now?

I gripped my hair and almost ripped it out in frustration. I’ve never been in this position before and I had no idea what to fucking do. I had no one to call to ask for advice. I was completely and utterly alone.

Just like Frankie.

Maybe I should take some time off to figure out what the fuck I should do.

The water shut off and I ran my hand over my face, realizing I never called the cab company.

Well, I did want to make sure she was okay before leaving and take one last look at her ankle. If she didn’t agree to send me updates I had no plans to leave.

How else was I supposed to know if I needed to take her to the hospital or not?

Frankie walked down the hall in nothing but these tiny little shorts and a tank top – no bra. Normally, I wouldn’t notice something like that but her nipples were pushing the fabric out and practically demanding my attention.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me. “Are they still not here?”

I couldn’t open my mouth. If I did, I’d say something really fucking asinine. Or I’d try to put one of those nipples in my mouth.

Looking away, I ran my both hands through my hair, wishing she didn’t smell so good.

Without the scent blockers and the smell of death lingering on her skin, I could smell her pure undiluted scent and it was fucking mouthwatering.

“Soren? Are you okay?”

She was still limping and I couldn’t handle that on top of everything else.

I got up and pushed her down on the couch, taking the towel so I could dry her hair.

Focusing on that helped settle whatever sensation was bubbling just under my skin, threatening to explode.

Her hand wrapped around my wrist, squeezing hard enough to hurt. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

I honestly had no idea. “I’m just trying to help.”

“Well don’t.” She yanked the towel out of my grip and I flinched at the sharp tone in her voice.

Yeah, it was definitely time to leave.

I bent down to grab my backpack and my eyes seemed to have a life of their own because all I could do was stare at her bare legs.

“Soren.”

I glanced up to see her frowning, but she seemed more confused than anything.

“Why are you trying so hard?”

“I don’t know. I just want to.” The answer came out of my mouth before I realized what I was even saying and I could feel my face shift into a shocked expression.

Shit, I was losing my mind and I didn’t know how to stop it.

At least Frankie looked just as shocked as I was.

“You know I’m fully capable of taking care of myself, right?” She tilted her head to the side and studied me like she found me weirdly fascinating, but not enough to really bother with.

“I know,” I admitted, yanking the towel out of her hands again instead of leaving like I should.

This whole thing was pissing me off and the only thing that had calmed me down earlier was drying her hair, so I was going to do that. She could bitch and complain about it, but I didn’t care.

I’d pretend like the cab was here once I had my shit together and then just walk home or something. I didn’t want her to know just how fucking ridiculous and clingy I was actually being right now.

“Are you aware that you’re pumping out your pheromones?”

No, I wasn’t.

I dropped down on the couch beside her and tried to reel it back in, but her scent was making it impossible. “I should go.”

But Frankie wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself up and into my lap, straddling my hips.

What the fuck was she doing?

Her expression was warm and her smile soft, but the look in her eyes was anything but. She stared at me with a cold, calculating look before shifting her weight just so.

The heat of her against me made me clench my jaw and I grabbed her hips, stopping her before she could grind against me.

If she did…I didn’t think I could stop myself from getting a taste of her, and she certainly didn’t seem to be in the right state of mind to deal with me when I was like that.

“You’ve been like this since earlier.” Her breath tickled my face and my grip on her hips tightened against my will. “Why are you acting like I can’t do a single thing on my own? Did my momentary weakness make you think you could do whatever you want?”

Her pheromones curled around me, smelling like lavender and honey with a hint of citrus. She was pissed off but I couldn’t focus on that when she smelled so sweet.

Sweet enough to make my teeth ache.

I wanted to sink them into her skin just to see if she tasted as good as she smelled.

“I asked you a question, Soren .”

Dammit. She wasn’t just pissed at me, she was furious.