Page 14 of His Snowbound Omega

For the White Frost.

Thorn got to his feet. “Thank you, Dr. Price. Please plan the surgery for tomorrow. I’ll get the money.”

He understood why his father had felt cornered into turning to the White Frost, because Thorn was now in the same desperate situation.

He should have known the universe would view sleeping off his debt as too easy.

Chapter 6:

It was late by the time he arrived home, and Thorn sat in the driveway for longer than he should have, wasting the minutes as he spiraled. The second a lone tear slipped past his defenses, however, he got back into motion, not allowing himself to dwell on things past his breaking point.

He should have gone straight to Frost Loans, but he’d hated the idea of walking in there looking and feeling the way he currently did. The plan was to shower and make himself more presentable—put on a damn pair of shoes—then head back out and hope they were still open. Places like that tended to be, they wanted money, after all.

Would they laugh at him? Pity him? Not even twenty-four hours after participating in the White Hunt and clearing his debts, Thorn was going to crawl right back to them.

Pathetic.

Hopeless.

If not for his brother, he’d—

No.

At his front door, Thorn slapped himself once and then shoved the key into the lock. It was an old-fashioned mechanism with a physical metal key. All of the houses in this neighborhood were like that, but he couldn’t afford to upgrade, and it wasn’t like there was anything inside that would be worth stealing, so the coin was better spent elsewhere.

Only, as soon as he touched it, the door creaked open before he gave even a slight turn of his wrist.

He was certain he’d locked up before getting into the taxi last night. Maybe the mechanism was broken? It seemed more likely than a break-in, but he cautiously pushed the door open the rest of the way, remaining out on the threshold in case he had to run.

Thorn’s stomach sank the second his eyes landed on the small table across from the entrance. Or, more accurately, on the wicker basket overflowing with white roses.

No…

The house was tiny. A single wall stood opposite the entrance, dividing the living space into two. To the left, a short hall led to the two bedrooms and a modest bath. The right led to the living room and the kitchen. Neither space could be seen from where Thorn was standing, and the fact that he didn’t know what to anticipate made him freeze in place.

Someone had broken into his home and delivered these flowers. But why? And what were the odds they were still here?

He wanted to glance over his shoulder and check the driveway, but he was positive the car he’d driven from the cabin this morning was the only thing there. The streets had been empty as well—he would have noticed otherwise, since his neighbors all only had one vehicle apiece.

Even though he planned on going to the White Frost to take out another loan, they had no idea of that. He’d cleared his debts, so there was no reason for any of them to be here.

“Omega,” the familiar, commanding voice from last night called from the right suddenly, causing Thorn to flinch. “Come here. You’re letting the cold in.”

Should he run?

And…what? Get back into the car the alpha had left for him?

Where would he even go?

This was fine. It’s not like Baal had come here to kill him under the cover of darkness, right?

Thorn’s mind scrambled to think if he’d made any mistakes after all, but he truly believed his performance in the bedroom had been up to snuff. Maybe it hadn’t been as spectacular to the alpha as it had been to him, but—

Wait. No.

What was he even thinking?

Knowing better than to keep a man like Baal waiting, Thorn forced himself to enter and went through great pains to shut the door gently behind him so as not to give his nerves away.