Page 53 of Omega Forged (Hartlock Omegas #2)

Tully

“You think I won’t make you pay for that?” Thorn scowled as he pressed his fingers to the scratch I left on his cheek.

The threat was hollow, and I didn’t take it to heart. One thing about my prickly friend was that he was determined to make me run screaming from this place. Clay rolled on the ground, his arm banded around his stomach as he howled with laughter.

“I can’t believe you let a tiny omega draw blood. Your reputation will be ruined.”

“You’re delusional,” Thorn muttered under his breath, but the raucous laugh of Clay brought color to his cheeks.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you next time.” I held up my nails with a smirk.

“I’m not frightened, lamb,” Thorn scoffed, his scowl canceled out by the heat on his skin.

Clay clapped Thorn’s shoulder and pressed a wet kiss to his cheek. “Oh, my gods, you’re too adorable for words with your little frown.”

A knock on the door interrupted my glee. Thorn stomped over and opened it. Puck stood on the other side. He sent me a little wave and cleared his throat.

“Have you got a sec? There’s a guy looking for you. Said you’d want to see him.”

“Ah, tall guy? Reddish hair? That’ll be Darren.” I clapped my hands and gave Thorn a triumphant look. “He was eight when the attack happened and wrote it all down in his journal. I’ve been waiting for him to agree to speak to me.”

“He’s a big softie. Off you go then. I think Thorn needs to nurse his hurt feelings in silence.” Clay looked at Puck. “You want a piano lesson? It’s broken, but we can pretend the keys sound like they’re supposed to.”

Puck pumped his fist in the air. “I left him outside your door, Tully.”

“You want me to walk you there?” Thorn offered.

I shook my head. It was only a five-minute walk.

I waved goodbye and pulled out my phone, opening my notes app in readiness.

Darren had been tossing up whether he wanted to revisit the trauma of what HLA did to his childhood.

But I was glad he decided to speak. I turned the corner and spotted Darren in the shadows swinging a bag. Full of his journals, I thought.

“Thanks for talking to me, Darren.” I turned the key in my lock. “Your journal entries will add so much to the series.”

Darren grunted and followed me into the apartment. It wasn’t much, but it was mine.

“Make yourself comfortable.” I flicked on a lamp.

“I-sorry—” I sucked in a sharp exhale as I turned around and bumped into a hard chest.

A scent overwhelmed me. Rain clogged my lungs, and thunder crashed in my ears. I stumbled over the lip of my threadbare rug and almost lost my balance.

“Chase,” I choked.

He ran his hand through his chestnut waves and painted on a smirk that made my insides tremble.

“Hello, pretty. Interesting place you’ve got here.”

My heart hammered as I turned on my heel. I scrambled toward the door with a sob.

“Stay.” Chase used his bark, and the sharp twist of his command brought tears to my eyes.

I fought against it until the words sank like barbed wire through my muscles and scraped at the bone.

“Please—ugh—” I protested even as my body froze.

Chase was a storm over an ocean as he circled me.

“I gave you time to come to your senses, but I’m impatient. Did you really think I would let you get away?” He reached out and picked up my bullet journal from the side table.

He flipped through the pages as I trembled, unable to move. He let it slip through his fingers and slap to the ground. The spine bent and I let out a soft whimper. Chase leaned close and took a deep breath, his nose wrinkling.

“Don’t touch me.” I wrenched myself out of Chase’s reach even as his bark held me in check.

If Chase thought I would submit meekly, he was wrong.

Chase didn’t flinch, reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. He aimed the screen toward me, and I froze as the air in my lungs turned solid. It was a photo of a woman, from the neck down. She posed coquettishly in a revealing, strappy peach lingerie set.

Me.

He swiped through. Another lacy set. Another revealing pose.

My photos from Only Omegas.

“Don’t make a scene, honey girl .” Chase’s jaw ticked, and he tucked the phone into his pocket.

My throat went dry and my thoughts jumbled. His hand came back, fitting under my chin like an ice collar. Chase watched me endure his touch with a stony gaze. It dripped inside my chest, freezing me over.

“H-how…” I managed, though it sounded like a croak. “Did you get those?”

Chase pursed his lips and dragged his fingers down my arm.

“Your former roommate is a bitter beta. When I heard rumors of Walden Baylark dating a new omega, I knew it was you. I traced back where you were hiding pretty easily. Don’t worry, do as you’re told, and they’ll stay right where no one else will find them. ”

I couldn’t think straight enough to argue and so I nodded, needing time. How was I going to get out of this apartment? His grip circled my wrist again, and he upended his bag on my chipped countertop.

“What do you need from me?”

“That’s better, pretty. Much more helpful than you were at the gala.”

“Tell me,” I snapped as sweat was a river down my spine.

Chase’s grip around my wrist tightened to the point of pain. “Just a signature, or ten.”

A signature? For what? The dim light made the shadows on his face look like canyons. I blinked away frustrated tears. My scent swirled softly around us, released by stress, and Chase scrunched his nose.

He pulled a mini pack of scent wipes from the pile on the countertop. The black and white packaging made me flinch. He’d tested these on me, used my naivety to build his empire, but it wasn’t enough. He stared at me with greedy, glinting eyes.

“Wipe yourself down, you reek. Prefer your scent when you were coming on my cock.”

My intestines knotted and I gagged.

“Let me leave, and my scent won’t be an issue.” My voice shook.

What was he going to do with those photos?

Chase pursed his lips and tossed the scent wipes on my stained couch. How quickly he made this place his.

“Do you know how successful the new prototype is? All natural, it’s a game changer. Just think, Tully, if you’d agreed to be my pretty omega, I could have put you up somewhere decent instead of this dump.”

A sharp retort hovered on the tip of my tongue.

I’d given Chase more than my body. I thought we’d build an empire together, but Chase took the research I unearthed in my parents’ belongings and claimed it for himself.

Now he was rich with the recipe my ancestor Birdie used to make, the first version of scent wipes, and his beta’s fortune.

“You’re rotten inside.”

Chase cocked his eyebrow. I used to love that expression on his handsome face. Back when I equated affection with love.

“Aren’t you going to say you missed me?” He frowned. “You were rude at the gala.”

His tone was playful. I’d heard it like this a million times. Right before he bit my head off or berated me. Coiled tension in his body warned me to tread carefully. I was trapped with Chase, and I needed to think past the panic crowding my thoughts.

“I have nothing to say to you, Chase. You used me.”

“Are you still angry at me for that? You can’t bond a beta,” he explained, like I was five years old. “Besides, I didn’t steal it from you. At least, that’s what this will prove.”

Chase snatched up a roll of paper and held it out. He jerked his head to the pen clipped to the top of it.

“Sign.”

“What is it?” I folded my arms over my chest.

The paper trembled in his fingers as he squeezed it tight.

“It’s an Intellectual Property transfer. We both know you weren’t going to do anything with that formula. But I need to cover my ass legally, especially since you’ve moved on to Baylark Pack.”

His words, and the casual way he dropped them in my lap, made me laugh. The gall of this man was unbelievable. Chase’s eyes narrowed.

“And if I say no?”

“Those pretty little pictures find their way onto the web.”

In the month I’d been in The Barracks, I’d grown complacent. I’d let myself believe Chase couldn’t touch me. But underneath the congenial smile was a monster, someone who could lie without blinking. As he loomed over me, I realized too late it wasn’t just duplicity he was capable of, but danger.

He hadn’t forgotten me. He’d only been biding his time.

“I wanted you as my omega, Tully.” Chase switched tactics as I stayed silent. “You were my dream girl. So sweet, so compliant. I think about you all the time, you know.”

My stomach turned, and I couldn’t hide a grimace.

“We had fun together, didn’t we?” Chase cajoled. “We still could.”

Chase walked me until I hit the back wall.

I’d pinned a photo of me and Walden’s sisters, the day we went shopping.

He flattened his chest against mine. My shoulder blades jammed into the wall.

His scent was a furious storm, and I coughed on the salt.

Not like Lloyd with his warm lap of ocean breeze. Chase wanted me in pieces.

“You’re in a pack with Seph.”

Chase brushed the hair off my forehead. “Why are you being such a little bitch? Huh?” Chase thumped his fist above my head until I flinched.

“I’m not scared of you.” I whimpered as his nose jammed into my neck.

“Smells pretty frightened to me. Are you acting tough because you’ve got Baylark Pack in your pocket? Now you’re all brave and confident? I’m building an empire here. Sign the papers, or I’ll release the photos.”

“You can’t prove they’re me,” I argued.

“A freckle here, a bracelet there. Even without your face, there is enough plausible proof to tie it to you, pretty.”

I trembled. My insides were in knots. But underneath was a strength Chase couldn’t touch. It had always been there, I just hadn’t realized it.

“I’m not helping you.”

Chase’s eyes looked black in the shadow of the small apartment.

“I’m sorry. Ok? Is that what you want to hear?”

“I want you to let me go.” I want to cut off your dick and have you choke on it. “If you want to build an empire, you won’t do it off my back.”

Chase let out a rumble of displeasure and pressed against me harder.

“There is another way to do this. If we’re bonded. What do you say about that?” His fingers brushed my top, pulling aside the material. He hovered like a viper before he surged forward.

His teeth dug into my shoulder, and I cried out as a hot lick of pain jolted through my body. My lungs seized. Had he broken the skin? Forced a bonding mark on me? Chase’s lips crushed against the bite mark and his chest heaved against mine.

He leaned back, fury dark like thunder clouds rolled across his face. “That was a warning, but next time I’ll make it real.”

“It won’t stay.” I lifted my chin and wriggled against him.

A bonding mark given under duress should fester and disappear. Surely the gods wouldn’t curse me with his bond, not when I already had his lingering voice stuck in my brain.

The papers fell to the ground as Chase’s throat rumbled with a growl.

“Let’s find out.” He said, and his head descended once more.