Page 4 of Ondine, Vol. 2 (Cash City Omegaverse)

I give Arnold my attention. I haven’t had a chance to give him a good assessment. He’s not your average beta. He’s fit and strong. He doesn’t cower even with me standing so near.

“Are you the one that started the fire at Ondine’s apartment?”

Well, he’s not stupid either. That’s good to know.

“Yes. Well, it was Sebastian, but I told him to do it.”

“You’re a monster.”

I sigh and pace in front of him. “You know, when I met Ondine, she was running from someone. Running. She had his cum on her leg. She was scared.”

Arnold tracks me back and forth, not wanting to miss a single word.

“Why was she scared, Arnold?”

I stop and face him.

He swallows. “I don’t know.”

“Not good enough. Shadow? Break one of his fingers, will you?”

“No, no, no, what the fuck? I don’t know why she was scared!”

Shadow gives me another second or two to change my mind, but I do not.

He walks around to Arnold’s hands tied together behind the chair, and while I can’t see, I know the moment it’s done because Arnold screams in pain. I don’t like it. But he has to know the sum of things.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Let’s try again. See if you’ve learned yet. Why was Ondine so scared?”

I place my hands on my hips and tip towards him.

His voice is shaky, and he’s starting to sweat. “She ran away from me. She ran because I’m a beta and she’s an omega. She thought she did something wrong. She was ashamed. We weren’t supposed to do what we did.”

“Come on, you’re almost there. Or do I need to break your thumb next?”

“No! Ok. Ok. When Ondine came early to the Clinic, she didn’t catch me just changing out the LEDs. She nearly caught me getting a new SD card into the camera I hid in her nest.”

I smile and clap my hands. Bravo brave Arnold.

“Go on.”

“And I couldn’t go after her when she ran because I needed to hide the camera.”

Shadow makes a noise and I look over at his shocked face. “How did you know, Jake?”

I leave the room for a moment and return with three large print photographs.

I hand them to Shadow. He’ll see what I found in Arnold’s apartment.

He’s a hobby photographer. A good one. And the pictures tell a little story.

He’d taken photos of her after her heats.

Asleep. She was naked, but they were surprisingly tasteful photographs.

I assume one was her first heat at the Clinic.

There are three photographs. It’s obvious from the angle a camera was placed in the room for the third one.

Again, Ondine looks so beautiful. Satisfied and peaceful.

It was film and not digital. I’ve already taken the original film and any copies I found developed. Arnold had a dark room box in a bathroom where he developed them himself.

He’s seething through his teeth. Quietly. Thankfully. His eyes are bloodshot and he’s trying really hard to keep it together. It’s admirable, honestly.

“You said something to her to make her leave too, didn’t you?”

He nods. “I said that we shouldn’t have done that. I was right. But that’s not how I really feel. I didn’t lie to your friend. Ondine can have anything from me. My job. My dick. I don’t care. I’m in love with her.”

“And yet you took dirty pictures without her consent.”

“She’s everything, and I wanted to capture it. She knew I took photos. I asked if I could take one of her and she said yes. But I, you’re right, I didn’t tell her when I did it.”

He’s got great bones, I think. I’m glad he’s completely obsessed with her. That helps a lot.

“Shadow,” I call and he looks away from Arnold and up at me. “Come here.”

He comes to me and I pull him into a hug. He is wary at first, but then relaxes into me. I pat his back and hold him close. I pull back so I can look him in the eyes. “How’re you feeling after everything?”

He looks just how I feel. “Jake, I’m…”

I nod. “Me too.”

I grip his neck and pull his head down. He smiles as I bend him down and we touch foreheads. He loves when I do this. I let him go.

I clap my hands. “This is what we’re going to do.

Arnold. I think I like you. Despite you being a weirdo.

I’m going to need to monitor that behavior.

But anyway. Shadow here needs help. He needs to put together Ondine’s nest for her next heat.

You seem to be the expert on nest building.

Even better, you have experience with nest building for Ondine specifically. What do you say?”

“What am I agreeing to?”

“Oh, being blackmailed. Sorry. I skipped that part. You will be at my mercy and if you don’t obey me and my pack, I will show Ondine the dirty secret pictures you took of her and ruin her entire perception of you.”

His mouth opens a few times, trying to decide how to react.

“I get to see Ondine again? Build her nest? Be hired by your pack? And you won’t tell her about the photos?”

“No, no, no. Not hired. Bonded.”

“What?” His reaction comes out so fast. “That’s not. Why? What?”

“That’s the major part of the blackmail, Arnold. You’ll be mine for as long as I find a use for you.”

I won’t tell him this, because there’s no need, but he’s crucial in ensuring Ondine doesn’t leave me for Freddie. She’s got her alpha and he’s her scent match. The contract has been broken. There’s nothing tying me to her.

But with Arnold, I’ve got something.

Step 1: Make sure my pack is as desirable as possible for Ondine. Pure Ondine bait.

Step 2: Eliminate all her enemies. Ensure no one else can have her or take her from me. (I.e. Man-ho and the Wong Pack.)

Step 3: Make Ondine mine, not by proxy, but by every sense of the word. Physically. Spiritually. Legally.

I didn’t originally intend Anronolg to play this role. I was just going to torture him and possibly leave him to die in a ditch. When Freddie bonded my woman—my omega—I found a good use for the man. And I think he might assist Shadow.

It was a major setback last night. But I think I got it all figured out now.

“Are you going to bite me? To bond me?”

It’s an interesting question. Bonding a beta is a little different from bonding alphas.

He wouldn’t be able to feel our emotions, but he’d have some semblance of awareness of us.

We’d need to register him as a new member.

You get a tax stipend for the first bonded beta in a pack.

They help strengthen the bond between the other members.

It would prevent Freddie from stealing him from us.

And that’s the most important thing.

I want to prevent Freddie from going rogue and making his own pack with Ondine. If he found Arnold unbonded, and Ondine asked for him, he wouldn’t refuse her. I wouldn’t refuse her. And then I would lose my edge.

I have to bond this guy.