Page 47 of Ondine: Vol. 2

“Did you seduce her?” He asks with an implication I don’t care for.

“No,” I say between my teeth. “Ondine and I…things got out of hand that day.” I don’t let him know that for me they were out of hand from the moment she walked into the Clinic a year ago. And things escalated each time she came in. “I wasn’t going to deny her. I made a choice to ease her myself. And I don’t regret it.”

“Yeah, I understand that.”

We share a look. I wonder what he means. Was it about Ondine or someone else?

I follow him out of the kitchen and up to the nest. Shadow is up there too. It’s not very big, and having two alphas and threeof the movers in the room feels too crowded. The movers finish assembling the bed, clean up, and leave.

This room is not big enough if she has more than two alphas in here with her.

I’ve already laid the rugs and piled up the materials on the side. I start putting the sheets on the bed.

“Ok, we need to hang the curtains. Do either of you know how to do that?”

Sebastian says he can and gets started. There are rods already in place so it’s not a huge task. Shadow sits on one of the upholstered benches under the windows and plays on his phone.

“There should be more chairs in here,” Shadow says to the room.

“Why?” I ask, exasperated.

“My mom has lots of chairs in her nest. Big plush ones. And it says here…”

I roll my eyes. “She may not want you all hanging out in here. She has her scent-match. They are mated. I don’t know the guy, but there’s a good chance they won’t allow too many handoffs. She’s going to be with him on her next heat. We’re all just options.”

Sebastian drops a screw and the sound pings through the room. He blows all the air out of his chest and stands there, wrestling with something in his mind.

He doesn’t understand alphas who have an omega. They are possessive and violent. Adding a scent match on that just makes everything worse.

My friend Mads is a great example of this. After that Omega’s alphas found out about them dating, they assaulted him. The guy hasn’t been able to work for the better part of a year. He has to see a trauma therapist every week. Speaking of which, he’s going to lose his mind if I ever tell him I was kidnapped by three psychopathic alphas and dark bonded.

I guess, to be fair, it’s not a dark bond. Those are done non-consensually. But being blackmailed to accept a bond is cousin to non-consensual agreements.

Finally Sebastian says, “They have a wildling bond. We don’t have to worry about Freddie. He’ll default to Ondine’s needs, and her desires.”

A stop what I’m doing. A wildling bond. I haven’t heard that in ages.

“Who told you that?”

“The doctor. She consulted an omega specialist, too.”

Huh, well that changed things. I look around the nest. Any worry I’d had about this alpha of hers is gone. We’d had sex in the bathroom last night and I’d been on the lookout for when her alpha returned and broke my arm. But that’s not going to happen.

Interesting.

“Beta, I have a question,” Sebastian says awkwardly from his corner of chaos.

I realize he wants me to come sit with him. He’s with Shadow on the bench. I come over and lean against the wall.

“What do you want to talk to me about?”

“So, you’re an omega expert, right?”

I try to hide my smile. What is this guy about to ask me? He’s being shy. He’s looking right at me, but there’s clearly this wall between us. He’s expectant and vulnerable.

Shadow is also very curious. They sit so close to each other.

“I am an omega caretaking expert, yeah,” I clarify.