Page 81 of Ondine: Vol. 2

Jake looks at me while he thinks. Finally he says, “How about instead I hire you. You can create a special division for this effort. You can manage the whole project. I’ve been looking into more pro bono work. At first I thought about offering more free protections for omegas, but we’ve been offering the service for years, and I know there’s more we can do.”

“Fuck, let me think about it.”

But he’s already got me interested.

I tell him I have to see Ondine.

Jake stays outside, and I walk into the house looking for my little omega. Killer passes by me to bullet into the kitchen.

I look toward the stairs. I’ve never actually been in this house before recently. And I’ve never been upstairs.

Shadow is sitting in a dark corner of the piano room, and sees my hesitation. “Her nest is up the second set of stairs towards the back.”

I look into the darkness, knowing he’s there but not being able to see him.

“Thank you.”

“Can I say something?” He asks, so I wait. “We came from a pack where your dad and my dad were not even bonded. I was worried that you’d expect the same from us. Jake told me about you and Sebastian. And no one has said you’re against what was in the declaration to court.”

“Shadow, our family is fucked up. In so many ways. They were never going to be the blueprint for our futures. What did mom want you to be? A surgeon? She wanted me to go into politics. I’m a monk and you’re a security agent. We chose our paths.”

I hear him chuckle.

“Ondine said she’d be happy if you and Jake had a private relationship.”

He sucks in a breath.

“But she has other plans for Sebastian,” I laugh. “She’s very possessive over him. I’ll have to fight for his attention.”

And I’ll be happy to do it, too.

“That’s…wow. Ok.”

“I better get up there.”

“Yeah, go on. It’s nice to know we agree on some things.”

I wave him goodbye and take the stairs two at a time.

The lights are all off in the hall, but there’s a light on in the first room I come across. The beta sits on the bed, head hanging down, his hands on his knees.

I decide now is as good a time as any to meet him, properly.

I lean against the door jam and say, “So you’re in love with my omega?”

I mean it as a joke, but I can tell as soon as he looks at me, guarded and full of masculine energy, it wasn’t taken as a joke.

“I’m Freddie. What’s your name?”

His tongue clicks. “Arnold. Ondine calls me Arnie.”

I wonder if he was worried about meeting me. Maybe he thought I’d retaliate for him being with my omega.

“It’s nice to meet you. How do you know her?”

Arnie gives me a little rundown of their very unconventional relationship. She’d met him days after she’d met me for the first time a year ago. And he’s been the one to care for her while I’d been fooling myself into thinking she was better off.

“You don’t seem to like alphas very much, do you?” I ask.