Page 29 of Their Knotty Pack (Starbrook City Omegaverse #3)

Hunter

W ith a sigh, I hang up the phone, replaying the conversation I just had with Damien in my mind. He's right, I'm not sure how I expect to get close to the omegas if I'm not ever there, but this case has been going on for too long.

For nearly four years, ever since the detective originally handling it retired and passed it off to me, I've watched helpless as more and more omegas disappear. What would I do if it was Miles or Bethany that went missing? Any lead that comes up, I need to follow it.

So when my partner and I got a call a few hours ago that there was supposed to be a drop in the warehouse district tonight, we jumped on it.

"Was that Damien?" Georgia asks, a smile tilting at her lips as she types on her phone from her spot on the passenger side of the unmarked police car we're in.

She had just gotten off the phone with her own omega a few minutes before I had called him.

"Yeah," I grin, running a hand through my hair. "He's stress cleaning again."

"Stress cleaning?" She arches a brow. "You'd think with two omegas and a beta as salacious as Damien, there would be…other ways to relieve his stress. "

I snort. "Yeah, except that's the source of the stress.

He needs to be more patient." Georgia and I went through the academy together and have forged a friendship closer than siblings.

She was hanging out with Damien and I when her scent-matched pack walked into the bar we were drinking at, and the rest is history.

Her eyes are fixed across the road, to the spot we were informed an exchange would happen later tonight.

It's getting dark, but there's still some daylight peaking above the roofs of the buildings around us.

"How are you doing with all of that?" She asks, her eyes scanning the street.

Partners have no secrets between each other, and unfortunately, that includes the nature of my sexuality.

"I feel like I'm ten steps behind everyone else." I sigh, rubbing my eyes. "Though I'm aware that most of it is my own fault. Obviously this case takes priority right now, but when I am home I don't seek them out."

"Why not?" She frowns, looking me over. She knows me far too well.

"I don't know," I shrug, "maybe…maybe I feel inadequate, that I can't give them what they want right away."

It's not even that I don't want to. Hell, I want to. But how do I know what's the scent match and what's real? Just the thought of Bethany's pale blue eyes…

Georgia snorts. "Please. You're too full of yourself. You're not trying to spend time with them because you're so irresistible that they won't be able to help themselves?"

My mouth drops open. "No!" I shake my head. "No. I don't want them to feel like I don't want them because I'm not trying to get them into bed immediately—like the rest of my packmates."

"You know…." Georgia says seriously, "I have a crazy idea that just might work."

I frown. "What?"

"You could tell them."

"Fuck off. "

"I'm being serious, Hunter. They would understand. In fact, it might be preferable to them, to know that you're not just after them for the scent match."

"Something is wrong with the world when you start to sound like Kieran." I mutter, my eyes catching on a large van that stops in front of the warehouse we're watching…but then keeps going.

Dammit.

"Well, in this one singular case, he's right." Georgia smirks.

"I can't just randomly say, 'by the way, I can't fuck you until I'm pretty much in love with you'. It has to come up naturally." I huff, grabbing my coffee from the cupholder and taking a sip. Ugh. It's cold. And…gross.

I grimace, putting the cup back in the cupholder. "Never go to that fucking coffee place again." My voice comes out bitter. "Their coffee sucks ass."

Frowning, she grabs her own cup and takes a sip before pulling a face. "Shit, that's awful. Okay, yeah. Never that place again."

By the time we go home, four hours later, there's still no sign of the shipment.

"Why can't we ever get good intel?" My brows furrow.

We've gotten a few leads over the years, but whoever runs this operation…

they're ghosts. Nearly every lead is a dead end, the only thing that makes me sure we aren't just chasing our tails is the fact that we have made a few busts.

But never enough. Never the right guys. We're constantly taking out lower level players, when what we need is to take out whoever is running the show.

"Follow up with the contact, see where he got his intel from," Georgia shrugs, "if he's no good, we'll take him off our list and investigate him. Maybe he's helping the traffickers."

I don't want to believe it, but it's a possibility.

In this line of work, the only person you can trust to not screw you over is your partner.