“Got it. Freya, are you OK?”
Shaking my head, I stood. “Not particularly.” There was something cathartic about admitting it out loud. “I’m going into heat so I have to head downstairs.”
“Should you be wandering around like that?” she asked.
Her concern was sweet, and very Mabel, but unnecessary. “Believe me, I’ve been in much worse places while going into heat.”
“Do I want to ask?”
“You would probably find it amusing, but I’m not about to tell you right now.”
My legs shook a bit, warning me to get downstairs and into my makeshift nest sooner rather than later.
“Huh. Well, have a good heat.”
I wasn’t sure there was such a thing as a good heat when you didn’t want to be an Omega. However, I couldn’t deny this would be my best one yet.
* * *
In the suite, I found Cas and Shan entangled in each other in bed, matching marks on their necks. They were curled together, cuddling, and I hated to ruin their afterglow. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be helped.
“The AEA has our faces plastered all over the news,” I proclaimed without preamble, standing backlit in the bedroom doorway. Emmett hadn’t returned to the suite, and neither had Oswald. It was only the three of us.
Shan sat straight up in bed, dumping Caspian unceremoniously off his lap. The incubus was too shocked to be angry about it, sitting up almost as fast. “What?” Shan asked. “We knew we’d end up wanted, but I assumed it would only be posted to a couple of discreet bounty hunter boards.”
“Considering May found it without trying, we’re front page news. We’re all wanted criminals, me included. In fact, I’m highlighted as the worst of us which is both flattering and annoying.”
“Why would they put your face anywhere?” Cas asked. “The AEA thinks you’re a witness or someone that’s being fought over.”
“Someone told them I was the killer.”
“Was it Nolan?” Shan immediately jumped to the conclusion, and it stunned me because Nolan hadn’t crossed my mind as a potential betrayer.
“Do you three miss me already?” Nolan said, the door to the suite opening at the perfect moment for him to hear his name.
He was grinning, a bundle of blankets and pillows clutched in his arms, and he couldn’t see the murderous look on Shan’s face. I could. My hand caught Shan’s arm as he tried to barrel past me, buck naked. Nolan’s eyes widened at the sight of the angry angel in the bedroom doorway. “It wasn’t him.”
“How do you know?”
“It wasn’t him,” I said firmly. “Calm the fuck down.”
“What wasn’t me?” Nolan asked. Any normal person would back toward the door and try to escape the potential for violence. He wasn’t normal. He moved closer to us, trying to avoid looking at Shan’s crotch but occasionally glancing down.
“Did Mabel text you?”
His eyebrows scrunched together. “I was getting blankets for you…” He trailed off when he pulled out his phone and saw the message. “I didn’t think Kylan had enough sway to get them to run something like this. I’m going to need to look deeper into his contacts at the agency.”
Without being prompted, he handed his phone to Shan, who read the article with as much rage as I had. Possibly more. Caspian appeared from the bedroom a second later, his new mate mark on display although he’d opted to put on a pair of loose-fitting boxers that weren’t originally his. He wasn’t interested in reading the bulletin, coming up behind me instead and wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “Are you doing OK?”
“Everyone is asking me that. The answer is obviously no, and even more no because I’m in heat and this is the least opportune time for it.”
Caspian buried his nose against my neck and inhaled deeply, groaning. “Fuck, you are. I was so wrapped up in Shan’s pheromones I didn’t catch it right away.”
“I bet you were, considering that new little mark on your neck.”
He went pink. Nolan’s eyes went wide. “Mark? I thought you said you were opposed to having anyone claim you right now.”
Nolan scanned my neck, trying to find a mark that didn’t exist and growing increasingly more confused as he found nothing. I laughed, gesturing to Shan. “Not my mark. It’s his.”
