Where had he gotten that assumption from?
“No, there are no plans for that. Freya has enough on her plate.”
“If you say so. I’ll be making bets with Amabella on how long your insistence lasts.”
“Go ahead and do that. You’ll both lose.”
He snorted, then held out a hand to shake. “I don’t think we were properly introduced, by the way. I’m Clement, resident wolf shifter.”
Hesitantly, I took his hand and shook it. “Emmett. Grizzly bear.”
We could smell each other’s nature, so saying it out loud was redundant. I’d known he was a wolf from the second I caught a whiff of him. “Let me guess. Born and raised on Earth?” Clement asked.
I shook my head. “Zemterra. Hopped the portal when I was sixteen.”
“Oh damn, I didn’t take you for an illegal.”
“I’m not. When I was hired by the Next Life Company, they gave me legal status.”
My history and the circumstances of how I got from Zemterra to Earth weren’t something I wanted to discuss at the moment. I hoped Clement wasn’t pushy, because I would rather stay friendly with him. “Well, unlike you, I’m absolutely an illegal,” he said, turning the conversation back around onto himself.
Thank the angels.
“I bet working for Nolan helps you avoid getting caught and sent back.”
“Sometimes. I’ve been shoved back to the middle of the damn Blightwood a few times, but Amabella is always kind enough to bring me right back. One thing I don’t miss about home are the ogres in that gods forsaken forest.”
I shuddered thinking of the creatures. They weren’t very intelligent and were extremely violent, willing to eat anyone that crossed their paths. Sometimes they ate each other, although their own kind wasn’t their favourite cuisine. They had tough skin and I doubted they tasted good, considering they often ate rotting corpses if their hunting efforts had been unsuccessful.
“I’m from the Ridges,” I divulged. “Not many ogres there, but plenty of predatory birds. I’m not a fan of any bird large enough to pick up a grizzly bear and fly away.”
“Good gods,” Clement said, his eyes widening. “I’d heard stories of the Ridges, but we all believed they were bullshit.”
“Some of my friends back home believed the ogre stories were bullshit too, but if there are giant birds, ogres aren’t much of a stretch.”
“They’re real. My father was killed by one. The old bastard got what he deserved, being crushed up between those disgusting teeth.” I was tempted to ask if he’d been there, but that was a bit too personal of a question. Wasn’t like I wanted to talk about my parents. Clement hurried on, not giving me time to question him. “I can give you a tour. It’s nothing you couldn’t find out if you asked anyone in the building, although they might be more hesitant to give you information with your picture plastered on every available news board.”
“The bounty on us is that much of a big deal?”
“You haven’t seen? They had your details up shortly after they found the scene at Jude’s house, but last night they put a bounty on Freya too.”
My heart skipped a beat. “They put a bounty on an Omega? Are they insane?”
“They’re in Kylan’s pocket, is what they are,” Clement said. “He wants her, and for whatever reason he would start a war to get her.”
We would give him a war before we gave her to him, bounty or no bounty.
“I’ll take that tour,” I grunted. Before, I’d been curious about the layout. Now, I needed to know in order to keep her safe. A gods damned bounty. People would be crawling out of the woodwork to claim it.
He pulled open the door and I pushed off the wall to follow him back out into the parking garage. The guards that had been milling about had changed, new faces hovering around a table that held snacks. Over to one side, hidden behind some sheets strung from the piping, were tiny bunk beds with sleeping figures. A couple of portable toilets were a few metres away, creating a low-quality little living area.
“Our regular employees have rooms inside the building,” Clement explained when he noticed me looking. “Those are for the temporary hires, like the one who tried to kill you. They’re not all trustworthy.”
“Any other asshole emerged since we were captured?” I asked.
“One or two,” he said, shrugging. “I hardly remember. They die too fast for me to pay much attention.”
No one here was squeamish about the death penalty. Freya and Shan would fit right in. Cas and I preferred different methods of punishment, such as imprisonment or deportation, unless someone we loved was directly threatened. Maybe we could help balance out Shan and Freya’s chaotic, violent energy.
