I should be doing it, but for the moment I’d prefer her to take charge. Amabella wouldn’t judge me. Once we got in front of the assassins and staff I employed, I’d retake my authority as head of this company. For the moment, my attention zoned in on Oswald, making his way across the room with a pair of pants held in his fist. All of his clothes were too small, making him seem bigger, but at least his cock wasn’t out and distracting anymore.
Freya vanished after a quick knock on the bathroom door, and Oswald crouched down in front of me. “Here,” he murmured, handing me the clothes. “You can change before you have to face anyone else.”
My cursedly pale cheeks went bright red and I tried to cover the wet spot better. It was a small blessing he’d come all over the floor when he’d tasted Freya, so at least I wasn’t the only one overly affected by things like this.
“I’m sorry I claimed you like that,” he said when I didn’t move or speak. “You deserved better than a feral Alpha drunk on your delicious blood and scent.”
Breath hitching, I tried to take a deep breath. It ended up being shallow. “You’re not sorry you did it?”
Oswald barked out a short laugh. “Oh, I would have done it eventually. It was just a disservice to bond you when you’d barely seen my face and never heard me speak.”
“Your voice is really nice.”
Fuck. How irrelevant. It wasn’t untrue, though. He was all deep baritones and a faint accent from somewhere I didn’t recognize. If I hadn’t been so damn vulnerable right now, I would have been able to come up with something flirtatious to say. I’d spent the past few days taunting all the men with casual sexual remarks, but in his presence I was drawing a blank.
He came closer to me, slowly enough I could have told him to stop if I wanted to. His back hit the wall beside me. When his arm came around my shoulders, a weight lifted from my mind. The bond strengthened with the contact, and I felt a wash of emotion from him. Enough for me to be confident he wasn’t doing this out of pity.
Instead of settling beside him, I hoisted myself up into his lap.
He grunted and wrapped his arms around me, a gentle purr rumbling in his chest.
We had almost a foot of height difference and I was able to lean my head against his chest, pushing my nose into his neck. Omega and Alpha scents were always stronger than Betas, but his was coming through particularly crisp for me. Inhaling him was like inhaling the air coming off the ocean, tinted with the sweetness of mangoes.
“You don’t seem furious,” Ozzy said.
He was huffing my scent like I was huffing his.
“Is there a point in being mad when it’s already been done?”
Oswald snorted, his breath ruffling my hair. “I guess I’m used to Freya. If Shan and Cas hadn’t held me back, and I’d marked her too… The woman holds grudges for life, if she didn’t straight up kill me.”
Valid point.
Freya came out of the bathroom, then, smirking down at where we were cuddled. “Ama had to fight her way up here, but she’s got the whole place covered by a shield now. No one gets in. We got Clement on the phone and they’ve cleared the parking garage, and are sending guys to make sure the whole building is clear.”
Shan nodded, but Caspian was nibbling on his bottom lip. “Do we have any idea where Em is?” he asked. “When’s the last time anyone has seen him?”
For me, it had been before Freya went into heat. I’d assumed he would be there with her as a protective presence, but they hadn’t shown up with him.
“He went to wander the building when we split up,” Freya said. “Let’s check in with Clement and find him.”
The mark on my neck throbbed, begging for sex, but I sighed and stood from Ozzy’s lap. Hastily, I changed into the sweatpants he’d found. Where his were too tight, mine were too loose. I pulled the drawstrings until they were going to stay on my hips and tied them up.
Minor inner turmoil aside, I had a business to run and a job to do.
“Check the infirmary first,” I said. “It’s on the first floor. I’ll go down to Clement.”
Shan looked like he was about to argue, used to being in charge. He shut his mouth with a small scowl and I looked behind me to find both Freya and Oswald glaring at him. Why the fuck did theywantme to be in charge? Maybe it was just because Shan was a horrible choice of leader. I maintained my opinion that it was a damn miracle he hadn’t been fired earlier.
“Oswald, go with Nolan,” Freya demanded. “Shan and Cas are coming with me. They might have to fuck me in a storage closet on the way down to keep my heat at bay.”
“You could go back to your room with Shan,” I suggested. “Oswald and Caspian can find Emmett while I go do my job.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, Ozzy made a small noise of dissatisfaction. I got a lot of pleasure out of his hesitance to part with me. Freya shook her head. “My heat can wait. I’ll fucking force it to wait. You’re not going anywhere alone after you almost died. Oswald can protect you.”
He’d protected me the first time, but if he threw himself in front of an arrow for me again he might not end up quite so lucky. Besides, with only a few attackers I would be able to fight them off. Iwasan assassin, though I didn’t look it.
Arguing with Freya was a pointless endeavour, though. I may be in charge… but she was actually in charge. Had been from the second she convinced me to let her out of the cage. Maybe even earlier, when Cas had sucked me off and I’d watched him knot her on the cameras.
