I waited for him to backtrack on that statement, but he didn’t. He grabbed sugar and honey from the counter and measured it out into his mug. The alpha was half asleep, for sure.
“Is that your way of saying you want to sleep with my gorgeous omega?” I asked.
The metal spoon clanged against the rim of the mug when he dropped it, cursing. He spun to glare at me, his half-lidded brown eyes confirming my suspicions. Not awake enough to be thinking.
“I do not want to sleep with that omega. She’s objectively gorgeous, of course, but that isn’t my opinion of her.”
I shrugged, taking a slow sip of coffee. “Sure.”
The rest of his pack was falling.
It was only a matter of time for him.
With a muttered curse, Mercury reached past me for the coffee pot. Our bodies brushed, my nose catching a breath of cinnamon and old books. Then he was gone again, his lean arm reaching up to grab another mug. He dumped a healthy serving of coffee into it, placed the pot unceremoniously onto the counter, and tipped the coffee into his mouth.
I watched his Adam’s apple bob with every swallow, the muscles of his throat working hard to chug the delicious, tiredness-defying liquid. Before he was done I had to look away, trying to ignore the clench in my core.
Mercury was cold and abrasive at the best of times, but he was attractive. Especially when he let go of his leash for a second and allowed himself to do things that he usually wouldn’t, like down an entire mug of coffee in a minute flat.
“Do you need some more?” I asked when he placed the mug back down. “I can make another pot.”
His eyes narrowed and he shook his head.
I started another pot anyway, because if I had to deal with him along with everything else this morning, I might need a bit more caffeine myself.
* * *
Noon had come and gone by the time I heard from my mother. My phone lit up with her call and I didn’t bother to make her wait for the third ring. I picked up on the first.
“Mother.”
“Leighton. Your date is set. You’ll be spending time with the Ashby pack tonight at an upscale club. They’ll be expecting you at seven. Be there fifteen minutes early, and ensure your omega is dressed appropriately.”
I bit my tongue against the anger that threatened to bubble up. She wasn’t worth it, not when Dash hadn’t found anything conclusive yet. At least, not anything conclusive enough for him to give us a straight answer. Neither had Liberty. We were at dead ends all around.
Mother didn’t wait for my response. She hung up.
My phone immediately chimed with an address and reminder of the time. Ambrose peered over my shoulder at it. The club was popular, the same one Dash frequented to find beta hookups. That was a fact I wouldn’t be telling Kiara.
“Who is your date with?” Mercury was the one to break the tense silence.
“Ashby pack.”
His eyebrow lifted. Ambrose’s surprise was similar. Kiara didn’t have a clue who we were talking about.
The Ashby pack were wealthy businessmen. I’d thought they were completely above board—never had heard any evidence to the contrary, not even with my contacts. If they were agreeing to an arranged mating with a dark bonded crime family daughter, they had to have something going on under the table.
I just didn’t know what.
That irritated me, because I’d been hoping something would slot together in my brain when I figured out who Kiara and I were supposed to mate. I had to have some hidden knowledge somewhere about my mother’s criminal ties, I just couldn’t figure out what it was, or where my brain was keeping it.
“Didn’t know they were criminals,” Ambrose rumbled.
Mercury muttered his agreement, his thumbs flying across his phone screen.
“If they’re not criminals, who are they?” Kiara asked.
I jumped in to explain. “They run A/B/O Connections, which creates apps and runs events to connect alphas and omegas with betas so everyone can understand each other a little better. They’re not an old money family. Their pack lead was born to a millionaire pack, but the other two were middle class or lower. The business was built from the ground up. With a bit more of an advantage than most people got, sure, but what they’ve done is impressive.”
