This omega had hurt what was mine. Why shouldn’t she be punished for that?
“We are not turning her in for anything.”
“Fine,” I spat. If it came to a battle of auras, he would win. “But you’re not going near her again, and Dash is never going to hear about this.”
Dash would fall apart. I couldn’t let him, not after I’d given so much of myself to keep him from doing that for the past six years.
Plus a tiny part of me worried what would happen to me if I let Leighton Winston and her new omega get under my skin.
His expression shuttered. Those eyes, usually holding so much warmth, went dark and cold, the depths still. “That’s not up to you, Mercury, and Dash already knows. He’s at Leighton’s house with them right now.”
He pushed to his feet and took a few steps away before sighing and turning back.
“You’re trying to help and I fucking know that, but you’ve got to stop ‘helping’ everyone so much you take away their free will and yours. Let’s continue this conversation later, once I’ve had a chance to cool down.”
I bit my tongue to hold back my retort that he wasn’t helping enough. Watching his retreating back until he vanished down the hallway to his bedroom, I slumped back onto the couch.
I needed a chance to cool down as much as he did.
It felt like the pack was falling to pieces around me, and I couldn’t go through that. Not again.
FIFTEEN
LEIGHTON
My less-than-private claiming of Kiara hadn’t gone unnoticed by Dash, but instead of the annoyance I’d hoped for, he was exuberant.
He grinned at me when I left my office to bring Kiara some clothes—after giving her another orgasm, of course. If I wasn’t mistaken, she’d come faster the second time. She’d kept glancing at the closed door, and I wondered if thoughts of him listening in helped her get there.
The idea of her thinking of another alpha during sex wasn’t as infuriating as it should be.
When she came out of the office, fully clothed but still a little flushed, he whistled low.
“You make such pretty sounds, little omega,” he purred.
She avoided eye contact with him, looking at me instead. I wasn’t sure what to tell her. He was going to be a flirt as long as he was here. We couldn’t expect him to stop.
“I bet you wouldn’t be able to get any of those sounds out of me,” she said after a pause.
For that, she met his gaze head on, and I purred. She was fiery, and it hadn’t been tamed by the dark bond. I liked that.
So did Dash, apparently. “Don’t make a bet you can’t win,” he said.
“I can win.”
“Really?”
“You can’t touch her, so you’ll never know,” I said, going over to the couch and standing in front of Dash. “She’s my omega, so you’d need my permission to touch her.”
The asshole had the audacity to check me out, going from head to toe. My clothes were a little more rumpled than usual, but professional nonetheless. There wasn’t much on display for him to enjoy.
“Oh, I’ll make you both scream for me.”
I scoffed. “I’d never let you touch me either. And why would you want to? I thought you were still hung up on my brother?”
Dash’s expression soured so fast I might as well have dumped him in a vat of lemon juice. He glared at me with his lips pursed, letting Kiara and I leave the living room without another word.
In the kitchen, Kiara grabbed my arm and looked back at the closed glass doors blocking us from the living room. “Um, what happened with your brother to make him reject Dash and Ambrose?”
