Page 14 of The Packaged Deal

“Perks of fucking the boss.” I wink at the laid back alpha.

He snorts a laugh and takes the keys to my bike and pockets them.

“Don't scratch her,” I warn.

He puts a hand to his heart and scowls. The flop of red hair over the side of his face always reminds me of a guy who’s about 30 going on 19. “You wound me.”

“I do not. Go on, fuck off, and get some sleep.”

I watch as he rides away, and then I open the messenger app, reading over the information over the last two weeks. No one has stood out, and no one’s showing any special interest in the omega.

Great, that makes my job easier.

I wander down to the refuge and note Adrian pulling up. I jog over to reach him before he goes inside. I like him. I tried hard not to when I first realised that he and Sven were having this not-relationship, but he’s a really good guy.

“Hey, Doc.”

He whips around, scraping his black hair back from his face. The wariness on his face isn’t new. I should be used to it, but I kind of hate it. “Kandi. Hi.”

I smile at him, but for some reason, my smile makes him wary. He steps back awkwardly and looks up the stairs to the doors of the refuge.

“Are you here to see Jade?” He asks in a low voice.

“Yup, I'm taking her out. Girls’ day.”

He frowns. “I don't know that she’s ready.”

I walk with him, keeping up with his long strides. “The longer she hides in here, the harder it’s going to be to go out.”

He stops, turning to face me, and I see the moment his eyes drink over the scars on my face. I don’t pay them much mind anymore, but occasionally, they bother me. Waking up in the hospital to see my face rearranged from the stomping I got was bad. Hearing they’d taken Missy had been devastating.

No one else blamed me.

I blamed myself.

I wait for him to make a snarky comment, but he just smiles.

“They healed well. I remember seeing you when they brought you in.”

I can’t hide my shock. I stop moving, and he does as well, his face closing over and that stony mask coming back. “You were there?”

“Yes, I was working in the Emergency Room that night. I was your treating doctor.”

I stare at him, all my words stolen away. All those memories come back, the painful recovery. Missy forgiving me, apologising to me. The tears we shed together because we were safe and survived. Meeting that omega was like meeting a sister. Thinking I had been the reason she had been taken was agonizing. But I’ve learned to live with it. I just can’t forgive myself.

“You didn’t know, did you? Shit, I'm sorry, I have a terrible habit of sticking my foot in my mouth.”

And a really cute way of blushing over it. “It's fine. I had no idea, but I'm glad you were there.”

“I thought Sven would have told you,” Adrian murmurs and pushes open the door.

That last sentence brings me to a halt. Sven knew Adrian was the one who treated me? Why didn’t he tell me?

I push inside and follow him through the locked space. We sign our names. Jenny gives me a stern glare.

I spot Silver in the distance, mopping the floors. It’s easy to tell who she is because from this far away, she looks identical to Onyx. She is not the same woman who went to the Omega Meet a year ago.

Adrian leads me confidently to the back of the complex and knocks on a door. He opens it, and I peek in.