“Well, she’s taken some suppressants and had some water. You should take her home.”
“She’s also right here,” I croaked out, standing up myself. I was a little wobbly, dwarfed by the two of them, but still, my chin jerked up. “I’m fine. I’ve never experienced a frenzy before, and I underestimated the effect it would have. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” James assured me. “You’re hardly in the right mind to gauge that. Are the suppressants kicking in?”
I nodded, lying, still feeling the rapid pulse between my legs at the thought of him destroying my collar, but I’d had enough experience shouldering dumb impulses aside that this wasn’t going to be an issue.
“Thank you for starting to show me your work. Please put the red dot on the artwork I looked at first,” I replied.
“Of course.”
He paused, then reached into his back pocket, pulled out a wallet, then a business card, all to the musical sound of Orion’s growl, but that didn’t stop him from pressing it into my palm and closing my fingers around it.
“If you’d like a private showing any time or…” Watching an alpha swallow, lose his cool, even just for a second, was like the fucking sexiest thing
I’d ever seen, even if turtlenecks were for total hipster douchebags. “I’d very much like for you to sit for me, Ms Rhodes. While you hover on the edge of frenzy, if possible. There’s something…radiant about you, pulsing with a need that must be satisfied, but you resist.” His eyes darted to the painting behind us, of the warring omegas. “Bring your alpha, your chaperone. Bring a whole army, if that would satisfy the conventions of polite society, but if you’re willing…”
I seriously felt like the breath had been punched out of me, at his offer, at a description of me that was so completely at odds with my own perception of myself that I was struck dumb.
“She’s not stripping down for you and ‘posing’ while she’s in frenzy. Not ever,” Orion all but growled, his fingers biting into my shoulders. “C’mon, omega.”
I’d like to think shock or wonder or the hazy rush of the suppressants as they tore through my system, changing me, altering me temporarily into one of them, were what left me limp and docile as Orion hustled me out of the gallery. His car was parked in the no parking zone outside, his boys all lined up, leaning against the side of it.
“She’s still in frenzy,” he announced as soon as they got close, not letting go until Rhys pushed himself away from the car.
“No shit,” he said, prising Orion’s hand off my arm and then pulling me close, the size of him, the weight of his arms, making me sag on my heels. “It’s OK, omega. I’ve got you now.”
And for some reason, that just made me want to cry, the world going brighter and hazier with every second.
“Look, what the hell are you four playing at?” George, that was George, and I twisted in Rhys’ grip to look at him, but he held me where I was. “One or two events, I can swing with Miranda, but this? It’s going to get back to her. People are already starting to talk.”
“Let them,” Marcus growled.
“It’s all right for you. You’ve made your bed, and a damn fine one it is with that club, but she doesn’t have an alpha designation or a fancy business to fall back on. She can’t go to university or hold down a job or do anything but be an alpha’s mate. You know her best chance of finding that is in there.” The sound of my chaperone sucking in a breath. “Miranda won’t go for this…whatever you have going here.”
“Don’t worry, Georgy boy, we know that better than anyone, but the point is moot,” Marcus drawled. “Omegas don’t share. It’s not in their nature. They want one alpha, one man or one woman to belong to, and as much as we’d love just that, no one comes between us. No one. And anyway, notoriety, some colour, teetering on the edge of frenzy—that’s alpha bait, and you fucking know it. Add in those doe-like eyes and that highly fuckable body, and she’s done. Someone will hunt her down before the season is done, and your reputation will remain intact.”
“I’m not worried about my reputation. I’m worried about hers.”
“Mr Artist Man already gave her his card, wants her to sit for him. Nude, I assume,” Orion drawled. “She’s claimed a scalp in the time it took you to get her a flute of champagne. Don’t worry about your girl. We’re better security than anyone can ever be.” The sardonic tone grew harder, more insistent. “No one will fuck with her while we’re with her.”
“And what do you get from all of this? Hoping to pull one over on daddy?”
“I am, and if you help us, there’s a nice little earner in it for you,” Marcus replied.
“Not at her expense. Never. I’ve been through that once,” George insisted.
“Couldn’t if we tried,” Brendan said, joining the conversation finally. He reached over to pull me from Rhys’ arms, moving over to breathe me in, but pressed his body against mine when his mate wouldn’t let go. “She’s our little taste of heaven. We won’t let that go until we have to.”
“So where are we at tonight?” Orion prompted. “Where’s our hunting ground?”
“The Lasseters’,” George bit out. “Cocktail party.”
“Those tedious fucks? Fine, jump in, we’re taking my car.”
Chapter 16
Omegas don’t share. It’s not in their nature.