“We are not doing this again,” I said, pulling away from the desk. As I did so, I heard the door open behind us, which should’ve made me a little more circumspect, but in my defence, it was usually just the post guy or someone from another department who came through the front door. “You are gonna butt out of my personal life, Candy, or I’m gonna lace your coffee with laxatives.”
“Well, that sounds unpleasant.”
Sometimes, you heard voices, actual voices, and they created a rip in the space-time continuum, grabbing a hold of you and pulling you back to some moment in your past. I froze where I was, still hearing the vague babble of my colleagues, but they were being drowned out by the now cacophonous beat of my heart. I was forced to set my coffee down, my fingers now slick and shaking.
“Any reason why you’ve taken to stealth feeding your workmates stool softeners, Riley?”
He said my name. He said my fucking name, so I can’t just scuttle out of here and pretend I’m not here, I thought furiously, then took a deep breath before turning around. That box inside me, it rattled now with a violence I hadn’t felt in so long, but I swept some loose hair back behind my ears, then rested my elbow on Janet’s desk hutch as I faced him down.
He smiled, just a little, a tiny twist of those full lips, but that restraint only magnified the delighted twinkle in his eyes.Eyes do not and cannot twinkle, I told myself firmly. Glistened, then, or shone, full of a lazy good humour I knew all too well. And that feeling of familiarity rushed through me right now. Those green eyes, like chips of jade, the deeply tanned skin, the sweep of too long dark hair, and a couple of days’ stubble gracing his strong chin.
Fen Vanguard.
Alpha Vanguard now, I corrected myself. He and his brothers had taken over the running of Bordertown, which did not explain what the fuck he was doing in my office, forcing me to stare at him like I was some kind of gormless twit. Candy noticed, her eyes flicking from me to him and then back again before she pointed to my mouth, gesturing to the drool forming at the side. I wiped it away and then straightened up, ready to be the smart, professional, well put together woman I knew myself to be.
Of course, that was the moment the rest of them came strolling in.
“She here?” Haze asked. His hair was longer, his piercings gone, but his tattoos now covered both arms from shoulder to wrist, something that was easy to see as he was wearing an old T-shirt with the sleeves ripped out paired with a beat-up pair of jeans. Those pale blue eyes found mine, and he grinned then, all mischief and fangs.
“Fuck, she is here…” Ryan hissed out the words, walking blindly to take up his place behind Fen. Still the second-in-command, but the way his skin paled, his eyes burned as he stared at me… My thought trailed away at the appearance of Colt and Blake.
Hard, that was my first impression. Colt had been the one I’d spent hours with, sitting side by side leaning against my bed as we studied together, his shoulder touching mine. His hazel eyes had always been so soft and expressive, but they weren’t anymore. He stared me down without blinking, one hand coming to lock around his other wrist.
And Blake? What the fuck had happened to Blake? Dark circles ringed his eyes, his hair ruffled and haphazard and somewhat lank. He still had all that muscular bulk, having grown even bigger in the time we’d been apart, so why didn’t he look any better for it? His eyes were wide, staring, but somehow empty.
“Well, well…” Candy said, stepping forward to offer her hand. Fen shook it perfunctorily before his focus shifted back to me. “I take it you know our Riley?”
“Know her?” Colt said with a harsh snort. “She’s—”
“Shut up, idiot,” Ryan hissed.
“Our pack house was contacted about a study you’re conducting?” Fen said, and that was when the ice-cold knife slid up and through my ribs, expertly finding my heart. “The email we got was you were looking for samples.”
“It says here…” Haze said, unfolding a folded piece of paper. “‘Blood, hair, nails, and semen.’” He looked up and surveyed the room with a grin. “I dunno about these fellas, but I’ve got plenty of semen to supply. Oof!”
Ryan slammed his elbow into the ribs of his brother, forcing him double, while trying to maintain a civilised veneer as he stared at us.
“We are looking for alpha samples,” Candy said with exaggerated glee. “We were just talking about the lack of suitable candidates.”
“Suitable candidates?” Fen said with a frown. “You’ve been handling other alpha’s samples, Riley?”
And here we were again, with these chucklefucks getting all possessive and growly again. But why? There had to be an Omega Vanguard by now, so this kind of shit was inappropriate at best and an abuse of their mate at worst. I reached behind Janet’s desk, the receptionist’s eyes as wide as saucers as I rifled through the folders to find the alpha sample admission forms, before grabbing a handful of pens and slapping them down on top of it.
“If you’re willing to supply us with some baseline samples for a typical alpha subject, we’d much appreciate it. Remuneration is not exactly generous, but you’ll get something for what is essentially a fairly small amount of time and effort on your part. Fill in the forms and then give them to Janet, and when you’re done, my colleague, Ms Baker here, will take your samples and authorise your payments. It’s been lovely to see you all, but I’ve got a million things I need to attend to.”
I turned on my heel, ready to stalk on out of here, thanking god I’d worn the tailored slacks that made my arse and legs look fabulous. If you were going to give your childhood crushes your back, you might as well make them rue the day they followed their instincts and did what all alphas did.
“Wait!”
His voice, ragged, broken, coarse, that was what stopped me. The others murmured, but Colt pushed his way forward, scraping his hair back from his face, then moving closer.
“We’re not really here for the study.”
“Fuck, Colt,” Ryan said on a groan. “When are you gonna get some chill?”
“Shut the fuck up,” Colt shot back, and that shocked me. My Colt was moody, introverted, but he had a heart of gold. This Colt? He was like a beautiful broken vase—all cracked and spiky, yet somehow, you found yourself still moving closer to take a better look. When he focussed back on me, I saw some of the boy I knew in his eyes, in that hot, desperate gaze. “You help people who are…damaged, right?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, much more gently now.