I just stared helplessly, caught in his grip, a rabbit in a trap, not a wolf.
“You stand on the brink of greatness and I feel privileged to witness you take that first step, but right now…” His eyes studied mine, studied me in a way I doubt if anyone here had ever done, except for maybe Candy or my pack. “Don’t burn yourself out before you’ve even had a chance to shine. Go home. Rest. Don’t go and take any more samples from the alphas. Just take a day to recuperate, please.”
I grinned then, a weird reflex, when all I felt was a wash of the most complete relief.
“You know what, you’re right. That was what I was coming out here to check with you. I’ve taken some notes about the Walker-Evans project, but that’s all I’ve got in me today. I’ll be back on deck tomorrow—”
“We’ll see,” Robert said, patting me on the arm now. “Rest up, and then we’ll talk in the morning.”
I nodded, pulling away carefully, and then went out into the reception area at a much more careful pace.
“Hey, Riley—” Janet said. She was standing with Candy, her bag in hand, the two of them obviously about to go for a coffee.
“I’ve got to go,” I said, raking my hair back from my face. “I need to—”
“Go get your fucking harem of studly men?” Candy asked, her face crumpling. “Fuck, girl…” She ran over, enveloping me in a disproportionately powerful hug. “Baby’s first orgy. Mumma couldn’t be more proud. Just remember, two in the hole is always the goal.”
“Baby’s first dominance fight,” I corrected, and their eyes widened as a result.
I explainedthe way it had to be, the way it would always be if I didn’t do this. Since I didn’t know much about the way omegas worked, Janine had been forced to run me through a quick omega hierarchy 101 class in my office.
“An omega takes a pack from their mother,” she told me. “You’ll find this out yourself if you ever decide to have kids with them.” Her eyes softened then, as if she could see my prospective sons running around my desk. “Though hopefully, you’ll do a better job of transitioning. Eloise has ruled Bordertown in one way or other since she was just out of school, first as the elder Vanguards’ mate, then as the mother of her unmated sons while they ran the town. She’s been in the driver’s seat, and like a lot of people who’ve had their own way for a long time, she’s used to it.”
Janine shrugged.
“It’s not as if she was openly hostile to me taking Blue as my mate as she was dismissive of it. She knew better. She’d run the town for so many years. The boys were strong and healthy. You’d become a success. She could point to so many positive outcomes that came about from her actions, so why question them? Why look beyond the surface? She was worried about the boys finding a mate, but also in no hurry, if that makes sense.”
Janine smiled tightly then.
“When I was brought to the community as a potential mate for the boys, I noticed it almost straight away. I’d make decisions, only to have them quietly countermanded. She’d kill me with kindness, all the while removing my personal autonomy, without even realising she was doing it, I think.” Her lips quirked at that. “I’d like to think she just thought she was doing what was right, whether or not it actually was.”
Janine’s gaze sharpened then.
“She’s not going to take you seriously, or the boys’ bond with you, and she won’t stop trying to meddle with shit until you put her in her place. You don’t have to seriously hurt her or kill her.”
Her smile widened then, showing an array of sharp teeth now.
“But you do need to declare your dominance over her. If I were a match for the boys, it’s the first thing I would have done—established myself as the power in the town, as the mate of her boys, as the person who came first in their lives.”
She nodded to me then.
“Thankfully, I don’t have to. Blue’s mum is lovely…”
I blinked then, catching Candy and Janet staring at me then.
“Here.” Janet shoved a pair of her Ray-Bans at me. “Your eyes are shining as bright as the moon.”
I jammed them on, right in time for the doors to open and allow more people inside the lift.
Thankfully when wegot to the ground floor, we were the only ones left, because I burst out of the small space like a bullet from a gun.
“Wait!” Candy shouted, racing over. “Do you want us to give you a ride?” She took a step backwards when she saw the state of me. I handed back Janet’s glasses with hands already starting to shake with what was coming, my feet toeing off my shoes, my arms stripping off my jacket. “Ah, Riley, you want to wolf out here?”
Her eyes darted around the carpark, and for good reason, but I couldn’t pay too much attention to it because time had run out. Whatever I was now, it was done waiting, done hurting, done being a good girl and following the orders I’d been given. My fingers went to my shirt, trying to unbutton it and failing, then resorting to tearing it free from me, and that was probably what got Evan’s phone out.
I couldn’t stop what was happening, the girls clustering around me protectively, showing a loyalty that had the wolf inside me chuffing. It was no mean feat, turning your back on a predator, but they did it to try and protect me. Still, he sat there, unremarked and unnoticed, as he often was when he wasn’t drawing attention to himself, in the safety of his car, and filmed me taking fur.
I was down, stretched out on my hands and knees, summoning the creature I knew as well as my own heart. She was my heart, the one that beat true and hard and wild, no matter what anyone else said, and now she was going after the thing she needed most.