Page 8 of Speechless
Bastian looked over at me, brow furrowing. His mask covered the lower half of his face rather than the upper, with the bottom half of a skull. He said nothing but nodded once.
“What’s going on?” Brooks asked, following me until I could catch Theo’s eye and gesture him over.
“I— there’s no way to tell you without... you’ll see.”
Theo followed along with us as we walked around the huge, circular bar, back to where she sat in that little lounge area. Where her scent gathered like a puddle of perfection.
Beside me, Bastian wentrigid.
“Holyfuck,” Theo coughed, choking on his drink. I pounded him on the back. “Who is that?” He growled. “Where?”
“Right there.” I lowered my voice and nodded to the shadowy corner.
The Omega wore a deep green dress that reached her knees and had enough ruffles in the skirt I was imagining diving through them to reach the core of her scent. Picturing disappearing beneath them.
“You guys feel that, right?” I inhaled again. So light and delicate with layers I was too feral to separate. I could live breathing that scent alone for the rest of my life. This Omega wasmine.
“Yeah,” Brooks said. “Fuck. I need?—”
I stopped him as he stepped forward, bristling at the growl he threw my way. “If she’s talking to Amber, there’s a reason.”
“You think Amber will give a fuck when she finds out she’s ours?”
I growled back at him. “You don’t think I’m with you? The fact that I came back to find you all instead of kidnapping her to a private room is miraculous. Look at them. This is not a conversation we can interrupt.”
He glanced at the Omega, and his shoulders dropped. The way her fingers fidgeted and she bit her lip… something was wrong.
It took everything in me to keep my feet rooted to the ground. I wanted to pull her close and fix whatever it was. Protect her from the world. Protect her fromeverything, and I didn’t even know her name.
Theo walked over and abandoned the drink he’d just gotten at the bar. I didn’t blame him. There was no way I could hold anything right now that wasn’ther.
He shook his head as he returned. “It’s so much stronger when you get closer. I— Fuck. What do we do?”
I moved a little closer. Not so close that we were intruding on their space, but close enough that I could barely hear her voice above the noise of the club. She fiddled with the fabric of her dress. “What would the punishment be?”
Amber smiled gently. “Since James doesn’t want part of it, it would be our standard punishment for first-time rule-breakers. Spanking. Twenty strokes with either a bare hand or a paddle. Your choice.”
The Omega immediately drained the water bottle she held, and I was having trouble remaining upright since every bit of blood I had was flowing south.
They were talking about apunishment. This beautiful Omega had broken a rule. One look at her told me it wasn’t intentional. People who broke the rules on purpose didn’t look like they were shaking. Amber had said first time, so it was likely she was new.
Amber was one of the kindest people we’d ever met. She’d never push someone beyond what they were ready for, and she was understanding about accidents. But if you didn’t know that, the woman could be scary as fuck. I didn’t blame the little Omega for being nervous.
“Did I just hear what I thought I did?” Brooks asked under his breath.
“Yes.” Bastian’s single word, rough and raw, confirmed it.
She was our scent match.Allof us.
Theo was right. What the hell did we do? Besides stealing her and hiding her away from the rest of the world? That wasn’t realistic. Or… legal. But my Alpha wasn’t exactly concerned with legality right now. He just wanted his Omegacloser.
I’d missed some of their conversation getting my body under control. Amber looked amused. “I will have to witness the punishment if that’s what you choose, but we would find someone you’re comfortable with.”
Oh. She had to choose whether to leave or accept her fate.Please. I offered the word to the universe, hoping to hell she chose to stay. If she was leaving, then so was I. All the glow of being here was gone without the spark of her and her scent.
We needed to know who she was. First, we needed to stop standing and staring like creeps. But I couldn’t seem to make my feet move. The others weren’t moving either.
I missed what she said, but snapped back in when Amber tilted her head to the side. “You’re nervous?”
