Page 66 of Curvy Dirty Omega

The silence between us was thick, but Liam didn’t call me crazy or look at me like I was losing my mind. He didn’t seem afraid either, but I hadn’t expected him to. Alphas were never afraid around omegas even when they said and did weird shit.

Not even when I pointed a gun at their face.

“Axolotls are interesting creatures,” Liam murmured as his fancy sports car ate up the miles like it was nothing. “I’ve heard some can even evolve into salamanders.”

“In rare cases.” I sighed and checked the GPS to see we were close.

Any other time and I’d talk his ear off about all the cool axolotl facts I’d collected over the years, but I was nervous about speaking with Melinda Valor, especially when she was going to think I was Liam’s girlfriend.

Would that make this whole fucking thing even more difficult than it already was? God, I hoped not.

“I’m not the one in this partnership who questions people,” I reminded Liam. “Having me talk to Melinda instead of Frankie might just be a waste of time.”

“Regardless, you need to see the house.” Liam didn’t look away from the road, but he smiled slightly which made my stupid fucking heart flutter again.

The fact that he wasn’t angry by my admission gave me the push I needed to ask him about the private details of his family. With any other alpha, I’d worry they’d fly off the handle when I asked about an omega they had ties to, but for some reason Liam didn’t seem like the type.

At least, not with me.

“Before I speak with her, can I ask you a few questions?”

He glanced at me, that devastating smile still on his face. “Sure. Ask me anything.”

I swallowed before readjusting my body, angling it until I was facing him so I could catch any shifts in his body language or facial expression. “Why don’t Melinda and Gideon have any children?”

Liam’s smile dropped and his jaw clenched, but he didn’t seem angry, just bothered. “They’ve been trying to have children for a long time. Before they even got married they moved in together and per her records, Melinda hasn’t been on birth control since high school. Medically, there’s nothing wrong with either of them. They just haven’t been lucky enough to conceive. It’s caused a lot of arguments between my brother and my mother though. He refused to divorce Melinda for not giving him children even when there’s a clause in their prenup that says he will if she can’t. Eventually, my mother gave up and let it be. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen him stand up to her for anything.”

I mulled on that for a few minutes before choosing my next question. “What else is in their prenup? Anything that might hinge on your brother’s death?”

He shook his head and turned down a private road. We were on the outskirts of the city, but the dark green forest all around us made it feel secluded – remote almost. I could see why so many chose to make the drive into the city every day.

“My brother’s prenup was modified as they all are, but the template is used by Valor for every marriage,” Liam explained as he shifted gears, beams of sunlight making his white-blond hair gleam. “Melinda’s personal finances don’t belong to Valor and never will unless she leaves her fortune to her children. She earns an allowance as a spouse to a member of the Valor family, even after Gideon’s death. Her allowance increases with each child she has, but the children are also allotted an allowance from the moment they’re conceived so it doesn’t take away from the omega’s income.”

So many fucking rules. It made sense though when they had such a valuable fortune to protect from all the greedy assholes in the world.

“In the case of Gideon’s death, all his assets revert back to the pack if he doesn’t have any children. If he does, those assets are held in a trust until the child turns twenty-five. Melinda can choose to keep the Valor name, but even if she doesn’t, she’s allowed to possess the house she lives in until the day she dies. We take care of our own.”

Chewing on my lip distracted me from the weird melancholy feeling that filled me every time Liam spoke as though his brother was still alive – as if his death was years and years into the future and not over and done with already.

The reality of the situation was impossible to ignore with me by his side investigating his family, but it hadn’t really settled into his bones that his brother was dead, not yet.

I knew what that was like.

You’d think finding my mother in the bathtub with her wrists slit would have instantly hit me like a Mack truck, but the whole thing had felt surreal. Her death didn’t really register until a few weeks after her funeral when I’d come home from school to tell her what the boy who I played with in the park had buried in the sand for me that day, but she hadn’t been there.

Just her ashes.

“Is there anything else in their prenup?” I forced myself to ask, making a mental note to look through all the various prenups and legal agreements between the members of Valor whether they possessed the name or not.

“All prenups have an infidelity clause,” Liam admitted as he downshifted when we approached a gorgeous, wrought-iron gate attached to a beautifully carved concrete wall.

It had to be at least eight feet high with more wrought iron on top with deadly spikes to keep people out. Per the blueprints, it went around the entire property with guardhouses every few miles to keep the pack inside safe.

Liam braked just before we reached the main guardhouse and looked at me with a grim expression on his face. “Infidelity isn’t a deal-breaker for anyone with Valor blood since the goal is to further our legacy bloodline, but if the one who married into the pack is found cheating, they’re stripped of everything Valor gave them, but it has to be done by their spouse. Not even the pack alpha can override it despite having proof they’re cheating.”

It didn’t surprise me to hear that. The Lopez pack operated similarly and I’d spent a few years surrounded by these kinds of ridiculous rules, but they’d never applied to me. Just Frankie.

They could have though.

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