Page 51 of The Omega Archives: Part One

“Marko is rough around the edges, but he’s good. He was in the military for a long time and loved what he did.”

“What did he do in the military?”

“Special ops.”

“Woah.”

Cal took a deep breath and nodded with his lips pressed together. “You got that right. He left a few years ago after a, uh, not-so-great deployment mission. It was rough on us all. He works in security mainly now. All of us somehow work together. We keep each other in line. Most of the time anyway.”

“You really love each other.” It wasn’t as if it just dawned on me, but I could see it now in the way Cal talked about his pack mates.

“Fuck yeah, we do.”

I smiled watching him smile back at me.

His pack sounded oddly perfect. I was happy for Cal now that I’ve gotten to know him more. It was good that had them, a family he didn’t get to have years ago.

Maybe they helped make this perfect guy.

“They’d love you too,” Cal said.

“What?” I wanted to force myself to laugh at the direct statement.

“They would,” Cal repeated, insisting. “It’s not like it’s that hard. You’re easy to fall for, Ella Jones.”

Leaning in, over the past week since the last time we kissed in the car, Cal had been nothing but a respectful gentleman. He touched me and held my hand. That was it though. There was no more kissing or any of the heavy petting that made me want to fully crawl into his lap and never leave until my own hands touched every part of him— even the part that marked him as someone else’s too.

Now, Cal leaned forward until our lips were only a breath apart. “Is this okay?”

Inhaling, I let myself dip my chin in a nod. No one was around us. No one ever came down to the basement of the library really unless they had to. Not for the first time, I was thankful, but for an entirely different reason. “Yes.”

“I can kiss you again, beautiful?”

His lips tilted with his head to the right, just there. I could feel the way his mouth slanted over mine, just touching.

I wanted him to scream.Kiss me already!

My hand looped up without me pausing to reconsider until my fingers threaded themselves through his loose dark curls at the nape of his neck and pulled him in the rest of the way?—

“So, this is where you’ve been.”

Both of us quickly broke apart at the voice striking between us. Turning towards the stairs that I could see from the edge of where my desk was set up, a tall alpha stood, watching us.

“Liam,” Cal grinned, breathless as if he was surprised by the interruption.

It was him. The sweet yet slightly spicy chai. The hint of caramel. I wanted to breathe it in and never let it go. I looked away from the way he stared down at me like I was some kind of bug to him.

He was also the man that I had run into the one time in the science building when I went to see Rita.

It was really him.

Liam was the perfect picture of a professor in academia. He was tall and fit and utterly completely stunning from the way his plush lips pressed together to the way his jawline truly looked like it was in the running to cut glass.

Was that a stupid thing to think? Yes.

Did it show on my face? I desperately hoped not.

He kept his hands in his loose trouser pockets as he looked between us with bored interest until his gaze settled on me. His tawny eyebrows raised while his eyes remained unaffected as he took me in.

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