Page 48 of Curvy Quirky Omega

“Why are you here, Valor?” Frankie came over and plopped down onto one of the plush armchairs, one leg crossing over the other as she set her hands on the arms like it was a throne and not a normal chair.

It was easy to forget she had the same training my mother and I did until moments like this.

I grinned and leaned into Lucy, resting my hand on the back of Cas’s neck to settle all three of us. Whatever Frankie had planned…I couldn’t fucking wait to see how my mother handled it.

“I don’t believe I have to answer to you, Ms. James.” My mother finally tore her gaze away from Lucy to glare at Frankie, and I silently thanked the other alpha for redirecting her attention.

My omega was still anxious as fuck and I hated it. We needed to get my mother out of here as quickly as possible.

“You shouldn’t treat Francisco Lopez’s daughter so callously, Mother.” I snickered when her eyes flashed angrily at me, furious that I hadn’t warned her sooner who was working for us. “Don’t be mad, her connections have helped us out a lot since Lopez has quite the soft spot for Lucy. It’s only natural when he raised her after all.”

I thought for sure my mother would lose her shit but all she did was sigh and rub her temples like I was giving her a migraine. “At least the rumors are true. That makes all this a little easier.”

“I’m sorry?” What the fuck was she talking about now.

“They’re more focused on your relationship with an omega than the fact that you were arrested the night of Gideon’s murder, and then taken in for questioning multiple times since,” my mother stated. She dropped her hands and studied Lucy, who was back to sipping her tea. “If it was all a ruse, that would only make everything more difficult. They’d want to know why we felt like we needed to hide that we hired a private detective agency.”

My mother was taking this rather well. Too well, honestly.

“Let’s be clear, it’s not either of those things that are the problem,” Frankie told her. “It’s that someone sent a command to wipe data from Gideon’s computer from a van in the café’s parking lot the night he died – the very same café he’s been to on multiple occasions while he had his phone turned off so no one could track his location.”

My mother looked between Frankie and Lucy, clearly not sure why this was a problem outside the obvious.

“Now that person knows we were at the café,” I said softly.

She pissed me the fuck off sometimes and preferred to do things her way even if it didn’t make sense, but my mother loved her children and she was dedicated to protecting her pack.

Learning that she failed her eldest had nearly destroyed her and finding the culprit was the only way for her to protect me and anyone else under her protection who might be a target.

This new revelation wasn’t going to be easy for her to deal with.

Lucy leaned forward and set her cup on the coffee table before folding her hands on her lap the same way I’d seen River do. “I know you don’t particularly like that I’m seeing your son, but I will protect him. It is part of my job after all.”

Before my mother could say a word, Lucy removed her coat and Cas took it from her, hanging it over the arm of the couch. The look on my mother’s face when she saw Lucy wearing a holster with a loaded gun was priceless.

Frankie snickered. “It’ll actually be easier for us if someone tries to take one of us out. Then we’ll have even more evidence to follow up on.”

I growled, wondering how stupid someone had to be to actually hurt my omega. “I’d rather they didn’t.”

“Either way, I need to get into the server room today,” Lucy reminded me. She looked up with those pretty grey eyes that were finally starting to look a little blue around her pupils. “We can’t afford to slow down or wait here until things die down, and I need you to get in there if we’re going to buy ourselves a little more time. It’ll look less suspicious if you’re showing me around and Cas is good, but he can’t do what needs to be done as quickly as I can.”

I knew I was supposed to say something in response to that, but how could I when she looked at me like I was the answer to all her problems?

Lucy’s eyes were always so clear and bright when she looked at me now and I couldn’t get enough of it. Her dark hair framed her face even though she had it pulled back into a ponytail, nicely contrasting her pale skin and I wanted to touch her more than I wanted anything in the world.

The last time she’d looked up at me so imploringly…I was pretty sure it was when she shoved the small tank with her axolotl at me. She didn’t say a word, but it still felt like she was asking me for something she needed desperately.

I still don’t know what she was thinking back then, but I’d like to think she was asking me not to break my promise – to come back and return something she considered precious.

My mother cleared her throat and I felt my entire body jump slightly in surprise. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten she was even here, but then again Lucy made everything else feel so insignificant.

“I’ll take care of it,” my mother stated. She sounded so strange I forced myself to look away from Lucy to her.

Was that…understanding in her eyes?

“I’ll call for a press conference and schedule it for one o’clock this afternoon. You can use that time to do what needs to be done,” my mother assured us.

We all stared at her, not quite sure what to say, but she stood and headed for the door without waiting for any kind of acknowledgement. Why should she when she was the alpha of Valor?

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