Page 66 of Curvy Quirky Omega

“Please. Liam’s basically her clone. She’s going to think this is hysterical.” Cas sighed then. “He’s going to file the official paperwork for the Valentine pack on Monday.”

“I figured.” I started adding the files I needed as evidence to an encrypted drive. That way I could just hand Nicolette the hard drive with the key once she wired us the money. “He’s got a pretty serious savior complex which is why he’s so fucked up about Gideon.”

Cas huffed a laugh, his warm breath tickling my neck. “I don’t need to be saved.”

“Uh, except you do.” I started working on the next paragraph, typing out exactly which servers were affected including all the necessary timestamps. “You’re strong enough to beat a legacy alpha which is why Gideon never liked you, but without Liam, you’re outnumbered and that’s dangerous. Even you can’t handle all four of the original legacy packs on your own.”

Cas slid his hands under my top to trace little circles into the skin on my stomach. “What makes you think Gideon didn’t like me?”

“From what I observed…he never once looked at you.”

He slid his hands up a little higher, making me pause in the middle of my sentence, trying to remember what I’d been about to type next.

“You know…I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that.”

“Why would you? Up until recently, you only ever looked at Liam.” My breath hitched when his thumbs stroked the underside of my breasts. “Gideon could barely handle that his own brother was stronger than him. I don’t think he wanted to look you in the eyes and find out he couldn’t hold your gaze.”

Liam came back to the office, making me jump. He ran his hand through his hair and I watched as his gaze fixated on my conspiracy board again like he couldn’t figure out how to read it.

The colored string made my assumptions obvious, and I think that more than the actual information was what he didn’t understand. The two yellow strings tying Gideon Valor and Helen Moss together were what kept drawing his attention.

Yes, they’d worked together since she made her reports to him weekly, but she’d also betrayed him.

On the surface, it seemed pretty self-explanatory, but the feeling in the pit of my stomach was telling me it was more than just pack rivalry. I couldn’t say why though, and I needed to find that stupid phone if I was ever going to understand why I kept feeling this way.

“My mother has agreed to leave Helen Moss to me,” Liam finally said. “She’s also letting Dane live.”

For now.

He didn’t have to say that part for me to hear it loud and clear.

Cas’s hand pressed down on my stomach and I felt the tiniest bit of anxiety coming from him. “Did she say why?”

Liam turned and gave us both a half-smile that looked just as melancholy as his laughter the first day we met as adults. “It’s a test, I’m sure.”

Right. He was still a legacy alpha even if he’d put in his request to leave the Valor pack. Until his alpha filed the paperwork, he was still Liam Valor.

After making his wishes very fucking clear, the way Liam handled this situation would tell his mother if they could still work together…it would tell her whether or not she could trust me, her son’s omega.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, wondering if it wasn’t actually a test for Liam, but for me and how I handled him. It would make sense given how wary she had to be of outsiders right now and if what Cas said was true…

Nicolette Valor was just like her son.

Maybe I should give her a test as well – see how much she could handle before she lost it.

If I dressed the way I wanted to dress, would she declare me unfit for her son? Would she say I was tainting her perfect legacy because of my tattoos?

A few weeks ago I would have been sure that would be the outcome, but after yesterday, I didn’t know anymore. Yeah, my tattoos had been covered, but the way she looked at me gave me the impression she respected me even though I was an omega working as a private detective.

One who could look her in the eyes and openly carried a weapon.

I pushed the chair back from the desk and stood, knowing I had to get ready now if I wanted to make sure we weren’t late. I could always go through the encrypted drive once I was done.

“Don’t let your breakfast get cold,” I told Liam. “Cas cooked it for you and everything. Don’t waste it.”

The amusement from Cas made me smile and I turned to kiss his cheek before heading over to Liam. “I’m going to get ready for the meeting. I need to find something suitable to wear.”

Liam leaned down and gave me a soft kiss. “Wear whatever you want, Lucy.”

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