Page 7 of Curvy Quirky Omega

“Was that always what you used the phone for?”

Dane shook his head again and I couldn’t help but wonder if that made all his injuries feel worse or not. “I used the phone to contact Mel sometimes too. She never responded to the messages and reported it as spam, but that’s how she knew when I planned to visit her.”

Was I the only one shocked that he was being so open about this? Well…I guess after three days of getting bamboo shoots shoved under his nails, he had no reason to hide anything.

I decided not to follow up on the information regarding Melinda just yet and went down to the next question. “Why was Gideon meeting with Steele?”

Dane looked up in surprise, clearly expecting me to ask him more about Melinda. “To discuss building materials.”

I pulled up the contract Steele had with Valor and skimmed through it. “Who was it Gideon met with?”

“Randolph Steele or Eugene Steele.”

Not some random person then, but the alpha of the entire Steele pack or his heir. “I’m curious, why do you think Gideon chose you to accompany him?” I set my phone down and gave Dane my full attention. “Why do you think he trusted you?” When you were the one fucking his omega behind his back.

I didn’t have to say that last part out loud for everyone to know why I would ask that.

Dane glanced behind me at Liam, looking nervous for the first time. “Gideon knew I wanted to become the next Valor heir.”

Silence filled that bloody basement. The same kind of silence that had surrounded me after the police dragged my father away while I stood there, wondering what was going to happen to me now.

“How did he know you wanted to become the next heir?” Frankie asked, covering for me like she always did.

“We went out drinking after I finished my military service and we got really drunk,” Dane admitted, his eyes still on Liam. “Gideon confessed to me that he didn’t want to be the next Valor alpha but his mother wouldn’t hear of anyone else, and I told him the reason I joined the military was because I did want to be the next alpha. At the time, I didn’t think it was a good idea to stick around when my aunt had no intention of changing her mind.”

“Then why did you come back?” Frankie sounded a little strange, and I forced myself to shove that strange buzzing sensation as far down as I could so I could take over before she had to relive all those horrible memories that had to be pushing at her in a room like this.

“I was tired of serving someone other than my pack,” Dane explained. “Ten years in the special forces was more than enough to know I could protect my pack. So, I came back to serve Valor and that’s when Gideon and I realized there was a way for both of us to get what we wanted.”

“And what the fuck did he want?” Liam snarled, his anger and pheromones spilling into me so intensely I flinched.

I wanted to be annoyed, but I was just grateful he’d snapped me out of my shock. “Liam, if you can’t stay silent while we question him, you need to leave.”

The look of astonishment on Dane’s face when Liam grumbled his apology would have made me laugh on any other day, but this was all a bit too much for me to feel anything other than burning curiosity.

“You made a deal with Gideon then?” I typed more questions into my phone as I mentally flipped through everything I’d found on Gideon’s computer.

“No, I didn’t. We were so drunk that I had honestly hoped he wouldn’t remember anything, but he asked me to have lunch with him the next day. That’s when he suggested we work together. I would learn everything I could from him and he would try to convince his mother to choose me as her heir. That’s why I always went with him to meet with the Steele pack.”

I frowned when none of this added up to an explanation that made any fucking sense at all. No one pushed me though, and Dane didn’t try to fill the silence as I contemplated all the data, trying to fit pieces where it made the most sense to put them, but they didn’t make up a single image.

We were still missing something.

“Did Gideon know you were seeing Melinda?”

Dane finally looked away from Liam and down to his ruined nails. “No, he didn’t.”

Then that wouldn’t explain why Gideon had chosen Dane out of everyone in the pack…why he’d chosen him and not Liam. “Why do you think he made that deal with you and not his brother?”

“Liam doesn’t want to be the next alpha either.” Dane shrugged and slid his gaze to mine. “And Gideon didn’t think Liam would let him leave.”

The outrage from Liam was more muted this time, and he kept his mouth shut, but I understood why he was so angry. This was pissing me off too.

“Did you think Liam would allow you to become the next alpha then?” I let my genuine curiosity come through in my tone. Being angry that Gideon had kept Liam in the dark was not Dane’s fault.

“Honestly…I don’t know.” Dane sighed. “Keeping something like this from the pack is a lot of work. On top of that, I was hiding my relationship with Melinda. I didn’t really have the time to worry about that. I figured I would deal with it when it happened.”

Gideon, Dane, and Liam were all definitely related. There was no other explanation for how stupid they could be, making decisions while assuming it would all just work out for them because of course it would.

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