Page 23 of Captive Omega

I’m almost positive she won’t take the knife.

Then she snatches it from him and backs up. Fast. Vaughn never looks away from Garrison as he waits for a response to his question.

“Lex refilled the kit. It’s in the closet,” Garrison says.

Vaughn looks at Resa. “If you don’t like the idea of seeing a doctor, I can check out your feet in a spare room upstairs. I can carry you if you want.” He points at his throat. “The jugular is there if you want to put someone down and have them stay down.”

Her hand tightens around the knife hilt, but fear is slowly giving way to surprise.

Vaughn is like that. Looks like a Californian surfer because he was one. The sort of person who can talk to anyone and get anyone to talk to him.

“I can walk,” she eventually says, lines of strain around her mouth.

Vaughn nods. “Sure you can, but we have some pretty nice carpet up there.”

As if anyone in this house gives a shit about carpet.

Garrison’s face remains expressionless at Vaughn’s little white lie. He’s silent, though, letting Vaughn take the lead. From the moment Resa took one step into this kitchen, she’s viewed us as more of a threat than Vaughn. There’s no way she’d have agreed to come here at all if she hadn’t trusted Vaughn a little.

“I’m walking.” She hobbles out of the room, leaning heavily on the doorframe as she leaves. “You can send me the bill for cleaning the carpet.”

I watch her go and I don’t know what I want to do more, scoop her up and carry her up the stairs myself, or immediately go out and kill whoever hurt her.

Vaughn follows her out. “I might’ve been lying about the carpet. You know, to save you from the stairs.”

“Send me the bill anyway,” I hear her say tightly. “Unless there is no carpet.”

I wait until I no longer hear his steps on the stairs. Only then do I turn to Garrison. "Why did you say you didn’t want her?”

Resa is our mate. I might not want her to look closely at my scars, but she’s ours. I’m not sure any part of me is happy at the thought of letting her return to a fiancé.

"I lied,” he says simply. “She doesn't want us, but that doesn't mean I don't want her."

He stands and pulls his cell phone from his pocket.

“Who are you calling?”

He pauses mid-dial. "Sadie. It’s late, but we might need her to stop by.”

“And Resa?”

He gives me a look loaded with determination. “What do you think? I intend to convince her she wants us. I’m sure as hell not about to let our scent match go without a fight."

Chapter 7

Resa

Ikeep my right hand wrapped around the hilt of the knife.

My palm is sweating, but I can deal with a little sweat. What I cannot deal with is going without a weapon for a second in a house of alphas.

You should have stayed on the streets, Resa. You’d have avoided this mess altogether.

“Why did you give me a knife?” I ask the beta currently crouched beside me.

Somehow, I made it to the top of a staircase that went on forever. I did not fall, and I did not cry when every step was agony. I followed Vaughn down a carpeted hallway and to this gray guestroom.

He dragged a dressing table chair to the bedside table where he flicked on a lamp and asked me to sit. I’m off my feet and it feels like heaven.

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