Page 72 of Captive Omega

He chuckles. “Nope. Just land marked off as hers AKA her bedroom. She keeps saying we can go into her room whenever, but we ask before we take one step inside. We haven’t gotten into a fight yet. If and when that happens, it’s important she knows she has somewhere no alpha can go. Omega territory.”

That is… not a bad idea.

“She has a room.” It’s a guest room. A little plain, but the interior designer I hired assured us it was elegant and inviting. I found it boring.

Our home has always functioned more as a workspace than an actual home, so the rest of the house is equally devoid of personality. We rarely relax in the den, and we eat at the dining table in the kitchen, or we hit the gym to work out. Otherwise, we’re working. “And Vaughn gave her a knife.”

Rune’s glass stops inches from his mouth. “A knife?”

“She needs it to feel safe.”

His surprise melts away, and he nods as if he gets it. “Then it sounds like you’re well on your way to winning her trust.”

“That would be true,” I admit. “If she didn’t have a fiancé waiting for her.”

Rune winces. “A fiancé? Fuck.”

I nod.

Sympathy pulls on the corners of his eyes. “That’s a shit deal. And she’s going back to him?”

“She says she is.” I’m determined to convince her otherwise.

“You haven’t thought about tracking him down and cutting his throat, thereby eliminating all threats?”

“I have.” More times than I could count.

“Garrison.” Rune loses his smile. “You are one man, and as hard as I try to keep my thoughts to myself, you don’t make it easy. You need to learn to relax.”

So I take a sip. Not because of Rune’s pushiness. Because he’s coming from a place of concern. Because he’s a friend.

“Now, what did you drag me in here to talk about?”

“I need a favor,” Rune says.

“Anything.”

He rises from his perch and crosses over to a black filing cabinet. He sets his glass aside and opens the top drawer, retrieving a photograph, which he offers me. “This guy. Simon Marchant.”

The man isn’t familiar. He’s in his late forties or early fifties with short light brown hair threaded with gray. Thin face with light brown eyes. “You need info, or you need me to find him?”

Rune picks up his glass and returns to his original position. “Need info. A background check as soon as you can. Everleigh’s mom has started attending a community art college as part of her therapy. Everleigh said her mom mentioned a guy but clammed up as soon as Everleigh pushed to know more about him. Kylian hung around the college long enough to snap a picture, but we’d like to know more about him.”

“What do you know so far?”

“That he’s a teacher at the college, and he’s been paying her mom a bit of attention.”

My instincts sharpen. “What kind of attention?”

Sloane Eddiswood, Everleigh’s biological father, locked Olive, Everleigh’s mother, in a private clinic for decades. He hadn’t been able to kill her, but he left her there, all to hide the fact he was involved with Asylum.

Olive will carry scars from that experience for the rest of her life. We still watch over Olive, and none of us want to see Olive suffer even more. If someone is looking to take advantage of her, we’re determined to stop them.

“Not sure if it’s the good kind or the bad kind yet. But?—”

“It’s better we find that out now rather than later,” I interrupt. “I’ll have Blaine do the background check and Frost and Roman increase their hours watching over Olive. No one will hurt her.”

“And Resa?” Rune eyes me curiously. “What do you intend to do about her?”

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