Page 13 of Glass Omega

“You’re my boss.” I pointed at him before turning the finger on myself. “And I am your second-in-command. Not a pack.”

The head of the Keane family didn’t do packs. I’d never fully understood why—whenever I used to ask about it the adults would hush me and mutter something about past mistakes never happening again—but it was one of the hard and fast rules all of the older members believed in. An unshakeable tradition.

As if reading my mind, Edison scoffed and stood, straightening his clothing and pulling me up onto my feet as well. “It’s long past time for that traditionalist bullshit to die off.”

“You’re the boss—shouldn’t that ‘traditionalist bullshit’ be what you fight to uphold?” I asked, dodging his mouth while I waited for him to answer.

This game we’d been playing for the last couple of years was dangerous. Edison hadn’t been the head of the family for long, but even now he butted heads with the branch family heads like he didn’t have a care in the world.

His position was his birthright. He was Keane through-and-through and his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had led the family long before him. By all rights he should have been able to do whatever the fuck he wanted.

But they’d never even dared to utter the word pack, taking their omega wives and siring the next generation without any fuss.

“And you’re my employee, so shouldn’t you not be letting me fuck you senseless most nights?” Edison countered, a dark brow lifting as his golden eyes danced with laughter.

“All a part of my workplace duties.” I shot him a snappy salute and finally let him kiss me, his lips tasting like the finger of whiskey he’d drunk upon entering his room earlier. “But don’t think I’m going to forget the omega that is about to have the Italians raining hellfire down on us for the foreseeable future. Couldn’t you have picked any other one? Hell, I’m sure you could probably stroll up to the omega center and have them slick for you on sight.”

Edison’s chuckle was low and rumbling as he stepped away and got to work putting his tie back on. It may have been just after ten in the evening, but we both still had a long night of work ahead of us.

“I don’t want another one. As soon as Ethan Chandler gave me her scent card I was hooked—and I know you were too.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” I muttered, turning away from him and fiddling with the silky edges of his sheets,my face warming like I was a twelve-year-old schoolboy and not a grown ass man.

There was a beat before Edison cupped the back of my neck and forced me to face him fully. “You aren’t usually so keen to tear my clothes off, Rhodes, and that hard-on of yours started long before we came up here.”

I would never admit it out loud, but as soon as we were enclosed in the car and the omega was glaring at me with those pretty gray eyes of hers that were full of anger, I’d gotten one whiff of her scent and the lust had been instantaneous.

She smelled like fresh strawberries—the kind you can only get at the height of their season—and the scent had filled the back of the car with a cloying intensity.

It made me feel… out of control.

Something that had never happened to me before and made me feel uncomfortable even now as Edison’s vanilla scent filled my nose.

“I’m always ready to tear your clothes off, boss,” I said, putting some space between the two of us with the word ‘boss.’

Calling him boss meant that I was shifting out of our strange lovers situation we’d found ourselves in and into my role as his second-in-command. “Now, I need to go and call some folks and see just how much you’ve exploded the very sensitive ecosystem that the families in the city have been maintaining for forty years.”

“If it was that easy to break, then it had no business existing in the first place.” The corner of Edison’s mouth pulled up and he finally let me go with a shrug.

“And everyone thinksI’mthe crazy one,” I threw over my shoulder, rolling my eyes as I left the room and ignoring the other alpha’s laughter as it followed me out.

Despite how late it was, the Keane estate was still alive and bustling with employees moving in and out of the rooms, dusting and cleaning or patrolling the hallways.

“Yo,” Collum, one of the security guards that worked nights, said as he came out of the room where all of the security screens were kept.

I nodded at him, straightening my jacket. “Anything happen while we were in our meeting?”

It was obvious that Edison’s vanilla scent was intermingling with mine, but if Collum thought anything of it, it didn’t show on his face as he shrugged. “The Ricci’s showed up at the gate briefly, but their demands to get their omega back was pretty half-assed if you ask me. Doesn’t even seem as if they really even like her.”

I had to agree with the man’s assessment. The events back at the cathedral were a bit of a blur to me now, but I could still remember the stiffness in the omega’s shoulders as the priest moved through the ceremony.

She’d been like a deflated plastic bag to my eyes, like she was resigned to the fate set before her. Then she’d come to life in the car, those brightly painted lips twisting into a pert frown as she corrected Edison with little fear.

“Just keep an eye on things,” I told the guard with a shake of my head as I glanced down the dark hall that would lead me to the east wing where the omega was staying.

“I will—hey the guys are saying she’s gonna be the new lady of the house—is that true?”

I shrugged, still unsure if Edison was actually serious or not. It could all be one big distraction for something else that he hadn’t deigned to share with me yet. Edison always seemed to be three steps ahead of everyone else and I’d spent the better part of two decades trying to keep up with the man.

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