Page 32 of Bound to the Guard

A name surfaces through the haze. “Daltrev. I saw it on one of the machines. A registration sticker or something similar.”

Sebastian’s fingers pause on the keyboard. “Are you certain?”

A chill runs down my spine. “Yes. I’m sure.”

He turns back to the screen, typing away. Images and articles flash by, too quickly for me to follow.

Then he stops, a grim smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Dr. Elias Daltrev. Fired from several testing facilities for using illegal human test subjects before the drugs he developed were approved for human trial.”

An image appears on the screen of an older man with wispy brown hair in a white lab coat. I flinch back, heart pounding as an involuntary whimper escapes me.

“Take it off the screen,” Damien snaps, covering my eyes.

“Sorry.” The click of keys fills the room. “It’s gone.”

Damien’s hand drops from my eyes to cup the back of my neck. “If you decide it’s too much for you to face him, it’s okay. I can give you a souvenir instead. To show you he’s dead.”

“No.” I turn my head to breathe him in, comforting myself with his pheromones. “I want to see the life leaving him for myself.”

“Okay.” He massages my tense muscles. “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

I rub my wrist over the barcode tattoo. Once the Doctor is dead, I want this gone, too. I want to erase as many reminders of him from my body as possible.

Damien draws my hand to his mouth, kissing the tattoo. “We’ll laser it off or cover it up. Whichever you prefer.”

My brow furrows. “What would I cover it with?”

A slow smile spreads over his lips. “I have an idea. I’ll show you when we return to our suite.”

Curious, my eyes rake over him. While we now sleep together in the same bed, or sometimes under it, our therapist recommended we hold off on more intimacy until I was in a better head space, despite my request this past week for leniency. Which means I haven’t seen Damien naked.

I’ve dreamt of it, though, and now I want to discover what secrets hide beneath his layers of clothing. Does he have a tattoo? Would mine match?

Sebastian clears his throat. “You guys can moon at each other in your own space. This one is mine.”

As I turn back toward Sebastian, a small, framed photograph on his desk catches my eye, buried amidst the chaos of computer parts.

The photograph shows an attractive blond Omega, taken from an angle that implies a computer screen.

“Is he your boyfriend?” The question slips out before I can stop it.

Sebastian startles, his hand darting out to slap the photo face-down on the desk, and a flush creeps up his neck, staining his cheeks. “No, it’s not— He’s not?—”

“Aww, don’t be shy, Sebastian,” Damien drawls, his deep voice vibrating through me. “Go ahead, tell Seven about your little infatuation.”

Sebastian shoots him a glare, but Damien smirks, enjoying teasing his cousin.

“That,” Damien says, pointing at the overturned photograph, “is Sebastian’s favorite cam boy.”

My eyebrows shoot up, surprise overriding any sense of privacy. “A cam boy?”

“It’s not like that,” Sebastian grits out, his face now a deep shade of red. “I just admire his confidence.”

Damien snorts. “Admire? Is that what we’re calling it now? I seem to recall you almost cost Caleb’s husband his life because you were too busy drooling over your pretty boy to trace a death threat from his computer.”

A heavy silence falls over the room. Sebastian’s jaw clenches, his hands curling into fists at his sides. For a moment, I think he might lash out at Damien.

Instead, he takes a deep breath and relaxes his posture. “It was a mistake I won’t let happen again.”

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