Page 128 of Broken Dreams

Glancing at me from where she’s curled up on the couch, she nods. I can feel the curls of curiosity inside her mind, and I’m so damn happy to have been able to be claimed with her bite.

“I have a client who is having trouble finding where the holes are in their business accounts. Money keeps coming up missing each month, yet the trail seems to stop cold,” I explain. “Want to take a crack at it and see if you can brush up on your skills?”

A shadow passes over her face, making me frown as I sit up. Linus is in the kitchen making a snack, while Duncan is talkingwith Cerenity’s pack about the party. We’re pulling all of our allies in for this.

“What is it?” I ask. “Do you not want to work on this? Baby, you don’t have?—”

“It’s not that,”she says in my mind. “I’m not ready to talk about it yet. I used to do some hacking for Alpha Miles when I was with him. The memories aren’t pleasant. It’ll be nice to build some new ones. I don’t want him to take something else that I loved away from me.”

Quinn crawls across the couch to sit closer to me, while my heart freezes in terror. I can’t imagine what this son of a bitch could have done to attempt to ruin something like this. My hands are around her waist and pulling her against me before I can help myself, and I’m scent marking her.

“I’m okay,”she whispers to me. I almost wish she’d tell me about it because my mind is trying to conjure a lot of fucked up shit.

I know she can see it now that we’re bonded, and I don’t want her to be exposed to what I’m thinking. Kissing her forehead, I force myself to stop as I grab my laptop.

“Do your thing, Quinnie. If you think you may trigger a security measure in a network, give me a heads up,” I say. There’s a glimmer of determination in her gaze as she leans back to look at me and nods.

I don’t know even a sliver of how deep her trauma goes, but what I do know is that it hasn’t broken her.

“Try to have fun,” I remind her.

“Do we care about what happens to the person who is stealing?”she asks, deflecting.

“That’s not my monkey or my circus,” I say. “Let me know if there’s some sort of reason for it happening, and we’ll revisit it.”

Nodding, she settles in to work, and my arm snakes around her waist as I grab a tablet to continue my day with by balancingit on my thigh. Quinn is relaxed against me, her fingers tapping along the keyboard as she familiarizes herself with the account.

Having her here reminds me of a promise I made. Maybe she’ll be more willing to share her past if we’re able to find out if omegas can bond together. While she could simply bite Linus, a part of me wonders if she’s afraid to in case it doesn’t work.

This is important to her, so it’s important to me. It’ll also be good for Quinn to meet other omegas that aren't stuck up before the party.

It’s basic protocol for me to call one of Flynn and Wren’s alphas instead of them, so I pull my phone out to call Shaw before I start anything else.

“Hello?” his gruff voice answers, and I get more comfortable on the couch to speak with him. Quinn barely notices, fully engrossed in her task. Whatever she did for Alpha Miles, it meant that her skills are still on point.

Coding and hacking really is like riding a bike for her. It’s an ingrained sense for the language and technology. Anything that’s new or different because things have changed in the time she’s been gone are things she can learn while she works.

It’s the reason I chose something that was tedious instead of heavy on intricate details.

“Afternoon, Shaw,” I greet him. We have a few hours before Linus and Quinn need to work tonight since it’s Saturday, so no one is in a hurry to get ready yet. This is the lull of comfort that I cherish with my pack. “Have a second to talk?”

“What’s up? How are your omegas settling in? Any other issues at Cerenity’s club?”Shaw asks.

The way he asks that makes my brows draw down in concern. “What don’t I know?” I ask in return. “I don’t understand why you’d ask that.”

Shaw blows out a heavy sigh, and I can imagine him rubbing his beard in annoyance. This man hates to show hiscards. Unfortunately, he’s going to need to spill what he knows, because I’m not going to back down until he does.

“Fuck. Christian Sanchez is looking to stay in Minneapolis for a while, and he petitioned Corbin for permission,”he says. “It’s by no means a secret that the alpha is pretty lovesick.”

“Maybe he shouldn’t have fucked up,” I state. I can bend for my omegas. I can even agree that if they decide to accept Christian, we’ll go with the flow, but the truth is that I don’t really like the prick. “What else is he up to? Is he trying to get the families to accept him?”

“Am I on speaker phone yet?”Shaw asks, amused. He knows that it’s pretty much the standard to do if we’re discussing our omegas.

“Not yet, do you need to be?” I reply.

“I can still hear him through you, so neither of you are being sneaky,”Quinn whispers in my mind.

Fuck, I adore her so much. I don’t want to keep secrets from her, and Shaw doesn’t need to know about our recent bond.

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