Page 29 of One Wild Omega

Raimy frowned. “Who’s going to be living with you?”

“Oh, no… you don’t get deets unless you let me in,” Tanner said with a grin.

Raimy sighed before a smile tried to work itself over his lips. The omega did everything in his power to prevent it, though, and steeled himself. After narrowing his eyes, Raimy said, “Fine… but I haven’t had any dinner yet—because someone abandoned me—so I can’t have cake now.”

“My new roommatethoughtyou might say that, so in one of these boxes is your dinner, too.”

“So your roommate’s a better friend than you are? Perhaps I should go have dinner with him.”

Tanner lifted a brow. “Are we not giving me credit for giving a homeless omega a roof over his head?”

Raimy sighed. “What did you get me?”

“Slow braised beef with mushrooms and patatas. It’s from that new place over on East Kent.”

“Ooooh… I’ve been dying to go there.” Raimy snatched both boxes. “And you went without me?”

“Consider this a test run so you can see if you like their food. If so, I can buy you dinner there tomorrow night, to make up for tonight.”

Raimy eyed him before taking a step back. “I guess I can let you in.”

Tanner grinned before slipping past and on into the apartment. “I’ll get the corkscrew, you get the glasses!”

By the end of the night, all was well in their world again. Dinner the following night was just the icing on the cake.

* * * *

A couple of weeks later…

“I’m fairly sure this meeting is going to be the death of me,” Fitz complained into his cell phone. If he didn’t complain, he was fairly sure he was going to explode once he went back in. “All. Day. Who in their right mind sets up a meeting that lasts all day? And the topic is something that easily could’ve been covered in an hour or two.”

“You’rethe one who wanted a corporate job, bro,” Harrison said from the other end. “This is what you get.”

Fitz lifted his face to the sun, warming it. He was on a break from the meeting on sexual harassment in the workplace and had fled outdoors to the courtyard shared between his building and two others. It was a place he retreated to often. After years of working outside, it felt odd being cramped up in a small office. Or sitting in a conference room for hours on end. Day-long meetings telling them not to come on to their fellow co-workers or make lascivious comments—which should’ve been common-fucking-sense—was enough to drive him crazy.

“I love my job… but this bs…” He grunted. “Role playing.” Fitz shivered. “You don’t even want to see the scenario I had to act out. It gave me the heevies.”

“Just part of the job,” Harrison said. “We cover it in the department.”

“Yeah, but a quick five or ten minutes, which is appropriate.”

“Maybe we should send Emerson to sit in for you. He could use a little more training in that area,” Harrison said before a crashing sound came through the phone.

“What was that? You okay?”

Harrison chuckled. “I’m on scene. Big fire over in Victoria Heights. A section the guys had cleared just came down. Good thing you called me. I’d likely have been under it had you not slowed me down.”

“Damn, man. Maybe you need to get out of there.”

“Nah… I’ll just check the trusses. I’ve got to see this one through.”

“Is it like the other ones?” There had been another rash of fires on that side of town, much like the ones of a decade ago. His brother, the newly appointed, and youngest ever, arson investigator, was learning on the job from the man soon retiring. It had Fitz itching to be back in the department. “I just got on site a few minutes ago, so it’s too soon to tell. I’ll share if anything turns up.”

A new serial arsonist—or the old one rearing his ugly head again—was definitely of interest, regardless of his job and family connection to the department. “Definitely keep me up on any news. We just got a call about a rebuild of one of the structures that went down. The clients came in, and I felt terrible for them.”

“I bet,” Harrison said.

A scent drifted Fitz’s way, and he pivoted, spinning to face the direction it was coming from. A tingling sensation swept over his whole body, like his limbs had instantly gone numb and were just now awakening. He drew in a deep inhale, the smell stronger… and coming from an omega eating his lunch across the courtyard.

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