Page 27 of Unhinged Omega

Mercenary, information broker, and the biggest pain in my ass this side of the Outer Reaches. Also the prettiest, and he knows it, which makes him even more insufferable.

I stalk over to the bar, snapping at the bartender. "Don't you dare pour him another drop."

The bartender, a burly beta named Brick, looks relieved. "Boss, I swear I was about to cut him off. He's been here for hours."

I wave him off. Not his fault. Raven can be... persuasive when he wants to be.

Which is most of the time.

At the sound of my voice, Raven's head snaps up. His blue eyes, bloodshot and unfocused, lock onto mine and sharpen with recognition.

"Daddy!" he shouts loud enough to wake the dead, lunging up from his seat with alarming agility for someone who's ingested enough alcohol to kill an elephant, and his arms are around my neck before I can step back and let him eat floor.

I stumble backward as Raven's full weight slams into me, his arms locking around my neck like a vice. Crazy fucker's stronger than he looks, especially drunk off his ass like this. I can barely smell his usual ritzy cologne over the booze.

"Son of a fucking whore," I growl, shoving him off me. He staggers, nearly toppling over before catching himself on theedge of the bar and giving me a wounded puppy look. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that? I'm not your fucking father. We're not even related."

"Maybe not byblood," he whines.

"Or marriage. Or adoption, or any of the other ways to be related," I remind him.

He slumps back against the bar and pouts as if he's not the deadliest fucking shot this side of Surhiira. "I'm emotionally devastated. I needed to be around family right now. I needsupport."

He reaches to snatch a glass from another patron who's walking toward the stage. The man turns back sharply and looks like he's about to throw down, but then he catches sight of the revolver resting openly on Raven's hip and thinks better of it.

I snatch the glass out of Raven's hand and a drop of liquid sloshes onto the frilly white collar of his open shirt that looks like he just robbed a poet's corpse. I swear, this fucking lunatic's gonna be the death of me.

"Enough of that," I snap. "You're drunk enough."

"First I lose the love of my life, now rejected by Daddy,” he laments, digging a hand into his golden waves. "Life is a cruel mistress."

"The love of your life?" I echo dryly. "You wouldn't know a committed relationship if it fucked you in the ass."

His eyes narrow sharply. "I'm a changed man, Geo. A Lothario likeyouwouldn't understand."

“A Lothario?Me?” I echo with a dry laugh. "That's rich coming from you."

I catch Brick's confused glance from behind the bar. Great. Just what I need—more bullshit rumors floating around about me and this walking disaster.

Fuck it, I'm clearly not gonna get rid of him anytime soon. I grab Raven's shoulder and muscle him toward the bar exit."Come on. We're taking this to my office. You get an hour, then you've gotta go."

"Wonderful," he says, brightening so quickly I'm starting to wonder if the bereaved lover boy thing was just a mask.

Who am I kidding?

Every aspect of his personality is.

I catch a few stray glances from some of the alphas we pass as we press through the teeming masses packing every inch of the labyrinth that is the black market. Raven hangs off my arm the whole time, prattling away, but I'm too irritated to hear anything he's saying. He doesn't stop when I try in vain to shrug him off, either.

They're all going to think I'm fucking him.

As if I need more complications in my life.

Raven finally lets go of me and struts on ahead, picking his way through the crowd with feline grace. He knows his way through these damn corridors better than I do. But when he stops outside the battered metal door to my office and taps in the code, that's a bridge too far.

"The fuck?" I cry. "I never gave you the code."

"Are you forgetting I used to live here?" he asks dryly as the keypad chirps and lights up green. He pushes the door open and strides in like he owns the place. "FYI, you should keep your codes somewhere more secure than your desk."

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