Page 30 of Unhinged Omega

But it'smyshithole.

I finally manage to dislodge him, dumping him unceremoniously onto the worn sofa. Without a backward glance, I stalk out of the office and into the pulsing heart of the black market. But of course, Raven follows, stumbling after me like a persistent shadow.

"I'll give you a blowjob!" he calls out, loud enough to turn heads even in this den of depravity.

That's it.

I whirl around, grabbing him by the front of his frilly shirt and yanking him close. "Listen here, you little shit," I snarl, my voice low and dangerous. "I didn't want to fuck you when youcame begging me for a job at the brothel years ago, and I sure as fuck don't want to now. I don't like alphas, Ihatemen, and even if I got a complete fucking personality shift and started tomorrow,you'dbe the last."

Raven has the audacity to look offended. Before his eyes get any glassier, I grumble, "Besides, I thought you said you saw me as a father."

"I do," he says simply. "I have an Oedipus complexanddaddy issues. It's part of the fun." He wrenches himself free of my grip and smooths down his ridiculous shirt. "And for the record, I didn'tbeg," he says haughtily. "You know damn well I was the best whore this cesspit ever saw. Had the customers lined up around the block."

Before I can retort, his eyes light up with mischievous glee. He turns, waving coyly to a pair of men across the market. "Hi, boys," he calls out, his voice dripping with honeyed venom.

One of the men, a burly alpha I vaguely recognize as a regular, blushes furiously, while his companion looks like he's trying to melt into the shadows. I roll my eye so hard I'm surprised it doesn't pop right out of my skull.

"Power bottoms, both of 'em," Raven whispers. "The big one likes having a crowbar shoved up his?—"

"Enough!" I bellow, throwing my hands up. "For fuck's sake, Raven, I'm not helping you find that girl. There's nothing in the whole damn world I want badly enough to get involved with the Ghosts again," I say firmly, turning away from Raven's little show. "Especially now that they're in bed with Surhiira. I value my fucking peace."

I don't hear him scampering after me, and he's stopped bitching, so I'm actually starting to entertain the hope that he's given up when the weasel utters the only words in existence that could make me falter.

"Not even if I told you I know where you could find the Harbinger's skull?"

I freeze, a mere few feet away from the sanctuary of my office.

From glorious silence.

From sanity.

Two things that are always in short supply when Raven is around.

I turn to fix him with a murderous glare over my shoulder. "If you're shitting me?—"

"Swear on the gods," he says, holding up his hands.

"Coming from you, that doesn't mean much," I say flatly.

A ghost of a smirk tugs at his lips. "Then I swear on my goddess." His eyes glint with sincerity as he takes a step closer in the dimly lit corridor. "Help me find her and I'll get you the macabre little prize you've been chasing your whole life."

"Not my whole life," I grit out.

Most of it, though.

Ever since I started my own private museum, I've dreamed of owning the skull and antlers of the Harbinger. It was the first irradiated beast to climb out alive from the hollow left by the Judge, which was the cutesy name they gave to the last big nuke that fell in the war. The definitive end of the old world, and a mile marker for the beginning of this shitshow the rest of us have been living in ever since.

The Harbinger is a legend. Some say it's just a campfire story and not even real. But it's the kind of thing any bone collector worth his salt dreams of owning.

And just about the one thing on this earth that's out of my reach.

Raven's right about one thing. It is a macabre hobby, but when you've lived your whole life dancing with death, you either learn to live in fear or you fall in love. There is no in between.

"If you're lying, I'll shoot you dead, peel the skin off your skull and putthaton display instead," I say, jabbing a finger at the smirking dickhead in front of me. "Do we have an understanding?"

"Kinky," he purrs. "We do."

I grunt an acknowledgment and open my door, holding up a hand when he tries to follow me. "It'll take me a few days to get in contact with Valek. In the meantime, I want to forget you're even here."

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