Page 34 of Lonely Alpha

She was no longer trembling or panicking now that she had it back.

Emotional support knife. Got it.

“Dash, if you’re done being a self-centered cunt, you should sit down,” Ambrose grunted.

Leighton placed a palm on the small of her back, leading her to the couch and far away from me. As she turned, I caught sight of a bondmark on the omega’s neck. It was as dark as a night sky. It blended into the bruises around her neck, but if it hadn’t, it might have looked like it was… seeping. Bleeding darkness into the surrounding skin.

She was the Connolly daughter that I’d learned about on the video call. Kiara.

The woman was far less passive than I would have expected from someone of that upbringing.

“To answer the first question you barked at us, Leighton and I have been sleeping together for four years. No, I didn’t tell you, and you know exactly why,” Ambrose started.

Flexing my jaw, I turned my gaze from the omega to my packmate, who had none of the remorse he should have. We had one spoken rule—no omegas. The other rule was unspoken because it wasfucking obvious:

No Leighton Winston.

“The omega’s name is Kiara, and we’re not sleeping together. However, she might have been planning on stabbing you with that knife and it would have been warranted, after you burst in like that.”

I gave her another once over, annoyed at myself for being happy at the excuse to look at her again. Pointedly, I avoided looking at Leighton. Her vanilla cream scent being all over this place was bad enough. I didn’t need to look at her cute goddamn freckles too.

The omega was holding the knife to her chest now, her legs pulled up onto the couch. She was broken and battered and dark bonded. There was no way she would have stabbed anything.

Then again, I had come in with my aura blazing and I was about a foot taller than her, and strong enough to toss her over my shoulder and—

Yeah, we were not going inthatdirection with my thoughts.

“Whether or not she would have stabbed you, I was about to,” Leighton said. “What the fuck are you doing here, Dash?”

I lifted an eyebrow, reclining back in the chair until I could kick one leg over the other. “Whywouldn’tI come check up on you after a video call like that?”

“Because you hate me.” Leighton deadpanned.

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

Or so I told myself.

“I can still blackmail people I hate.”

Ambrose growled. My aura flared, instincts putting up a fight against being challenged. My packmate may have given me pack lead without a fight, but he wasn’t strong enough to take it back now. In a battle of auras, mine won.

“You’re not going to blackmail her,” Ambrose bit out.

Rolling my eyes, I found my gaze drawn back to the omega again. I could have sworn she was watching me with interest. “Why not?” I asked.

The question was directed at Kiara—she stiffened, glaring at me. “She saved my life. Why would you blackmail her for that?” Kiara demanded.

“Because she saved your life by doing something that will ruin hers,” I said slowly. “A dark bond isn’t socially acceptable.’

Kiara’s eyes widened. She flicked her gaze to Leighton, who was glaring me down. “You hate her enough to do that to her?”

Her question stunned me momentarily. I was expecting begging or acceptance, at least from the omega. Instead, she was going to call me out on the fact that I was being… Well, a self-centred cunt like Ambrose had said.

Fuck her for making me think about it. There was no reason to linger in my feelings about Leighton and her brother.

“Ambrose seems to want her life in one piece, so I suppose I can leave it,” I said. My abrupt avoidance of the topic didn’t go unnoticed. “I just want one small favour. No ongoing blackmail.”

“Dash…” Ambrose said, going over to stand behind Leighton protectively.

---