Page 34 of Omega Shattered
"The director." I tapped my phone. "James speaking."
"What's going on with the missing omega? I thought you were bringing her back."
"We've been holed up with the snowstorm. The roads aren't cleared around here yet, but I'm pretty sure we can get out tomorrow."
"Good. You need to keep me apprised of these things."
"She's going into heat, but it seems pretty irregular. We've been busy trying to reduce the effects, but I'll keep you in the loop better from here on out."
Laura's cool voice sounded more interested as she asked, "When did that start?"
"Just yesterday. She's been alternating between being incoherent and hot to cooling down and yelling at us."
"Sounds like an omega in heat. Have you knotted her yet?"
"Fuck no!"
"Don't sound so surprised, you wouldn't be the first retrieval officer to help an omega through her heat," she said, sounding amused. "For the record, you're authorized to do whatever it takes to get her through this. In fact, don't rush back . . . you and your pack can get her through the heat and then return."
"That sounds dangerous. I'd rather just bring her in."
"An omega in heat doesn't travel well. It's dangerous for everyone involved. I'm ordering you to stay put until she's passed the heat."
I took a deep breath. "That's not . . . we don't want an omega."
"No one said you have to claim her, though if that happens, we'll make it official or you can dissolve the bond. Don't worry about it."
That brought a niggling thought up, Quinn's naked body flashing into my mind. "Laura, what exactly do you do to omegas in the ORC?"
"We prepare them to better serve their alphas," she said smoothly. A line she'd said many times, no doubt.
"She has scars. Dozens of them, from what look like tasers or something. And she's terrified to return."
"River, we take in omegas who have been rejected by their packs. That's not a decision to be taken lightly and there's a good reason they're rejects. These are the omegas with problems who didn't fit with their pack. You have to understand that they don't respond to simple lectures, they need punishment to keep them on the straight and narrow. You'll find that any omega who has gone through our program is quite malleable and willing to please her alphas."
"She mentioned you're sending her to the heat dens?"
"Well, as she's currently in heat, that won't be necessary after all," Laura responded. "I need to get going, but River? Fullpermission. Do as you please . . . test out some of that training we've instilled in her. I highly recommend requesting a blow job." She hung up and I stood staring at my phone.
"What did she say?" Archer was watching me with a worried look.
"She said we should take full advantage of Quinn's heat. That she would worry about any repercussions. And that we should consider taking her as our omega." I shook my head. "I've told her dozens of times that we don't want an omega!"
"What about the heat den thing?"
"Apparently, since Quinn's had her heat, she doesn't have to be sent there anymore. She'll be assigned a pack." Somehow that didn't feel as good as I thought it would. Another pack might be just as sadistic as her first one . . . the best packs didn't take rejected omegas.
Archer was still watching me and it pissed me off. He looked like he knew what was running through my head.
"I'm not keeping her here. I don't fucking care if she's in heat. She can go in the back seat and I'll get her to ORC just fine. Then she's their problem."
Kade had drifted into the room, carrying his damn chicken salad, munching away. The rest of us hadn't even eaten after the fireworks with Quinn and now my stomach was too messed up to bother with food.
"You're taking her back now?" Kade asked curiously.
"Yes." I ran a hand through my short hair, irritated this woman was twisting everything up in my pack. It was best to get her back to ORC and let them do whatever they had to. She wouldn't be going to the heat dens now, at least, so she was safe from that. I'd look into that whole situation later and sort it out. When a perfuming omega wasn't ruining my life.
Right now, what mattered is the snowstorm had died down and we should be able to get out of here if we left right now.
