Page 64 of Waiting for Fate
Breaking away, her head leans back against the wall. The rise and fall of her chest brushes more of her scent onto my suit. I’m going to have to spray myself with descenter to prevent the entire office from spreading rumors about us.
Swallowing thickly, the reality of our situation crashes back around me. “Bea.”
Her eyes open and she looks at me, mouth thinning. “I won’t apologize for kissing you, but this—you and me? It can’t happen.”
“Of course it can’t.” She tries to shove me away again, but I crowd her closer to the wall. If she wants to be angry at me, to be hurt by my refusal, she can do so while I watch. I deserve every second of her anger and agony. Her head drops, so she’s staring at the floor. “I’m just Fated to be with men whocan’t, aren’t I.”
Pulling my arm away from the wall, I grip her chin, tilting her head up. My thumb drops to press against the curve of her neck where it meets her shoulder. The most popular place for alphas to bite their mates. “I cannot be what you need, Omega. If I claim you, that’s it. You would be mine, and mine alone. I. Do. Not. Share.”
Her eyes roam over my face before she glances away, hesitating at the serious tone of my voice. I let my fingers trail across her skin as I step back. Now she understands. If I allow myself to bond her, I will hurt her when I take away her ability to bond the other mates she has found. It is better for us both if the distance between us grows.
I grab my phone and keys from the island and open the door, holding it for her. “Whenever you are ready, Miss Powell.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
OVER A WEEKhas passed since we left Starburgh and I can still taste Bea’s fucking slick on my lips. I growl, pacing outside of our van. The temptation to climb back inside and clock Ridley grows stronger with every lap I make. If he hadn’t wiped her release on my lips, my inner alpha wouldn’t be constantly tearing apart my insides, trying to get me to go back to her.
“You look stressed,” Jericho, our FCDA partner for the week, says as he steps out of the back. He stretches his arms over his head and I find myself once again wondering if we haven’t met before. When I asked, he said we hadn’t, but he looks familiar.
“Alpha shit.”
“I understand. I miss my omega like crazy when I’m working a job. It gets a little easier after a while. Just keep telling yourself this is protecting them. That always helps me.”
“I don’t have an omega,” I grunt, resuming my pacing. I should probably go for a run to wear off the rest of this frenetic energy.
Jericho laughs, eyeing me critically. “I’ve been in this line of business too long for that kind of lie to work on me. Every agent recognizes the signs of alpha agitation. You’ve been gone for too long, and your body is making you pay for it.” His head tilts, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “You haven’t bonded yet, have you?”
Scowling, I ignore his question and stretch for my run.
“That always makes being separated a hundred times worse. Good luck keeping yourself in check.”
Flipping him off, I sprint into the trees. The van doors stand open when I return half an hour later. I grab a towel and wipe the sweat from my face and neck before I step inside. Ridley and Jericho are watching the monitors from our surveillance cameras. We placed them outside of a port side warehouse in Jacksonville, North Carolina, late last night. Another spot suspected to house breeding ring victims during their transition from inland camps to shipping containers carrying them overseas.
“Anything?”
Ridley grins when he sees me, but it is brittle. Being away from Bea is affecting him more than it is me. This idiot never should have agreed to go on this mission. The DAU would have sent someone else instead. “Nah, no movement.”
“Great, another fucking dead end!”
Jericho tosses me a bottle of water from our stash. “Might be an old stop, or they don’t have anyone to move yet. We should give it a few days, just in case.”
My fingers tighten on the bottle, crinkling the plastic. Our hunt for the madman, Doctor Harrison, has been fruitless. He’s slipped through our fingers, leaving barely a trace behind. When we had raided his labs in New Hampshire, we had found irrefutable proof of his cooperation in the abduction and torture of omegas on Grant Montgomery’s order. The photo logs and blood evidence logged in his system are enough to send him away for life.
If we can catch him.
His company has additional laboratories in Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. All locations we, or other FCDA teams, have already swept. Harrison is too smart to hide somewhere with his name attached. It is more likely another anti-designation group is hiding him.
Which is what brought us to North Carolina. If we follow the breadcrumbs, we may eventually find him in one of their compounds.
Tires crunching on gravel have me on high alert. I grab a gun and duck beside the van, watching as a black sedan pulls to a stop behind us. Their headlights flash twice and pause, then flash another four times in rapid succession. A signal that lets me know it is another FCDA or DAU agent.
Lowering my weapon, I stand guard as Ridley waves them out. When I see Lukas Dromir climbing out, I relax. What the fuck is this asshole doing here?
“Gentlemen.”
“What’s up, Dromir?” Ridley asks, leaning against the van door.
The other man scrubs a hand through his hair, glancing between the two of us. “Donovan sent me. There’s been a development.”
