Page 37 of Royal Omega

Stopping in the middle of a pull-up, Ransom drops to the floor and turns to face me, grabbing a towel from one of the pieces of gym equipment. He’s shirtless, and his abs ripple beneath his tattoos as he towels sweat off his body. He’s probably the best looking of the three of us, in his way, but he and I have never been more than friends; I find his scent appealing in a family-like way, but nothing more.

It’s stupid, when I think about it. Why the hell am I attracted to Conrad and not Ransom? Conrad is complicated, prone to temper tantrums, and selfish. I never know where I stand with him. Ransom is calm and even-keeled, always ready to find common ground. If I were a smart man, I would want to be lovers with someone like Ransom.

But apparently I’m not a smart man.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Last I saw him, he was headed to the confessional with Seth.”

“That was hours ago,” I snap. “I want to talk to him. How could hedothat to Izzy?”

“Izzy?” Ransom says, his eyes sharpening. “She ask you to call her that?”

“Yes.”

Ransom grins. “Me too.”

I smile back. “She likes us. Or she did, until Conrad fucked it up.”

“How do you know it was Conrad’s fault?” Ransom asks. “Maybe she genuinely did what Conrad thinks she did.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,” I say, shaking my head.

Ransom smiles. “Me either. In fact, she told me her side of it, and it’s completely different from Conrad’s version. Apparently, from her perspective, he just disappeared overnight. No warning, nothing. She never knew why. She says she tried to get in touch, but she couldn’t reach him. ...And I believe her. She seemed genuinely confused by all this.”

“Of course she’s telling the truth. Whatever happened between her and Conrad, there’s no chance she’s as evil as he says. I’d go as far as to say she’s fucking blameless. You can feel it, can’t you? She’s for us. She’s ours.”

“Not if Conrad has anything to say about it. He still wants to ‘destroy her,’” Ransom says, putting the last words in air-quotes.

“I’m going to kill the prick if he tries.”

“Careful, Henry,” Ransom warns. “Cameras everywhere, and you’re mic’ed.”

I growl as I touch the corded mic that looks like a necklace banded around my neck. I curl my fingers around it and yank on it, pulling it off my body and throwing it across the room.

Ransom chuckles. “I doubt that will accomplish much.”

“You’re too calm about this, Ransom. He’s fucked everything up. And he wants to ruin Izzy.”

Ransom shakes his head. “I’m not calm about it at all. I’m furious. But I’m also trying to be logical so I don’t get myself kicked out of this place... or arrested. And if we really want Izzy to be ours, we can’t go beating up our packmate. We need to think strategically.”

“It would be so much easier if we could just cut him out of the damn pack,” I mutter, pacing the gym floor. As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I feel ashamed of them. In some ways, Conrad is the glue that ties us together. And I’ve been lusting after him for years. But now I’m talking about kicking him out of our pack because he’s making things more difficult for us? It’s not ok, and I know it. “Sorry,” I say with a sigh. “I didn’t mean that. Not really.”

“I’m ashamed to say I’ve thought the same thing many times. Can you feel him anymore?”

I stop pacing to consider. I probe the connection between us, once so strong. Now the string that binds us is frayed and weak. I can barely feel his presence at all. The bond between Ransom and myself is stronger, but still faded from what it was a few years back.

Pack mates can never fully break a bond; even if we moved on, separated from Conrad completely, his bond would always be there in the back of our minds. But as weak as it is already, I’m sad to say I’m not sure I would really notice it much.

“If we start kicking people out of the pack, what will we be?” I ask softly. “What’s to stop us from dissolving the whole thing?”

Ransom frowns. “Is that what you want?”

“No,” I say definitively. “I don’t want to break us up. I want to get back to what we used to be.”

“Conrad’s the problem there,” Ransom says with a shrug. “Not you and me.”

“Is it really all on Conrad?” I ask softly. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“Maybe not,” Ransom replies, sighing. “But he sure as shit isn’t helping.”

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