Page 31 of Omega's Virtue: Part One (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 2)

“Call me alpha.”

Oh for the strength and outrage to deny him. But the Goddess knew that this was exactly the alpha I’d chosen for my own long before I knew what that meant. Perhaps it was a curse. I’d committed some horrendous sin that had me at the mercy of not one but two alphas who seemed determined to rob me of all sense.

“I cannot.”

“You will.”

I half expected him to let me go. Half expected him to ravish me, knot me. I never expected the gentle, reverential kiss on my forehead. Or the sound of his inhalation. Or my answering mewl that drew a grumbling purr from him which I felt reverberate throughout my body.

“Sweet, sweet Trix. You are going to ruin me.”

“I—”

“Go to bed omega. That is an order from your alpha.”

I nodded like a good omega. Mute and incapable of connecting my thoughts together. Nothing was coherent. Where was my anger, my indignation, my self respect? Was I now one of those pathetic, weak willed omegas who took the Omega Virtues of Propriety, Obedience, and Serenity to heart.

“I go to bed because I’m tired. I sat in the sun all day. I do not go in because some alpha tells me to!”

“Brat. Go to bed unless you want to be knotted right now.”

“What that you might leave me? Remember I know you of old. Your knot carries as many promises as the words you said to me that day.” I barked. Goddess I barked at an alpha. Not a true bark mind, but he flinched as if it had been. The satisfaction infused me with a courage I’d seemed to have lost in his presence. “I am Beatrice Jane Hartwell, Colonel Fordom. It takes more than knots and promises to convince me of an alpha’s worth.”

“Do you not know me, Trix?” He called after me.

“Did you hide from me then or are you hiding from me now? Which is it? It can’t be both. Are you more you now? This war hero who cracks a joke and begins brawls. Or is it the alpha who rescued me from any number of exploits. The one who rescued me never would have left their mate.”

I refused to hear his response and kept walking, so bone weary nothing could keep me from my bed and the hopes for oblivion of sleep.

“Miss Hartwell,” Paxton called to me as I reached the Great Hall. It wasn’t a command. It wasn’t an order. It wasn’t an alpha barking at an omega. It was a man asking a woman for one more moment of her time.

My whole body stiffened as his scent of sweet pine reached me. “What?”

“I don’t know what is between you and Jack. But go gentle with him. He lost his mate and for whatever reason… I think you must remind him of her.”

I blinked, unnerved by his serious expression.

“Ha!” A nervous laugh escaped me. It had not once occurred to me that Paxton would ever confront me about Jack’s mate. I swallowed wanting to tell him, to throw in his face that Jack was my mate. How would he feel knowing his friend had lied to him? No, it was more complicated than that. Instinct had me protecting Jack. I did not know their relationship. Did not know how either alpha would react. And Goddess help me but it turned my stomach at the thought of them fighting over me. I’d rather deal with Paxton’s officiousness and Jack’s too knowing gaze than see them hurt each other.

“Please, omega. You are capable of infuriating the most easy going alpha. Be grateful that my respect for Orley and your sister is such that I don’t blister your backside for even a fraction of what you deserve.” He seemed to count to ten. “If I find that you have upset Jack, you will learn your manners on your knees scrubbing the baseboards or writing lines.”

“I cannot imagine what brought this on.” I blinked. “My Lord, you are… You are unlike anyone I’ve ever met.”

“From you that must be a compliment.” Something changed in his bearing. “I should not have acted the way I did when I learnt about your mate. I don’t ask forgiveness. I still mean to have you… But a lost mate could only be… painful. The last thing I wish for you my dear is to feel real pain. Sleep well.”

“I hate you,” came out like a cat’s hissing fury. How could he? How dare he? This man before me was the Pax Jack spoke of. To be sure all those other parts were there as well but this nugget of pure gold at the centre of it all? The desire to shield Jack from pain I might inflict? All because Lord Paxton thought Jack saw his mate when he looked at me?

I hated this silver alpha for his concern because it was everything I had ever wanted in a mate, what I thought I had had in Jack.

“I don’t hate you. I suspect you don’t hate me. Goodnight Miss Hartwell.” He bowed and without further ado left me standing in the dark hall.

Jack

It seemedlike my mate both knew me and did not know me. She flirted and rebuffed me in the same breath. She invited me to talk on the terrace, away from prying eyes. Then told me there could be nothing between us. Her scent was so thick I could not have known her thoughts by sniffing them out. Instead I’d have to wait, to think, and plan rather than ravishing her, as my alpha so desperately wanted.

“Colonel Fordom. Stop,” ordered the only female alpha I truly thought undeserving of the designation.

I paused, one foot on the stair. It grated to comply with her request, but there was an equally vicious enjoyment in the fact that the older alpha had to beg for my time. That she’d sought me out.

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