Page 86 of The Omega Lesson

The little girl gives a shuddering sigh, her mouth quivering like the choice in front of her is almost too much to bear.

“You can come back again,” I tell her quietly, bobbing down to her level. “Your mummy is very good friends with the man who feeds the fishes.”

“She is?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Good.” The strain goes out of her face, but she puts her small hand on my arm, leaning in to whisper, “Mummy needs more friends.”

We eat ice cream beside the casino pool, the chef personally bringing out a tasting plate of flavours. Bree gasps over the spun sugar nests and chocolate swirls on the platter, but happily settles for the double serving of banana ice cream. I get strawberry - which makes her nose wrinkle, although she’s diplomatic enough to try to hide it. And Lexi settles for vanilla bean, which is extra sweet and definitely too much of a good thing.

I sneak ice cold kisses now and then, but mostly I’m just happy to watch Lexi play with Bree. They both end up stripped down to their underwear in the kiddie pool, Lexi convinced security is going to come and yank her out for indecent exposure. Her lacy pink bra and undies setisdoing indecent things to me, but since I booked out the pool area for the day, her modesty is never in danger.

Although my eardrums might be, given the howl from Mattie as he cannonballs into the pool beside them. Lexi shrieks in delight, while the rest of our pack appear in dribs and drabs, Ben and Noah looking more than a little worn out from their exertions. Although Noah seems to get a second wind when he sees our girls splashing around in the pool, stripping faster than the eye can track.

“You’re smiling,” Ben says as he settles on the sunlounger beside me and drops an energy drink in my lap. “You must be happy.”

“Is that what this feeling is?” I ask mockingly as he drains his own drink. “You look like it ran you over, then backed up to do it again.”

But Ben just leans over and grips my shoulder. “Mate, this car wreck you see before you is called love. Now we just have to make sure we keep it on the road and don’t do anything to fuck it up.”

I wince, because when it comes to emotions, there’s always a way to mess things up. But then I catch sight of Lexi smiling over her shoulder at me, and the fluttering panic in my chest settles. This is one match I don’t plan on losing. Besides, she called me partner, and there are four other guys to cut from the team before she gets to me.

Although, she looks pretty happy with three of them as they paddle around the pool, making Bree squeal at random things.

“She talk to you about going back to work?” Ben asks suddenly.

I shrug. “A little. Just that she wants to take a break, and maybe do some part-time study.”

“You think that has anything to do with Mattie graduating this year?”

Or Jackson railing her in the library stacks, although I keep that observation to myself. “If I have my way, the school will be lucky to still be standing in a month.”

Ben grunts. “You know I’m happy to help swing the sledgehammer if you need it.”

“We’ll see. Miller’s agreed to retire, and Drummond will be up on indecency charges within the week.”

“Fuck, you’ve been busy!” I just smirk, since he probably doesn’t remember much of the past three days, where Ididattempt to update him. “And what about Visser? I assume you’ve got a plan for him, too.”

I grimace, because as much as ice cream was a priority, pinning down that slippery motherfucker came first. I will never forgive myself for putting Lexi in his crosshairs, and I admit I indulged in more than one violent revenge fantasy over the last few days.But…

“He seems legit,” I grunt. “And someone we know has vouched for him.”

Ben quirks a brow and I lower my voice, an old pain twisting in my gut. “Maddie Dove. Seems she’s freelancing on his research project with one of her mates.”

“Shit. Really?” Ben mulls that over for a while, his eyes full of memories. If Lexi was my first crush, Maddie was my pack’s first chance at love. Or that’s what we believed until our dad forced us into an engagement to Lucia Moretti, the omega he’d handpicked for us. It was the beginning of the end for a lot of things, including our brother, Christian. But even as my heart aches, I look at Lexi playing with Bree. Maybe it was fate fucking with us, but somehow, I’m lucky enough to be back where I started. And better for it, given the little girl riding around on Noah’s shoulders.

But there’s a darker light in Ben’s eyes as he stares at their horseplay. “You think there’s a connection?”

“That he’s targeting the women in our life for some reason?” I grind my teeth at the idea, but I’ve already had a team of investigators tell me it isn’t the case. “It seems that switching happens in clusters. But no one really knows why, which explains the hard-on for a research project. I don’t like coincidences, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. If Lexi wants to do it, we’ll support her.”

Besides, in one of our lulls in the oasis, she told me about her doctor friend’s theory on switches and soulmates. And if there’s one research objective I can get behind, it’s proving what I already suspect. Lexi was always meant to be ours, and we were meant to be hers.

Ben gives a dark chuckle as he studies my face and clasps my shoulder. “You think she has any idea of the lengths you’ll go tosupportingher, brother?”

I shrug and tip back the last of my energy drink. “Like you said, this is love.”

And love can get bloody messy.

---