Page 31 of Stolen Omega

“Nothing. I would have used your business number if something was wrong.”

He knows that, but it’s not as if I usually call him when I’m with Zelena.

“Where’s Zelena?” he asks quickly, before I can explain anything.

“She’s fine. She’s sleeping.” I look back toward her ajar door. “It happened. She perfumed.”

“Shit,” he murmurs. “How did it happen?”

“It happened right after we got into the suite. She freaked out a little bit, but she’s fine.”

“Okay, good. How did she feel about it?”

I lower my voice a bit, worried that admitting it out loud is dangerous.

“She was worried about the contract stuff, but she wanted to be claimed, even if we have to keep it a secret until she can get free of that legal bullshit.”

Archer takes in a sharp breath. “You claimed her as a mate?”

“It was what she wanted.”

We both knew this might happen, but Archer likes to think he can handle anything. I have no doubt he’s thinking he wouldn’t have let this happen if he was in my shoes.

Well, too bad I’m not him. I’m not going to feel guilty for it.

“Okay,” he says after a second, surprising me with his calm, steady tone. “Did you give her the suppressants?”

“Not yet. She wanted to sleep after. I made sure she was okay, then I cleaned up and called you.”

“Good,” he murmurs. “Make sure she takes two suppressants in the morning and keep a bit of distance between you, so they get a chance to work. They don’t work against true mates.”

“I remember,” I assure him. “I told her about you, before we went to bed.”

“You told her you have an Alpha?”

“I told her we’re a pack, and she seemed happy about that. She felt something when she met you.”

There’s a pause before he speaks again, and I can tell something’s bothering him.

“Her intuition must be strong,” he mutters.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask.

“We can only control so much, Russ. The suppressants should work, but we’ve got three months to get through like this, while she’s close to her heat.”

“You think she could go into heat before those three months are up?”

“Even suppressants might not be enough to stop that. Claiming you means she’s ready. We might have to pull the trigger on an exit strategy for the three of us if it happens too soon.”

Fuck. He’s serious.

We’ve talked about exit strategies, and basically all of them amount to kidnapping.

If we need to go with one of them, it’ll be on my shoulders for not holding steady and asking Zelena to wait to be claimed. I messed up tonight and I know it. I should have tried harder to ignore the urge to claim my mate.

“You didn’t do the wrong thing,” Archer tells me, as if he can tell what I’m thinking.

“Yeah, okay. You can say that again once I’m behind bars for the exit strategy we have to use to protect our mate.”

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