Page 191 of Stolen Omega

Zoey and I exchange a glance as Zane slips into a wry smile and gives Archer the password.

Archer doesn’t seem to notice the tension passing between me and Zoey as he absorbs himself with his phone. I know what he’s doing. He’s asking Seth to check into Zane’s story about Zoey. He’s not going to accept it’s the truth until he checks it out.

I shake my head at him when he puts the phone away.

“I’m not bonding myself to a criminal,” Archer says, his icy gaze on Zane.

“He’s not—” I start to protest, before he cuts me off with a look.

“We’ll see,” he tells me. He looks at Zane. “You have an Omega to look after. He’s close to his heat. We’ll look after Zoey until your story checks out. I won’t make a decision that affects all of us l until after I know who you are and why you really did this.”

Chapter Seventy-Two

Zoey

We’re so close to having something the world could never break apart. Russ sees that as well as I do.

His Alpha is too caught up in what’s right and what’s wrong to accept that this is pack is real and we’re all ready and waiting for him to lead us, and Zane is too blind to see that he needs to try harder to heal the rift between Dale and his Beta. I break away from Archer to sit down beside Dale.

He’s still sleeping, and that’s all he’s doing.

He hasn’t gone into heat. Not yet.

He’s not quite ready, and I think I know why.

I look up at Zane. “You need to go talk to Cameron.”

Zane frowns at me. “I don’t know what else I can say to him. There’s nothing I can do to make him like me. He’s already decided I’m bad news.”

“You broke Dale’s heart once, Zane. Don’t do it again.”

He stares back at me before he nods, leaving the hotel the same way Cameron did.

I don’t know if he can make Cameron come back, but I know he’ll do everything in his power.

Dale is his true mate as much as I am. If he expects to keep us happy, he’s going to have to dig deep to fix the problems he created in delaying claiming Dale and kidnapping me.

Looking back at Archer, I find him watching me from the spot where I left him standing in front of the other couch. He’s feeling conflicted right now. He can’t reconcile how he feels about me to everything else that’s going on.

“Russ, look after Dale for a few, please,” I request, as I get to my feet.

“Of course,” Russ murmurs, not asking any questions.

He’s the only one I don’t need to worry about right now.

He’s open to all of this. He feels almost exactly the same way I do.

I offer my hand to Archer. “Come with me. Please?”

He takes my hand after a second of hesitation.

When he takes my hand and lets me lead him across the lobby, I feel everything we could be, and everything we should be. I can feel the effects of the heat starting to work on my body, and I can only hope that I get the chance to speak to him before I start begging for his knot.

Oh, God. Thinking about his knot really doesn’t help.

I grab the rail as I lead him upstairs, determined to make it to the nest, where it smells like my other mates. My perfume starts to seep out of my skin, signaling my intent to my Alpha mate.

I hear him growl lightly as he follows me up the last few stairs.

---