Page 33 of Stolen Omega

“How did you know?”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Take good care of our Omega,” he says, before he hangs up first.

I shake my head as I put the phone away. “Alphas.”

Chapter Twelve

Zelena

I wake up alone with the sun piercing the tiny gap in the drapes, the lamp on my nightstand still lit, and when I take in a deep breath, the bed smells like my newly claimed mate. It feels like a nest, and I don’t care what time it is, or what else I’m supposed to be doing today. I snuggle back into the pillow and close my eyes, putting my arm up over my face to make the room feel darker.

I only sit up when the door creaks open a little wider, and my heart starts to race before Russ even steps into the room. He’s fully dressed, tie and suit jacket included, because of course he is.

He didn’t sleep last night because he’s supposed to be on the clock.

“I thought I heard you get up,” he says, smiling at me but not coming any closer.

He still has his hand on the handle of the door, and he’s barely taken two steps into the room.

Why is he so far away? I turn to the nightstand, checking for the time.

Five after nine. Oh, thank God. It’s still early.

I look back at him, and he’s still standing with the door handle in his grasp, almost as if he’s afraid to let go of it.

“Um … Am I late for something I don’t know about, or …”

He shakes his head. “We should stay far enough apart to keep your perfume under control. There are pills in that aspirin bottle on your nightstand. Two every morning, and you’ll be safe to go through your usual routines.”

“I just won’t be safe to be around you, right?” I ask, knowing it’s true before he confirms it with a nod. Suppressants don’t work against an Omega’s true mates. It’s already come out for him, and it’ll keep coming out for him if I don’t maintain a safe distance.

“In front of other people, it won’t be safe to be around me.”

“But you’ll still be the one in the room with me at night?”

Please say yes. I wait for his hesitant answer with my breath held.

“It’ll be safer that way,” he says. “If we’re together at night.”

He sounds sure, but he’s worried. I let myself breathe. He was anxious before we claimed each other, and during, so he’s not going to let those worries go too easily. The situation isn’t ideal, but I know how he feels about me, and I know I want to try and concentrate on the positives here.

It’s the only way I’ll get through the next few months without going crazy.

“Good,” I tell him as pick up the bottle of pills. It looks like a normal aspirin bottle. Perfectly ordinary and innocent. “So, these will just keep me from perfuming while I’m doing all my working day stuff. Will you stop coming to my dressing room?”

“Yeah. It wouldn’t be smart to trigger your perfume in front of anyone, and that includes Anna. I’m going to tell Dave he can switch places with me for that part for a while. It’ll seem like I’m doing him a solid.”

“Dave?” It takes me a second to put a face to the name. It didn’t seem like Anna was very interested in that guy’s advances, but I could be wrong. Maybe she just seemed irritable because he was being unprofessional, hitting on her while she’s at work. “Oh, right. The guy who’s into Anna.”

I open the bottle and tip two pills into my hand. They even look like aspirin.

“I’m guessing I should take these now, and you should keep a safe distance until the day shift guy shows up to take me down to the business suite for today’s promo stuff?” I put the cap on the bottle and set it down on the nightstand before I look back up at him expectantly.

“Pretty much,” he confirms with a wry smile.

Well, that explains why he’s standing at the door like he’s not allowed to take another single step into the room. He’s trying not to trigger my perfume. I guess he won’t be giving me a kiss good morning, then. I probably should have expected that. It sucks, but I knew we weren’t getting to be a normal couple. I knew, and it still hurts.

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