Another woman is suddenly right behind me, sniffing my hair. She even lifts it to her nose to sniff it better, and then growls when I try to move.
“Play nice, Tiara. She’s already wary of us,” the petite girl says in annoyance. Then she directs her attention to me. “But if you’re going to be around wolves, the first thing you need to learn is how to tell if a growl is instructional, sexy, or menacing in tone.”
What does one say to something like that?
“So…this is your room?” I ask instead.
She grins. “We stay here because we’re safest here.” Her smile steadily falls. “Wolves aren’t always the nicest males. Omegas…get mistreated if they’re in the wrong circles.”
The girl behind me circles me, taking me in like she’s sizing me up.
“Should I be concerned?”
“In Alpha’s home? Never,” my friendship-extender tells me vaguely. “I’m Leiza, by the way. Tiara is just behind you. Then you have Lemon, Fay, and Mary. Ingrid is hiding.” She points to each woman as she introduces them and gestures around the room on the last name, since one is missing. “She doesn’t like new people, but she’ll warm up if you’re around enough.”
“You saved a lot of wolves tonight. Arion doesn’t handle attacks very well, but Ian wouldn’t have it any other way. And Emit went out of his mind when he caught Arion’s scent,” Tiara tells me as she starts sniffing my hands, lifting them up one at a time. “We’re going to end up in another war if they don’t leave the past in the past.”
Leiza pats the seat beside her, and I carefully extract my hands from Tiara while clearing my throat, and go to sit down. The button on the jeans goes flying off when I do sit, and Leiza snorts, along with a couple of the others.
“Sorry,” Leiza tells me, sounding sincere even through her humor.
“Fits better than some of the things I’ve created, so no worries,” I tell her absently, pulling Damien’s jacket tighter around me to hide my midriff.
Usually it’s mostly flat, but in these jeans, it looks like my belly button has turned into an ass crack.
“Vampires and werewolves fighting is a bit cliché, isn’t it?” I ask, hoping no one gets offended.
One of the women groans. “You have no idea. The wars ended centuries ago, but some of the newer betas missed those days and don’t understand why it would be foolish to ever return,” Mary answers.
“You’re the girl Emit was obsessing about, aren’t you?” Leiza asks me, also touching my hair.
“I think he already has his hands full.” To this, they all laugh.
“We’re his omegas. Not his girlfriends. We anticipate the needs of others, and…try to help out when and where we can,” Leiza says, a sly look in her eyes as she smirks. “We’re nice to the girls Emit brings around, in hopes they don’t have a problem with us living here.”
“Because it can be dangerous outside of an alpha’s home for an omega wolf right now,” Mary adds a little quieter.
“Before I ask the question I seem to find myself annoyed with asking, is there any chance I could have a—”
My words end when a really fruity drink of some sort, complete with very pretty girly decorations, is suddenly in front of me. “—drink,” I say, ending the question as a statement instead.
“Like she said, we anticipate the needs of others around us. We’d make excellent handmaidens on the nights you stayed over,” Lemon says, speaking up for the first time as she smiles brightly.
I just nod for a second, and then I shake my head as I finally take in what’s going on around me. “I’m not dating Emit. Actually, I had sex with Vance tonight—”
“We know,” Leiza says with a shrug.
“Seems like someone forgot to shower,” Lemon adds in a playfully tsking tone.
“My mostly absent father paid a surprise visit,” I say by way of explanation for the lack of shower.
“That’s rude,” Tiara states flatly.
Fay walks over to the corner, apparently not interested in this conversation, since she hasn’t spoken yet.
I sip the drink, nodding in disbelief that Tiara actually understands. “That’s what I thought, and then I felt guilty.”
“Because he’s never there,” Fay says like she completely understands, apparently still listening in. “And you probably wish he was around. Then he shows up and you feel angry.”
I frown.
“Not really angry. I’m not an angry person by nature. I get angry, but then it just sort of goes away after a few minutes.”
They all swing their gazes toward me, just as another girl pops out of what must be a false panel in the wall. She shyly peers at me from the one side of her face that isn’t covered by her hair.
I feel like one of those zoo animals right now.
“What’s that like? Not staying angry?” Tiara asks a little dreamily.
“Wolves stay angry?”
“Wolves stay on alert when a threat is in the air,” she explains. “Anger is just a byproduct of constant tension.”
“Why stay in town with vampires then?” I ask her, confused.
“Because we’re stronger together, in the event there ever comes a time when humans decide we’re the threat. It’s likely the only way we’ll ever stop killing off each other and crying out for another endless war that will forever end in a stalemate,” Fay grumbles, looking back out the window. “Arion has risen, and the bloodthirsty betas are still demanding bloodshed a century later. Fools. He’ll always outlive them, so they’re just painting us a target for future grudges.”
“The omegas always get caught up and killed in the crosshairs because we don’t stand a chance against so many stronger warriors,” Lemon says so sadly.
I suddenly feel terrible for them. My heart actually hurts. I keep fearing the monsters I’ve met, never thinking about the ones who live in fear of the very same threats.
It makes sense. After all, I’m a scaredy cat monster too.
Maybe that’s why Mom brought me here. It was never about keeping me safe after she was gone. It was about ensuring I was a monster among other monsters.
She just didn’t know there are innocent monsters too.
Chapter 10
EMIT
Now that I don’t feel like I’m trying to come out of my skin, I manage to stop growling.
Vance finishes up a call with Damien, putting his phone away.
“Dorian is most certainly in town, but he didn’t sire the two succubae I had to deal with. It’s his mark because he has a rogue one with the ability to turn others. Damien agrees with me on the matter that the pictures of the mark are just different enough to—”
“I’m not finished discussing Arion,” I grind out. “I couldn’t give two fucks about some rogue incubus Dorian should be held responsible for. If they can turn things, they get exterminated.”
“Like when you have wolves who can infect humans even without the full moon? Do you exterminate all those?” he’s quick to volley.
His gaze narrows when I start growling all over again.
“Arion did exterminate them, and then we put him underground for it. Dorian will play that card from now until forever,” he adds.
“It was much more complicated than that, and you fucking know it,” I remind him.
“Of course it was. But that’s because it’s personal for us. Just like it always is. It’s personal to you every single time a wolf dies. Too fucking personal. Arion is a time bomb right now after being conscious for who knows how long.”
“He’s planning his revenge as we speak. So why are you staying on the phone with Damien about such insignificant—”
“He could have killed me,” he interrupts.
I stop speaking abruptly, and a prickle goes up my spine.
“Sure, we both know if you really wanted to, you might could kick my ass. You don’t have the ability to care quite that much to exert the real effort it would take,” he goes on, looking away. “But Arion let me know real damn fast how easy it would be for him. Had Damien not shown up with Violet tonight, he might have offered you the same warning.”
I scrub a hand over my jaw.
“Putting him underground won’t do a bit of damn good. You’ll have to kill him if he gives you no option,” I say quietly.