Cruz
Threedayswegave Tilly to have a think about everything.
Three days for us to consider losing her, too. The feeling was horrendous, and I’d never seen Jackson so upset, and he was frantic to find Tilly. Telling him we needed to give her time to calm down, didn’t exactly go to plan, and Jackson spent the past three days in the gym taking his frustrations out on a boxing bag. But we had to give her time alone. I knew what Tilly was like. I’d observed her for years. She needed some time on her own to clear her head. Because if we pushed her too hard, she would push back harder, and I didn’t want that—our pack was so close to having our omega.
But today was the day. Three days was what I promised, and once this investor meeting was over, we were going to go to her. Unfortunately, the meeting was in an hour and as much as I wanted to get away from this building and go to her. I had to wait.
But while I was here, I had one other issue to deal with, and I planned to take matters into my own hands. I took the lift to the management floor. My anger festered away and my jaw ached from grating my teeth. But since I learned Sandy propositioned Tilly, I wanted to understand what she planned, what she was thinking.
I sauntered out of the lift and to Sandy’s glass fronted office, stopping at the side, hearing she already had company.
“She’ll be in the office today, around nine. Stop fretting.” Sandy’s husky voice tried to be quiet. But that was one of her many failings.
“We shouldn’t have left you to negotiate with her. I should have wooed her that day,” the male voice said.
“You had a fucking hard-on, just sitting next to her. She would have run a mile,” Sandy hissed.
“And you mean you aren’t salivating, desperate to bite her and make her yours?”
“David, we need to be calm about this. She hid herself for a reason.”
“Then why is she showing herself now? What changed her mind?”
“Why the fuck do you think? Cruz scented a girl years ago, and he believed she was his omega, and I think the girl is Tilly. I mean, think about it, she’s shown herself. I thought she was a beta since the day I met her. She hid herself for years and the moment she has three new alpha bosses, I find out she’s an omega.”
“But that is bad for us. It means she wants them. Feels them,” David said.
“Yes, that is why I was trying to push her, because I expect if it was anyone else taking over, she would have left this company and ran for the hills. But no, she stayed and is now showing her omega status.”
“Which means we need to get to her and change her mind quickly.”
Sandy growled. “Do not kidnap her.”
“Give me credit.”
“Do you think Cruz has a scent match with her?”
“I doubt Tilly would admit to him what he smells of, so he won’t know.” She hesitated. “But I believe he thinks they have one. It makes sense because he refused to tell me who she was. The three of them kept the secret of her identity from me.”
David laughed. “He never trusted you.”
Sandy growled at him.
David wandered around the office, stopping near to the window. I could see his dark shadow from my periphery. “But you’re saying Tilly knows these men are her mates? That she feels them?”
“Of course, that’s what I’m saying, David, sweetie. But she’s not bonded yet, and she mentioned something about fearing being bitten. So that is still the case. Only one of us needs to claim her to pull her into our pack.”
I stepped back from the office when David pushed his chair backwards, and it stopped by the window. “Nine o’clock, you said,”
“I did,” Sandy replied. “Stop being so desperate.”
My hands squeezed in and out of fists as I listened to them. My blood pounded through my veins.
“Why don’t I meet her outside and take her for a coffee?” David said. “I could bundle her into my car and take her home.”
I growled and clenched my fists. If he touched her, he would die. In fact, I wanted to snap his neck right now.
“David, if you are saying what I assume you are, then absolutely no. Sam and I both want a willing omega. We have time on our hands because, in reality, Cruz could have claimed her years ago, and he refused. Now I get it because she’s different, she’s mild but not as meek as usual omegas, she’s shy but also has an edge to her. But I also know she’s hurting, and there’s a reason alphas terrify her and we need to let her see we aren’t all bad.”
David grunted but said nothing in return.
“And no using commanding tones on her when she gets here, no alpha growls and no scent marking. I’ve already put our case across to her and all I need is to get her away from the three panting guys upstairs, and then she’ll be forever ours.”
“I don’t growl,” David said, his voice lowered.
“This would have worked so much better if Sam was here. She would have loved his nurturing ways. It’s what she needs, someone calm and soft with her. I’ve already told her we’d like to start a family.”
My eyes popped open at that. No fucking wonder she was running. She wasn’t running from us; she was running from everyone else. I pushed for her to show herself as an omega, when we should have kept her hidden.
My nostrils flared as I listened to them, my lips quivering in a snarl that wasn’t disappearing. I wanted to pounce in there and rip them limb to limb, show them which alpha was the king around here. Which alpha was hers.
But as much as I wanted to find out what else was going on in Sandy’s head. I no longer needed to hear the truth from her lips as I looked into her lying eyes. She gave the truth without asking.
I turned back to the lift as I smoothed my hair. It was time to take action.
I slammed open the office door and glared at Luca, who looked up from his computer.
“Hey, I thought you were leaving.”
“She was telling the truth,” I said. “Tilly, I mean. Not that lying piece of scum, Sandy. She expected Sandy to tell her about me and what happened that night. But Sandy propositioned her.”
“Lured her in with a fake story.” Luca clucked his tongue. “Because she doesn’t know the full story of that night. What could she tell Tilly? She only knows you saved an omega, nothing else. She didn’t know it was Tilly. That was a guess I expect because of what is happening.”
“Which means she could have told Tilly anything and gave her a reason for her to run,” I said.
“She’s frightened. It’s not only Sandy she’s running from, she knows the gang is back for her,” Luca said. “We need to bring her back and show her how safe she’ll be with us.”
“I don’t know what they said to Tilly, but one of Sandy’s pack wanted to wait for her today, with a plan to take her, mate her and bond her.” My teeth ground as I thought of my words.
Luca snarled, his lip curled up on one side and he was the calm one of the three of us. “I can’t stand this any longer. I want her back and living with us.”
I nodded. “Once we get her back, we need to keep her away from work. At least until she presents her neck to one of us.” I swallowed, knowing that was less likely to be me than Jackson or Luca, but whatever it took to have her as ours until the day she wanted me. “We’ll go to her after the meeting. Jackson is desperate to leave. He would take a bullet for her.”
“So would I,” Luca said.