Chapter Two

A bump woke Mia, and her head fell forward, startling her.

She blinked against the light, which told her that she’d slept long enough for the sun to rise.

“Pulling up to the place now.” Hart’s voice was smooth, and it had Mia turning to find him far closer than she expected him to be.

It was then she noticed a wet spot on the shoulder of his shirt, and a quick wipe across her cheek confirmed it. She’d fallen asleep against his arm and had managed to drool on him.

Serves him right. He’d been the one to force her out of her place in the middle of the night.

At least, saying that helped her from feeling embarrassed about it.

“Where are we?” she asked as she sat up, scooting over so there was more distance between her and Hart. His scent was far too tempting, and she’d been breathing it in the entire drive.

“North about two hours. It’s a place on a small lake, owned by an old friend of ours.”

“If your friend owns it, why do you think someone won’t come looking for you here?”

Shepard turned from the front seat. “It’s not a friend we ever see. Trust me, it’s off the radar of anyone looking.”

The large car bumped again as it went over a dirt road. It wasn’t one of their normal vehicles, since they preferred flashy luxury models. In contrast, this was an SUV, the sort of vehicle that could handle four-wheel drive and didn’t feel cramped despite the three very large males inside it.

Up ahead, a house came into view. It wasn’t the cabin she’d expected, instead reminding her of a ski chalet with a tall, angled ceiling and large open windows that covered most of the front wall.

“Is that it?”

“Yes. It should have everything we need and we’re far enough out of the city we can order food,” Hart said.

“And work?”

“I’ve been in contact with our clients. We pushed back what we could and passed on some cases to colleagues for anything time-sensitive.”

“So what are we going to do out here for two weeks without any work?”

The thought of being so directionless had Mia uneasy. Work was her life. She often stayed at the office until late in the evening, and her time at home consisted of a bit of reading, then sleep. She hadn’t taken a vacation in the entire time she’d worked there, partly because she’d learned personal lives were too difficult to manage.

“You might have to actually relax?” Dax chuckled as he said it, as though it were the dumbest things he’d heard. “What a disaster.”

Mia narrowed her eyes, but Dax didn’t look her way at all. Somehow glaring at the back of his head didn’t quite have the same enjoyment for her. Being ignored sucked.

She leaned back in her seat, tapping her foot against the floorboards of the SUV. “I hate this.”

Shepard snorted softly. “Well, being bored for a few weeks won’t kill you, but staying home might have.”

That was easy for them to say. The prospect of spending time within close quarters however had Mia thinking staying home might have been far less risky.

The worst Mack could do was kill her. The alphas might just ruin her.

* * * *

Mia put her items away in the room she’d been shown to. It was upstairs, with the alphas taking the guest rooms on the ground floor.

She’d complained at first, but Hart had said in no uncertain tone that upstairs was safer.

She hadn’t been sure how to deal with that, with them looking out for her.

Sure, they’d always done that, but she’d been in a position to limit it. Even when they had wanted to install security at her place, when they had wanted her to have a new, safer car, she’d had enough distance to put her foot down. She’d always known allowing anything would turn into a slippery slope she didn’t want to deal with. Here, though?

After little sleep and a long car ride, she lacked the strength or energy to fight them on every little thing.

Not to mention, the upstairs room would put her farther away from them, and that could only be for the best.

Mia lined her things on the bathroom counter. Her heat suppressant pills were safely hidden in a bottle labeled as anti-anxiety medication. She took them daily to prevent the mess of having her body go into a heat.

As a single omega, she had a few options when heats happened. She could try to ride it out at home, but all too often that ended with the omega calling an alpha—any alpha—when the pain and need grew too great. She could find an alpha to service her, but the complications that could arise from that—least of all being pregnancy—weren’t ones Mia wanted. Lastly, she could go to a hospital or omega clinic, where she could either use an alpha there who serviced omegas or choose to be put under during the worst of it.

At thirty-two, Mia had only had seven heats, and all of them had happened in clinics. Normally they came twice a year or so, but her medications had worked well in slowing that down. Still, five of those had happened in the last six years, telling her that being exposed to the alphas had accounted for the change.

Which made her nervous enough that she wished her pills actually were anti-anxiety.

Avoiding alphas had become a talent of hers, because the less she was around them, the less she had to think about what she might be missing…

She’d joined an omega online group once, a few years back, when she’d felt adrift. She’d read post after post from women who lamented their place in society while also talking about how wonderful life with an alpha could be. She’d even opened a thread once despite the clear NSFW warning, only to blush and never manage to quite get the words out of her head.

Knots. She’d seen the book her mother had given her with diagrams to explain what happened between an alpha and omega during sex. Still, that clinical explanation of the area at the base of an alpha’s cock that would swell, locking him into place inside an omega, was a far cry from the explicit descriptions written by actual omegas. It had taught her that even once with an alpha was too dangerous, because omegas seemed to being brainless when they experienced an alpha’s knot.

Still, she was far from a one-trick-pony when it came to hiding her designation. She had a diffuser, a number of citrus scents—they helped to reduce the effect of alpha pheromones—and different lotions and perfumes that would hide her reaction and scent as well.

She’d become a maven at tricking others, and she’d need every trick to survive the time with the alphas while keeping her secret intact.

“You women always have so much stuff.” Dax’s voice caught Mia off-guard, but his grin said he’d probably meant it to.

The man was a constant mess, always going a-mile-a-minute. How many times had he been searching frantically for a pen only for Mia to point out it was clamped between his lips?

Mia peered at him through the mirror, not turning toward him. Him being in her space, in the bathroom off her room, felt far too familiar. He stood next to her bed, and she shut down anywhere that thought might take her.

She’d never even allowed them into her home.

And somehow, him being able to see her suppressants—even though he wouldn’t know what they were—made it all the worse. It was all too intimate.

She closed her eyes to take one slow breath before turning to face him. “Did you need something?”

“Just checking in on you. Making sure you’re settling in.”

Mia pressed her lips together. Sometimes it was so hard to deal with the three alphas.

They treated her almost like a little sister, constantly badgering her and picking on her. Worse, they were forever trying to take over her life. Even when she told them no, even when she tried to keep them out of her business, they never failed to step into the mess she made from time to time and try to clean it up.

If they didn’t have the whole alpha-omega thing between them, they could have been close. Not the fake thing they did, but real close. Even if never romantic—she wasn’t their type—she imagined they could have been amazing supports for her.

Instead, she always had a wall up, was always hesitant to share too much, to risk them discovering the truth about her. It made for a strained relationship.

“What are you really doing?”

Dax’s smile spread wider. “Fine. I knew you were up here hiding. It’s going to be a long vacation if you ignore us the entire time.”

“Why shouldn’t I ignore you? This is your fault.”

“Kind of.” At her look, he laughed. “Fine, it’s our fault. That doesn’t change that we’re stuck together. Besides, how many big cases have had us working almost through the night? I mean, come on, I’ve put your ass to bed on the couch in my office more than once. This can’t be that much different.”

Mia leaned against the sink. “I know.”

“So what’s it really? Why are you being even less nice to us than usual?”

She traced the edge of the counter, the smooth surface giving her something to focus on. She went with something as close to the truth as she could. “It’s different living in the same space and you know it.”

Dax tucked his hands into his jeans pockets before rocking back on his heels then flat again. “I know. What, are you afraid we’re going to jump you?”

To Mia’s credit, she didn’t even blush. “It’s not exactly unheard of for you three to share women, and from where I’m standing, you don’t have a lot of options out here.” Her being their only option chafed.

“Believe it or not, we can resist the allure of your womanly wiles.” He offered a wink, as if he found the conversation funny.

And funny was not what Mia found it. In the past she’d been able to retreat to her own home and rebuild her defenses against them. She’d had the space and time to hide what she felt. How was she going to last living in a house with the three of them?

Not to forget that his joke about her womanly wiles reminded her yet again that she wasn’t what they wanted. That sting never really did go away.

“You say that now,” she said. “But what happens after a few days? Or a week?”

His smile fell, a rare moment of seriousness from him. “You aren’t afraid, right? You don’t really think we’d force you?”

She didn’t. In fact, that wasn’t anywhere on her radar as a possibility, but she also didn’t feel like admitting her fear was in trusting herself. Instead, she let her gaze drop to the floor. “I trust you. It’s just a lot.”

“Yeah, I know it is. Look, we’ve been cooped up together for cases in the past. You know us, and if we haven’t tried to get into your pants before, I don’t think we’ll give it too hard an attempt now.” The humor was back in his tone, telling her he’d at least stopped thinking she was afraid of them.

Then his words sank in. While she should be happy about them—it wasn’t as if she wanted the alphas pursuing her—she couldn’t help that slight wince that, out of all the women always around, she was the only one they didn’t try to sleep with.

They had bedded an endless stream of omegas, but she clearly didn’t meet those rather low standards.

And that old hurt hit her again.

“You okay there, Mia?”

She nodded, steeling her resolve to not show how she felt. She’d hidden it for six years. She wouldn’t break now. “Yeah. I’m still tired, so I think I’m going to lie down for a bit.”

When she lifted her gaze, far too much suspicion rested on his features, as if he could tell something was wrong but didn’t know what.

Still, he nodded and left her be, with her thoughts, with his words that had cut her in a way he would never understand.

They didn’t want her, never had, and that was for the best.

Or so she told herself.

* * * *

Dinner arrived around five, which was a bit early for the meal but they’d missed breakfast and lunch since everyone had slept in.

Shepard had been the one to walk up the stairs, his heavy frame making them creak, and tell her food was on its way. She figured if she didn’t leave the bed at that point, they’d either drag her out or worse, come up and harass her.

The last thing she wanted was for them to be in her space, to bring their scent any farther into her room, her sanctuary.

She’d set up the diffuser in her room, cursing herself for not bringing a second. Still, it seemed a better plan to have it where she slept, and to spend as little time as possible around them.

“You stink,” Dax said as she sat down for the meal.

Shepard smacked him hard against the back of his head. “No wonder women never like you.”

Mia rolled her eyes at the exchange, taking no offense to Dax’s words. She’d put on more than a little of her favorite anti-alpha mixture, so if he didn’t hate it, she’d take that as a failure.

“It’s called perfume,” she said.

“Did you bathe in it?”

“She wears that one at least once a week. How can you not be used to it?” Shepard asked.

Mia narrowed her eyes. He knows how often I wear it? She didn’t much like him taking that close a notice in her.

“It makes my nose itch,” Dax complained, then rubbed at his nose as if proving the point.

“That’s the cloves in it.” Hart sat a container of food in front of Mia before he took a seat across from her with his own box. “They tend to irritate an alpha’s nose.”

“Aren’t you a scent connoisseur?”

Hart didn’t take her bait for a fight. Then again, Hart never fought. Not with her, and not with anyone else. He’d lay down his opinion and to hell with anyone who didn’t approve. “Alphas have good noses, Mia. This mixture you like to wear after a fight with us, so you’re well aware of how it affects us. Given how much you used today, I’d say you were quite annoyed with us at the moment.” Hart opened his food, and steam escaped from the top. “Please, just tell me you’ll be over being angry soon, because I really don’t want to go two weeks with my nose running. I’d ask what we did, but I’m guessing you’re just annoyed about the situation in general.”

Mia couldn’t come up with a single thing to say back to that, at least nothing she should say. It wasn’t like she should mention that it wasn’t really her being annoyed with them that made her wear it. She became annoyed when she felt those other far more dangerous feelings creeping up inside her, and the perfume was to deal with that.

Instead, Mia opened her own food. “Did you call the judge about the Henderson case?”

“Yes. Believe it or not, we can actually handle our job.” Shepard sat to her left, eating something she couldn’t quite identify. He’d always been the brave one when it came to food.

“What about—”

“Can you take it easy?” Dax stopped, his food halfway to his mouth, the white rice and orange chicken telling her he’d gone with something basic, as usual. Dax never liked new food. “Six years and you’ve never taken a vacation. Just relax, Mia, work is handled.”

“What do you do for fun?” Shepard asked.

Fun? Mia thought about it, pressing her lips together into a thin line as nothing came to mind.

“If it takes that long to name something, there’s a problem.”

“What do you do for fun?” she snapped back but pointed her fork at Dax before he could answer. “And I don’t mean women.”

He gave an unrepentant grin. “Well, I like to play video games and go rock climbing. Shepard is a fan of gardening, which I find weird, but it is what it is. Hart, he’s boring, so he reads a lot and watches documentaries.”

“Well, good for you. I guess some of us just don’t have much free time.”

Shepard snorted. “You had to have done something with those men you used to run around with.”

The way he said used to showed they’d noticed that she hadn’t been dating for a while.

“My dates aren’t any of your business,” she pointed out.

“What business is there? How long has it been since you went out with anyone?”

That question proved even more difficult than the one about hobbies. “I don’t know,” she lied.

“Four years,” Hart said. “The last was the retail manager, Harvey.”

She shuddered at the memory of Harvey. She’d resigned herself to dating only betas, thinking she could hide her designation and maybe have a real life. It hadn’t worked out that way, of course.

Most of the time the men left her, or she left them, always over her secrecy. It was impossible to have a real relationship with someone if she was hiding such a big part of herself.

Why did she take those pills? Why did she need the perfumes? Why did she have to disappear for days once in a while?

She couldn’t tell them she’d gone into heat, and that meant the relationships fell apart.

Well, the one with Harvey hadn’t. She still remembered putting on the heavy concealer to hide the bruise, the one and only time he’d struck her, so she could go to work the next day.

She didn’t know if he’d regretted it, but he’d taken off the next day, with only a text message apologizing for his behavior then not another word.

The clearing of a throat made her realize she’d fallen into memories.

Right, the whole four-year thing. “I’m just focused on other things.”

“Like your nonexistent hobbies,” Dax said around a mouthful of food.

“Like working for you, which by the way, takes up most of my time. In case you’ve forgotten, I’ve ended up working late most nights, and have had to go in on weekends at least three times a month. And what about this entire fiasco?” Mia waved her arms at the cabin. “Do you really think a boyfriend would be thrilled with this little turn of events?”

Shepard huffed softly, a sound that called her a liar. “Don’t try to blame this all on us. You haven’t had any interest in men in the entire time we’ve known you.”

“You were the ones to mention Harvey.”

“You didn’t have any interest in him,” Hart said, mirroring Shepard’s words. “Do you think we couldn’t tell? Each time you brought around some new man, or tried to avoid talking about one, there wasn’t any desire on your part. You might have been dating them, but you weren’t enjoying it much.”

Mia’s mouth hung open for a moment. How could they possibly know that?

Them being right was the worst part of it. She’d dated, but somehow none of those men had made her feel anything.

No flutters deep in her stomach, no lust, no pulling need to spend time with them. They’d all been men who had come onto her, safe betas whom she’d said yes to because she didn’t want to die alone.

The fact these three knew it, had known it all along, made her feel like they’d peeled off a layer of skin and peered beneath.

“I know you wear perfume that covers your scent around us,” Shepard continued.

Her heart seemed to stop at that, a sinking in her stomach as she waited for him to continue, to call her out on the truth.

Except, when Shepard didn’t, Dax spoke up. “You clearly don’t like us knowing you want to fuck us.”

“Jesus, Dax,” Shepard growled out, a sharp look accompanying the sound. “Did you really need to say it like that?”

“It’s true,” Dax said. “You wanted to bring it up.”

“Not like that.”

Mia should have been mortified—and, sure, that was probably going to happen later—but her relief was stronger. They didn’t know she was an omega. They thought she was just an interested beta who was trying to hide it.

I can live with that.

Hart hadn’t looked over at either of the other alphas, his focus solely on her. “We aren’t trying to embarrass you,” he assured her. “No matter what, you’re a part of our group. It just seemed as good a time as any to broach the topic since we’re stuck together here.”

“What is there to broach?” Mia didn’t need to try to sound unsettled because she was. Her breath came out soft and unsure, her heart still racing from her fear of discovery. “Even if what you’re saying is true—”

“It is,” Hart said.

“We all know nothing will ever happen. I’m not your type.”

Dax lifted one eyebrow and traced his gaze slowly down over what he could see of her body while she sat at the table. “You look like my type.”

She offered a bored look in response. Not rising to Dax’s absurdity was the only way to deal with him. “I’m not an omega or a one-night-stand sort of girl and I don’t look anything like the ones who do show up at the office. So even if you’re right, even if I was just hopelessly smitten with some girlish crush, what would it matter?”

All three of them stared at her with an intensity that made her fidget. She knew she was growing wetter, that if she’d worn a sheerer bra and shirt her peaked nipples would be visible through the fabric. How pathetic that her reaction would be so obvious. All she could hope was that she’d poured on enough perfume to hide it.

Though…did that even matter since they had already guessed about her attraction?

Her pride said it mattered greatly, so she kept her face blank and cursed her body’s reaction.

Hart spoke, his voice like liquid smoke—dark and smooth and able to slide over her skin. In fact, it was so tempting, she missed his words at first. It took an entire heartbeat after he said them for them to occur to her, for her to understand their meaning.

“We don’t only take omegas, you know.”

She gulped, an absolutely shameful sound of surprise and want. “What?”

He didn’t smile, not like Dax would have. He didn’t even have the slight line in his cheek that Shepard would, a softening of his features to give her something to dismiss. No, he held her gaze with the same single-minded intensity. “We’ve been known to share betas, Mia.”

And the whine she let out—thin and desperate and pathetic—wasn’t the sort of thing she could pretend didn’t happen.