Frayed Trust: Frayed Book 1, page 14
For me, the drink did little more than burn my throat on the way down. Angels didn’t have to eat, drink, or breathe, and thus they also couldn’t get drunk. We liked to keep up appearances when in places like nightclubs, though.
“We’ve made absolutely no progress on the case, Shan,” Cas said, complaining. “Where are we supposed to go from here? There are no leads.”
Freya was our lead. Our only one so far. I had a feeling neither Caspian nor Matthias would appreciate the direction my line of questioning was about to venture in. Knocking once on the door to his office, I didn’t wait for a response before entering. With the bass vibrating the entire building, even our enhanced hearing wouldn’t register a voice from inside the soundproofed room. Unlocked, the door slid open to reveal the owner of Club Chaos sitting behind his desk with his Omega mate in his lap.
They’d obviously torn apart seconds before, cheeks flush with colour and breath coming faster than normal. Matthias’ hair was rumpled and there were wrinkles in his ironed white shirt, his eyes black with lust. Both for blood and sex, I could imagine. His fangs were on display, too. The man in his lap was perfuming up the room with the scent of strawberries and cream, but his scent did nothing for me. Not like how I basked in Freya’s scent. Blonde hair fell over his shoulders as he turned toward to face the door with a smirk and a chuckle before sliding off his Alpha’s lap.
“Sorry, baby. I didn’t realize you had business to attend to tonight,” he said, pressing a kiss to Matthias’ neck.
The club owner glared at us, reluctantly letting go of his Omega as the black retreated from his eyes. “Neither did I,” he grumbled.
“The simple solution would have been to lock the door,” I said, leaning against the doorjamb with no intention of giving them privacy again. They were fully clothed and would have plenty of time to finish later. “It would have taken more effort than simply turning a knob for me to enter.”
“I have no doubt in my mind that you would have figured out a way in, regardless. You two are like fucking cockroaches.”
I’d been called worse plenty of times over the years. Caspian rolled his eyes, stepping past me and into the room. He levelled his flirty smirk at the Omega, who looked him up and down with no small amount of interest. Subtly, I shifted myself to block some of his view. Cas didn’t notice, but Matthias’ Omega did. “You’ll have time to finish feeding later,” Caspian said. “Believe me, I know it sucks to be interrupted. I’m sure Shan has a wonderfully important reason for this visit.”
“Thereon, come back in thirty minutes. That’s the time limit for these pains in my ass.”
“And then you’ll be a pain in his ass? It looked like that was the direction you two were heading,” Caspian said teasingly.
“Every second you spend taunting me is a second you can’t use for whatever questions you came to ask,” Matthias said dryly, while Thereon chuckled on his way out of the room. He brushed his shoulder against Caspian’s chest in a way that made a growl rumble in my throat, irritation slicing through me. Flirting was one thing. Touching was another matter entirely.
The Omega took note of my grumble and brushed his fingers along my collarbone as he slid past me, rolling his eyes with a quirk to his lips. How Matthias handled him, I had no idea. If Freya were going around flirting with everyone, I would have plenty to say about that. None of the words would be good and all of them would be extremely controlling. We were at odds as it was; having her as our Omega would make the hate-lust vibes explosive.
No matter how many reasons I came up with for why we weren’t a match made in Heaven, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting her.
Closing the door after Thereon, I locked it this time and then made my way over to Matthias’ desk. It was a large dark mahogany piece, intricately carved and aged beyond what you would typically see in the office of a nightclub entrepreneur. His chair behind it was in stark contrast, a supportive plush office chair in the style of ultra-important CEOs. On our side of the desk, there were two small chairs that were intentionally uncomfortable, likely so no one would stay and chat with him for long.
Off in a corner of the space was a lounge area with a loveseat and two matching armchairs in the same blue as the night sky. Not the city’s night sky, where light pollution ensured the sky never truly darkened, but the sky from remote locations where big cities had yet to take over the landscape.
I took a seat in one of the tiny chairs and Caspian stood behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder. The touch was more to soothe his own nerves than to comfort me, but I revelled in it all the same. If we were meeting with anyone else, I would have shaken off his touch for a more professional appearance, but Matthias had seen us grinding together out on the crowded dance floor. No point in hiding our entanglement now.
“You’re wasting your time,” he said dryly, watching as I got comfortable and crossed one ankle over my thigh.
“I’m sure we’ll get through all my questions,” I said.
I was stalling, though. He saw right through my projected nonchalance. These questions were ones I didn’t want to ask, but had to for the sake of our mission. “If you don’t start talking, I’ll cut your time down to fifteen minutes.”
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I made sure my back was resting against the flimsy back of the chair. “Does Freya frequently take vacations?”
Matthias blinked at me a few times, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his desk. Caspian’s fingers dug into my shoulder as I’m sure he fought to keep the surprise off his face. I already knew the answer to the question I’d asked. She had to, since she was an Omega. Freya couldn’t very well work while she was in heat. Unless her mysterious protector was also an Alpha who knotted her — I doubted it, considering she was unmarked, and I couldn’t imagine anyone could knot her for long without claiming her — she would have frequent heats. Her body would cry out for an Alpha knot and throw her into a needy state as often as she could physically handle. Or more often than that, depending on how long she’d gone without.
“Why is this relevant?” Matthias asked.
He was wary. I should tread carefully around this subject. Unfortunately, tonight I had the desire to fight. To argue. The jealousy over Freya and Cas was making me rash. “She’s a person of interest in our investigation.”
Not false, though not one hundred per cent true either. We didn’t know if she was relevant yet. Caspian released my shoulder and stepped back, which meant I would have plenty to answer to once we were out of here.
“She’s my best bartender and a close friend. There’s no need for you to dig into her personal life.”
“That’s for us to determine. Please answer the question.”
He glared at me. I couldn’t tell if he was going to answer until he spoke. “She takes a week's vacation every couple of months.”
“Do you have an idea of what she does on said vacations?”
“I imagine she visits family or relaxes. Her parents live on the East Coast.”
There was no record of any plane tickets in her name for the past five years, nor did she own a car or have any record of renting one. It was possible she’d slipped the notice of our tech department, like she had with her apartment. Possible, but unlikely. She hadn’t gone home to visit family. Freya had sequestered herself inside her house to keep Alphas off her trail while she was in a delicate heat state. Time and time again, for years.
“What does she do with her spare time, when she’s not at work?” I asked.
“We’ve explained she works six days a week, usually ten-hour days. I doubt she has time for much else.”
“Do you know of any places she frequents? Relatives or friends that might be in town?”
He stood at the onslaught of questions, travelling across the room in the blink of an eye. I’d never seen Matthias use his vampiric speed. He preferred to appear non-threatening. Throwing the lock off, he pulled open the door and gestured out into the hallway that led back to the VIP lounge. “Feel free to leave and ask her your damn selves.”
I didn’t move other than to turn my head and look at him, but Caspian started to uncomfortably shift toward the door. “Is there a reason you’re unwilling to chat about Freya when you were happy to talk about the bouncers who were initially persons of interest? Does she have something to hide, Matthias?”
She did. He may not realize the depth of what she was hiding, but he knew there was something there. His face went red, his mouth opening, but no answer falling out. There wasn’t an answer he could give without implicating Freya, informing me I was on the right track with my questioning, and he didn’t want to be the one to out her. “Get out of my office. Don’t come back until you’re going to have some respect for my employees, and more importantly, the woman you’ve been flirting with since you arrived. If you suspect her of something, stop leading her on to get your information. It’s fucking low.”
“Your opinion of my actions is noted, but please ensure you don’t impede my investigation. You won’t like the consequences.”
Standing, I gestured for Caspian to exit the room before me. Then I stopped in front of Matthias, my lips tilted up in a tiny half smile. “It’s good that you keep her secrets for her,” I murmured, low enough that Caspian wouldn’t hear. My partner was already halfway down the hallway. “But I’m not the most horrible person who’s going to come asking about her. You’d better give everyone else the same answer you just gave me and tell them to fuck off. If you cave, remember you’ll be answering to me.”
His shoulders tensed and eyebrows scrunched together, but I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I clapped a hand on his shoulder and raised my voice. “If we see Thereon on our way out, we’ll send him in your direction,” I said.
Then I turned and followed Caspian out of the club at a more leisurely pace, waving at Matthias’ Omega on the way down to the main floor. He was quick to turn and head back down the hallway, and his perfume followed me down the stairs. By the time I got out the front doors of Club Chaos, Caspian was pacing and waiting for me.
Pacing was a bad sign. As was the way his hands didn’t leave his hair, running through the soft tresses repeatedly until he’d completely mussed the style, brown strands sticking up in all directions. When he turned to me, his eyes were bleeding into the pure black they often turned to when he was aroused. Or furious. I’d been on the receiving end of both emotions before.
He grabbed my arm and tugged me down the street and into an empty alley between two shops that had closed down for the night. I was pinned against the wall with all the force in his lithe limbs, though we both knew I could break his hold if I wanted to. For now, I let him have his anger. It was warranted, after all. “What the fuck was that about?” he asked. “She’s not a suspect. We don’t need to ask about her personal life from strangers.”
“Everyone’s a suspect,” I said, knowing the truth would only irk him further. It wasn’t often I saw him angry, and I wanted to rile him up. Caspian’s two modes were laid back and emotionally needy. No room for anger. “I doubt she would tell us anything suspicious about herself.”
The growl that left him was a feral sound, reminding me of the potential of his race. Fae were animalistic fighters, going for the throat and other fleshy bits that bled profusely. Cas could be the same if you pissed him off enough. The only other time I’d seen him like this, he’d given me enough bite marks and bruises that my angelic healing had had trouble keeping up. And I hadn’t been the source of his rage that time.
“If you want to be angry at me for doing our job, feel free. But I will continue to do our job, just as you’re free to go out with her if you so choose.”
He snarled, lips curving up as a muscle twitched in his jaw. I should apologize. It might calm him down enough to spare me whatever rough treatment was coming next. I deserved it, though, for keeping secrets from him. More than just Freya’s designation. My partner didn’t know I’d been having dreams of my past lives from before I was an angel, which was forbidden by the Executive Director and board of Virsphere. I should have reported to my superiors the second I had my first one, years ago. I’d also neglected to mention that even before meeting her, Freya had featured heavily in those dreams. Though she’d looked different, it was her. Cas deserved to know, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell him.
Besides, fighting and fucking Caspian would turn me on more than anything else ever could. Getting out some of my sexual tension would be good for me.
The fist connected with my cheek before I had time to react, my head whipping to the side. He’d used more force than we ever did during practice bouts or sexual fights. I smirked. His fist aimed again at my face, but this time I had time to react, pulling myself out of its path. “You’re not going to speak, huh? Too enraged?”
His knee surged up toward my groin, but I caught him with my hands, pushing it down to the ground. “You’re going to need that later, Cas. Don’t damage it.”
Black was receding from his eyes, but he was still upset. The next punch he threw caught me in the stomach, a whoosh of breath leaving me. He did it again, and again, and I let him punch me in the torso until the black had left his eyes completely. A broken rib was easy for my body to heal, bruises fading as fast as they appeared.
Catching his hand before he could hit me again, I used his arm to switch our positions, pulling the limb behind his back and pressing his chest against the wall. “Feel better?” I asked, nipping the lobe of his ear.
“You should have warned me,” he grumbled. “Then I might not have been that mad. Or, fuck, done it when I wasn’t there. Gods know you don’t include me in every chat you have with Matthias.”
“I thought you needed the reminder. She’s involved in this. The questions we have to ask might get more uncomfortable.”
“You’re a dick.”
Pressing my hard cock against the curve of his ass, I moved my lips down his neck to the curve of his shoulder and bit down. “You knew that already.”
“I can’t believe you’re turned on right now. I was ready to kill you. Or take out your balls.”
His voice was getting breathless, though, and I knew if I reached my hand around, I would feel the bulge in his pants. Matching mine. “I wouldn’t have let it happen,” I said, moving my hips to grind against him. “And you would have stopped. You’re not a mindless animal, Cas. Not even when the fury overtakes you.”
“It fucking feels that way,” he muttered.
Caspian pressed back to meet my hips, not letting me have an inch of distance. Not that I wanted any. I sucked a hickey into his shoulder, wishing not for the first time that it would stay long enough for someone to see my claim on him. His pictures of the marks were no secret, and I sometimes perused them myself. My favourite was a picture of his ass, red from a spanking and covered in hickeys and a few very visible bite marks.
Keeping his arm pinned behind his back with one hand, I used my other to slide around and palm the bulge. He groaned and leaned his head against the brick, cushioning his forehead with his free hand. “Here?”
“Why not?”
I could make us invisible, but there was no point. Wrapping the light around me at night was taxing and would distract me from the pleasure, and people wouldn’t notice or care about us down this alley. People did this all the time. My hand found the fly of his pants and yanked the zipper down, my rough hand palming the soft skin of his cock. Caspian’s moan was more like a whimper, bucking his hips forward into my hand and then back against my cock.
When I released him, he whined, but I didn’t leave him wanting for long. Spinning him so his back was against the building, I dropped to my knees on the dirty cement. “Shan…” he whispered my name, sliding his hands down to wrap in my hair. It came out of its bun, falling in dishevelled strands around my face.
“I never get to make you come,” I said, licking a solid line from the base of his cock to the head.
“You always make me come.”
“No, you come when you feed from me. That’s cheating.”
“You give me permission, though. It counts.”
“Not to me. I’ll give you special permission to be rough with me tonight,” I said, smirking up at him. He was flushed, eyes black with lust instead of anger now. “Get out some of the anger you were feeling earlier.”
“I already got it out…”
He trailed off when I swallowed his cock down, taking it deep enough that I gagged. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with the deep throat skills of an incubus, but I’d had plenty of practice at this. Caspian shoved his hips forward when I pulled back, making me gag again until I got into a rhythm. I pulled back, then slid forward as his hips thrust forward to meet me. It was a rough and desperate dance, and Caspian wouldn’t take long to get his release this way.
The moans falling from his lips got more desperate as I sucked and licked him, short guttural sounds echoing through the alley. People walking past on the street could hear us, would see our forms in the shadows but not our features. I didn’t give a fuck. When I felt him tense, his movements stuttering, I took him to the point of gagging one more time, swallowing every hint of his release as it hit the back of my throat.
I didn’t release him until his legs trembled and his hands were pushing me away instead of pulling me close.
That was when I pulled back and stood, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. Caspian greedily reached out for my pants, staring at my crotch in single-minded focus, but I caught him before he could touch me. The way his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion was nothing short of adorable. “What?”
“Patience.”
