Pack of Lies, page 7
Jubilee sighed, dropping his papers onto the ground and rifling through a bag of clothing. He took a change of clothing into the bathroom and the shower turned on. I peered over at the papers, wondering if I should look at them.
Was snooping worth it? I’d hardly understand what the jargon and numbers meant. From what I saw of his notes in the margins, it was all scientific shorthand. If I touched the documents, the adrenaline I’d get from the risk might heighten my scent enough to leave it all over the papers, and then they would know.
No need to make Denzel more wary of me for the sake of information I wouldn’t gain anything from.
I stayed in the chair until Jubilee came out of the shower, his turquoise hair dripping. He was only wearing a pair of loose boxers and a t-shirt. His scent didn’t reach me with him across the room, but I could imagine it now that I’d gotten a good hit. Vodka and licorice clinging to his damp skin. He crouched down at one point to shove the dirty clothes into his bag, and I watched the boxers go tight around his ass.
How did a university scientist have an ass that nice? It was the perfect amount of squishy and firm, which I could tell from the view alone.
When he stood to full height again his cheeks were pink, and mine matched as I realized I’d been aroused enough to perfume the air with it.
“Wake me up when you’d like to go to sleep,” Jubilee said, crawling under the untouched covers on his side. “I’ll move to the chair.”
“We can sleep in the same bed.”
“It’s not a good idea. I’m a cuddler.”
That didn’t surprise me. He always needed to be holding something to curb the shaking of his hands, so grabbing at people in his sleep checked out.
I shrugged, finding I wasn’t as opposed to the idea of touching him as I had originally been. Scientist or not, his outburst of anger before showed he had far more morals than any I’d met previously.
“So, we’ll wake up cuddling. I don’t mind.”
His cheeks darkened further. He took off his glasses and placed them on the bedside table, then laid his head on the pillow facing me.
“Your scent affects me a lot,” he mumbled, curling his arm under the pillow and fluffing it to get comfortable. I stared at him blankly and he cleared his throat. “I don’t want us to end up in an uncomfortable situation.”
Oh.
I’d briefly forgotten the effect scents had when they were at full power, because I hadn’t experienced it much before the sense was ripped away. My arousal was based primarily off how physically attractive these men were, with a little kick when I got close enough to scent them. However, with Jubilee’s supposed scent match mate in bed with him, he was liable to spend the whole night in a state of arousal.
Once again, the idea of being in bed with an aroused scientist didn’t horrify me as much as it would have twenty-four hours ago. They were growing on me, damn it. Except Denzel, obviously.
“I’m sure I can handle it if I wake up to your erection poking me in the back. You need a full night’s sleep, so if you’re not comfortable with me being in bed with you, I’ll take the chair.”
His eyes widened and he sat up, eliminating all his prior attempts to get comfortable. “No way. You can’t sleep in the chair.”
“Neither can you, or you would have been napping throughout the night last night. Don’t tell me you were, because you look far too tired to have had any kind of sleep at all.”
He sheepishly shrugged. “I may have dozed.”
“You’re a scientist, so you know dozing doesn’t do anything when it comes to restful sleep. You wouldn’t get through a single sleep cycle by dozing.”
“There are studies—”
“I can guarantee those studies don’t apply when you’re not also getting full sleep cycles.”
Laying down again, he sighed. “If I get too close to you, feel free to push me away.”
I didn’t answer, reaching over to close the blinds so I only had a small crack to peer through. It blocked out most of the city lights so Jubilee would be able to sleep, and despite his reservations he drifted off quickly. I stayed up longer, watching the occasional person wandering the dark street, most heading home from late shift jobs or walking energetic dogs as opposed to walking for pleasure alone.
Reese and Denzel spoke in hushed voices in the main area, but they weren’t loud enough to hear. Eavesdropping was another task where the potential risk outweighed the potential rewards. They quieted after a bit, anyways, going to bed themselves.
I waited until my eyelids were drooping and my vision was hazy before getting myself ready. The only clothing I had belonged to the guys, but their scents were fading from the fabric now. I hated that I wanted to replace these items with new stolen ones.
As I was crawling into bed, Jubilee moaned in his sleep, rolling over into the middle of the mattress. Hesitating for a second, I sighed.
Fuck it.
I really didn’t mind if he was going to cuddle with me. There was a deeply suppressed omega instinct that demanded I initiate it and accept any touch I was offered. I still laid down a ways away from him, but I couldn’t complain when he immediately reached for me, burying his nose against my neck.
The sleep I drifted off into was the most comfortable I’d had in years, feeding the fire that these men might just be meant for me.
NINE
JUBILEE
In the haze of sleep, with my arms wrapped around a body smaller than my own and my cock hard with arousal, I’d mumbled Marlowe’s name.
Not because I wanted Thorn to be him, or because it was possible to mix up their distinct scents, but because Marlowe was familiar. He was the only omega I’d ever cuddled with before, and my initial thought was that I was at home in his nest.
Then the scent of blackberries and orange had clogged my nose and I’d sucked in a breath, hoping she hadn’t heard me.
She didn’t give any sign she had, her body staying mostly still, only moving to press back tighter against me. If she’d heard me say another person’s name, she wouldn’t be so comfortable doing that.
My relief was mixed with guilt, and I hadn’t been able to stay in bed. I’d extricated myself from her arms without waking her, willing my erection down as I wandered across the living room to where Denzel and Reese were sharing the other bed. No one wanted to sleep in the closet — no, sorry, the ‘den’ as Denzel had claimed.
That was how I’d ended up travelling across town with my pack lead in clothes that didn’t belong to me. He’d wanted me out of the apartment before I said the truth where Thorn could overhear, and I hadn’t been able to go back into the room to see her in the bed we’d shared under false pretenses.
“You have to be more careful,” Denzel grunted from behind the wheel of the SUV.
I sat in the passenger seat, watching the city pass. It was too early for the streets to be clogged with commuters, the sun casting long shadows as it rose.
“We have to tell her,” I said, avoiding eye contact. “And him. How are you finding it so easy to lie to Marlowe? And Quentin, for that matter?”
His aura pulsed, revealing his irritation. If he would listen to Reese and I instead of throwing the title of pack lead around, he wouldn’t have to low key threaten us every time we talked about this. There was so much tension in the pack bond I was surprised Quentin hadn’t called Reese or I trying to figure out what the fuck was wrong.
“Nothing about this is easy,” he muttered. “This is for Marlowe’s safety. Thorn doesn’t trust us and doesn’t believe we’re her scent matches, so they can’t meet. She might not even be mentally stable.”
“You’ve said that multiple times, and we keep telling you it’s not right. Omegas have minds of their own, D. I’ve done enough research on them to be very certain of that. Not everyone is like—”
“Marlowe doesn’t deserve to be left behind by his scent match mate.”
Letting out a growl laced with frustration, I finally looked at him again. Denzel and I had been best friends for years, far longer than I’d known Reese and Marlowe. We’d grown up on the streets together; him operating out of the orphanage where he and Quentin had been dumped, and me occasionally going home to the shitty apartment my dad shared with an endless stream of women who needed a place to stay. Women he was taking advantage of, really.
He’d always been the mother hen of our group, taking the burden of keeping us safe in whatever way was necessary. He was the one who’d stolen food when we’d needed it. Paid money to the people who ran the streets so we wouldn’t be jumped at random. Made sure we all had clothes on our backs.
When we’d met Marlowe, he’d had a perfect target for all that overprotective energy. Our omega had come to us a mess of emotions, with a family who hated everything he represented. Denzel had kept him safe and comfortable and told his family to fuck off, in no uncertain terms.
But he’d never stopped protecting.
We’d been mated to Marlowe for years, and he was stressed whenever the omega was left alone. Marlowe accepted his worrying as a sign of love, but most people wouldn’t be able to stomach being hovered over that much. Thorn included, clearly.
I didn’t speak again, sitting in uncomfortable silence until we pulled up out front of the university science building where I worked in the lab.
“If she says our scent is the strongest, are you going to tell her?” I asked.
He got out of the car, coming around to my side to hold open the door and close it after me.
We weren’t even romantically involved, and he was this annoying.
“There’s no point in doing this experiment if you’re not going to act on the results,” I said, leading the way through the parking lot.
It was too early in the morning for many people to be here, the building still locked. Denzel hadn’t given me an answer on what his ultimate plan was with this, but I knew the gist of it.
We would give Thorn a series of pack scents to smell. There were vials here for research purposes, and I had free reign to take them so long as I arranged new samples every once in a while. From scenting so many packs side by side, she would in theory be able to tell if ours was the strongest scent.
If it was the strongest, it was a point in our favour on our task of proving we were her scent match mates.
I paused outside the door to the secure lab, key card in my hand. My hand had its usual tremors, worse because of how I hated to confront Denzel. We’d been letting him be protective for so long, it was odd to call him out. This time, however, his actions would be to our detriment.
Every time I pictured Marlowe’s expression when he found out we’d been hiding out with Thorn, my stomach clenched.
“I’m not getting you the vials unless you tell me what the plan is,” I said.
He growled, his aura trembling again. Denzel was growing increasingly unstable, and I saw it in every flash of anger. The pack bonds were weakening, too.
No one knew quite how it worked on a scientific level, but discord among pack members, specifically between pack members and the lead, would cause a pack to fracture over time. Our fracturing was happening more rapidly than was typical, but the lies we were telling were enormous.
“We need the vials.”
“Tell me your plan. I can’t continue to lie to my mates without knowing when you’re going to end this charade.”
“If she picks our pack out as the strongest scent, we’ll see how she acts over the next couple days. She might want to leave still. The woman has been through hell, and might be better off without us, anyway.” He caved, giving me details.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
“You’re fooling yourself into believing she would be better off without us?” I asked incredulously. “We can offer her safety and love and affection, if we would tell her the truth. What happens if she doesn’t recognize our scent as the strongest?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding eye contact.
Fuck, I missed the pack members who were good at communicating.
Quentin was the best at it. He might even be able to talk Denzel down from this insanity, if I went against Denzel’s direct order and told him what was going on. Marlowe was good at communicating because he had no filter for his emotions. Everything he was feeling was openly displayed on his face.
It was why I could picture the expression of dismay and betrayal he would have when he found out.
“What happens, Denzel? We know she’s our scent match.”
I pushed him to answer, and he sighed.
“I’ll find another way to prove it to her.”
“Based on what’s been done to her, there may not be a way. The science behind the injection she was given is untested, as you know. She was the first subject, in all I can find. They may have called her Two, but I haven’t seen any mention of One.”
“There’s got to be a way.”
“We should be focused on proving to her we’re good mates. Then it won’t matter if we’re her scent match or not, she’ll let us bite her into the pack. But she won’t see us as good mates if we’re liars,” I said.
“Proving she’s our scent match is the only way to guarantee she’ll stay. It’s best for Marlowe.”
Hands shaking intensely, I slid the key card into the slot and unlocked the lab door. “Fuck, Denzel. Scent matches don’t always stay with their mates, and we know that as well as anyone. Convincing her we’re not lying about that does nothing when we’re lying about everything else.” He tried to follow me into the lab, but I placed my hand across the doorway to block him. “I can’t deal with you right now. Go wait in the car.”
The door slammed shut on his frown, and I lamented how we hadn’t talked to Denzel about his protective alpha tendencies before now.
Being in my lab was comforting, my hands grabbing vial after vial as I sorted through them to find pack scents that would be suitable for the test. I took my time, organizing things that didn’t need to be organized, then creating lists of things I had to do when I came back to work.
I’d been in there so long, forcing Denzel to wait in the car, that I wasn’t surprised when my phone rang.
Picking it up, I answered without looking and put it between my ear and my shoulder. My hands were busy mixing a solution I would need the day I came back. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“I wish,” Marlowe whined through the line. “You never look at your call display, though, so I know you’re not talking to me.”
The spoon clanked against the side of the glass container as I let it go, my eyes flying wide. “Marlowe.”
“Yes, honeybun, it’s me,” he said with a laugh. “You haven’t called me. I’m worried about you.”
I felt for the stool shoved underneath the table and grabbed it, collapsing onto the unpadded wood. I should have known Marlowe would call, but I’d been avoiding talking to him for a reason.
If I wanted to continue following Denzel’s orders, I would have to lie to him about where I was, and what I was doing. He didn’t know we’d gone to the Centre in the first place, and that lie had been acceptable. This was the kind of mission we would tell him about when we got back safe and sound, so he wouldn’t worry himself.
But Thorn…
She was a whole different story. Not some little white lie anymore.
“Didn’t Denzel call you yesterday?” I asked.
“Denzel isn’t you. Reese is avoiding my calls too, so Denzel is the only one I’ve heard from. It’s unacceptable.”
He was a little huffy, and I knew he would be pouting. I sank my teeth into my lip, holding back the torrent of truths I wanted to tell him. “I’m sorry, honey. We’re busy.”
“Too busy for your omega?”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Quentin saved my ass by grabbing the phone from our omega. “Don’t make him feel guilty, Marlowe,” he scolded. “You know they would all be back here if they weren’t caught up.”
“But—”
“Go sit in the corner.”
The commanding tone of Quentin’s voice made me shiver, my cock twitching to life. Someone could come in here at any moment, so I took a couple deep breaths to get myself under control.
Marlowe whined faintly through the line. “I was just—”
Quentin cut him off again. “Good boys don’t guilt their alphas, and good sluts do as they’re told. Corner. Wait for me to come get you.”
There was the sound of feet scuffling and then Quentin chuckled. “He’s been insatiable. I’m not sure what it is, because he’s never been this horny while you’ve been gone before. I keep having to resort to punishments to keep him off my cock long enough for it to get hard again. Marlie claims his heat isn’t coming yet, but I have my doubts.”
My heart clenched.
Maybe he knew?
Pack bonds hadn’t been heavily researched until recently. No one could figure out how they worked yet. Could Marlowe be experiencing the effects of our arousal around Thorn? Was the primal part of him that was connected to us aware of her being his scent match already? The theories weren’t outside the realm of possibility.
“Sorry we’ve been gone for so long,” I said.
It was difficult to police my tone. I hated lying.
“Not your fault,” he said, brushing me off. “Denzel didn’t dig into the details, but I know from experience that whatever is holding you up is his fault.”
He wasn’t wrong. If it had been up to me, we would have taken Thorn straight home to meet Marlowe and dealt with the other lies later.
“If we’re lucky, we’ll be home soon. How long did he say it would be?”
“Damn, my brother likes to keep information close to the chest. He told me it wouldn’t be more than another week. I can’t believe you’re with him and you don’t know that.”
“This mission has been… odd.”
“Odd, huh? I want to ask you what that means, but I won’t put you in that position. I’ll pester Denzel the next time he deigns it necessary to answer one of my calls,” Quentin said. “Tell me how you’re doing, while I make Marlie wait.”
