The Omega and the Assassin

Simon may be the best tracker out there, but somebody else is on his trail, and if he doesn’t watch it, they may just catch him and not release him.

Raised to never trust any other shifters outside his inner circles, the last thing Simon wants to do is to work with a Wolf, much less an Omega.

Finn doesn’t want to work with Simon any more than Simon wants to be with him. Not only does the assassin intimidate him, but Simon is nothing more than a jerk. But, despite all that, Finn finds himself growing attracted to Simon, which is crazy because he hates Simon.

Will Finn and Simon be able to put their differences aside to give love a chance?

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The Omega and the Assassin

Copyright © 2013 Stephani Hecht

ISBN: 978-1-77111-666-4

Cover art by Angela Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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The Assassin and the Omega

Wayne County Wolves Book 7

By

Stephani Hecht

To Jackie-You rock, sis!

The Omega was late. This did not bode well for their first day together. They had yet to meet, and already the little shit had managed to piss Simon off.

Simon paced the common room of the pack dwelling as he waited for any sign of the Omega. While there were plenty of Wolves milling around, not one of them was
his
Omega.

Of course, to be fair, Simon had yet to be meet his new work buddy. Finn could be there, and he would not know it. Simon did a quick scan, looking for any Wolf that would look like an Omega. Nope, not a single one of them fit the bill. There were a few civilians, a handful of Betas, and a scattering of children, but nada in the way of Omegas.

The sound of pounding footsteps broke through the buzz of noise, and a slim figure came into view. The guy came up to Simon and had the audacity to flash a smile before saying, “Sorry, I’m late. I overslept.”

The first thing that struck Simon’s mind, other than the fact that the brat had a weak excuse, was how Omega-less he looked. Most Omegas were blond with blue eyes. Not this guy. Sure, he had blue eyes, but they were dark. So much so that they reminded Simon of water at nighttime. Plus, this Omega had dark brown hair. He kept it short in the back, but a little longer in the front, so it was a bit stylish and not so stuffy looking.

The one thing the Omega did have that was the same as most Omegas was the short, thin build. Usually, Simon found it a turn-off, but on this guy, somehow it managed to work. He wore the pack uniform, and the black garment fit his body like a glove, showing off all his dips and ridges to perfection. Simon almost wished the man would turn around, so he could get a good view of his ass. Simon had a sneaky feeling that he would just love the view from there.

Simon hated to admit it, but the little shit was much better looking than he’d been expecting. That still didn’t mean that Simon was going to let him off the hook, though.

“Oversleeping is no excuse for being late. Maybe next time, I’ll arrange for a wakeup call for you,” Simon growled, curling his lip up.

The Omega took a step back and paled some. “No, that won’t be necessary. I just forgot to charge my
iPhone
up, and it died overnight, so the alarm didn’t go off. I won’t let it happen again. I promise.”

Simon knew he posed an intimidating figure in his assassin attire of all black. He even had his cloak on, with the hood pulled up and obscuring everything but his face. So the Omega was probably scared—well, good. Things would work better that way. Maybe then the Wolf would be intimidated enough to not cause Simon any trouble.

“Let’s get going,” Simon said, as he turned and walked away.

“My name is Finn, by the way,” the Wolf said as he ran to catch up.

“I know,” Simon said, without even turning around.

“I already know yours is Simon, too, so is it okay if I call you that?”

God, this whole this whole timid shit was getting old already. Simon got the feeling that if he said
boo,
Finn would piss himself. Simon was half-tempted to test the theory just for shits and giggles, but not even he was that mean. Okay, maybe he was, but he didn’t want to have to waste time while Finn changed clothes. They were already late as it was, and who knew how long it would take Mr. I’m Scared of My Own Shadow to find new pants.

They walked outside and went to one of the pack’s SUVs. Since there was no way in hell that Simon was about to let Finn drive, Simon got behind the wheel. Once Finn got into the passenger seat, Simon sized him up once again. The view up closer was much better than the one far away.

“So they say you are the best tracker in the pack?” Simon asked.

He just didn’t see it. How could somebody who was afraid of their own shadow be able to track down anything? It would seem that Finn would be too busy looking for a place to hide out rather than checking out his surroundings to see what might be out of place.

“Yes, I am. The Alpha says I’m even better than him,” Finn said, never quite meeting Simon’s gaze.

“Yeah, I just don’t see it.”

Finn gave a shrug. “You’ll just have to see me in action and to judge for yourself.”

Turning on the engine, Simon said, “I guess I will.”

At the moment, he was thinking that somebody had set him up, and this was some wiseass’ idea of a practical joke. Because there was no way possible that Finn was in any way a tracker. If he was, then Simon was a circus clown, squeaky nose and all.

The drive there took a while. The entire time, Finn didn’t say a word, he just looked out the window. Almost as if he were taking everything in and storing it away or something. It made Simon wonder if the guy ever got out much. He almost acted like a newly released prisoner who’d just finished a twenty-year stint.

Once they reached their destination, Simon parked and got out. They had a handful of Betas who were there as backup. They parked next to them, got out, and then stood back, waiting for orders.

“So,” Simon asked, “do you have any ideas as to where we should start looking?”

He could very well start tracking himself, but he wanted to see what this supposed super-tracker was made of. So Simon just crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He heard one of the Betas snicker and, for a moment, he thought that it was at Finn until he realized that the Beta was looking at him.

“What?” Simon asked.

“Just watch the kid work his magic. Then we’ll see how much of a smartass you are,” the Beta said.

Finn walked up to the edge of the woods and cocked his head to the side, almost like he would do if he were in his Wolf form. He then lifted his head in the air and sniffed lightly. The wind kicked up, blowing some of the strands of his brown hair in his face, but he made no move to brush it away. It was almost as if he was too caught up in what he was doing to notice it.

Next, he knelt down on the ground and picked up some sand. He ran it through his hands before he brought some of it up and smelled it. A slight frown came over his face, making him look a bit older. He reached up and felt some of the nearby branches, his fingers lingering longer on one bush in particular.

Finally, he stood. “Three Spiders came this way about a half hour ago. One of them is injured and walking with a slight limp. I think one of the others hurt it, but I can’t be too sure since I don’t know that much about how the young act.”

“Which way are they heading,” one of the Betas asked.

“Northeast. If we move fast, we should be able to catch up to them quickly,” Finn said.

Okay, Simon was a bit impressed, but he would have been able to tell that by looking himself. Or at least he would have been able to tell
most
of it. He didn’t know how in the hell Finn was able to tell that one of them was wounded. That one had been a neat little trick, because as Simon drew closer and looked at the tracks, they all appeared the same to him. He was dying to ask Finn how he’d figured out that tidbit, but that would mean he’d have to admit Finn was better than him. Instead, Simon just held his tongue and led the way. After all, the last thing he wanted to deal with was a cocky Omega.

Once he saw the path the Spiders had taken, it wasn’t that hard to follow it. They were as big as fuck, and they left behind a path of destruction. Dead animal carcasses were lying all over the place. Okay, to be fair, they were only baby Spiders, having just been spawned, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. Their venom could still kill any one of the shifters hunting them, and, working together the Spiders could very well attack and eat a full-grown man.

Which was why Simon and the others were there. Not only were there the three they were hunting down, but there were countless others of these little darlings out there, all the result of Razor, a now dead enemy assassin who had hatched them and then let them loose in the State Park. Now, it was up to Simon to hunt down the little darlings and eliminate them before they killed innocent humans. Oh, the good times of being a shifter.

Finn made a hissing noise and held up a hand. Simon stopped and gave him a droll look. “What?”

“They know that we’re following them,” Finn said.

“And you know this how?”

“I can smell their excitement.”

Simon sniffed the air. As a Tiger shifter, he was pretty good at sniffing out emotions, too, but he got nada. Just the smells of the nearby lakes, the trees, the dirt, and a nearby pile of doggy excrement that somebody had neglected to clean up.

“I don’t smell it,” Simon said.

“Trust him. If he says he scents it, then it’s there,” a Beta said.

“Finn can smell things that nobody else can. That’s what makes him such a good tracker,” another added.

“Really,” Simon cocked his head to the side. “Then tell me what I’m feeling now.”

Finn blinked up at him. “Annoyed with a dash of disbelief.”

One of the Betas let out a snort while another had the good graces to cover his mouth to hide the fact that he was smiling. Simon, on the other hand, was two steps away from doing some good old-fashioned Omega strangling.

“Do you think this is funny?” he asked.

Finn shook his head. “Not really. You’re awfully pissed right now, and nobody wants to tick off an assassin. Especially one with your kind of reputation.”

“And what kind of reputation is that?”

“Well…” Finn wrinkled his nose as he hedged a bit. “You really don’t go out of your way to make friends, now do you?”

Simon stared down at the little snot. How dare he accuse Simon of being a snob? So what if he liked to stay to himself? What business of that was to anybody else? Being friendly wasn’t part of an assassin’s job criteria. Or at least it hadn’t been the last time Simon had checked.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t more chummy. I was planning on throwing a coming out party, but time just got away from me,” Simon shot back sarcastically.

“Well, if you want, I could help you out with that. I have a killer punch recipe,” Finn retorted.

Simon blinked a few times. It wasn’t very often that somebody could meet him toe-to-toe when it came to the smartass comments. He didn’t know if he was ticked or turned-on, which was a real kicker since he hated all things shifter, especially Wolves.

He was so caught up in his thoughts he almost missed the dark shadow that came dipping out of the tree from behind Finn. Simon started to call out a warning, but Finn was already moving. Pulling out a pair of short swords, Finn spun around.

The Spider was about the size of a small dog, but it didn’t make it any less vicious-looking. It snapped its double pinchers at Finn and let out a hissing sound. Venom dripped from the thing’s mouth, the yellow liquid looking gross even from a distance.

Finn didn’t hesitate an instant. He brought the blades together in one swift movement and sliced the thing in half. Simon watched in stunned disbelief as the Spider fell to the ground into two pieces. Its body parts twitched a couple of times before they stopped moving altogether.