The Omega and the Assassin (2 page)

Before he had time to ask how it was that an Omega knew how to fight, the other two Spiders made an appearance. Simon took one out with a neat shotgun blast to its body. Guts flew everywhere, but at least his kill was less gruesome than Finn’s. Two of the Betas worked together to take out the third one. Simon noted that it was limping, just as Finn had predicted.

Damn, the Omega had been so spot-on with his prediction, it was almost scary. In fact, there was a lot about Finn that was unpredictable. He was the most un-Omega-like Omega that Simon had ever run into. If it hadn’t had been for Finn’s thin build and short stature, Simon would have been half tempted to call shenanigans and say that he was a Beta in Omega’s clothing.

Once it was all over, Finn knelt down, took a cloth from his pocket, then began to clean off his blades. The calm way he went about it showed this wasn’t his first kill. In fact, Simon was willing to bet Finn had more than a few under his belt.

“How is it that an Omega knows how to fight that well?” Simon demanded.

He was getting sick of being two steps behind when it came to this Omega. It would seem he was the only one who didn’t know all of Finn’s little tricks. The Betas sure as hell didn’t look shocked. They all acted as if they had expected Finn to come out on top when the Spider had attacked. In fact, not one of them had stepped forward to help. Which was what a Beta normally would have done had they seen one of their Omegas in trouble.

“I just do. Let’s leave it at that,” Finn said as he stood up.

He then walked away, leaving Simon more confused than ever. What was up with this Omega? More importantly, how in the hell was Simon going to work with Finn when he didn’t know the first thing about him?

Finn walked into his living room, dropped onto the couch, and threw a hand over his face. Talk about one hell of a first day. He was already worn to the bones, his nerves were frazzled to the core, and he had God knew how many more hours with Simon to spend.

Not that Simon wasn’t easy on the eyes. Once Finn got past the scary assassin uniform, he managed to see that one hell of a sexy man lay underneath all those weapons. While the man never did take down that damn hood, Finn managed to see that he had short blond hair peeking out. It went great with his amazing light blue eyes and chiseled cheekbones. And his body…oh heaven and hell…his body was the most amazing thing Finn had ever seen. It was so full of muscles that were in all the right places. It made Finn want to run his hands all over Simon. Which would be a good way for Finn to lose a limb for sure. It was no big secret that Simon hated other shifters. The last thing he probably wanted was some dinky Omega going all grope-y on him. But at least Finn could dream. There was no harm in that—right?

“How was your first day with the assassin?” Kline said as he came out of the kitchen and sat down next to Finn.

As Finn’s twin, Kline looked every part the Omega, down to his blond hair and light blue eyes. That wasn’t the only way they were different, either. Kline was the more outspoken of the pair. He never shut up. There had been more than once when their older brother Tate had threatened to gag Kline, and once he’d even gone with it. Plus, Kline didn’t share Finn’s special gift of enhanced smell. Instead, Kline had the ability of enhanced vision. Although some would call that a curse. They always had to keep the lights on low in their dwelling. Whenever he went out, Kline had to wear sunglasses to protect his eyes.

That still didn’t mean that they weren’t as close as other twins, though. They were fiercely protective of each other and could almost read each other’s minds, something that often drove Tate crazy.

It was just the three of them now. Their parents had been killed by in a Raven attack several years ago, before they had joined Chris’s pack. It was a loss that none of them had ever really gotten over. Their parents had been living as rogue wolves, trying to pass as human, so left themselves open to attack. After the Raven incident, Tate had vowed that he would never leave his family that vulnerable again. Not only had he trained the twins how to fight, but he had insisted that they join a pack.

Finn gave Kline a sideways glance. “How do you think my first day went? It was terrible. Not only does the assassin hate me, but I almost got eaten by one of the Spiders.”

“Did you kill it?”

“The assassin or the Spider?”

Tate rolled his eyes. “The Spider, of course. If you had killed the assassin, you would have made Chris mad, and we don’t want that.”

“Yes, of course I killed the Spider. It was trying to land on my shoulder. Nobody likes a Spider on their shoulder. Especially the venomous, gonna-eat-you kind.”

“Yeah, I guess that would kind of suck. How did you off it?”

“With two short blades.”

Kline pursed his lips together and tilted his head to the side. “Flashy, but it seems like it got the job done.”

Finn grinned. “You should have seen the assassin’s face. He looked ready to shit bricks. He thought I was just some timid Omega who couldn’t stand up for myself.”

“Well, you do have to admit, you are intimidated by the assassin,” Kline pointed out, ever the helpful one.

Finn snorted. “Who wouldn’t be? The guy kills for a frigging living. He probably has aquariums full of human heads.”

“That’s a gruesome thought.”

“But a probable one. You should have seen the look he gave me today just because I was a few minutes late.”

Kline sighed. “How many times have I told you to make sure that your phone is charged before you go to bed?”

“That’s beyond the point right now. I think he got that lesson into me loud and clear today. I seriously thought there for a moment that he was going to tear off my arm and beat me with it.”

“That would have been counterproductive to your mission. I think he would have just smacked you around a bit.”

Finn glared at his brother. “You’re really not helping here.”

Kline held up his hands. “Just pointing out the obvious.”

Finn looked around the dwelling. “Where’s Tate at?”

“He had to go on a mission. So it’ll just be us for dinner. What do you want? I’ll cook.”

“Are you sure? We can always go to the cafeteria.”

To say that Kline lacked in culinary skills would be understating things. Kline was so bad that he had trouble with canned soup. That wasn’t a sarcastic statement, either. Kline actually burned the stuff.

Kline thought about it a moment before he nodded. “Actually, you’re right. Let me go get my glasses, and we’ll go to the cafeteria. It’ll be safer for both of us if we do that. The last thing I want to do is make you so ill you have to call in tomorrow. From the way you talk, that assassin will come here and drag you out of your sickbed anyway. While I’m always up for some drama, not even I want to see that.”

Kline rushed to his room to change into some jeans, and then they went down the cafeteria. As usual, the place was packed. Finn had to brace himself as the scents of so many emotions bombarded him. Anger, greed, envy, hate—all the bad ones hit him so hard that Finn actually took a couple of steps backwards and had to brace himself against the wall.

Kline reached out and grabbed him. “Are you going to be okay? If you want, I can get a tray and bring it back to our place for you.”

There was a reason this was their first visit to the cafeteria. Finn just didn’t do well in crowds. He couldn’t handle all the emotions being thrown at him at once. He did fine in small groups, but if he got around more than a handful of people, his gift went into overdrive.

Gritting his teeth, Finn shook his head. “No, I have to learn how to handle being around the pack sometime. Might as well start now. It’s not like I can continue to keep myself holed up in our dwelling forever.”

“It’s not like you’re doing it because you’re a snob or something. You have a very valid reason. Nobody thinks any less of you because of it.”

While Finn appreciated Kline’s words of encouragement, it didn’t make Finn any less determined. He could do this. Sure, it might suck, but he had Kline at his side and that would help anchor him.

“Just don’t leave my side, and I’ll be okay,” Finn assured his twin.

They grabbed some trays and went to the food line. Since his stomach was already churning like the ocean during a hurricane, Finn only grabbed some soup and crackers. He wasn’t that hungry anymore, plus they had snacks at home if he got the munchies later on.

Once they were through the line, they looked for a place to sit down. It was so packed that it looked as if nearly every table was taken up. Finally, Kline nodded to an empty table at the back of the large room. “We can sit there.”

Finn followed Kline to the table, and they took seats opposite of each other. Finn looked down at his soup, wondering if he would even be able to eat even that. Now that they were smack dab in the middle of the group, things were even worse.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus only on the good vibes that were coming his way. The Alpha’s mate was there and both of the young in her womb were sending out happy emotions. They were at such peace at the moment and their emotions were so strong that Finn could almost see the two babies nestled together in the womb. They were so big and strong that it wouldn’t be much longer until they would be born.

Strangely, focusing on the two babies gave Finn more strength than ever. It even gave him his appetite back. He picked up his spoon and began to eat, surprised to find that the soup was actually good. It was better than good, it was great. Wow, they had to eat in the cafeteria more often. While Tate could cook, this beat his best any day of the week.

“Don’t look up now, but look who’s coming in,” Kline said.

Now, everybody knows when somebody says
don’t look up
the first thing somebody is going to do is look up. It’s just a natural reaction. Finn glanced over his shoulder and saw the group of assassins entering the cafeteria.

“I told you not to look,” Kline admonished.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. If you hadn’t wanted me to take a peek, then you should have kept your yap shut.”

Kline sighed. “Tell me again why I hang out with you?”

“Because we’re twins, and we’re stuck with each other.”

“Sometimes I wonder about that. I mean we don’t look anything alike. They could have switched us at birth.”

Finn turned back around to give his brother an are-you-stupid look. “We were born at home, not a hospital. So that’s not possible.”

“Well, there goes that theory. You just have to shoot all my ideas down. You really can be a buzzkill at times.”

Kline took a bit of a hamburger that was bigger than his head and began to chew. How it was that Kline could eat the way he did and not weigh more than three hundred pounds was a mystery to Finn. His twin was always shoveling food down his throat, yet he stayed thin as ever.

Finn glanced back over at the assassins and was shocked to see Simon looked back at him. All the air seemed to leave the room as Finn found himself locked in the Tiger’s predatory gaze. Finn swallowed hard before he nervously licked his lips.

Simon had his hood down, and Finn was finally getting a good look at the man’s features. Finn hadn’t thought it possible, but Simon looked even better without it. His blond hair was slightly spiked at the top and he had an almost youthful appearance to him. That was, until Finn looked closer into Simon’s eyes. They had a haunted look about them. Like he’d seen too much and had grown up too fast.

“Do I need to get a drool bucket?” Kline asked.

Finn whipped his head back around. “Huh?”

“You’re practically panting after that assassin. I’m assuming that’s the one that you’re working with.”

“Yes, it is. But you don’t have to worry about anything ever happening between us. Not only does Simon hate other shifters, but he’s a jerk. I would rather eat broken glass than be with him.”

Kline let out a short laugh. “You could have fooled me. You were just looking at him like he was a rare steak and you were a starving Wolf.”

“I want nothing to do with him. He’s a work partner and that’s all it’s ever going to be.”

“Sure it is,” Kline deadpanned.

“I’m serious.”

“He’s still looking at you.”

“Yeah, probably because he’s sizing me up to be his lunch for tomorrow,” Finn grumbled.

“No, I don’t think so. He looked more curious than anything. It’s like he’s trying to figure you out and can’t.”

“I think I threw him a bit when I killed that Spider so easily. I believe you and I are the only Omegas who can actually fight.”

“Yeah, well we have Tate to thank for that. Personally, I’m glad I know how to fight.”

“Me, too. Otherwise I would have ended up in the infirmary today because I would have gotten a good dose of Spider venom.”

A shiver went down Finn’s spine at the thought of that Spider actually landing on his shoulder. Just imagining the thing actually touching him grossed him the hell out. While he would rather die than admit it aloud, he hated Spiders. They gave him the willies.

“So, what did he think of your tracking skills?” Kline asked.

Kline would have had a good set of tracking skills himself with his enhanced vision, had it not been for his vulnerability to light. Now, if they ever had to go into a cave or some other dark place, then Kline would have been their go-to guy. But in the middle of a State Park during the day, even the best sunglasses wouldn’t have protected his peepers enough.

“He didn’t say anything, but I think I left a good first impression,” Finn said. “At least he didn’t yell at me again or anything, so that’s a plus. He is as sarcastic as hell.”

“Oh, that’s not good.”

Finn frowned. “Why not?”

“So are you. The two of you together are going to mix and make a sarcasm tornado. I just hope the entire team makes it out alive without one of you getting them killed.”

Finn felt a bit hurt. “I’m not sarcastic.”

Kline looked out over the top of his glasses. “Are you kidding me? You’re the king of sarcasm. All that’s missing is the sash and the crown.”