The Omega and the Assassin (4 page)

Finn coughed several times as his coloring came back. The entire time, Simon rubbed him on the back. Maybe it was a bit soft of him, but he couldn’t help but feel bad for the Wolf. It looked like he was about ready to cough up a lung.

“What about the fifth one?” Finn rasped once he got his voice back.

Simon laughed. “You almost die and that’s the only thing you’re worried about.”

“Call me crazy, but I don’t want that one to drag me underwater, too. That’s an experience I never want to repeat.”

“Don’t worry. We killed it while you guys were in the water.” Avan pointed to the remains of a fifth Spider.

“Good. Can you guys take me home now? I think I need a nap,” Finn said.

Finn was on the couch, watching an old episode of
Project Runway
when Tate came in. Unlike Kline, their older brother looked a lot like Finn, as he had Finn’s brown hair and dark blue eyes. The only difference was that Tate was supersized. Not only was a good foot taller than Finn, but he had more muscles than an action hero on steroids.

It wasn’t an accident or a gift from God, either. After the attack, Tate had worked out and trained until his body was a killing machine. He could have been an assassin himself if he’d wanted to be. That was, if Tate wasn’t such a big softie. For all his bulk, Tate didn’t have a mean bone in his body…unless if came to a Raven. Then all bets were off. In his book, the only good Raven was a dead Raven. Not that Finn could blame him since he felt the same way, although after the incident in the water earlier, he’d added Spiders to the list.

“What’s wrong with you?” Tate asked.

It was the same question Kline had asked repeatedly before. Finn had refused to answer at the time, and Kline had finally given up and gone to his room, muttering something about, “Snotty Omegas and their attitudes.” Which made no sense at all since Kline was an Omega, too.

“Why didn’t you ever teach us how to swim?” Finn asked, not taking his eyes off the screen.

After all, they had gotten to the runway portion of the show and that was the best part. Finn always loved to see which designer really blew it and sent out a mess of a dress. Maybe that was mean of him, but he was allowed to have some bitchy moments in life, wasn’t he?

Tate sat down in the recliner to the side of the couch. “Maybe it was because I don’t know how to swim myself. What brought on this question?”

“I almost drowned today.”

Tate reached over, grabbed the remote then turned off the TV.

“Hey! I was watching that!” Finn protested.

“Too fucking bad. You’re going to tell me what in the hell happened today, and I want your full attention. Start from the beginning and don’t leave any details out.”

“A Spider played piggyback with me, took me into a lake, I went under, and the assassin had to come in and rescue me.”

As usual, Tate saw right through Finn. His brother narrowed his eyes at him. “Tell me the rest of the story.”

“I may have stopped breathing a while, and the assassin had to do mouth-to-mouth with me.

And for that, Finn was strangely disappointed that he’d been out of it. For some reason, he would have liked to be awake when Simon pressed his lips against him. Which was just plain crazy. Simon was a jerk. An asshole. Full of himself. So the last thing Finn should be wondering was what it would be like to kiss the Tiger.

“Damn it!” Tate cursed. “I knew I should never have let you go on this mission. It was too dangerous.”

“You never allowed me to do anything,” Finn pointed out quietly. “It was my own decision. Since I’m twenty-two, I quit capable of running my life. Besides, the Alpha came to me and ordered to me to do it. It’s not like I can say no.”

“I can still go to him and tell him that I think you’re not ready for this.”

Panic filled Finn, as he had no doubt that was exactly something his brother would do. Somehow it was important to Finn that he complete this mission, and it wasn’t just because of his newfound attraction to Simon. It was because, for the first time in his life, Finn felt like he was actually doing something worthwhile for the pack. Sure, he’d gone on tracking missions before, but nothing this big or important. He didn’t want to let his Alpha down.

“You’re not going to the Alpha and saying anything. In case you’ve missed it, Kline and I are both adults now, and we can make our own decisions in life. You don’t have the right to rule what we can and can’t do anymore. And right now, I will be staying on this mission. They need me, and I won’t let them down.”

“But it’s too risky.”

Finn jumped to his feet and balled his hands into fists. “You can’t keep me and Kline cooped up in here forever. It’s not fair to us. It’s like you’re putting us in prison for a crime that we never committed.”

Tate got up, too, so he towered over Finn. “That’s not fair. I’m only trying to protect you two.”

“You can’t do that by smothering us to death. I want to get out. To see the real world, for once. Most of all, I want to be a real contributing member of this pack. I may only be an Omega, but I still have a lot to offer.”

Tate’s features softened a bit. “Nobody ever said you didn’t.”

“You do. Every time you say that something is too dangerous for me or Kline. Do you have any idea how weak and insufficient that makes us feel?”

Tate shook his head. “I never meant to make you feel that way. I was only trying to protect you.”

“What did you expect? Kline and I to be perfectly happy living the rest of our lives within the walls of this apartment? We want to see the world. Explore what life has to offer. You get to, so why shouldn’t we?”

Finn was on a rant, but he didn’t care. All of his pent up frustrations were coming out, and he couldn’t hold them back. The worst part of it was he knew Tate only had their best interests at heart. What really sucked big time was that he was getting the brunt of Finn’s rage.

Finn continued, “I don’t want to die having seen nothing but these four walls. I want to experience all there is to have in the world—the good and the bad. I want to be able to have my first kiss, my first relationship, to find a mate, all those good things. That’s never going to happen if I’m locked away like some kind of precious treasure that you think is going to break the moment it’s touched.”

Tate let out a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. “Damn, I never realized you feel that way. Is Kline thinking the same way?”

“He hasn’t told me in so many words, but I can tell that it’s eating at him to be holed up in here,” Finn admitted.

“You have to know I never meant to hurt you guys. I was only trying to protect you.”

“We realize that. But you’re smothering us to death.”

“I’m just terrified of losing you like I did Mom and Dad,” Tate said.

Finn’s heart went out to him, and it made him feel a little guilty about his outburst, but not enough to pull it back in. “I know you do. Don’t you think Kline and I worry about losing you whenever you go out on a mission? But you don’t see us trying to stop you. We know you have a duty to the pack. Well, so do we. We’re fully functioning adult Wolves, and we should be contributing to the pack, not hiding out from it.”

“You do contribute to it. Whenever they ask you to track for them, you go out,” Tate pointed out.

“I don’t go nearly as much as I should, and we both know it. They would ask me to go more if they knew you weren’t so protective of me. As it was, Chris was hesitant to request me to go on this mission. It was only because it was so dire, and he needed his best tracker that he ordered me to go.”

“
Best tracker
,” Tate echoed. “At least we don’t have to worry about your ego suffering from your forced confinement.”

Finn picked up a nearby pillow and threw it at his brother. “You know what I mean. I want to be a full-time tracker for the pack. Not just the one they use for the hard cases. I can do it. Thanks to you, I can fight just as well as any of the Betas. Plus, it would give me something to do besides sitting here, doing nothing but watching TV and counting the ceiling tiles.”

Tate held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, I get the message, loud and clear. I’ll back off you two. I can’t guarantee there won’t be some times where I’ll slide back and go into overprotective mode, but I’ll try my best.”

Finn narrowed his eyes. “I guess that will do for now. But, you have to give me permission to kick you in the ass if you start to mother us too much again.”

“Deal.”

“Okay, now is it okay if I go start making us dinner?”

Finn shook his head. “We want to go to the cafeteria.”

Tate tilted his head to the side. “Since when have you liked the food better there?”

“When we went the other day and tried it. You try hard, but they have you beat hands down. Sorry.”

“Fine, I’ll go get Kline and we’ll go.”

After Tate rounded up Kline, they left and began to make their way to the cafeteria. They were about halfway there when Finn spotted Simon and his fellow assassins hanging out in the hallway.

“Can you guys wait here a second? I have to ask Simon something.” Finn asked.

“Who’s Simon?” Kline asked.

Finn rolled his eyes. “He’s my assassin.”

“Fine, but hurry up. I’m starved,” Tate said.

“I’ll make sure to hurry before you waste away to nothing,” Finn assured him.

Finn rushed ahead and approached Simon. As he grew closer, his apprehension intensified. He’d been around one assassin before and that had been bad enough. Now he was about to be around a group of them. They all looked every bit as scary as Simon did, too. And like Simon they all screamed Alpha. Why did they always have to wear those damn black cloaks? It reminded Finn of the bad guys from some video game or something.

Simon turned and stared at Finn as he approached. A huge part of Finn wanted to turn heel and run back to the protection of his brothers. But he couldn’t for two reasons. One, he’d just told Tate that he could handle himself without any help. Two, if he did run, he’d look like an idiot in front of the assassins.

So, even though he was trembling from head-to-toe, Finn pressed on until he was standing in front of Simon. Damn, they sure made assassins big. Each and every one of them seemed to tower over Finn. He felt like a little kid compared to the giants.

“I need to talk to you,” Finn said to Simon.

Simon gave a half-shrug. “Then talk.”

Finn could feel a heat come over his face as he felt the probing stares of the other assassins. “I was hoping we could do it in private. If that’s okay with you.”

Simon let out a put-upon sigh, but he grabbed Finn by the wrist and led him to a nearby doorway. Finn tried hard not to notice how nice it felt to have Simon touch him. Even if it was just a little tug on the arm. It was as if an electric jolt had gone up his arm and traveled through his entire body, awakening every sensation within him.

“What was so important that you had to drag me away from my meeting to talk about?” Simon demanded.

He let go of Finn’s hand. Finn felt an instant loss and it was all he could do not to reach out and grab for Simon again. Which would have made a spectacular fool of himself. Not that he hadn’t already done that.

For a moment, Finn just stood there, all deer in headlights, as his mind tried to catch up with his aroused body. While he and Simon were far from actually being alone, in the alcove of the doorway, it sure felt like it. All Finn could think of was all the naughty things they could do without anyone being the wiser.

Finn felt like he was losing his mind. Why in the hell was he thinking that way? He hated Simon, and Simon had made it perfectly clear that he hated Finn. So, the last thing Finn should be thinking about is getting jiggy with the Tiger.

Yet, there was no denying it. He wanted Simon. No, he
needed
Simon. Just as much as he needed his next breath. While Finn might not have gotten out much, he’d run across enough guys to be attracted to more than a few, but none had ever hit him this hard. What was it about Simon that made him so different?

Simon crossed his arms over his chest and gave Finn an irritated glare. “I’m waiting for my answer. What is it that you needed?”

“I was wondering if you could give me swimming lessons?” Finn blurted.

Finn didn’t need his heightened sense of smell to know that question shocked Simon. The Tiger’s brows raised and he let out a low whistle. “Wow, that one came out of left field. Not that you don’t need them, but why come to me?”

“Because you’re the only one I know who can swim.”

“Yeah, I noticed you don’t get out much.”

Finn leaned against the wall. “So does that mean you’ll do it?”

Simon rubbed at his chin. “Sure, I guess I will. The feline coalition has a pool we can use.”

Finn felt a thrill go through him. It would be a chance for him to get some alone time with Simon without the Betas being around. With just the two of them together, who knew what could happen?

But he hates you, remember?

Finn told his inner monologue to put a lid on it. So he had feelings for Simon. What was the big deal? It wasn’t like anything was ever going to happen because of them.

Simon shifted them around so Finn was braced against the door, and Simon had a hand on either side of Finn’s head. Finn’s heart began to race as he realized the assassin had him pinned in.

Simon leaned in and made a big show of sniffing Finn. “Boy, you must be really nervous, because you missed it completely.”

Swallowing hard, Finn gazed up at Simon. “Missed what?”

“The smell of arousal.”

“
Arousal?”
Finn echoed

“Yeah, and it was coming from both of us.”

With those parting words, Simon pushed away from the door and walked away, leaving Finn more confused than ever before.

It had been a long and frustrating day of tracking that day for Simon. Not only had they only found one measly Spider, but all Simon could think about was Finn. Which put Simon in both a confused state and a bad mood.

He kept catching himself glancing over at the Omega. Or maybe a better term for him would be the Beta in an Omega’s body. Because no Omega that Simon knew would walk around with a pair of short swords strapped to his back and a
Glock
at his side.