Chapter Twenty-Four
Ronan led Noah down to the gym the next day but didn’t stay, leaving the omega alone at the door. Noah dithered outside for a minute before going in, not sure what to expect.
Griffin was standing in the middle of the floor, a knife in his hand. It took all of Noah’s nerve not to back right out of there and go running after Ronan.
“Good morning, Noah,” Griffin said without turning.
“Um, hi. Should I be worried, about the knife?” He decided to be direct. Griffin seemed to like that as it surprised a laugh from the other omega.
“No. It’s just to demonstrate.”
Griffin waved him over, and Noah crossed the room, glancing all around him. Despite the fact that Griffin had called it a gym, it didn’t look like Noah’s idea of a place to do exercise.
He stood by Griffin’s side, looking where the omega pointed.
“That’s the target.”
It was circular and looked a little like a dartboard, position about halfway up the nearest wall.
“With alphas, you have strength, sometimes speed. Betas are good all-rounders. Where omega excel is in sleight of hand and misdirection. Watch.”
Griffin moved a few feet away, turning to face Noah. He passed the knife from one hand to the other, moving his hand to his side. If Noah hadn’t already seen it, he probably wouldn’t know the knife was there, not the way Griffin was holding it.
“An omega’s body draws eyes. There are many ways to use that to your advantage,” Griffin continued. He smoothed a hand along his hip, drawing Noah’s eyes downward, then turned to the side. Noah heard a thunk and glanced up to see the knife embedded in the target, dead center.
“Most omega learn to use their bodies in simple ways, to attract a mate, to derive pleasure and protection from alphas. I was taught differently.”
“You went to an omega training house?” Noah guessed.
There, they taught omegas how to please an alpha, how to have social graces, how to look and play the part to be seen on affluent alphas’ arms. They also taught those omegas whose packs wanted them not to mate but to be ambassadors of a sort for their packs. To entertain any alpha visitors, potential clients, and business partners. His pack hadn’t operated on that kind of level. Only the wealthy could afford the kind of training that went into that.
“The training houses teach you seduction, yes. And manipulation. My training started like that. But it went further. The alphas who raised me didn’t want an escort, they wanted an assassin.”
Noah swallowed hard, looking at the knife with new eyes. “They taught you how to kill.”
“Yes. When that was what they wanted. Sometimes it was information, sometimes it was access. And sometimes they wanted someone out of their way. They bought me from my pack when I was young, trained me with others so I’d learn the social graces necessary, while in the background, they gave me the skills I’d need to do their bidding. I was loyal, to a fault.”
Griffin stalked across the room to the target, pulling the knife free. Noah watched in amazement, enraptured by the omega’s story.
“What changed?” he asked.
“They sent me here, to Briar House. At that time, an alpha lived here. An older man whose omega had died. He’d sent away all his staff and was, supposedly, sitting on a pile of wealth that my guardians wanted to get a hold of. So they sent me, to pretend to be an omega kicked out of his pack, looking for some work in exchange for food and board.”
“And that worked?”
“They dyed my hair and gave me contacts to change my eye color so I’d look like his late omega. He couldn’t find it in his heart to send me away. I was supposed to find out all I could about the old man’s riches, then kill him quietly and steal everything. By the time anyone realized, I’d have been long gone.”
“What happened?”
Griffin turned haunted eyes toward him. “He was a lonely old man, and a gentle soul. He was kind to me, and he didn’t want anything in return. I… felt something for him. Not lust but a sort of love. Like a child for his father. When the time came, I couldn’t go through with it. I left a note warning him, and I made myself scarce. I knew my… owners… would be looking for me so it was almost two years before I dared to show my face anywhere. And the first place I came was here.”
“What happened to the alpha?”
“He had died. Natural causes or so they say. He had no children and no pack so, in his will, he left me everything. I guess it was his way of saying that he forgave me.”
“He left you this house?”
It was all starting to fall into place.
“He did. And I was determined that it wasn’t an opportunity I was going to squander. I started looking for others like me. People who’d been wronged by the pack hierarchy, people who had talents and skills but wanted the chance to make their own choices, choose their own direction in life. When I found those people, I brought them here. We pooled our resources, learning each other’s strengths, and started taking jobs. The jobs other people didn’t want to do.”
“But lots of people are bounty hunters,” Noah pointed out. He’d heard there was often a lot of competition over contracts.
“Contracts like that are only part of what we do. At first, we took less savory jobs. But we built up a reputation for being reliable, for getting the job done, and gradually other work started coming our way. We’re discreet, and the upper-class packs will pay a lot for that. They don’t want other packs to know that people like Preston waltzed in and stole from them.”
“Where do I come in?”
Griffin dangled the knife between his fingers, tossing it into the air and catching it by the handle.
“We’re in need of another omega for our team. You’re not the first to arrive here but… you’ll be the first to stay. Most we simply nurse back to health if they need it and hand them on to a shelter or boarding house. They’re not cut out for what we do, usually by virtue of what they’ve been through.”
“But you think I’m cut out for whatever it is you need?”
“Ronan thinks so, and I trust him. Besides, you two are mated, there’s no losing you now without losing him. What we must do next is determine whether you’ll be of any use to us beyond the kitchen.”
Noah flushed at that, feeling a little aggrieved.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re training me for.”
Griffin turned to face him.
“There are times when the work we do means we need people to play certain roles. Often, the best person suited, the person who’d draw the least attention, is an omega. People don’t suspect omegas, they see them as background noise or pretty little things to admire. We might need you to play the part of omega escort at a party, work tables at a casino, pull drinks at a bar. Places where we need eyes and ears but can’t risk sending in anyone else. An alpha draws eyes. Unfamiliar betas are often viewed with suspicion, but an omega…”
“Blends into the scenery.” He’d felt like that often enough.
“With the right clothes, the right style, you can deflect attention. Or, conversely, draw every eye in the room right to you. Depending on the circumstances, either would be useful.”
“So you’re going to teach me… how to play a role?”
“How to play any role. How to blend in and be unseen so that you can listen to a conversation without anyone noticing. And how to take the attention of a room and hold it, when someone else had a job to do.”
“Will I have to… hurt people?” He was looking at the knife still held in Griffin’s hands.
“We’ll teach you to protect yourself. You won’t always have Ronan at your back so you’ll need to be able to handle yourself if things go wrong. Your safety comes first, always. That’s the rule here. The job comes second.” Griffin stepped toward him, his gaze locked on Noah’s. “Say it.”
“The job comes second,” Noah repeated. “My safety comes first.”
“Exactly. Now, for today’s lesson, let’s talk about movement. One thing you probably don’t know is that omega are actually faster than most other shifters.”
While Griffin talked, he moved the knife from hand to hand, switching from carrying it by the blade to the handle and back. “I’m not talking about out-and-out running. But small movements of our limbs, how we walk. It makes us excellent at sleight of hand.”
The knife was gone all of a sudden.
“How did you do that?”
Griffin turned his hands over, palms facing the ceiling, and Noah could just see the handle of the blade poking out of his sleeve.
“Have you ever wanted to learn a magic trick?”
The omega was grinning, and Noah couldn’t help but grin back.
Griffin had given Ronan strict instructions for Noah’s training and Ronan relayed them to the omega that afternoon.
“You need to be able to protect yourself. That doesn’t mean do the impossible, like take on an alpha. It means recognize trouble before it reaches you, break away when someone has got you in their grasp, and escape whatever way you can.”
Noah was staring doubtfully up at the climbing rope that snaked toward the ceiling.
“I’ve never been much of a climber,” the omega said.
“Imagine there’s an animal shifter snapping at your heels,” Ronan said. “Or I could turn into a wolf and give you a real-life demonstration.”
Noah made a face at him but reached out and started to pull himself up. Within seconds, Ronan knew he wasn’t going to make it to the top. He just wasn’t that strong, yet.
His omega’s face fell when he was forced to come back down, his shoulders sinking with disappointment.
“That was a great first try,” Ronan said without missing a beat. “We’ll need to do some strength work to get your upper body used to carrying your weight. And there’s a climbing wall at the back of the house. We’ll put some time in on that too.”
“You’re not ashamed that I’m so weak?”
“That’s not weak, you’re normal. You’ve never had any formal training and packs don’t focus on omega for anything beyond aesthetics. Come on, let’s keep going.”
Noah had good stamina, almost keeping pace with Ronan for most of the afternoon’s training. Afterward, they showered, getting a little distracted by each other’s bodies before their grumbling stomachs forced them out in search of food.
As they finished up their meal, Noah seemed distracted. Ronan wasn’t sure if it was his session with Griffin that morning or something else.
“What is it?”
“I’m just thinking.”
“Penny for your thoughts?”
He waited as Noah chewed on his bottom lip. “I’m just getting my head around how much has changed. A few weeks ago, I was considered useless by everyone who knew me. Now... I’m needed.” He looked up at Ronan, holding the alpha’s gaze. “It… it feels good.”