I got out of the shower from my last client of the night to find a text waiting for me from Laszlo, who was hosting. You have a last minute booking. How long until you’re ready to go again? I groaned and could have cried, I’d been looking forward to going home so badly tonight. My cheeks ached from smiling and my back ached from fucking and I just wanted to get something to eat and go to sleep.

But if the client was already here, I couldn’t turn him down. Give me ten minutes, I texted back, then hit the call button to hurry the floor staff along.

My clothes were draped over the chair on the other side of the bed. I limped my way over and began getting dressed. Behind me, the door opened and I turned in the middle of putting my shirt on, expecting someone come to change the sheets, but it wasn’t.

It was the client.

“Hello,” I said, a little guardedly. “I’m just tidying up. Laszlo can take you to the lounge to get a drink until I’m ready.”

“Oh, I don’t mind.” He had that carefully neutral kind of accent that could have come from anywhere. “I told him I was on a bit of a time limit and he didn’t need to get all fancy with me.”

“Okay.” I stood there a moment, then decided there wasn’t any point in buttoning my shirt the rest of the way. Instead, I smiled and sauntered toward him, making sure my belly was prominently in view. “Would you like a drink? I don’t have the variety of things here that they would in the lounge, but I can make something simple.”

“No, that’s fine. I’m not much of a drinker.”

There was something about his eyes that made me uneasy, like he knew things about me that I didn’t. Or thought he did.

Well, if he tried anything, he’d quickly find out that a shifter, even an omega, wasn’t an easy target.

I trailed my fingers lightly up his chest and then down his arm, lacing them loosely through his before drawing him toward the still rumpled bed. “I didn’t get your name.”

He smiled dryly at me. “Oscar.”

“That’s a lovely name. Very powerful sounding. Here, we’d give that name to an alpha, to lend them power through their life.” I tugged him down to sit on the edge of the bed beside me, then leaned back on one elbow. “What do you like to do, Oscar?”

“You have very pretty eyes,” he said, still smiling that odd smile.

“Thank you.” The hair on my ruff was lifting and I quickly ran through the placement of all the panic buttons in the room. “But I’m sure we’re not just here to talk about my eyes.” I pushed my belly a little forward and ran a hand over its curves. “What can I do to make your night one to remember?”

He glanced around the room, but it wasn’t one of those awkward glances. More like he was taking in my surroundings, making judgments about me based on them. “I had a friend came by here, back in November.”

Oh, one of those. “What was his name?” Looking for validation, a secret one-up on his friend. Well, I could be noisy, if that was what he wanted.

His lips twitched. “David.” He turned toward me and nodded at my belly. “I understand that might be his fault.”

I lunged for the panic button but he caught me, moving faster than I’d ever seen a human move before in my life. “Let go,” I yelled, and tried to bite him but he was prepared and he had me face over his lap with my arms twisted up painfully behind my back almost before I realized what was happening.

“You are a feisty little thing, aren’t you?” he said on a chuckle. “Careful now, you don’t want to hurt the baby.”

I froze, trying to figure out if there was a threat in his words.

Oscar waited silently for a moment, then said, “That’s better. You and I are going to have a little talk, and once we’re done, if you want, maybe you can have a chat with David. I imagine you’ve got a few things to say to him.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered through gritted teeth. “Can I sit up, at least?”

“You going to try for one of those buttons scattered around the room? Because I’m not interested in explaining myself to your security and if I have to call in my team, there’s going to be a whole lot of bleeding going on here tonight, and it won’t be all that consensual.” His words were friendly, but the undertone of his voice sent shivers down my spine.

“This is hard on my back,” was all I said back and then groaned as he let me up. I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the small of my back just to be passive aggressive about it, since being actually aggressive wasn’t getting me anywhere.

“So you do remember him.”

“I remember a David. He didn’t smell like a shifter, unless you guys have been doing some really strange experiments.” I’d kind of figured out that he was military of some flavor. And if David’s friend was, then probably David was too.

Oscar laughed, genuinely this time, I thought, and shook his head. “Experiments, yes, but not that kind.” He looked me over again. “Well, I don’t see the attraction, but I get that your people don’t look at it like that. And if that’s where he likes to bury his bone, that’s his choice.”

I bit back the growl I wanted to let fly with—this wasn’t my normal kind of client. In fact, he wasn’t really a client at all, I supposed. “I could say the same thing,” I said politely and watched him.

He shrugged and smiled at me, a gleam in his eye. “Yep, feisty.” He nodded at my belly. “So is this his?”

I shrugged back, just as casual. “Don’t know. Who is he?”

“He never told you?”

“Said his name was David. Did I need to know more? His credit card was good.”

Oscar looked away as if put off by my crassness, though I seriously doubted he was ignoring me as much as he was pretending. It was another test, to see if I was stupid.

Well, I wasn’t. But even I couldn’t sit there in silence with the tension ramping up forever. “I thought, a couple of times that night, that I smelled an alpha but it never stayed. And when I scented him, he smelled human. I would have taken precautions if I’d thought differently.”

Oscar nodded. “We can do that, for short periods of time. Make a shifter smell human. It’s hard on the system and takes a couple of days advance warning, but it can be done.” He turned back, studying me again. I met his gaze evenly and wondered when the fuck he’d get to the point.

“Don’t ever go to the casinos,” he advised me suddenly. “You have a shit poker face.”

“I know.” I thought about this for a second, decided I didn’t care, and asked, “Who is David? Where is he? And why are you here?”

“Well, that’s the story.” He twisted at the waist and suddenly I could see the gun tucked in his armpit, under his jacket. “I think I will tell you some things. But you have to understand that if you tell anyone, no matter who, I will find out and I will find you.” He stared at me with a predator’s eyes and I wondered how I’d ever thought my people were tough. This was tough, this was frightening. I wasn’t the monster in this room—he was.

So I did the only thing I could do and nodded my agreement. “Tell me about David. And why he has no pack.” He wasn’t the only one who could figure things out.

His eyes widened and his nostrils flared slightly. “Thought you said he didn’t tell you anything?”

“He didn’t.” I stared back, because it was one thing to be cautious, and another thing to look weak. “But it all adds up. Did he run away, or did they kick him out?”

Oscar looked at me with a new respect. “Neither.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “I’ll get us some waters, shall I?” And without waiting for his response, I got up from the bed and walked over to the little refrigerator. My hands shook as I picked out two bottles and cracked the tops on them, but by the time I’d turned back to him I had myself under control again. “Here,” I said, handing him one. “This sounds like it’s going to be a long story.”

“Something like that.” But he took the water from me and drank. A sign of trust. Or power.

I sat on the bed and made myself comfortable. “Then let’s not waste any time.”