Chapter Eleven

Taylin

The place smelled bad, nothing could disguise it. Not even the air fresheners hanging from shelves near where the omegas worked diligently, keeping their gazes on the task at hand.

Two days they'd waited to gain access to the factory, and it took Taylin all of two minutes to understand why. The place… it was a glorified sweatshop.

"As you can see," Amatus, the manager, said with a confidence that played on Taylin's last nerve with what he was seeing, "the quality of the work is exceptional."

The brown leather, hand tooled bag with the teal mandala on the front was indeed a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

At what cost to the omega? That was what ran through Taylin's mind as he masked his emotions to ensure none of his anger escaped. Those with him stayed silent. Hollis and Frey, who'd come in with them, stayed unusually close to him and Booker.

Booker, Rue and Kodi wore expressions that revealed none of their thoughts, but as their brother, Taylin could tell they were as angry as him. The rigid line of Booker's jaw line. The groves bracketing Kodi's eyes. Rue's fists that he'd thrust into his pockets when they'd started the walk through. All signs the asshole guiding them through the place hadn't picked up on, so confident it seemed that they could fool them about the awful working conditions for the omegas.

"Your workers are extremely talented. These pieces are absolutely stunning." Booker's voice projected loudly, and yet not one worker looked in their direction, sending chills down Taylin's spine.

He made a casual move of looking around as they continued on through the factory, pretending to be interested in what Amatus was spouting. He nodded at the appropriate times but his attention was on the alphas stationed above them on the upper floor. They all looked to be carrying something under their thick coats, the way the coat bulged unnaturally.

Were they carrying weapons?

The alphas dressed according to the cool temperature in the building, but that was not the case for the silently working omegas. They must be freezing their asses off. Another chill ran down Taylin's spine at the unnaturalness of the atmosphere and what it all meant for those working hard to achieve the high standard they could see in pieces sat on work benches .

Did Amatus and whoever owned this place think that because he couldn't shift into his animal form that Taylin wouldn't notice what the fuck was going on?

The tour took an hour and, because of the lateness in the day—the only time Amatus had given them to come after two days of avoidance—they had no choice but to leave and not confront the issue then and there.

In the car with his brothers, the PAs having gone in a second car, Taylin waited till they were driving away before he let rip.

"Asshole, motherfuckering shitheads!" he growled through teeth clenched so tightly, it made his gums ache. "Did you see those alphas? They were wearing something under their coats? Like a weapon of some description?"

Booker wore a disgusted look as he gave a stilted nod and took out his cell phone. His hand trembled as he punched at the screen clumsily until there was the sound of the ring tone for FaceTime. Taylin moved so he could get his head in the shot when Dad's voice came through the speaker with a greeting.

Dark eyes swept over them and the smile Dad wore disappeared. He came forward, his face taking up all the screen as he demanded, "What happened?"

Feeling dog tired and utterly gutted, Taylin's polished shoes dragged over the thick carpet as they followed the hotel concierge who, for some strange reason, wanted to take them to their hotel suite.

Booker, Rue, and Kodi were all on a lower floor, something Taylin didn't question. Between how occupied his thoughts were and how busy the place appeared when they'd arrived, it just didn't cross his mind. The last three days were long and had culminated in the disastrous visit to the factory Dad had discovered was not owned by Design Detailing & Co, but by a subsidiary of a large company that backed politicians who wanted to introduce laws to take away divergents rights.

The first of their two planned trips had turned into a fucking disaster.

Booker had gone closed-lipped after he'd explained the situation to Dad. It hadn't taken a rocket scientist to understand why the company had rearranged twice. This raised a big red flag in the first instance, which was confirmed no more than two minutes inside the place.

It was fucking terrible to consider how those monsters achieved the level of design detail to the pieces they'd seen. The dilemma now was what to do to help those omegas because help them, they would. They'd need to be careful so as not to alert anyone to their plan to buy the company and see if they could salvage something for the omegas by removing the oppression they were currently working under .

In hindsight, they should have paid an impromptu visit to the factory rather than ignoring the warning signs that something was up. When they'd entered the factory, no matter how hard those working there had tried to disguise what was going on, they'd seen the place for what it was, a glorified sweatshop. The working conditions made Taylin cringe whilst fueling an anger that drained him of all his energy as he'd interjected into the conversation with Dad about what he'd seen and felt.

Booker, who had been so impressed by the level of detail the company could produce in the samples, had been more than ready to find the funds to purchase the company. Dad had talked him down and spoke about the long game with these types of places. They didn't want them catching wind that they'd figured out what was going on.

Before they'd left Amatus, the manager of Design Detailing & Co was all but rubbing his hands together with glee at what an account with Starling Enterprises would mean to him.

Even now, Taylin had to forcibly relax his jaw to stop his teeth grinding together or a snarl from sneaking out at the images burned into his brain of omegas working under those harrowing conditions. Many, he'd noted, were so thin they looked like a strong breeze would snap them in two. Those who'd been brave enough to look at them had haunted eyes that skittered away way too fast. Marks on exposed skin along with gnarled, trembling hands left Taylin sick to his stomach .

Sacking those alpha fuckers wasn't going to be good enough for the terror they were inflicting, but it was a good place to start. Even now, hours later, at their second destination of the trip, Taylin was still brooding. This had to be why Taylin, after entering the room behind the concierge, had to blink several times to check he was seeing correctly.

What is this?

He lifted a hand, but it flopped back down by his side. He was at a total loss and he couldn't find words at the sight of the bed.

"There has to be some mistake!" he stuttered finally, his gaze never moving from the queen sized bed sat on a plinth, making it the focal point in the large, beautifully decorated room . This was most definitely not a suite!

The concierge smiled widely. "The room you requested."

Requested?

The man pushed the trolley holding their bags to the stand next to a large closet and unloaded them. "It comes with additional strengthened doors and sound proofing, along with excluders around the doorframe to prevent any scent from escaping the room. Windows are also triple glazed, but being so high up should mean that isn't an issue."

Seconds later he was pushing the trolley towards the door and Taylin, who'd already pulled out his wallet for a tip, handed over the money absently as the guy smiled assuredly, not getting that Taylin was still processing what the hell was going on.

What the hell was he talking about? High up? Frowning and cluelessly staring, Taylin's head attempted to play catch up when the door clicked shut and he remained alone with Hollis—and an enormous bed!

Why was the guy so pleased with everything he'd reeled off?

None of it was making sense.

Hollis walked to where the bags were and lifted one of his onto the bed.

One bed.

One big bed…

Why wasn't Hollis chasing after the dude and giving him hell for not sorting them with a suite?

Remaining at a total loss, Taylin walked towards where Hollis was, head down, digging through his bag, appearing as if he didn't have a care in the world. One glance at the bed and Taylin swallowed hard, changing direction to march over to the one other door. He swung it open, groaning when it confirmed Taylin's suspicions. The bathroom was nearly as big as the bedroom.

There was no hidden bed in there, clearly!

He swung back around and scrubbed tiredly at his face, trying to understand what he was missing and to figure out why Hollis still wasn't freaking out.

"This… mistake… erm… sure…" He shut up, realizing he wasn't making any sense at all. But who the hell could blame him?

"Sorry, you're going to have to do better than gobbledygook." A smile spread over Hollis's face, transforming it, and made it hard for Taylin to catch his breath. Never mind grasp the concept of how to string two words together.

Taylin pointed to the one bed. "That… one." That made sense, didn't it?

Hollis nodded. "Yes, one bed. Why would we need two beds now, with my heat due tomorrow?"

Taylin actually released a squeal of distress, one he'd have to think about when his brain wasn't so scrambled by the blow of Hollis's words, once they registered past his confusion. A sinking feeling came when the pieces slotted together, giving him a picture of what the concierge had been wittering on about. It all made terrible sense.

One bed…

Hollis in heat…

He gulped hard, his throat working to stop closing in panic. He attempted to wet his lips and unglue the tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, trying to get it to cooperate in this bizarre conversation. Because it was bizarre. How else would one describe Hollis suggesting they share a bed during his heat?

"Ermmm… it's… yes… no… oh gods!" He plonked his ass onto the bed, his legs too weak to hold him up any longer, and dropped his head into his hands, willing his head to play catch up with his lips.

"Is there a problem?" Hollis asked sweetly.

Is there a problem? Too fucking right there is.

And now Taylin could clearly see the reason Hollis had looked at him like he'd lost his mind when he'd suggested this trip, after his wolf…

You shithead! You did this on purpose. You distracted me from what Hollis was saying! How could you ?

I don't know what you mean.

The utter smugness coming from his animal spirit made his teeth ache as they ground together in frustration.

How was he supposed to resist Hollis? Resist what evidently was going to happen before they could get back to safety!

It's too late now.

Taylin looked at his watch and ground out a curse. The pilot and steward would have left. They had another trip planned with Jupiter, which meant they were stranded here with Hollis in… heat.

"Are you okay? You were the one who was adamant you would help me with any issue."

Was that a sarcastic bite to Hollis's voice?

He glanced up and caught the omega staring at him from behind clear rimmed specs that had slipped down his nose.

"Is this a setup?" Taylin asked, not sure whether to be relieved Hollis was pulling his leg, or gutted. Probably a bit of both—though gutted was edging ahead with how sexy the man looked right then as he peered over the top of his glasses.

"No."

That one word held a weight that hit Taylin right in the solar plexus, knocking him back a little. He jerked up off the bed, feeling at a distinct disadvantage because of his damn wolf side.

"You explained why you couldn't come, didn't you?" It wasn't really a question, but Hollis nodded. "I didn't listen, did I." Again not a question, but Hollis nodded once more while Taylin tried his best to hold back his excitement, even if his wolf had been a devious shit in the first place, when it registered Hollis wanted this.

Wanted him…

He ran trembling fingers through his hair, trying to force himself in to doing the honorable thing and leave Hollis—

You can't.

He disregarded his animal.

The moral thing to do was leave. It was. A heat was a very private and intimate thing. They hadn't even been on a date. Gone out to the movies. Nothing. Then why wasn't he running for the door?

Gazes clashing, Taylin—with effort—held Hollis's challenging stare. "Do you want me here for this?" Taylin didn't give Hollis a chance to answer when the next question popped out. "What do you normally do when you have a heat?" The likely answer made his whole body tense up.

Did Hollis use one of the agencies to help with his heat? The very idea—one Taylin had avoided thinking about for years so as not to make himself go mad—reared its hideous head. Hollis hiring an alpha or going to one of the many establishments that catered to omegas made him burn with… jealousy. It spread through him, eating at his heart.

For the first time, he was on board with his wolf. There was no way in hell he was going to let another alpha touch Hollis— so not happening .

Did Hollis understand fully what he was doing by inviting in the wolf? It was too late now. There was no going back for Taylin.