Chapter 28 · Register

"Say it," I said. My hand was still on the back of his neck, thumb pressed right where the mark would go if I ever got stupid enough to try. "Finish the word, Levi."

He didn't. His mouth was an inch from mine, close enough that I could feel the heat coming off his skin, and instead of finishing it he grabbed a fistful of my shirt like he wanted to shove me back or pull me in, hadn't decided which yet.

Then the door went off its hinges.

Not a knock. A boot.

"Kade." A man in a grey Registry coat filled the doorway, ledger under one arm, two armed escorts behind him. "Territory sweep. Every household in this district reports its omegas by sundown or we start guessing, and I promise you, my guessing is worse than your paperwork."

Levi's hand let go of my shirt so fast it was like he'd never had it there. He stepped back, put the desk between himself and the inspector like it was nothing, like thirty seconds ago hadn't happened at all.

"There's no omega registered to this house," Levi said. Flat. Bored, even. Twenty years of practice in that voice.