Chapter 10
I was in hell. That damned lemon meringue pie scent haunted my waking moments, invaded my dreams, and twisted me up so tightly I couldn’t think of anything but Charlotte.
“Sir, your ten o’clock is here.” My executive assistant, Autumn, popped her head into my office and the pencil in my hand snapped. Her eyes widened. “Are you all right? You’ve been a little on edge this week.”
On edge didn’t even begin to describe it. I’d been a fucking monster. I kept trying to rein myself in, but my nerves were rubbed raw and it seemed like anything and everything was capable of setting me off.
“I’m fine, Autumn. Thank you for letting me know. Take yourself out for a long lunch on me.”
Her face brightened. “Thank you, sir.”
She deserved a whole fucking cruise for putting up with me this week. Maybe I would send her on one. “Wait.”
Autumn paused. “Yes, sir?”
“Book me a flight to Las Vegas.”
“For when?”
“The soonest first-class flight there is. I need to visit my son this weekend.”
Autumn looked slightly surprised, but bobbed her head and disappeared to do that while I tried to collect myself for my next meeting. I hated them at the best of times, but ever since meeting Charlotte, getting through them was an exceptional ordeal.
I wasn’t even that old yet, but competitors were sniffing around, trying to offer me incentives to retire early and sell off the company I’d spent my entire life building. I’d rather die outright than hand it over to them.
Mostly I took the meetings to fuck with them. Let them get their hopes up. They weren’t getting anything out of me.
This company was all I had.
I slipped into the meeting room where the rep from the interested party bolted to his feet, nearly tripping over his chair.
“Mr. Carlton, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“I wish I could say the same. Are they just going to send a new one of you every time they want to make a new bid?”
He swallowed. “We’ve been refining our offers, trying to find some common ground.”
I sat down at the head of the table. “There is no common ground when you want to use my company for your own gain. All you have to offer is money, and I don’t need any of that. Show me that one of you gives a shit and I’ll think about it.”
The alpha gaped. I hadn’t even bothered learning what his name was. “Sir…”
“Well, do you give a shit? Or are you just trying to play ball for your superiors?”
“I…”
“That’s what I thought. You can see yourself out.”
I turned on my heel and stalked out while he struggled to follow. “Wait! Please, Mr. Carlton…”
I stopped short and he nearly collided with me. “How many omegas are in your life?”
“Um…none?”
“So how could you even begin to think your company is capable of working with us when you have none of our demographic in your life or in the upper echelons of your company? You’ve been so fucking focused on the money that you can’t use your brains to consider that’s not what matters. Get out.”
I didn’t want to sell, but I was getting a little tired of everything. Not that Las Vegas was going to renew me. Creating safe and sustainable housing for vulnerable omegas required more than money. It took passion, care, and drive to give them the best without pricing those who needed it most out of the market.
“Did you chase them off again?” Autumn asked, appearing at my office door. “I feel like that was in record time.”
“It’s not my fault they keep sending incompetent people who have no skin in the game.”
“I’d bet someone in Vegas is interested,” she suggested. “Do you want me to look into some more companies?”
“Please. Even if I’m not going to hand things over anytime soon, it’ll be good to have them on our radar and see what they do with their power.”
“You’ve got it, boss.” Autumn smiled. She put up with a lot from me, keeping me organized day to day and filling in the gaps where she needed to. “You don’t have any more meetings today. Why don’t we go to an early lunch together and you can finally tell me what’s crawled up your ass this week?”
I barked a laugh. “That actually sounds good.”
Autumn took me for nachos, insisting they were the best cure for a bad mood, and she was rarely wrong.
“So, tell me everything.” Autumn stuffed a chip into her mouth. “Did something happen with your son that upset you?”
I sighed. “Not with him, no. Just fate playing a cruel game I want no part of.”
“So clear.” She ate another chip. “Mind reading isn’t part of my job description. You’re going to have to give me a little more info.”
“I made this company because of my late omega. We built all the plans together before she got sick, and when she passed, I threw myself into work because it was the only thing keeping me standing at the time.”
Autumn nodded thoughtfully. She knew my history, but we had never discussed it much.
“I don’t want to go through that kind of pain again.”
We sat in silence for a few moments more, Autumn’s assessing gaze scanning me as if she actually could read minds. “Did you find another omega? A scent match?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Are they pressuring you?”
“She doesn’t even know, can’t ever know. I didn’t tell her and I left before she could figure it out herself. I can’t handle going anywhere near that path.”
“You know,” Autumn said carefully, “they say that the price of love is pain. If you never love, you can never feel the loss of it, but I think we both know that’s a terrible way to live. Are you really going to deny yourself a chance at happiness because you’re afraid of getting hurt?”
“It’s not that simple. I wasn’t hurt with Emily. I was eviscerated on a molecular level. Losing her destroyed who I was as a person. A scent match is too dangerous to entertain.”
Autumn raised a carefully manicured eyebrow and sighed. “Boss, I say this with love, and I don’t say it lightly because I know what you’ve been through, but you’ve had something dropped into your lap that most people can only dream of. Do you know how rare it is for an alpha to have two scent-matched omegas in their lifetime?”
“Not rare enough,” I grumbled.
“You need to talk to her. If you’re going to be a baby, how is she ever supposed to make an informed decision about whether or not she wants to be in your life? You’re not being fair to her by keeping it a secret.”
“I wouldn’t be a fit partner. We both know I’m a workaholic.”
“You would adjust,” Autumn insisted. “Is she in Las Vegas? Can you see her this weekend?”
I shoved a loaded chip into my mouth to give myself a moment to think. “I could inquire. She knows my son’s pack.”
“Talk to her. This involves both of you. The only fair thing is to tell her so you can figure out what you want to do together.”
It was the absolute last thing I wanted to do, but Autumn was right. Charlotte deserved to know, as much as I would’ve preferred to keep it to myself. With a little luck she wouldn’t be interested at all and I could go about my life as I always had.
“What’s it like?” Autumn asked.
“What’s what like?”
“Having a scent match. I’ve read all the articles with all the squishy, hyperbolic language, but you’re not really a flowery guy. Tell it to me straight.”
“It’s irritating,” I said plainly. “My body knows that she exists and is punishing me for not being near her.”
“Kind of like a pre-bonding bonding sickness?”
“Not as bad as I’ve heard that to be, but it’s getting worse. More an awareness that where you are isn’t correct. It’s like an unquenchable thirst, or a hunger sitting under your skin that you can’t fully ignore. The simple knowledge of her existence is a spotlight that blinds me. She invades my dreams and unsettles me, all while not even knowing she’s doing any of it.”
“Damn,” Autumn said with a low laugh. “So the articles weren’t actually exaggerating, then. I think that’s the most you’ve talked about feelings in the decade we’ve known each other.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Autumn snickered. “Wouldn’t dream of it. See if she’ll come to New York so I can meet her.”
“Easier said than done.” I sighed. “She has young children. There’ll be schools and schedules to contend with. She can’t just fly across the country on a whim.”
“You’ve moving to Vegas, then?”
I was half-ready to throw the whole plate of nachos at her for how smug her smile was. “No one is moving anywhere.”
“Sir, we’re always honest with each other, right?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Yes…”
“Then I’m going to be frank and tell you that one or the other has to happen. The office is going to implode if your mood from this week continues. You can’t be running around here snapping at everyone because your fated omega isn’t with you.”
I stared down at my food, blatantly ignoring her.
“I’m serious. You feeling like that isn’t good for anyone, and I’m including you in that. What’s the point in making yourself miserable?”
“I’ll be miserable with or without her.”
“Maybe you’ll surprise yourself,” Autumn suggested. “Either way, my vote is for you to give things a chance. It’s her life, too. She deserves a chance to get to know you.”
“Noted.”
After lunch I went home early to spare the office my foul mood. I packed my weekend bag with a little more force than necessary and took a car service to the airport, twisting myself up in knots the entire trip.
My suite at the hotel called my name. Bryce had agreed to me coming over for breakfast the next day. Lying in bed and staring up at the ceiling, waiting for sleep, was a futile effort. The moment my mind drifted to Charlotte in private, my body reacted to a memory of her scent.
With a frustrated growl I slipped away like a guilty teen to the shower. Unbidden visions flooded my brain of her soft mouth and sweet hazel eyes so full of concern for me. I braced against the cold tile and took my cock in hand, self-loathing bubbling up as I coaxed myself to the edge with imaginings of what she might sound like if we tumbled into bed together: breathless sighs, delicious omega whimpers, head thrown back in ecstasy. She would be perfect. Exquisite. I knew it like I knew how fucking incredible it would feel to sink between her thighs and follow her into that ecstasy.
This was ridiculous. I was forty-nine fucking years old and a singular meeting had reduced me to this . Where had all my well-honed self-control gone? Bewitched. That was what I was. She didn’t even know the power she held over me, and somehow that made it worse.
A feral sound ripped from my throat as I came, desperately holding back her name on my tongue. I rinsed off hastily and took myself back to bed, where I fell into a fitful sleep plagued by thoughts of her.
In the morning I took my surly self over to my son’s pack house. It probably wasn’t the smartest choice, but I couldn’t exactly walk out on an invitation again.
Bryce greeted me at the door. “You look exhausted. Are you okay?”
“I’m not.” I swallowed hard.
His eyes widened with alarm. “Still from last time? Do you need a doctor?”
“They can’t fix what’s wrong,” I said bitterly. “Don’t worry about me.”
“Too late,” said Bryce. “What’s going on?”
With a sigh, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “The last time I was here, I met my scent match.”
Bryce blinked. “ Scent match ? Who?”
“Charlotte,” I stated flatly.
“ What ?!” The startled voice sounded behind Bryce, the omega in question coming out of the spare room. Her eyes instantly filled with tears. “No!”
Well…that wasn’t exactly the response I had been expecting, and it certainly didn’t bode well for me being put out of my misery.