Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Hayden
Her scent lingers in Declan’s office, vanilla ice cream and blueberries. He’s blushing bright red, and there’s a lipstick imprint on his cheek. She kissed him?
I contain my smirk while choking down my jealousy, instead I scowl when I shut the door behind me. I’m about to mention the Beta I just caught scouting the first floor, but my brother interrupts.
“Leave Tatum alone. I don’t understand why you’re insisting on working as a bouncer–”
“To watch the floor, I told you.” I grumble, cutting Declan off mid-rant.
“But she expressed concerns about your attention. You’ve been out there less than five hours. Try to behave?” Declan ignores my words and turns back to the stack of papers on his desk. He’s never been great about closing the bond, so I can feel all of his emotions as he cycles through them.
The strongest being longing. I know he’s lonely. We all are. That's where the fiery little omega comes in. He doesn’t know she's the girl…the one from all those years ago. Once we bonded as a pack, I decided not to say anything. Never said her name. Never let them follow me on one of my late nights watching her.
Three years is long enough. But they deserve that moment of discovery, just like the one I had.
“Interesting. Maybe she prefers stoic Alphas that are incapable of going after what they want most?” I offer, and have to dodge a glass for my efforts. “Rude,” I chuckle, hustling out of his office. I’ll talk to him about the shady Beta I kicked out later. He needs to stew in his feelings for a while.
Once back out on the floor, I find her curvy form easily. It’s like I can always find her, no matter where she is, in every room. She’s my north star. My guiding light. My home.
She’s avoiding me. Switching shifts if she sees me on the schedule. Refusing to work in the areas I’m covering if she can’t swap with another one of the Muses.
Every day that goes by is like a punch in the gut. She barely looks at me. If I manage to corner her, she pretends I don’t exist until I get out of her way. It’s killing me.
And to top it all off, we’re still being targeted by an Omega that Kodiak can’t identify. All these resources, and he still manages to evade us. He’s only attacked once, when he blew up my brother's Jeep, but there are traces of him…hints of his scent. He’s putting innocent lives at risk, and that, above everything else, is what's pissing me off most. At least the Jeep incident was before Tatum started working here.
Not only that, but because Kodiak is so focussed on this other Omega, he hasn’t been around enough to notice Tatum.
If my brothers don’t come to their senses soon, I’ll have to do something drastic.
I am patient, but come on! I can help them along.
Now that she’s right in front of me…within reach?
Fuck.
They just need a little push. I could give Declan something to induce his rut. That might be going a little bit too far, though.
Hmm. I know she’s been buying suppressants from Declan, something we’ve always kept on hand in case there’s an emergency. I could switch them out. Sneak into her house while she’s out, and–
No! That's insane. And a bit excessive. Besides, her mother is always home. It wouldn’t be easy getting in unnoticed. I could always peek into her locker to see if they’re kept in there.
No! Jeez. I really am losing my fucking mind.
I’ll find another way. A less chaotic way. With fewer consequences.
Turns out that other way is to steal my Omega’s panties and stuff them under my brother's desk so he’s forced to face her slick all hours of the night, believing he’s hallucinating the scent of drunk blueberries.
I would say I’m not proud of my actions, but I actually thought it was super clever.
At least I didn’t drug him? Right…?