8. Bax
Bax
I walk into the Café and stop dead in my tracks.
Petrichor. The intoxicating smell of rain, the earth, and the wind.
It engulfs me, and a heat pummels my insides.
The aroma is so rich and primal that a growl slips out of my throat.
I've never encountered a scent like this before, and the absence of an attached omega drives me feral.
The scent is fading fast, slipping away like water down a stream, but I crave it with an intensity that makes my heart race.
The omega hasn't been here for hours, yet their lingering essence ravages my senses, a call that leaves me aching for more and desperate for the source.
My cock is already half hard just at the residual scent of them.
How? How how how ? A growl rumbles in my chest, a deep, primal sound that echoes the chaos inside me.
The beta girl we hired to run the register darts into the back room, fear written all over her face.
Who could blame her? My alpha fury is palpable.
Damn Seth for refusing to install security cameras.
I've asked him repeatedly, but he brushes it off like some mundane detail.
Now, we're left in the dark, fumbling blindly while I'm consumed by the need to know what our pack omega looks like.
It's the same earth and storm scent that Connor described.
And it infuriates me that I feel so vulnerable, so exposed.
My heart races with restless anxiety that wrecks my insides.
Seth walks in five minutes later, and I watch the same emotions play across his face.
"How?" he demands.
I shrug. His fists clench tightly, and I see him fighting the urge to break something.
Being surrounded by our omega's scent without knowing who they are or where to find them is sheer torture.
I now understand where Connor was coming from on Saturday, and wish I'd been more sympathetic.
Just then, he walks into the Café, and the same distressed and wild emotions are evident on his face.
The thing is, we came into the Café yesterday evening after it had already closed, trying to salvage some inventory we didn't want to spoil.
And that damn scent? It wasn't there. Connor insisted we should head straight to the Library, but the lights were off by the time we passed.
I saw the librarian rushing to lock up as we drove by, all bundled up in massive coats.
Now I can't help but feel frustrated. We should have just hurried to the Library instead of wasting time here.
"Fuck this." Connor storms out the door, and Seth and I share a glance before we bolt after him.
He's hell-bent on reaching the Library. We fall in step, adrenaline firing us up.
He shoves the door open, and we're right behind him.
The scent hits us—damn it. It hangs in the air, obvious and infuriating but faint.
Probably hours old, maybe even a day. We can't even ask someone because no one else is scent sensitive to our omega but us.
Everyone else can smell the omega's scent when near them, but not like this, lingering hours or a day after.
Still, we spread out and check every stack just in case.
It's too late. The omega isn't here today.
I stop by the front desk and get some of the books I placed on hold.
But not just the ones Connor forgot in his scent-induced haze.
I put some of these on hold the night Connor announced he'd scented our omega.
" The Science of the omega, Scent-Sensitive Matches, The Omega and the Pack, Satisfying Your Omega ?" Seth reads over my shoulder. He and Connor exchange glances. I know some prick alphas who would laugh. That's why they aren't part of my pack.
"Can we borrow these, too?" Connor asks, taking the top one and flipping through it. It's the science one, with diagrams and statistics showing omega instincts and their needs within a pack.
"Sure." I shrug.
"If we even get a chance to use this info," Seth says. He's usually the optimistic one of our group, but being exposed to scent sensitivity and unable to claim that scent has left him more dejected than I've ever seen.
"We'll find them, man," I say, bumping his shoulder with mine. "We'll find our omega."