Chapter Six
Briar
I woke up with the sun. Not for sunrise meditation. Not because the alarm went off.
I woke up so early because my bear demanded it. He didn’t command me like some shifter animals did. We had an understanding. I let him roam as much as possible, and he helped me see things from the shifter point of view.
This time, my bear wanted my mind on one thing. One person, actually.
It didn’t take a lot of coercion. The alpha from the night before had a hold on me. Two seconds of nonverbal interaction somehow felt like the most intimate of touches. I didn’t know his name. Nothing about him. Did he live in town? Was he mated? Would he be interested in a class?
Nothing.
He captured my attention the moment he walked in, and there was no releasing it until he was out of sight.
His scent lingered, though. Even though the session went on for an hour after he was gone, when I approached the door to say goodbye to my students, my skin prickled as I took it in.
Mossy, leathery, with a bite of citrus zest. I could barely keep myself together. The alpha’s scent intoxicated my bear and had him begging me to hunt down the man who’d popped in and out, grabbing a schedule and my full attention at the same time.
Standing to stretch, my bear stirred once more, not demanding but reminding me of how the alpha’s scent made me feel. Cuddled. Enraptured. But beneath the parts that attracted me was a blanket of metal and bitterness. I knew the scent well.
Anxious. Frazzled. It popped in my senses like kinetic fireworks of worry. Stress. It made the muscles in my chest tense just thinking about it.
I didn’t like it one bit.
Choosing tea instead of coffee, I made my way out and waited on the sun to rise. Went through my morning stretching routine and let my thoughts wander. Fighting them never did any good.
I had little to go on in terms of the alpha.
He was a tall and sexy male, one that I would consider my type if I had one.
His jaw tensed when he looked around my studio.
He bolted so fast, it was hard to tell why.
Late for something. Out of place? Maybe he was one of those people who hated all the woo-woo things in life.
The alarm on my phone went off as I finished a bowl of oatmeal, and I was stricken with how grateful I was for my new life. A home I loved. A studio of my own. Members.
This morning’s class was breath work. One of my favorites. Cheap by any standards, but it was the one class I wanted to be the most accessible. If someone walked in and my bear picked up on their need for calm, I would let them in for free.
Relief from anxiety wasn’t a luxury in my book.
I grabbed my bag and headed into work dressed in tight yoga pants and a hoodie, since the mornings were a bit cool.
My bear wanted me to scour the town until I found the alpha. Yes, he was gorgeous, but why did this alpha in particular affect me so strongly. My bear had never really cared when I was dating or even checking out an alpha.
Why this one?
At the studio, everyone grabbed a mat and took a seat. The mat cleaner was a godsend. In some studios, the hovering scent of sweat stayed no matter how much incense or cleaning they did.
Who wanted a stinky studio? Not this omega.
I’d turned to take my seat at the front of the class when the alpha from the night before opened the door. The sun had risen and was bright in the sky, forming a glow around him. It made him look like some kind of sun god.
“Take a seat,” I said, clocking the way my voice shook a bit. “We’re about to begin.”
He wore sweatpants and a T-shirt embossed with the logo from the local mechanic’s shop. It gave me a giggle but I kept that to myself. This morning, he had on glasses, and I didn’t think it possible, but they made him even handsomer.
Breath work classes were less than twenty minutes most times. Thirty at the most.
Those twenty minutes seemed to go on forever. He and I made eye contact more than a dozen times, if I was counting. I wasn’t.
I so was.
When the class was over, I talked to some of the people, and most would be back for another class. Some went over to the tablet and signed up for memberships.
A successful morning, for sure.
After everyone wandered out, I began putting away the mats, knowing full well the alpha was still in there with me.
“Briar, right?” he asked, walking over.
“Yes. That’s me. What’s your name?”
My face heated up. He stuck out his hand, and all the breathing methods I’d committed to memory disappeared from my mind. One two in? Three four five out? Hold? Pass out?
Goddess, he was beautiful up close.