13. Zoe
Zoe
My spine stiffens at the words Ray whispers in my ear.
“Viv may not realize it, but I do. You can't hide from me."
I don’t look away from the fire, acutely aware of how close the Alpha is to me. I can almost feel the warmth of his body and smell his spicy cologne.
“I don’t have any secrets.” I can hear how weak my protest sounds, so I clear my throat and try again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The only secret I’m carrying is that there is a slight, tiny possibility that I was Blessed by Ilota when I touched the garnet. But there is such a minuscule chance that's true, so what does he think he knows?
Did Dominic tell him that he suspects I’m an Omega? They’re both Alphas; I’m sure they’ve crossed paths. I don't know if I can handle another person who is convinced I'm hiding my designation.
“You’re a knot chaser. I can smell the pheromone perfume you’re wearing, hoping an Alpha will take you to bed. Desperate and sad. Can't get laid on your own so you're resorting to cheap tricks? Does Viv know that you’re using her to get to me?”
My head whips to the side, and I stare him down. This is the closest he’s ever been to me, and I’m momentarily struck stupid by him. The man is beautiful, well-dressed, and fit, and his dark eyes sparkle in the firelight. I struggle to pull my gaze away from them.
I have to swallow a few times before I can speak through my dry throat.
“I’m not wearing a perfume. I didn’t even know that was a thing. Besides, she didn't tell me she had an Alpha brother before we started talking.”
He scoffs, scooting away from me like I'm diseased. “You’re not fooling me, Zoe. I can smell it." He taps the side of his nose. "You’re a Beta, yet somehow you smell like pomegranates and honey?” An uncomfortable sound rumbles in his chest as he stands. “You must think me a fool to fall for that. You’re trying to tempt me, and it’s not going to work.
I have no interest in someone who only cares about tricking an Alpha into taking them to bed.
And to use my sister? Unforgivable.” He spits the word at me.
I follow him to my feet, emboldened by the punch and warmth of the fire.
“You think I would need to trick someone to get them into my bed?
I could ask any one of these guys, and they'd jump at the opportunity.
" Maybe. Who knows? I'm feeling a little overconfident with the fire at my back like a protector. "You're so full of yourself that you think out of everyone, I’d pick you? My friend’s brother?” My feet move without conscious thought, bringing me nearly chest to chest with the Alpha.
“I’ll say it one more time, nice and slow so that even you can understand.
I am not, and never will be, a knot chaser.
I have no interest in Alphas. I am not wearing a pheromone perfume.
I do not want you on my bed or between my legs.
I don’t know why you have a problem with me, and at this point, I don’t care.
Viv is my friend. I’d never do that to her. ”
The friend in question steps up to us. “What’s going on? You two are making a scene.”
Ray stumbles, calling attention to the fact that he's been here drinking a lot longer than us. “Your friend is using you. She’s wearing pheromone perfume to make Alphas think she’s an Omega. It's pathetic. I bet she thinks that being friends with you will get her closer to me."
Viv shoves her brother’s chest, forcing him to take a step back from me. “You’re drunk, Ray. She isn’t wearing a pheromone perfume, are you, Zoe?”
“Absolutely not. I could not care less if an Alpha is attracted to me.”
Ray looks around at the people who have stopped what they were doing to watch our confrontation. He points at a man with short, honey-brown hair and sleepy eyes. “Pietre, come here. Tell my sister that her friend is lying.”
Pietre stumbles over to me, a lecherous smile on his face. He’s the drunkest of all of us by far, and I do not want to let this man close to me. I don’t have a chance to move before he grabs my arm and buries his face in my neck.
Nausea and anger fight for real estate inside me.
He growls and pushes me away. I stumble a few steps before managing to right myself.
“Man, you got me all excited for nothing. I could’ve pretended for a night that she was an Omega." He drags his eyes down my body. "Not that I have a problem fucking a Beta."
Ray’s jaw tightens, and I can tell that he’s not going to let this go. He looks around the fire and points at someone on the other side. “You’re too drunk, Peitre. You don't know any better. Killian, come here and—”
“Give it a rest, Ray!” Viv’s voice is full of vitriol toward her brother. “You’re embarrassing me. Leave my friend alone. I was wondering what the problem you have with her is, but now I know it’s just you being an asshole. Go. You’re ruining our evening.”
As Ray walks away, Viv pushes one of the cups into my hand. I take it without looking and drain it in one gulp.
“I’m so sorry about my brother, Zoe.” She places her hand on my lower back and guides me back to sitting by the fire.
The whole interaction left me unmoored. “I didn’t understand why he was so standoffish with you, but I guess now we know.
I have no idea why he thinks you’re wearing a pheromone perfume. ”
I run my fingers through my hair, tearing my gaze away from the fire to look at my friend. “Me neither. And I’ve barely spent any time around him. I don’t get it.”
Pietre, the Alpha that Ray called over to smell me, is hovering around the edge of my vision. I keep catching a flash of his pale eyes as they glance my way. The whole thing has my stomach tightening. I have to get out of here. The night is ruined. Tainted, almost.
“I need to head home. I’ve gotta get more studying done tomorrow.”
“Wait, Zoe—?”
“I'm fine, Viv. Seriously. Stay and have fun.”
She tries to convince me to stick around, but once she drains her third drink, I convince her to agree to hang out without me. If she had pushed much harder, I would’ve caved and let her come back with me, and I really want to be alone right now.
Every interaction I have with an Alpha makes it harder and harder for me to tell myself that what happened during my ceremony was my imagination.
I replay that day over and over in my head.
I stripped off my robe and handed it to one of the high priests, and then touched the first stone, counted to five in my head, and then moved to the next. I felt nothing when I pressed my hand to the pearl, quartz, or emerald, but I followed the rules.
And then I touched the garnet, and warmth traveled through my body.
My body didn't change, though. I didn’t burst out of my skin, becoming a beast that I would have to learn to coexist with.
All it was was a voice in the back of my mind that told me to take my robe, so I did.
It was my subconscious.
That’s the only explanation.
Except…
“Good, Omega. Tell no one.”
Why would my subconscious say that?
I’m nearing the edge of the forest when a hand wraps around my bicep and pulls me against a hard chest. My hands go up to push him away, but I recognize Ray’s cologne, and the familiarity makes me pause.
Before I can shout, demand he let me go, he wraps an arm around my waist and claims my lips in a brutal kiss. It’s not gentle or romantic. It’s wild, animalistic, and uninhibited. For a moment, I’m frozen, and then I lean into the sensation, parting my lips when his tongue traces them.
My body is betraying me, and I grow slick between my thighs as my senses are flooded with him. I want to purr, to wrap my leg around his waist and rub myself against him, hoping that he is as affected by this as I am.
I gasp into his mouth as he nips at my bottom lip, a growl rumbling in his chest and making my knees weak.
His kiss is so rough that my back is bending with every press of his lips. But his grip on my waist is solid, and I am not at risk of falling over. For the first time in weeks, my mind is quiet, and all I have to worry about is the way he dominates my mouth with every breath.
I have no idea how much time has passed when we break apart, and I stand panting, my fingers still clenched in his shirt.
Words escape me. I want to yell at him for touching me, to call him a dick, but a larger, louder part of me wants to pull him back to me, to taste him again, to drown in him.
Ray’s chest is heaving as he dislodges my grip on his shirt and steps away. In the moonlight, I can see a wildness in his eyes, as if his beast were barely below the surface. His lip curls as he drags his eyes up my figure before lingering on my swollen, tender lips.
“I guess the fucking perfume works.”
And then he stomps away, leaving me with a churning feeling in my gut that begs me to scream at him to come back.