4. Nolan
4
Nolan
Joey has been chatting up a pretty little Omega all night.
He moonlights as a bartender at Roberto's, a dive bar that has character, when he's not too exhausted from helping Chase run the restaurants. He says it keeps him humble, but he doesn't look particularly humble as he flirts with the sweet thing. An outsider may not notice it, but I've known Joey for a while now. He's got stars in his eyes when he looks at her.
I'm barely listening to the guys from the gym because she slides from the stool and goes to leave, and I catch a look at her face. My heart stops.
The Perfect Omega.
Everyone has seen her face. She's on posters and internet ads, and they run an interview with her on cable constantly. I'm pretty sure I even saw those wide blue eyes on a billboard once.
Joey, my pack Beta, has been chatting up the Perfect Omega.
I wonder how she ended up here, in that expensive pink dress with that shiny hair. She smiles at Joey and leaves, and he watches her tiny waist wiggle as she goes, a stupid little grin on his big face. I excuse myself from the table and go to the bar, ready to give Joey some shit.
"Made a new friend, I see."
If his face wasn't covered with a beard, I'd think he was blushing. As it is, his eyes are trained on the Omega, whose head is tipped up as she looks at the sky. "She's an odd little bird but real nice to talk to," he mumbles, turning away from her to grab a few orders.
A man leaves the bar and immediately cages her on the window. It happens so quickly my brain barely has time to register it. I hear the roughness of a bark, and I'm out the door just as he puts his hands on her neck.
She falls loose in his arms, almost like she fainted. Her entire body has shut down.
I growl, the Alpha part of me feral to protect her. "Get the fuck away from her!" As the head of my pack, my bark is especially potent, and this piece of fucking shit immediately cowers at the intensity of it. He bolts. I don't even consider chasing him, I just bend down and scoop up the little Omega.
Feeling her in my arms immediately soothes the wild beast inside of me, and I slump against the wall with her pressed tightly to my chest. I duck my head to her hair, and it hits me. She doesn't just smell good. She smells like fresh chopped wood and lilac, like being in a field of flowers by a cabin.
She smells like home.
Joey bursts through the door and looks at the two of us, eyes wide with worry. "What happened? Is she okay?"
"She smells like lilacs and wet wood, Joey." My head is spinning. My heart is aching, pounding in my chest. I slide down the wall to the ground, eyes straight ahead, unblinking. "She doesn't just smell good, Joey."
"She doesn't just smell good?" He repeats like he can't believe what I'm saying.
"She smells like home."
His face cracks into a wide grin. "She smells like home." He whoops, shaking my shoulder with his massive hand. "She came in here because she felt like she'd never find her pack, man. She was hiding it well, but she was heartbroken that she still hadn't found her guys."
I look down at the Perfect Omega, the woman paraded about as the picture of what every pack should want, and all I can think is mine.
"What's wrong with her?" Joey asks, sitting beside me as I cradle her tighter in my arms and peering into her face.
I growl so loudly it shocks even me. "Get away from her!" Joey scrambles to his feet and backs away.
"Man, chill out. You know me. We're pack. You know I don't want to hurt her." I shake my head, trying to clear the Alpha fog that is clouding my brain. She whimpers in my arms, and I growl again. Joey takes another step back. "Nolan, buddy, I think you're in Alpha guard," he says softly.
Alpha guard is a rare condition that an Alpha can develop if their Omega is so threatened that they drop. Omega drop occurs when an Omega is so frightened and so threatened that their body just gives up and shuts down. It can be very dangerous for the Omega, not just in the sense that they can no longer fight off the danger but that it can cause lasting harm to their bodies.
"You think she dropped?" I ask softly, brushing her hair from her head. Her body is unnaturally still, completely frozen from the terror of what she experienced.
"I think so, buddy. It would explain why you're about to bite my face off for looking at her."
Sheepishly, I run my hand over my buzzed head. "Sorry about that, man. I just… she smells like home."
He pulls open the door to the bar. "I know she does, buddy. Let me go grab a bottle of water for you. You need to search on your phone for how to get her out of the drop."
A quick search says that a combination of time and security can get an Omega out of the drop, and it's all relative to the trauma she endured. I bundle her tightly to my chest, folding her body up tightly because Omegas like small spaces, and I purr.
I've never purred before.
It vibrates my chest, her body moving with the slight motion, as Joey comes and drops off the water bottle and heads right back inside. There is no telling how long I sit there, pushed against the wall, holding this beautiful, delicate little Omega in my arms.
My Omega.
She starts to wiggle against my chest, and her eyes slam open. She looks at me with fear, as if no time has passed since she dropped, but the moment she registers my purr, she melts against me.
"Alpha…," she sighs weakly, and I swear my fucking chest explodes.
"Omega," I purr. "You gave me quite a scare."
"Do you play violin?" she asks, nuzzling her face into my chest.
"What? No. Why would you ask that?"
She giggles softly. "You smell like rosin. The wax I use on my violin. I thought you played."
"What does that wax smell like Omega?" My lips roll inwards to hide my smile.
"Like pine trees. But also, it's orange, and I always thought it should smell like orange zest." She rubs her head along my neck. "You smell like orange zest. And pine trees."
She just came out of a drop, so I know her brain is working a little slower. I sit there in silence, giving her a moment to register what her body is trying to tell her. I can see the moment it hits her. Her body stiffens, and she scrambles out of my arms.
Kneeling in front of me, she clasps her hands over her face. "You smell like orange zest and pine trees, " she says.
"And you smell like freshly chopped wood and lilacs, little Omega."
"You don't just smell good."
"I don't just smell good."
She scrambles to her feet. "I gotta go. I… I can't do this. Perfect Omegas don't scent match on the pavement outside a bar."
"Wait, Omega," I say, injecting just enough of a bark in my words to slow her down. I grab her hand. "It doesn't matter where it happened. It happened. You're mine."
"My mother is going to be furious. I wasn't even supposed to be here tonight. I have to get home." I can see her worry of not being the Omega I want her to be clear as day on her face. I can tell how much it distresses her that this situation does not match anything she's been told to expect.
"Omega," I say again, softly, pulling her towards me.
"Nora," she whispers, hands resting on my chest.
"Nolan," I respond.
"Our names match," she says weakly. Her chest is rising and falling rapidly, her pupils blown wide in the street's darkness. Our only light is the neon signs in Roberto's window. I reach up and brush some of her long hair from her face, and she nuzzles her face into my hand.
"You can't just leave me now, Nora. I just found you."
Nora chews her bottom lip, her eyes welling up in tears. "I didn't think I'd ever find you." With that confession, my heart breaks in two. The woman society has held up as the Perfect Omega has been worried she wouldn't find someone for herself.
No amount of genetic manipulation can prevent loneliness.
"Well, you found me."
"Do you have a pack?" Her voice is hopeful, and I can't stop the massive smile that stretches my face. If she matched to me, there is little to no chance she wouldn't match my pack.
My fingers trace the side of her neck, dreaming of where I may bite her one day. "I do. You're going to love them. Well, you met one of them."
Her forehead wrinkles, and I wonder if there is anything this woman can do that I won't find cute. "Who?"
"Joey. He's our pack Beta."
Her face lights up. "Bartender Joey?"
"The very same," I say with a chuckle. "Though, he may be ready to kick me to the curb. I almost bit his face off when he came near you a bit ago." I push the water bottle into her hands.
"What happened?" she asks, taking a small, dainty sip.
"You experienced Omega drop. That man threatened you enough that your body shut down to protect your mind. It set my instincts on fire, and I did not handle it well."
"It sounds like you were quite rude to Joey."
My laugh rumbles from my chest, and I shake my head. "You experienced the drop, but I went into Alpha guard. He may be a part of my pack, but he's not bonded to you, so my Alpha said he was unsafe."
You can't scent match with a Beta, and you can't even technically bond with them. Most of the time, Betas are just like personal assistants to their packs. But Joey is our friend. We love him, and we don't care that he can't bond in. He's a part of us, he lives with us, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"I need to get you home, sweet thing."
She shakes her head and gathers her purse from where it fell on the ground. "I have my keys, I can drive…" her words fade out as she looks down at her phone. "Oh goodness! It's so late! My mother has called repeatedly." Her fingers sneak under her hair near her neck and come away with a few strands tangled in them. "She's going to kill me. I don't do this type of thing. I can't. This isn't what Omegas do."
"Hey, sweet thing. Are you an Omega?"
"What? Of course, I am!"
"Then this is something that Omegas do."
She stops her nervous pacing and gives me the most incredulous look. "I… suppose," she grits out.
"Where were you supposed to be tonight?" I ask, pulling her by her hand closer to me again.
"The Omega social," she whispers as if being close to me takes her breath away.
"Okay, then I'm going to take you home and tell your mother we met there. We scent-matched and went out to celebrate. I'll tell her I was the lucky one that got to drive you home, but I'll bring the rest of the pack by tomorrow to meet her officially." Her big blue eyes are wide with admiration.
"You'd do that?"
"You're mine, Nora. Of course, I would do that."