Evans #2
I freeze, watching to see if the puzzle pieces slot into place. Inhaling again she tries to soothe herself with my pheromones, but it’s not only my scent clinging to those sheets. I may not let Hunter spend the night in my bed, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a visitor pass.
“Look, I really can’t keep doing this.” I sit on the edge of the bed and hand her a glass of water and some aspirin. “Next time, I’ll walk out and leave you there.”
She sniffles, cosying down in my bed, acting like she hasn‘t heard me.
“Whatever was between us is done.”
Huffing, she glares at me. “I know.”
We stare at one another for a moment before she glances away.
“I’m just so humiliated. My parents—” she doesn't even have to finish the sentence, I know exactly what she means. “I know you don’t love me. But can you pretend? For one night.”
“Just one night.” She’s pleading now as she reaches out for my hand. “The gala is one of the biggest nights of the year, everyone will be there. You know what they’ll say about me if I go without you.”
She was right of course. I did know just how much this event means to her. The gala was one of the largest events in the social calendar and her family, along with mine and Zale’s, were patrons heavily involved with the fundraising side of things. I’d been hearing updates about it for months.
The way all of our families were intertwined never failed to amuse me, all because of the connections they’ve made while attending Oakley.
“Please,”she begs, and something inside me cracks. “Please don’t make me go alone.”
She was a young, rich, desirable omega. If Sadie attended alone, the rumour mill would go into overdrive and given her status as a socialite, and who her parents are, it would decrease her potential as a future mate.
Society was messed up, why should attending a function alone suddenly imply that there may be something wrong with you as a potential mate?
It was fucked up how the world worked like that.
“Fine, but after that we’re done.”
As she drifts to sleep, and I’m confident she’s not a choking hazard, I stare at her puffy face for a moment and think about the life I’ve left behind.
There’s no hesitation or ‘what ifs’ lingering.
Instead, I feel even more certain that I’ve made the right one.
Home is paint-stained skin, rice and bean dinners and ridiculous duck T-shirts.
A few hours later, I startle awake as the bedroom door is thrown open.
“Why is she in your bed?” He hisses as he storms over to the bed. I can see the vein in his neck throbbing as he swallows back his fury.
Hunter is angrier than a box of wasps, the rage radiating off him in giant waves. And yet, when he grabs my T-shirt and shakes me, there’s barely any force at all.
“Why the fuck is that harpy in your bed Evans?”
“Wowww, what happened to Benny or baby, huh?” I say jokingly but it stings to hear him call me Evans in that tone, as if nothing exists between us at all.
“Don’t piss me off.”
“Look, she just showed up at the bar and she was drunk. I couldn’t just toss her out onto the street, she was upset and there was no one else.” I’d been trying to be a good person, to do the right thing.
After Sadie had fallen asleep in my bed I thought sleeping in the same room would only make the situation a million times worse, so I’d crept into Hunter‘s bed, crawling beneath the covers to wait for him.
“I can toss her out,” he declares as he turns on his heel and I know he means it. Quickly scrambling to my feet I grab him, wrapping my arms around his waist and pulling him into a hug.
If I didn’t stop him now, he would go in there and drag her out by her hair, kicking and screaming. Hunter was always chilled and easy-going…until he wasn’t. As he calms down, he mumbles something along the lines of ‘Fucking cum-sucking leech with big tits’.
“She was upset because I ran away, and said she was so humiliated she couldn’t go home over the break.” I try to explain, knowing that I’m rambling. Hunter never saw the sides to Sadie that I did. Yes she was possessive, and manipulative but that wasn’t all there was to her.
“Evans…it’s not your problem.” He turns around in my grasp, placing his hands on either side of my face. I know he wants me to believe that. And I think some part of me recognises that it isn’t my responsibility, but it doesn’t stop me from feeling like it is.
Logic doesn’t always win and if anything had happened to her tonight whether she choked on her own vomit or she fell out of her bed drunk and broke an arm, I just know that I would carry that guilt with me forever for leaving her alone.
"I don't care that she's here," he growls.
I blink at the lie.
He shakes his head.
“No. That's not true.” His voice is rough. “I care. I fucking hate that she's here. We should have a strict house rule, no malevolent banshees allowed. In fact, I’m bringing it to the next housemeeting.”
“We don’t have house meetings?”
“Are you sure about that?” A humourless laugh escapes him. "But that's not what this is about."
For fucks sake, was this another thing I’d missed? Like the damn roommate survey?
“I promise, she’s just sleeping it off. She won’t be here again.” I rest my forehead against his, inhaling slowly I let his scent of spiced oranges, oil paint and turpentine wash over me like a lazy current. “I told her that after the gala—”
“What?” He goes stiff in my arms, taking a step backwards.
We’d been so caught up in the moment, focused on spending time enjoying this new thing between us (and having lots of orgasms) that we haven’t actually talked about what any of this means for our lives beyond fucking.
Looking in Hunter’s blue eyes, I clearly see flashes of hurt. He expected me to attend the gala with him—if not as my mate then at the very least as my friend.
There was already a group of us going since all of our families were involved in the foundation the gala supported, but the fact that I’m bringing a date was clearly something Hunter hadn’t anticipated. I hadn’t either. Not after everything.
“I promised I’d take her before Spring Break, I can’t go back on that.” It was a half-lie. Just like our imaginary engagement, I never actually agreed to attend with Sadie. I’d just sort of gone along with it, letting her choose our outfits and plan all the details. Passive consent, I guess?
I’d been trying to think of ways to get out of it, when I’d climbed into the trunk of Hunter‘s car. With everything else, it had kind of slipped my mind after that.
“When does it end? Did you actually promise her, Benny, or did you just go along for the ride.” Hunter calls me on my bullshit and I’m beginning to realise that he knows me much better than I ever gave him credit for. He notices everything. “You can’t always take the easy way out.”
Snorting, I tilt my head back to stare up at his ceiling and the glow in the dark universe he has stuck on it. Didn’t he realise there was no easy way out with Sadie or my father?
“I’m not!” I was trying to be a good person, trying to do the right thing. “This is the last time. We may be together, or whatever the fuck this is, but I’m still an alpha, Hunter. I can still make my own choices. ”
The room suddenly feels very small.
“And if you don’t trust me, then we have a problem.”
Reaching for his hand, I lace our fingers together, stroking the inside of his wrist with my thumb in small circular emotions, scent marking him. Because label or not, discussion or not, this man is mine.
He sighs, relaxing into my touch, our pheromones soothing him.
“I’m tired of watching you give so much of yourself, for people who don’t deserve it.” He shakes his head as he runs his other hand through his blue hair. “I also can’t give you the life an omega can.”
There’s a moment of hesitation, and I see something I didn’t expect. I choke back a laugh because I don’t want him to think that I’m laughing at him—I’m not. Why does everyone always assume they know what I want or what I need?
Marrying an omega and popping out 2.4 children was what society told me I wanted, what my father told me I needed, the second Hunter‘s lips had touched my skin that was game over.
I couldn’t give a shit what I was ‘supposed’ to want and honestly, I had very little interest in having children, especially if it meant not having Hunter in my life.
My plans for children involved spoiling Zale’s baby like mad.
That was all the child reading I needed in my life.
And if we decided we did want children later on, carrying our own wasn’t the only option.
I never believed in love, but whatever this was between us, I wanted it badly enough to hope that love existed.
“D’uh.” Flicking his forehead, I huff out a sigh. “I want you. Only you.”
If that life was what I wanted, I would’ve stayed with Sadie and gone to Crest Haven and looked at venues. But I didn’t. I climbed out of a window and like a homing beacon, I went to the person who made me feel safest.
“Yeah?” His eyes light up, but I can tell he’s still annoyed about the omega in my bed.
“Want to show me just how much? Clothes off. Now.”
His low, husky voice sends a cascade of shivers down my spine. I want to claim that I stripped faster than the speed of light because his Alpha Voice compelled me, but in reality, my horny lizard brain was running the show, hoping for an orgasm. Or two if I was a good boy.
“Get my dick wet, Benny,” he commands, sitting on the edge of the bed with his legs spread, slowly stroking himself from root to tip. He tugs on his sack with a low moan, his balls looking heavy and full as I catch a glimpse of his hole.