Chapter Four – Jess #3
He knew all of this about me, just like that, before he even knew my name. It was like I stepped into some alternate reality when I wasn’t looking, and instead of me being in charge here at this table, he’d taken the reins.
When I stayed silent, the alpha cocked his head at me and asked, “Well? How’d I do?” I still couldn’t answer him, so he went on, “I bet you’re not speechless too often, so I’m going to assume I’m right.”
I groaned, pretending to be displeased with him. “Congrats.”
“Why are you here if you’re just trying to scare everyone away?” For some reason, whatever it was, this alpha could not let things be. He wanted to keep prodding, keep poking, as if he was desperate to unravel me.
Screw him.
“Because unlike you,” I hissed out, “some of us don’t get a choice.”
My reply made him soften, and the über said something I wasn’t expecting him to: “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s right, all these rules and expectations for you omegas.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like you really care.”
“I do. I actually work for Alabaster Security.” He name-dropped the same company Delilah did earlier, and it made me wonder if the two of them knew each other somehow.
Probably not. Alabaster Security was probably a huge company here in the city.
“Used to be strictly private security, but lately we’ve been dipping our toes into other things.
Rescue missions. Omega escorts. Even bought and renamed Solus Academy. ”
I hadn’t heard anything about that. For all I knew, he was lying to me to try to make himself sound better. To make him sound like an ally.
With a shrug, I muttered, “Am I supposed to be impressed by your list? Sorry to say, I don’t give a shit. I don’t care what you do, and I don’t care who you are. You’re wasting your night at this table, alpha.”
“I don’t know.” He took everything I said in stride. “Maybe I’m right where I want to be, omega.” The way he said that last word sent a chill down my spill, and I didn’t know why. I did my best to hide my body’s reaction to him saying that word, but I didn’t know whether or not I succeeded.
“I wish you would disappear,” I muttered with a frown.
“Is that what you really want, or is that what you’ve told yourself to want?”
God, this alpha knew exactly how to get under my skin.
I didn’t know who he was or where he came from, or why the hell he was zeroing me out like this, but nothing I said would get him to leave.
He always had a reply ready on his tongue, always a twinkle in those deep blue eyes, and all of that said nothing about how my body had reacted when he’d called me omega.
Again, I couldn’t answer him, but he was ready to say, “I’m Rourke Cunningham, and even though you might not say it, I will: it’s good to meet you.”
I averted my gaze from him and muttered, “Go to another table, please.”
“Is that you asking, or is that you begging?”
My nostrils flared as I drew my eyes back to the alpha across from me, giving him my worst death glare. “I am a Dryers. I do not beg.”
“Dryers, huh? That’s a founding family, ain’t it? I’m surprised you’re here alone.”
He must not have been updated on current events, otherwise he’d know the Dryers name had fallen out of favor lately, ever since my parents died. The Dryers had been on a constant downward spiral, though my aunt would never say that aloud.
Ugh. I probably shouldn’t have said my last name at all. Now he could write me an official offer—assuming he was crazy enough to do so, and I’d bet anything this alpha was that nuts. The fact that he was still here, still talking to me, said enough.
“I guess I’m full of surprises,” I said with a shrug as I willed him to go away.
Seriously, why wouldn’t this alpha pick up the hint and leave me the hell alone?
I already made it obvious I wasn’t here for a match.
There were dozens of other omegas here who would love to sit across from an alpha that looks like Rourke.
“Yeah, I bet you are.” He leaned back after he said that, and based on the way he stared at me, I knew the wheels in his mind were turning. I’d bet anything the freaking alpha was wondering how to match with me.
“You better not,” I warned.
“Better not what?”
“Please, the innocent act only works for someone like me. For you? Nope. You know damn well what I mean when I say you better not.”
“Maybe I don’t. Maybe I’m more stupid than you think I am.” He flashed me his pearly whites again, egging me on, trying to get me to say it out loud.
Fine. Whatever. If that was the game this alpha wanted to play, then we could play.
We were nearing the finish line, anyway, so I might as well cut to the chase.
I told him, “You better not put in an offer for me tonight. I’m not going to accept any.
You’d be better off putting one in for any other omega here. ”
“That’s funny. You act like you know what I’m thinking.”
“Am I wrong?”
He ran a hand down his chest, and that was when I spotted the tattoos peeking out beneath the sleeve cuff on his wrist. A man with tattoos—there was something incredibly sexy about it. “Maybe you are, maybe you’re not. I guess you’ll have to wait and see if you get any offers tonight, Dryers.”
Calling me by my last name, how original. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know my first name. I had the feeling this guy liked the game, if his reaction to me and my comments meant anything.
He stood, but when he did, the movement was jerky, almost robotic, like it pained him to pull himself away from me. “I suppose I’ll leave you alone for now. Let you sit here by yourself and stew in whatever self-inflicted misery you brought with you. It was fun chatting, though.”
I didn’t say anything to him. The only thing I did was watch him go… and the weirdest thing happened as I watched him leave me. Something ached in my chest, something that had never happened before.
My heart hurt. It actually hurt as I watched him walk away from me. For some dumb reason, it was like parts of me had decided they liked this particular alpha.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Literally the one thing I wanted tonight, to stay away from alphas, and my freaking body had other ideas. All because of that one alpha. Every other time I’d come here before, no other alpha had ever made me react like that.
Shit.
I ground my jaw and folded my arms over my chest as I wrestled with myself over it. For some reason, the damned alpha chose another omega only a few tables away, and even when he was sitting down and talking to said omega, those blue eyes of his kept flicking over to me.
Was he trying to see if I was watching? Ugh, screw him.
After it happened a few times, I abruptly looked away and got an itch on my head, which I then itched with my middle finger.
Alphas. They always thought they were the shit. How annoying.
Back to the present, I answer Asher’s question: “I’m just a bitch. I make fun of them. I’m mean. Usually it’s easy to dissuade alphas and push their interests elsewhere. You lot have real thin skin when it comes to that stuff.”
Asher doesn’t address the alpha-wide insult. “That really works? You’re a little mean and because of that, you never get offers?”
Honestly, after that last one… Rourke, that was his name, I actually thought my act wouldn’t work on him.
I was surprised to learn he didn’t put anything in for me.
With how he acted that night, how he responded to me, the way those pupils of his dilated and stayed that way, I thought my aunt would be jumping for joy at an offer, even if it was from a lone alpha with no pack surrounding him.
But no. That alpha never submitted an offer for me.
Which is fine. It’s what I wanted. What I want. No offers means I get to keep moving forward with my plan.
“Yeah,” I say softly. “It works.”
“Wow.” He sounds amazed. “I never thought… I mean, I guess I just assumed that when omegas are surrounded by alphas, matches were bound to happen.”
“That’s what everyone thinks, and it might be true for most omegas, but I’m not most omegas. I’m…” I quiet, mostly due to the fact that I don’t know how to finish that sentence. No one knows how broken I am, other than my aunt and my doctors. I settle for saying, “I’m just different.”
The way he glances at me, I can tell he knows something’s up with me, but he doesn’t push.
He only says, “Being different isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
You’ve got to be tough to be willing to do what you’re going to do.
I don’t think most omegas would even try to get through their first heat alone. ”
Most people would say it’s a stupid plan, especially since it’s just for money. Even if he is lying, I’m glad he doesn’t say it. I never really got much comfort growing up after the accident, so even if it’s a lie, I’ll take it.
But I don’t really know what to say to that, so I don’t say anything.
The rest of the drive is uneventful. We make it to the cabin, which I hesitate to call a cabin in the first place.
Situated on over one hundred acres in the mountains, it’s more of a mansion than anything else.
No neighbors to be seen anywhere, along with a long, winding driveway that eventually ends at the three-car garage attached to the side of the impressive estate.
No snow here, not this time of year. I can’t imagine how crazy a place like this gets in the winter, but that’s when Asher and his family come up.
They have the holidays here—or they used to, way back when.
I suppose I’m lucky his family still has this cabin.
It has been just over ten years, and things change.
We pull into the garage, and Asher parks the car.
We get out, grab a few bags, and then I let the alpha lead the way inside.
We’re going to have to make multiple trips thanks to all the extras I got at the store, but I’d rather be overly prepared than not have something I need and be unable to go get it.
“I’ll show you the heat room,” Asher says. “You can either stay in there the whole time or wait until your heat starts and move over. It’s totally up to you.”
I nibble my bottom lip. I don’t know what I want, what would be easiest. This is not something I’ve ever been through before, so I have nothing to compare it to. This is new to me in every single way.
Thank goodness Asher agreed to help. Thank God he’s going along with my plan, as silly and petty as it may be. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without him.
Walking through the place is like walking in an alternate reality. Though it’s the size of a mansion, it is, for all intents and purposes, a wooden cabin. It might have all the amenities people with money have come to expect and want, but it’s rustic and has a type of old-world charm to it.
Not a place I’d want to stay forever, but maybe I could treat this as a little vacation of sorts, until my heat starts. My twenty-first birthday is in roughly two weeks. Plenty of time to get settled in and ready.
We go to the grand staircase, where Asher leads me up to the second floor. The right side of the hall is open over the railing, and you’re able to overlook the living room, which has giant ceilings and equally large windows on the far wall, which let in a ridiculous amount of light.
The last room down the hall is the heat room. The walls and door are thicker, I imagine soundproof. There’s a huge bed situated in the center of the room, along with an attached bathroom that looks as though it has a gigantic tub in it.
All meant for activities with multiple people. I try not to think too much about Asher’s parents getting down and dirty here.
“If you don’t want to stay here, you can take the room next door,” Asher is busy saying as he watches me study the room.
I set my bags down at the foot of the bed before I turn toward the alpha and say, “No, here is fine. Might as well start nesting early, right?” I mean it as a joke, but I don’t think it comes across as one, nor do I think Asher takes it jokingly, either.
“Whatever you want.” He enters the room and places the few bags he brought next to mine.
My clothes, the other bathroom incidentals I bought at the store.
You’d be surprised what you needed for a three-to-four week stint somewhere that wasn’t your house.
“I’ll grab the other bags from the car if you want to start unpacking. ”
I don’t know what makes me do it, but my hand shoots out, and I grab him by the arm, stopping him. His green gaze is expectant when he looks down at me, and I’m momentarily struck by just how handsome he is.
He grew up into a fine-looking alpha, that’s for sure. Maybe… maybe if things wouldn’t have happened as they had, we wouldn’t be strangers right now. Maybe we’d be together.
But that’s a thought I shouldn’t have, and I push it far away as I tell him, “In case I don’t ever say it again, thank you for this, Asher. Thank you for taking a chance and helping me.”
His mouth tugs into a smile, but it’s a sad smile that makes my chest tight.
All he says is “It’s no problem, Jess,” but I can tell there’s something more he wants to say.
Maybe he’s thinking about what he did all those years ago, too.
Maybe he’s wondering what life would be like if my parents had never gotten into that accident.
We stare at each other a bit longer before I let my hand slide off his arm, though neither of us say another word. The air around us is suddenly so heavy, stifling, like it’s hard to completely fill my lungs.
When I take my hand off him, I step back and look away. It’s only when I hear Asher’s footsteps trailing out of the room that I lift my gaze and watch him go.
For some reason, I feel the same way I felt at the Omega Garden when I watched that über alpha walk away from me. It’s not a good feeling, like ice in my veins, an intense pressure surrounding my heart.
Oh, boy. This isn’t going to be as easy as I thought, huh?