35. Luka
35
LUKA
“Tie or no tie?” I grumble to myself as I stand in front of the dingy bathroom mirror. One of the guys clearly didn’t wipe up when he brushed his teeth earlier, because there’s toothpaste splatter across the bottom edge. My fingers itch to clean it, but I’m cutting it close on time, so the mess will have to wait.
“Tie.” Colter appears in the doorway of the bathroom, a hulking presence. I can’t see his expression due to his mask, but I can imagine what he looks like, and the judgment makes the hair on the back of my neck prickle.
The fact that he feels he needs to weigh in makes me even more nervous about my date with Brylee tonight. I’m never nervous around women, but this is my first chance to impress our scent match. The first time she’s actually agreed to spend time with me without me barging my way into her life. The first time that a kiss is a real, viable possibility.
“Is a tie too much though?” I hold a burgundy tie up to my neck but hesitate, because even though I’m taking her to the nicest restaurant in town, she’s younger than we are—and seems far less formal than I would have expected for a royal.
She’s also so skittish that I’ve had to shoulder my way into spending time with her twice now, but once she lets her guard down…she’s been amazing.
Our time in the laundromat has been on constant replay inside my head for the past few days. The feel of her body as I pressed against her at the claw machine. Her soft scent as she unconsciously perfumed for me. I’ve had to touch myself more than once, and my knot is aching to slide inside of her.
But that will only ever happen if tonight goes well. If I can convince her to trust me. Us. It’s absolutely imperative that I show her Alpha Team X is more than a set of professors who are naturally hard on her brother, the alpha that’s set to become our king. An alpha who absolutely needs hardening…but I digress.
She made her disapproval over how hard we are on him clear, but it’s only because she’s so utterly sweet and soft. And omegas see the world differently than alphas do. We recognize the need to be harsh and strong, but she represents the gentler side of human nature. The side that’s worth protecting. I need her to see me as more than her brother’s bully tonight.
For a second, my view of the bathroom fades as memory eclipses it. Those massive blue eyes of hers appear, framed by wispy lashes as she stares up at me with a playful expression that unlocks the gears and bolts the guys teasingly say I’m made out of. They call me a robot sometimes. A killing machine.
Maybe I am.
But not with her.
She unleashes a side of me that no one else can.
Somehow, I need to show her that.
Kylian’s head pops around the doorway of the bathroom. “How much longer? There’s only one bathroom in this shithole, you know.” His eyes trail over my gray suit, and his expression becomes a grimace. “I should have gotten the first date. You’re gonna scare her off.”
Colter cuffs him on the back of the head, but then they both stare at me with an intensity that seems to underline, bold, and italicize Kylian’s statement.
The pressure inside my chest mounts.
This date isn’t only important because it’s my first with our scent match. I’m the first of the pack to get to spend time with her…romantically.
If I mess up, will she even give the rest of them a chance?
It becomes hard to swallow because my throat is suddenly dry. Ridge is usually our appointed leader. He’s always been the first to jump from a chopper, first into any building we cleared, first to give reports to superiors.
Not this time.
I’m the one doing the unthinkable—cresting Everest, walking on the moon, courting our scent match.
Briefly, I wonder if it ever terrifies him to be our pioneer, because I feel like I’m about to step off the edge of a cliff. Then again, he’s merely facing the prospect of death—not the possibility of walking back to his pack in defeat after having lost the only omega who has ever made us believe in the possible—a happily ever after.
I don’t look in the mirror because I don’t want to see what my expression looks like right now. Instead, I turn and shoulder past both of them, walking down the tiny hallway to our minuscule kitchen…which has been transformed into a flower shop.
“What the…” I trail off, stopping short and blinking in bedazzlement at bouquet after bouquet. Lilies, roses, dahlias, tulips…and those are only the flowers I know. There are hundreds of others that I’m unsure of.
Ridge stomps into the cottage with three more bouquets in his hand.
Did he clear out every flower shop in town?
From behind me, Kylian calls out, “Here comes the bride.”
“Shut up and help me pick the best ones,” Ridge growls, setting down the latest batch of bouquets. He runs a hand through his hair, making me think he might be as worried about tonight as I am.
“I like these yellow things,” Kylian offers, and I’m glad when the others turn annoyed glares in his direction.
“Who cares what you like?” Ridge snaps.
“It’s not about you,” Colter chastises.
“Well, what then?” Kylian asks defensively, gesturing at the massive pile.
I answer because he clearly didn’t take the time to pick up a book even after we met our scent match. “Omegas have color preferences and very sensitive noses, and those can perk up their…” I can’t seem to force myself to say the word arousal . “Or diminish their interest in you. We need to think about what she’ll like.”
We turn and stare at hundreds of blooms piled on the countertop. “Can’t we give them all to her?” Kylian asks. “Can’t we just spoil her and tell her we want to figure out what she likes?”
“Someday we will, if Luka doesn’t fuck up.” Ridge’s tone grates harshly against my ears.
Their gazes shoot like bullets, and I can feel them hit my chest. Penetrate.
There will be no walking back into this cottage tonight if I fail. I might even be exiled from the group. A dizzy feeling enters my skull and spins down my throat into my stomach, which churns.
“Get the hell over here and smell these so we can make Brylee a bouquet.” Ridge assumes his typical commander role, and the order helps me snap out of the panicked daze I was falling into.
The four of us approach the mountain of flowers with trepidation. It feels akin to the time we walked into a room and saw a live grenade on the ground. Then, protocol was easy. Tonight, it’s not.
“She needs the navy tulips. They complement her scent,” Colter insists.
How would he know? Has he even gotten close enough to smell her?
“But those look awful with these purple things,” Kylian growls, becoming insistent. “I want these purple ones in there. I know she’ll like them because she had purple accents in her room.”
“Scent is more important than color.” Colter moves to extract Kylian’s flower choice from our cobbled-together bouquet, and the other alpha stops him. Instantly, they’re in one another’s faces, and it looks like they might come to blows.
“STOP!” Ridge orders, vein in his forehead bulging in frustration. “We each get to pick one. That’s it. The clock is ticking and Luka needs to get out of here.” He wrenches the stems from Colter’s hand and tries his hand at arranging their contrasting flowers with his own star lilies.
When he hands the bouquet to me, I’m instantly awash in a confusing cloud of floral tones.
This could backfire, so badly, I think, as I add jasmine as my contribution. This entire thing might be a punch to the nose with the contrasting flower scents, plus our own mixed in since we all handled the flowers.
Online, matchmaking experts said intent matters. Effort matters. Hopefully, Brylee appreciates the effort because heaven knows we don’t know a thing about plants.
By the time I’m headed out the door with a massive collection of flowers in hand, I want to throw the damn bouquet and run for cover.
But I won’t.
As I drive, I listen to a podcast on wooing a scent match as I reassure myself. I’ve researched. I’ve prepared.
I even practiced lines in the shower so the others couldn’t hear me.
I’m going to woo the panties off our omega tonight.
I have to.