Chapter 12
THEO
I’ve just met my scent match.
Of all the times, of all the places, in the fucking beer line at my team’s stadium.
She’s stunning. Breathtaking. Oh god, and looks to be about half my age.
The scent pouring off her has my entire body in its thrall.
All I can do is stare, gape, simply lose my goddamn mind that this girl is the one for me.
She’s sweet like a potent cloud of jasmine, mouthwatering peach nectar, and beneath it all lies something I’d be prepared to drown in… a decadent brown sugar caramel scent.
What do you say at a moment like this? I don’t even know her name, and yet I know we’re bound together in a way that Alphas and Omegas often yearn for and seldom find.
Do I take her away from here? Do I clear out an entire restaurant so that we can sit and talk for hours? Do I dare fucking ask how old she is… Jesus Christ.
Swallowing hastily, I’m busy trying to remember how to string words together, all while the sound of blood rushing in my ears nearly drowns out the commotion of the crowd around us.
Everything that is, except for a familiar voice.
“Hey, Dad.”
Shit. I don’t really want to have to interrupt this moment with her; there are a thousand things I need to say and do, and in among it all, I’m still staring at her heart-shaped face, slack-jawed and dumbstruck.
As if my eyes have been opened for the first time.
And yet, when she looks at me with those sapphire blues, it’s as if she’s suddenly seen a ghost.
Her eyes widen as she takes in the sight of my son walking over.
“Brett?” A tiny croak comes out of her.
There’s a pop in the side of my jaw. How the fuck does she know my son’s name?
My Alpha senses go haywire. If I wasn’t losing my mind a moment ago because this scent match between us is so intense I feel like I’ve just walked away from a car crash, I would be now.
Oh shit.
This girl is looking at my son with an expression I could read a mile away. He’s not a friend. Not someone she’s pleased to see. It’s the same look I would have on my face if I ran into his mother.
Fuck my life.
“Dad… we’re waiting on you. We can’t get up to the VIP level without your pass.
” He whines, not paying attention to anything but scrolling his phone, and then glances up, gaze pinballing between me and the girl I’ve still got in my grasp.
I’m still holding on to her elbow, and now we’ve got a fucking audience.
Two other Omegas are right behind her, looking at me, looking at my son, and this is quickly going south.
Surely, when you finally meet your scent match, it’s supposed to be a moment when you can introduce yourselves and at least find out one another’s names, before the rest of the world pokes its nose in and asks what the fuck is going on.
“What the fuck is going on?” my son snorts. “Wren? Why are you here?”
That has me biting down on the growl that threatens to escape and seems to shock her—my scent match… Wren… Christ, that’s a pretty name—out of this scent-trance scenario we’re both internally battling. Well, I know I am at least.
There is a massive part of me that wants to toss her over my shoulder, go straight to my office, lock the door, and piledrive her until the sun comes up. To mark her and knot her and prove that she belongs to me.
Which is absolutely the worst idea in the world, and if the Alpha in me is already feeling that level of possessiveness over someone—someone who, more importantly, I currently only know the first name of—then this is bad. Really fucking bad.
I scrub one hand slowly over my mouth. Still at a loss for words that don’t include “fuck off right this second” to my son.
“Are you snooping after me or something? Did you come here because you know my dad’s involved, and hoped to bump into me at a game?” Brett scoffs.
“Of course not. In fact, had I known this is where you lurk around, I’d pick a different team to support.
” She squares her shoulders, seems to find her footing, and carefully extracts her arm from my hold.
Which is the furthest thing from what I want.
My fingers itch to be touching her, holding her, protecting her from anyone and everything.
So I curl them into fists at my sides, instead. But stay exactly where I am. No way am I taking a single step back or putting distance between us.
My son gives her a look up and down. He’s lucky I’m not plucking his eyeballs out of his goddamn head right about now.
We don’t exactly have a relationship, not for my lack of trying, but the kid has been spoiled rotten by his mother and now thinks he’s god’s gift.
The lack of humility or care for anyone but himself leaves me unable to recognize myself in my own flesh and blood whenever we do end up spending time together.
After a pause, that’s when he barks out a laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re studying here. Oh my god, did you actually apply for one of those weird Omega scholarships? I thought that was a joke.”
He’s gonna be lucky to keep his Beta balls after tonight is through.
But my girl—technically she’s mine, whatever—can claw back.
“Yes, I am, Brett. My Omega scholarship that is highly competitive to get into, for the two years I’m permitted to study on campus.
In which time I will have completed more classes than you, carried out more assessments than you, and earned the first class honors I’m already on track for, before the second semester is through.
” She turns her attention to the sour-faced girl hanging off his arm.
Another Beta with a box-dyed bleach job and orange spray tan. “And you must be…?”
“His girlfriend.” She turns her nose up.
“Perfect. Lovely. Thanks for posting all those photos of him cheating, by the way. Woman to woman? I hope you get yourself tested, because who knows what diseases he might be carrying by now.” She refuses to look my way and instead grabs hold of her friends, who are standing there just as open-mouthed at this exchange as I am.
“Well, you all have a wonderful family night out at the game, and my friends and I are gonna get back to our seats so we don’t miss the second half. ”
Before I can comprehend what just unfolded, the three Omegas start to disappear into the crowd.
My scent match slips away, and all I know is her first name and that I want to murder my own son.