Chapter 9 Mating Ceremony
Mating Ceremony
Mads
Ilay my head on the counter and feel the cool laminate on my hot face. The interview went well. Kol seems like a good guy. A bit aggressive, but at least it wasn’t directed at me. He’s clearly an alpha, his shoulders were massive. How am I going to have lunch with him tomorrow? Or work with him?
I’m going to shit myself.
I send off the calendar invite to a pub and grill to meet Alpha fucking Soto tomorrow for lunch. How on earth am I going to pull this off?
I better pull it off.
$90k a year? Everything he was saying I’d need to do is an absolute cakewalk. I could take his funds and build his portfolio in my sleep. I could give him three options and a secret fourth option.
I leave the stool I’d been sitting on and go crash on the couch. I’ve never been paid more than $45,000 a year. This is life changing.
And then I pull up that fucking dating app, At First Sight, I forgot to delete. Well, I did delete it, but I didn’t shut my profile down. The other day, I got an email that I had a message on the app. So, I re-downloaded it.
And there it was.
A voice note from a very pretty, most likely not real girl.
Almond eyes. Smattering of freckles across her nose. Black hair. Silver nose ring. A body to get lost in.
I would imagine it was fake but the voice note she sent was so…genuine. And charming.
But she was leaving that message for the guy in the profile from 13 months ago.
Not the shell of a man I am now. The broken husk. I’m three bad days away from the grave, not even in the same plane of existence as this girl.
I listen to her message again. Just to remind myself what life used to be like.
And then suddenly, my finger accidentally presses the video call button.
Fuck!
How do I hang up?! There’s no option to hang up! It’s all grayed out! The phone rings loudly. Briiiiiing! Brrrriiiing!
And then she picks up.
Good thing I’m in a decent shirt. And I’d done my hair for the interview. I sit up.
She looks beautiful. She’s beautiful.
“Hello?” She says, and I am done for. Oh no, this is bad. This is so bad. She looks confused by me. Just like Kol did.
“Your hair,” she says. “It’s not black.”
I chuckle with insecurity. “Yeah, sorry. I used to dye it. It’s this dry blonde color usually.”
“Oh,” is all she says.
And then I keep talking because I’m so nervous. “My friend is a hair stylist, and she said I’d look good with black hair. But I let it grow out this year and haven’t dyed it. She said black or white is my color. Not…this.”
She nods and we go silent.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I haven’t been on the app for over a year. I thought I deleted it.”
Her eyebrows bend in together. “Oh, I don’t know how this works. I’ve never used a dating app. Did I do it wrong?”
“No! I did it wrong. And now you’ve seen a profile with year old photos. What’s,” I take a deep breath, “what’s got you on an app?”
“I kind of wanted a date.”
“A date? And have you gotten a few?”
She blushes and it makes me relax.
“No, I matched with you. I’ve been waiting for you to respond.”
Oh my god, she’s so cute.
I’m not going to tell her she can match with more than one person. That would not help me at all. Suddenly, I’m feeling emboldened.
“I could take you out on a date. Would you like that?”
I suddenly remember the last time I asked someone out was Nancy. My stomach churns at that.
She giggles and drops her head out of view of the camera and I get a look at her surroundings.
I knew she was outside, but there are all these women behind her wearing very nice dresses and men in suits.
When she pops up in view, I notice the baby’s breath flowers in her hair and she’s got quite a bit of makeup.
“Where are you?”
“Oh,” her voice trails off, and she has a guilty smile on her face. “I’m at a mating ceremony.”
“A mating ceremony! And you took my call!”
“Well, I wanted to talk to you. But hush, the omega is about to walk down the aisle.”
Oh my god. And I hear it. The music swells and Cadi turns the camera to show a small, little omega in a sweeping white dress holding bouquets of flowers, walking down an aisle towards an altar with four male alphas.
Good fucking god.
She turns the camera back to her, and she gives me a funny smile, and I can’t help but laugh.
She puts her finger to her lips to tell me to be quiet. And then I watch most of the ceremony as she makes silly faces, and I try not to laugh.
She clearly thinks mating ceremonies are weird. She rolls her eyes at all the corny bits—in a subtle way, of course.
Packs don’t often have a big ceremony. If they do it’s often just a reflection of weddings.
She does get a bit misty-eyed during their vows, but who wouldn’t?
I haven’t smiled this much since before the incident. My cheeks ache. When it ends, she tells me her phone number, I write it down and we end the call.
I text her and tell her I’d like to take her out.
I’m halfway in love with this girl already.
I take my pain meds and I’m out of it for the rest of the day.