Chapter 6
I carefully put my shower shoes into their plastic drawstring bag, trying unsuccessfully to avoid thinking about how many germs were likely crawling around the soles.
It didn’t matter how many times I had to do it—using the communal gym showers never got any easier. The damn things were a breeding ground for bacteria, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of sitting in my car in sweaty clothes, so some battles needed to be waged.
I just wish it didn’t have to be daily.
Perhaps there was more merit than I’d originally considered in adding a home gym above our garage. The project would be expensive, but it would eliminate this unpleasant experience from my life…
Buzz, buzz.
My germophobia-fuelled considerations were interrupted as my phone began to rattle its way along the bench beside my bag, Charlie’s contact photo lighting the screen.
I swiped my finger along the tempered glass, the call connecting to my headphones as I continued to pack away the rest of my belongings.
“Cameoooooo—” Charlie half-whined into my ear before I could get a greeting out. “Tell me you aren’t busy tonight. I’ve been left to die.”
I bit back a sigh. Dramatics were never my favorite, but Charlie seemed to thrive on them. Though the alpha had calmed down a little since he’d packed up. At the very least, I listened to a whole lot less pining about a certain beta now that they were bonded. And I considered that a net positive.
Luckily for him, it was Tuesday. Usually, this was game night with the rest of my pack. But with Indigo and Joon busy already… I was free to do what I pleased.
“I could be,” I hedged, my mind already on a night at home enjoying the quiet solitude of my bug room. I’d recently acquired a new giant peacock moth specimen that I planned to pin and dry before it, since it needs to sit for a few days. “With the right motivation.”
“My wife has left me,” Charlie sighed, heavily, “and took my husband with her.”
‘Wait—” I said quickly, tossing the strap of my bag over my shoulder and walking quickly out of the locker room to head to my car. “Charlie, che cazzo! Are you okay?”
My mind was going a mile a minute. To my knowledge, separation between scent-matched and mated packs was deeply uncommon, and my friend turned business partner hadn’t mentioned any issues in his relationship, much less one that was serious enough to lead to a separation.
“No,” he groaned. “You should’ve seen the dress I dropped Tara off in, it was diabolical. A crime against me specifically, and then Jesse—”
“Charlie,” I cut over the alpha, frustration dripping from my tone. “Are you getting a divorce?”
“What?” his shocked voice almost deafened me as I unlocked my car with the fob. “No?! They went to that stupid no-alphas club downtown with Eva.”
I paused with my hand on the door handle, hardly daring to breathe as my heart kicked up with excitement.
Eva. That was the name of the omega from the mirror maze.
The one that’d gone into heat in the middle of a Halloween orgy and found herself in the center of my pack for three blissful days before she’d all but disappeared.
Indigo had known who she was, but they were too much of a coward after she’d left without a word to reach out to her.
And me? Maybe I was no better.
Or maybe, maybe I was just trying to do something right for once. We already had an omega in our orbit, Joon settling over the last few weeks into a more consistent fixture in our household.
But progress was slow, and I still wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to pack up or if he was just enjoying the attention that came along with courting. We’d had that before, and none of us were interested in it again.
It’d been weeks since I’d seen the girl, the changed leaves falling from the trees to give way to snow. Too long.
“Oh… yeah?” I said slowly, trying to seem casual. An idea that was betrayed by the subtle edge in my voice.
If Charlie noticed it, he didn’t comment, heaving another sigh that was entirely unbecoming of an alpha. Alphas didn’t pine, and they certainly didn’t bitch and moan when their packmates went dancing without them.
“It’s so unfair—” the alpha went on, oblivious to these unwritten rules. “I was hoping you’d want to game or something, keep my mind off it. I just dropped them off, so I’ll head home, and then we could hop on?”
I opened the car door, sliding into my leather seat and tossing my bag into the passenger’s side. With a tap of a button, the car hummed to life, the built-in screen glowing with the app selection screen. I tapped the map, glancing at the clock.
Ten o’clock.
“It’s a little early to go dancing, isn’t it?”
“Jesse has an early meeting with his agent,” Charlie said, like it was obvious. “And we were already out, so it was a little last-minute.”
“Right,” I murmured, zooming out to look at the little blinking cursor that represented my car on the larger map.
Downtown was only a short fifteen-minute drive away.
“Anyway—so, games?”
My mouth moved before my brain had fully made the decision. “Sorry, man. I can’t tonight. Maybe try Indi?”
Charlie groaned. “I hate you, for the record.”
“I can only hope,” I replied tersely. “Gotta go—good luck with your separation anxiety.”
“You fucking—”
I hung up, taking my headphones off and tossing them on top of my bag. Normally, thinking about that would send me into a tailspin, but I was so focused on putting my car in drive and going, I barely considered it.
There were a lot of limits I had when it came to relationships and omegas. Unfortunately for Eva, stalking wasn’t really one of them.