11. Cass
CASS
I t’s only been five days since JP fished her out of the ocean, but it feels like I’ve been in her orbit forever. I haven’t been able to get her out of my head all week.
I took a fifteen-minute icy shower when Quinn told me he might be late to pick up Blake and asked if I could go and wait in case he was. He’d be right behind me.
The moment I walk into her classroom, I’m aware of her. I watch every minuscule movement she makes, the way her hips sway, the light tomboyish way she walks from parent to parent.
The way she moves through the room, expertly avoiding any body contact and keeping her space bubble. The way she talks to other parents, her voice soft but confident, her scent potent despite the suppressants.
I watch with mounting rage as another Alpha notices her sweet scent. It doesn’t matter that I know most of the people here and they are all happily bonded, upstanding community members.
Right now, it feels like a room full of miscreants and I’m ready to murder anyone who so much as looks at her, let alone touches her. Mine , my Alpha snarls, the possessive growl rattling through my chest so strongly that I’m surprised that no one else notices.
When another dad pulls her into a hug, it’s all I can do not to shove him away and challenge him right here and now. Especially when she looks so damn uncomfortable.
How the hell did I go from never wanting to claim an Omega to secretly obsessing after one like a fool in just a week ? Suddenly, I’m nothing but a useless, lovesick fanboy, hovering around her like some kind of obsessed stalker. I just want to grab Blake and head home.
“Easy brother, you’ll scare her with all that I’m an Alpha pounding your chest bullshit.” I feel a comforting hand on my shoulder, and despite his jab, I feel him sending his calming nature through the bond. Quinn. I didn’t even notice him walk up.
“Need a minute?” he asks.
“Fuck,” I growl, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. “I can’t do this.”
“Do what? Pick up Blake without going full beast mode?” he chuckles and this time he claps his hand down on my shoulder with a little too much force. “Come on Cass, sure you can. Take a deep breath and relax.
“You’ve seen a woman before, right?” Quinn says with another firm squeeze of his palm on my shoulder before letting his hand fall away.
I laugh, the tension starts to bleed out of me, my instincts easing down, retreating from that razor-sharp edge. Everything about her is so damn unexpected.
She completely blindsided me from the moment I met her—knocked me off course and left me floundering, trying to find my footing. But seeing her makes it damn near impossible.
I know Quinn feels this pull toward her, too. Whatever it is, we all feel it.
It’s there in the way his gaze sharpens when she’s near, a quiet hunger simmering beneath his easy smile. He’s been in a bonded pack before—he knows better than any of us how an Omega can anchor a pack, smooth out the rough edges, make everything feel…right.
Quinn’s made no secret of it, either. For a while now, he’s been trying to have the conversation—about bringing in an Omega, about expanding our pack.
But every time he brings it up, I shut him down before he even gets the words out.
I can’t stand the look in his eyes when I tell him no. The disappointment. The frustration.
I know it’s important to him. That building a real family is something he’s been craving for years, something he’s already got planned out in his damn head.
And the guilt gnaws at me because I can’t give him the answer he wants.
I can’t bring myself to say yes, to agree to something I don’t even know how to want.
But meeting Sterling…It’s lit a fire in him. I can see it in the way he’s watching her, the determination burning under his skin. The next time he brings it up, I have a feeling he’s not going to take no for an answer. I’m not sure if I want him to.
Even JP, who’s spent years shutting himself off, looks awfully close to wanting when she comes up in conversation. But I feel so out of my depth, I can’t seem to get control over it.
This woman makes me feel like every feeling I have is ripped out of me and laid bare for everyone to see.
I see her make eye contact with Quinn, helping Blake with a pile of drawings he’s trying to wrangle.
I think I have the whirling of my emotions reined in when she reaches us, but the moment she turns those big gray eyes up at me, I melt. My palms sweat, my heart beats faster and my IQ disappears.
Her scent is soft, warm, and rich. I can smell her shampoo and almost feel her Omega preening for me, and it makes every primal, Alpha part of me snarl to life.
“Hey guys,” she greets, coming over. “Blake had a great day. He helped out a group of students with their letter practice and nailed being the line leader.”
I can hear the affection in her voice. And that just adds gasoline to the fire. Loving Blake is probably a more powerful aphrodisiac than her scent. That little man is everything to me.
“Awesome! And how do you like teaching so far?” Quinn says.
“Oh, I love it,” she laughs, her eyes crinkling at the corners, pure joy spilling out of her like sunshine.
“But between you and me, it’s exhausting, I’ve been so busy I haven’t eaten anything all day…
definitely have to work on that. And last night when I was leaving, I was so tired that I left my key card and my car keys in my classroom and had to call Jerry, the maintenance guy, who’d already gone home to let me in.
Waited outside for like an hour. Embarrassing. ”
“Yeah? I bet Jerry didn’t mind,” Quinn laughs, and he’s right: Jerry is a lecherous old man who never gets tired of pretty girls and loves any excuse to escape his wife.
“He didn’t,” she says with a playful roll of her eyes.
“He said I saved him from doing the dishes! But honestly? I’m definitely happy it’s Friday.
” Her grin is bright as she laughs again, light and easy, like everything is simple and good.
The sound is so damn full of pleasure it slams into my chest with a thud.
God, I might die from how much I want to be the one to make her laugh like that, to be the reason her eyes light up and her shoulders relax. But I can’t want her. I won’t. There are too many variables, stacked up like bricks I can’t knock down.
I don’t know how to be what an Omega needs.
My father would make her life hell, turn her into a target just to get to me.
If the business goes under, how the hell would I take care of her?
And if she got pregnant…how would I protect them?
How could I ever give her the kind of life an Omega deserves?
The thoughts swarm like hornets. My failures. My mess.
“Is everything okay?” she asks, her voice soft, genuine concern etched into every word. Those gray eyes search mine, and for a second, I almost crack.
I need to get away from her. I need to shut this down before it spirals out of control. Absolutely nothing good has ever come from being this vulnerable. So I do the only thing I know how to do.
I’m an asshole.
“Wait, you waited outside for an hour? Alone? At night? In the dark?” I snap, forcing my voice to go cold and distant. “You could’ve been hurt. Or worse. What were you thinking? You should know better than that.”
The words come out harsher than I intend, condescending and overbearing, but I can’t pull them back. They’re already hanging in the air between us and the regret that hits me instantly feels like a punch to the gut.
Her face falls. Something flickers in her eyes—hurt—but she masks it quickly, stepping back. Her expression shudders.
“Well, I’ve got a learning curve, that’s for sure.
But seriously, what could’ve possibly happened?
Worst case, I end up with a sore bottom.
” She tries to laugh it off, standing her ground, her chin tilted up defiantly.
But I can still see it—the flicker of insecurity in her eyes, the confusion and hurt she’s trying so hard to hide. I did that. And I hate it.
I know I messed up. Quinn knows it, too, by the barely concealed censure in his stare, but I don’t look at him.
I just look at her.
Sterling turns to Quinn next, offering him a polite, if not slightly forced, smile.
“Can you sign a couple papers for Blake? I forgot to give them to you on the first day,” she says, pulling out the folder she had under her arm.
Quinn takes it, flipping through the pages, and sending a scathing what the fuck vibe through our bond. I feel his chastisement and I deserve it.
“No problem. Got a pen?” He gestures to an area where he can set the folder down and sign. He lets her go first and brings his hand to the small of her back, guiding her slightly to the side as they go over the papers in a quick soothing gesture. It’s a simple quick touch…
And it makes me want to rip his head off. I can smell her scent spike with the contact and know she likes it. I nearly growl.
I see it and I hate it. I’m out of her classroom and half out of the school before I hear Quinn and Blake call after me. But I don’t stop.
—
I spend the rest of the afternoon on the North Star, pretending there’s work that needs to be done.
Ignoring the texts from JP and Quinn. I need space—from my pack, from myself, from everything.
I’d never trade them for anything, but sometimes the weight of trying to keep that wall up and keep my emotions from flooding my packmates feels like it might crush me.
Out here, with nothing but the steady rock of the boat and the salty breeze cutting through my tension, I can almost breathe.
But after hours of chasing the same circular thoughts, and coming to the same conclusion every time, I’m ready to head back home.
And figure out how to apologize for being a first-class dick, even if it doesn’t change anything.