27. Sterling
STERLING
J P leaves without a word or a glance.
One moment, he’s there, the next…he’s gone.
The front door closes loudly behind him. What did I do? Why did he leave? He’s so hot and cold. I don’t know which version of JP to trust, the one that leaves or the one that makes my Omega yearn to be next to him.
The silence that follows is too loud. I stare at the door, my stomach twisting.
“Why does he always do that?” I ask, more to myself than to Cass and Quinn.
Cass lets out a low, frustrated exhale. “JP…he’s just got a lot of his own shit.”
I can tell that whatever it is Cass won’t be sharing.
I shake my head, dropping my gaze. “He’s always leaving without a word. He’s either a spy or he can’t stand me?”
Quinn shifts closer, his fingers brushing my wrist before curling gently around it, his hand warm and comforting, sensing my distress.
“It’s not like that…actually, quite the opposite,” Quinn says.
JP’s scent still lingers in the air, wrapping around me, teasing me, taunting me. It makes no damn sense.
One minute he’s looking at me like he wants nothing more than to pin me against the wall—and the next, he’s gone. Vanished. Like I might burn him alive if he gets too close.
There’s a very large part of me that hates that he’s not here. It’s making me feel…irritable. Restless. Uneasy.
My Omega keeps insisting he should be here. That something’s missing. And I hate how much it bothers me.
I shouldn’t care. He doesn’t owe me anything—and I’d never try to force something he doesn’t want.
But still…
The ache is there. And I don’t know how to make it stop.
“It’s like he hates me and I can’t figure out what I’m doing to piss him off all the time.” I have to swallow a whimper and stop my voice from cracking. Him not being here just feels…wrong. And the feeling keeps getting bigger.
Quinn sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “He doesn’t hate you, Sterling.”
I let out a short, humorless laugh. “Sure as hell feels like he does.”
Cass, who’s been tense since JP left, suddenly growls, low and dark. “He’s an idiot.”
“He definitely doesn’t hate you, Sterling. He’s actually so fucking upside down over you, he’s just trying to make it make sense.”
“He sure has a weird way of showing it,” I say, as I catch Quinn and Cass exchange a weird look. I feel like I’m missing the climax of a story.
“What?” I ask.
Cass takes a step closer to me, puts his hand on the side of my face. A gesture tender and protective. It surprises me how easy casual touch is with him now.
I guess mind-bending sex can do that. The side of my face fits in the palm of his hand; he shifts my head so I’m looking him in the eyes. His voice is rougher now, a low rumble infused with emotions.
“You’re his scent match, Sterling.”
I blink. “What?” I’m not sure I understand what he said. Scent match?
Quinn sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. He looks clearly uncomfortable, like he’s weighing every word before he says it.
I know very little about scent matches.
Everything I’ve ever heard says they make an Alpha and Omega more drawn to each other. Heighten attraction. Intensify possessiveness and an Alpha’s protective instincts.
They can make an Omega crave the Alpha. Pheromones can be truly intense with scent matches.
But I’ve never heard of it being a bad thing. Never heard of it being something to run from.
And yet…here we are.
“Why would that be bad?” I ask, turning to Quinn. “Why is he mad about it? And…how do I even know if he’s my scent match?”
“I don’t know,” Quinn says gently, his voice softening.
“It’s rare, but not impossible, for a scent match to be one-sided—or at least to feel that way at first. A scent match means your body is biologically—chemically—aligned with his.
His heart and brain are fighting against instincts that are screaming at him to claim you. ”
He pauses, thoughtful.
“JP has a…complicated relationship with scent matches. And with Omegas in general.”
Cass clears his throat, his voice low but firm. “But that’s his story to tell, or not.”
Then his gaze sharpens.
“But rest assured, love, not wanting you is not one of his problems. If anything, it’s the complete fucking opposite. I’d bet right now he’s pissed at himself and probably scared shitless about what he’s feeling.”
I shake my head, dizzy with it.
“He thinks he’s not good enough for you,” Quinn says, shaking his head slightly.
“And he’s got a chronic case of always assuming the worst about himself.
JP doesn’t like feeling out of control, and scent matching—at its core—takes that control away.
It can make an Alpha feel like his choices are being stripped from him, like it’s not his will anymore. And that scares the hell out of him.”
My stomach clenches.
Not good enough? For me?
But before I can even begin to process it—before the ache in my chest can settle into something deeper—I latch onto the last thing Quinn said.
Stripping his choices away?
And just like that, I’m sixteen again.
That scared, furious version of myself—drowning in a world determined to make choices for me. A pack trying to manipulate me into an arranged bond and mating I didn’t want. Smiling faces masking pressure, expectations disguised as love and care.
My heart slams against my ribs, and the words are tumbling out of me before I can stop them.
Raw. Unfiltered. Fierce.
“I’d never force him into something he didn’t want.”
Cass’s eyes darken—like he can see straight through me, all the way to that broken-hearted version of myself still struggling to trust.
Quinn frowns, stepping closer. “That’s not what’s happening here, Sterling.”
“But it feels like it.” The words come out fast and unsteady, my voice cracking. “What if biology is making him want things he doesn’t.”
I take a shaky breath, fingers curling into a tight fist. Hot tears start to pool in the corners of my eyes before I blink them away, determined to never spill another tear over my past, ever again.
Quinn’s hand takes up a calming presence on my knee, and Cass’s scent soothes some of the familiar panic threatening to take up all the space in my brain.
“Did something happen to you?” he asks, gently and I know if I wanted to change the subject,they'd let me.
“My ex…” I pause, clearing my throat. The words are harder than I thought they’d be. “When I was sixteen, my parents tried to arrange a mating for me. A contract with a local pack they were friends with. The place I grew up in isn’t all that big or open to outsiders.”
I feel both Quinn and Cass still themselves beside me, but I keep going.
“They already had an Omega, but she was older, almost past the age of being able to have children. And they wanted a younger one to round out their pack.”
Cass flinches slightly, but he doesn’t speak. His silence is sharp and focused.
I breathe through the ache tightening in my chest.
“I was young and dumb and trusted my mom and her pack. It was supposed to be a good match. That’s what they said. Strong Alphas. Well-established in town. Capable of giving me stability, protection—all the things an Omega is supposed to want.”
I glance at the floor, unable to meet their eyes for a moment.
“I can’t believe that kind of thing still happens,” Quinn mutters under his breath.
“Go on,” Cass says.
“When I met them, it felt weird, but just kept telling myself it was nerves. I was a virgin and hadn’t even fully presented as an Omega yet. The other Omega was happy to take me under her wing.” I pause. I hate this part.
“She said she’d help me adjust. I never questioned it, though I couldn’t get the unsettled feeling to go away.” I scoff, the bitterness clawing its way up my throat. “But it didn’t matter how I felt anyways because I was never given a say in any of it. My parents didn’t think I needed one.”
“What?!” Quinn’s voice cracks through the room like a whip, all the easy charm gone. His posture is stiff, his hands gripping the edge of the counter like he might snap it in two. “You were sixteen.”
Cass is quiet, but when I look at him, his eyes are flint and fury. His jaw is locked, fists clenched so tight I can see the tendons straining beneath the skin.
The fear of judgment in my chest eases at their reactions—pure outrage, not pity.
I know what my family did was wrong, but it still left a mile-wide crack in my heart and a baked in distrust of Alphas.
So hearing Cass and Quinn so pissed on my behalf?
It’s…surprisingly validating.
“My parents arranged the whole thing,” I continue, voice low and even. “It was never about me. It was about social gain, financial connections. I was an Omega. Unbonded. Which meant I wasn’t their daughter anymore—I was a commodity. Something they could trade.”
Quinn mutters something under his breath, sharp and violent. “Fucking hell…”
Cass finally speaks, voice gravel-deep and vibrating with restraint. “They treated you like property.”
I nod slowly. “The pack approached them about me, and they didn’t hesitate. Signed the paperwork when I wasn’t even in the room. I thought my first meeting with that pack was for my parents to see if we were compatible…but the papers had already been signed. My fate sealed.”
There’s a long silence.
I give a hollow laugh and shake my head. “I only found out because a Beta—one of my teachers—overheard my parents at church. They were talking about my ‘future with the Larsen Pack.’ She pulled me aside the next day and told me to be careful. Said I needed to find some way to get help.”
A dry chuckle escapes me. “Turns out that even in Kansas, arranging a marriage for a minor is illegal. I just…didn’t know any better.”
“Jesus,” Quinn breathes, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can’t—” He stops himself and clears his throat. “You were just a kid, Sterling. That’s not marriage. That’s a sex trafficking.”
I swallow and exhale. “I was sixteen when they made the arrangement. The marriage and bonding ceremony was set for my eighteenth birthday. Or my first heat, whichever came first.”