63. Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Two
Xane
Switching my emotions off isn’t hard, like it used to be. It’s a necessary evil when I can’t handle what I’m feeling. Being sober helps, but looking at the hurt in this woman’s expression, I’m not so sure this was the best approach.
I still need to get through a four-day hike with her.
Telling her I basically don’t trust her before we do that isn’t something I have any choice over.
I can’t let her continue to get close to Trick and Kian.
They don’t know what it’s like to be around an Omega.
Now that she’s perfuming, they’re gonna be even more smitten, and they don’t even know that’s what the scent she’s putting out is made to do.
She’s staring at me like I’m a monster.
“Are you serious?” she asks, raising her voice. “You don’t like me because I’m an Omega? I can’t fucking help that! It didn’t choose to be born like this! I never wanted to be a fucking Omega!”
She turns to the backpacks and starts throwing the supplies inside angrily.
“Eight fucking years living like a Beta, and the second I perfume for the first time some damn jerk thinks I’m using my magical Omega abilities to trick his pack brothers!
I should have taken that fucking record deal and told Sapphire to look for another job.
She deserves better than to work for someone who would work for an asshole like you. ”
Clearly, I hit a nerve. I feel a little bad about it, but not enough to try and take back what I said.
“You have suppressants in your purse,” I remind her. “If you actually wanted to stop perfuming, you would take the maximum dose.”
She stops and stares at me. “I took two this morning! And they don’t work around true mates, as if you didn’t know that.”
Then, she turns around and opens her purse, taking the bottle out.
“But fine. If you want me to stop distracting you, I’ll swallow another four of these fucking things.” She uncaps it and tips the pills out onto her hand. “Just to make you happy.”
She shows me them, tips them into her mouth and shows them again, then she swallows them dry, in two gulps, and opens her mouth again.
“Happy now?” she snaps, stuffing the bottle back into her purse and closing it.
She frowns at me. “You might have known other Omegas, but you don’t know me.
I turned down a six-figure record deal before I came out here.
I’m not looking for a gravy train, or whatever the hell you think I’m doing.
And besides that, I didn’t come here for you.
I came here for my sister who’s fucking petrified of flying! ”
Her anger isn’t dying down one little bit, but her perfume is starting to fade.
Thank God for small favors.
She shakes her head. “I never should have agreed to come out here.”
“No. That’s on me. I shouldn’t have let Kian talk me into this.” I can admit it when something’s my fault, and this whole mess is on my shoulders.
“I wish you hadn’t,” she mutters.
I wait for the waterworks, but they don’t come.
Knowing Kian did nothing to make her cry earlier, I figured that would be her go-to move.
It sure as hell made me angry when she was upset.
If she was trying to manipulate me, it worked.
“Well?” she asks, picking up more of the supplies.
“Huh?” I ask, confused.
“Are you gonna help pack this stuff, or am I supposed to do it alone?”
She’s still pissed, but she’s actually packing the supplies.
It’s a little confusing.
Was I wrong about her?
I think back to that night with the Omega, and it shuts down my confusion immediately.
It doesn’t matter if I’m wrong. She’s not worth the risk. No woman is.
“Of course I’m helping.”
I move to her side and get to work.
We pack silently, standing side by side.
She gives me irritable looks and shakes her head, but she doesn’t say another word.
When we’re done, she follows me out of the jet, carrying one of the flashlights, with her blazer draped over her shoulders.
We walk to the beach in silence, where she moves as far away from me as possible, and sits herself down between Trick and Kian.
Her hard stare lands on me through the smoke rising from the first embers in the fire as I sit down opposite.
I think I just made myself a new enemy.
What a fucking day it’s been.