Chapter 3 #2
“Oh, sweetheart. That wasn’t a diversion.” His voice dips, low enough to vibrate in places I don’t want to think about. “You kissed me like you were trying to drag me under. Like you wanted to see if I’d drown with you.”
Fire climbs up my neck and cheeks.
Lily practically wheezes. “HANNAH!”
“Shut. Up,” I hiss.
Chris only leans back against the counter like he didn’t just verbally body-slam me into next week. “For the record, I’ve been hit harder than that, but never by anyone who tasted that good.”
“I’m moving to Alaska. Don’t contact me.”
“No,” Lily says, delighted. “We are living here forever. In this moment. I’m framing it.”
James slides a fresh latte toward her as she goes back behind the counter with him. He leans forward, presses a kiss to her temple, and murmurs something that has her grinning. Watching them together is bliss.
“Can you pack half a dozen brownies in a box for Chris,” she asks James, who grins and goes to work.
Twenty-six years old, and I haven’t gotten within a mile of finding my pack. Meanwhile, my little sister has three Alphas who look at her like she hung the damn moon.
I’m genuinely happy for her.
I just wish I believed I could ever have something like that.
Then I’m staring at Chris, who hasn’t stopped watching me.
Sure, we had a fun kiss, but men like him don’t want Omegas like me.
Especially extremely handsome men who can have any girl they want.
He looks like he just stepped out of a photo shoot for Rugged Mountain Men Monthly.
Which was why, last month, I had made an appointment with that matchmaker downtown, Evelyn… something, the Omega who supposedly has a sixth sense for compatible packs. Showed up at her office, sat in the waiting room for twenty minutes, then fled before she could call my name.
Because what if she can’t find anyone for me? What if I’m one of those Omegas who just… doesn’t match? And I’m meant to be alone?
James is handing Chris the brownies when my phone chimes with a notification. I click it open and notice that it’s from Scot. My insides twist until they hurt.
“What’s wrong?” Lily asks immediately. “You’ve gone pale as snow.”
I swallow hard and lift my gaze. “Just got an email from Scot.”
“And?”
“Haven’t read it yet.”
Lily is at my side. “Let me do it.” She takes the phone, and I try to shrink away, knowing it’s not going to be good.
Chris is at my other side, rubbing my arm. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Effective immediately, I’m dissolving our partnership agreement,” she reads aloud.
“You’re no longer affiliated with Confetti and Meatballs Event Planning.
All client relationships revert to me. Any attempt to contact the company’s existing clients will be considered interference.
” She glances up. “That fucker! But there’s more,” Lily says.
“He copied someone called Giuseppe in on the email. Lawyer?”
“That’s his uncle.” I suddenly feel sick to my stomach and take the phone back, needing to read what else he says. “And apparently he spent the last few hours sending emails to his existing clients, telling them I’m no longer with the company and he’ll be handling all future events personally.”
“Can he do that?” Lily is outraged.
“I don’t know. Maybe. We never formalized the partnership in writing, so his uncle still owns the company.
I have nothing in writing.” My throat tightens.
“It was all handshake agreements, verbal promises. Scot’s uncle said we’d work together for six months, prove ourselves, and then he’d sell us the company fifty-fifty. ”
“That’s bad,” James says quietly.
“That’s catastrophic.” I grab another cookie, a Christmas tree this time, and take a bite. “My reputation, probably gone by the time Scot finishes spinning his story.”
Chris is still looking at the email over my shoulder. “He mentions an upcoming event that you’re responsible for. So you still have the ones you sourced, right?”
I scroll down the long email. “I’ve got a Christmas petting zoo event in two days.
Private party, wealthy client, huge opportunity.
I found it, booked it, planned everything.
But Scot has already told the animal vendors—the entire petting zoo component—that I’m gone and not to deal with me, as I’ll cause drama.
Asshole.” I’m trembling. “I’m a nobody who thought she could play event planner. ”
“Hey.” Chris’s voice cuts through my spiral, sharp and firm. “Don’t do that. Don’t diminish what you’ve built.”
“I haven’t built anything. I’ve been borrowing someone else’s company and pretending it was mine.”
“You brought in new clients,” Lily adds. “You proved yourself.”
Chris leans forward, one hand propped on the counter. “This jackass is threatened by you because you’re good at what you do. That’s not nothing.”
Lily squeezes my arm. “He’s right. You’re incredible at this. Scot knows it. That’s why he’s panicking.”
“Panicking or not, he’s winning.” I grab another cookie. “I’m about to face a client empty-handed with no animals for a petting zoo party. That’s not exactly a strong position.”
I stand there, frozen, while my entire world crumbles around me. Then I reach for another cookie, but Lily drags the tray away from me.
“You’re stress-eating,” she observes out loud.
“I need to drown in cookies.”
“No more cookies. You’re going to make yourself sick.”
I walk across the room and slump into a chair at a table near the window, head in my hands. “I’ll be blacklisted before Christmas.”
“Maybe I can help.” Chris’s voice cuts clean through the rising static of my panic as he strolls over to join me.
I look up and immediately regret it.
He’s sitting across from me, forearms braced on the table, looking entirely too composed for a man who spent the evening playing a vigilante Santa. The shirt he changed into clings to broad shoulders and arms marked with faint scars, hints of a life that should terrify me far more than it does.
I hate that he’s seeing me like this, all frazzled, anxious, one meltdown away from screaming. I wanted to be confident and put together tonight. Not… this puddle of professional failure.
But he doesn’t look put off. He appears interested. Which somehow makes everything worse.
“Unless you know someone with a mobile zoo,” I manage, trying to sound casual, “I’m screwed.”
His mouth curves, slow and sure. “I might. I know people with animals.” He leans back in his chair, casual, like he’s discussing the weather. “Small farms. Hobby ranches. And…” He pauses, and his mouth quirks. “I have reindeer.”
Silence.
I stare at him.
Lily stares at him.
James makes a choked sound that might be surprise.
“You what?” I finally manage.
“We have reindeer.”
He says it so calmly that I momentarily think I hallucinated it.
I blink. “You’re a bounty hunter… who owns reindeer.”
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
I stare. “You keep saying that like it’s a normal sentence.”
“Technically,” he says, “I’m a bounty hunter who inherited reindeer. Noel’s grandmother left them to him. We tried to find them a new home, but…” He shrugs. Broad shoulders. Unfair. “They grew on us.”
“Who’s Noel?” I ask.
“One of my pack. We take down bad guys together,” Chris says with a shrug.
Lily is practically vibrating as she rushes closer to our table. “Wait, you have reindeer.”
“Yep. Eight of them.”
“Like… living on your property.”
“In the back pasture. Barn, fencing, the works.”
A laugh bursts out of me, too sharp, too tired, too delighted. “Do they have names?” I don’t know why that’s the thing I ask. My brain is melting.
“Yep. Noel named most of them after chess pieces. Rook, Bishop, Knight… whatever. Kane wanted to name one Sparkles. We vetoed that.”
“RIP Sparkles.” I press a hand to my chest. “Gone before his time.”
His mouth kicks up, and damn, it shouldn’t look that good on him. He’s been watching me like this all night.
“This is perfect,” Lily blurts out. “You need animals. Chris has animals. The universe is saying, Here, dumbass, take the reindeer.”
“Look, I can make it work,” Chris adds. “The reindeer, plus I can reach out to some contacts who run small farms—goats, sheep, maybe a pony or two. Build you a proper petting zoo in forty-eight hours.”
I stare at him, trying to process. “Would you really do that? I’ll pay you, of course.”
“I’d do it for you, Hannah. And because Scot’s a jackass who deserves to fail. And you need a shot at proving yourself.”
“Chris—”
“Call it a favor. Lily gave me free brownies for a year. I’m giving you reindeer and some animals for a weekend.” His grin goes wicked. “Seems fair.”
Lily is squeezing my arm so hard it hurts. “Say yes. Hannah, for the love of God, say yes.”
I look at the brownie container on the table in front of Chris. At my sister. At James, who’s nodding slightly like this makes perfect sense. At Chris, who’s sitting there offering to save one of my jobs. And I’m laughing at how bizarre the night is.
“Of course I’ll accept help,” I hear myself say. “Let’s talk details.”
Chris’s smile turns heated and infinitely dangerous. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Lily squeals again, and James is definitely laughing now. I’m sitting in my sister’s bakery, planning a petting zoo with a man I kissed while my career hangs in the balance.
This is either the best decision I’ve ever made or the worst.
Given my track record, probably both.