CHAPTER FIVE
H oly shit.
I’m absolutely reeling with what I just heard. Cady’s not bonded.
Not only is Cady not bonded, but Reggie is a cat.
A fucking cat.
And she’s the writer behind The Knotty Omega?
Holy. Shit.
I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. Really. But when I went after CJ to see if she was okay, and she disappeared inside of Grady’s office…I was curious.
It’s not like I had my ear pressed against the door or anything.
Okay, fine . As soon as I heard the muffled, “lied about being bonded,” my ear was glued to that door like tongue stuck to a lamppost in winter.
After I scrambled away when Grady barked at Laura to leave the room, I hid around the corner, and when the coast was clear, I saw the door was still open a crack. It’s like they wanted me to listen.
As soon as I heard her say she would go to the OMS, I made a break for it. I slide into my desk chair and pull out my phone to text the pack group chat.
It only takes a few minutes for the responses to come rolling in. Traditionally, only head alphas are allowed to call pack meetings, but we’re all in agreement that little tradition is bullshit.
Then separately, Mattie shoots me a message.
Sighing, I bury myself in my work until it’s finally time to go home.
***
The sun is nearly set when I pull into the driveway of the packhouse and throw my car into park, the waning light casting our spanish hacienda style home in a golden glow. I can’t get up the steps fast enough. Everyone else is parked in the driveway, so when I walk into the house, it’s to a living room full of restless alphas.
“What’s this about, Arch?” Titus says grumpily from his spot on the couch. He’s in a t-shirt and sweatpants, which tells me that he worked from home today. The mountain of a man is leaning back with his arms crossed, looking like he’s ready to take down any threat that might storm into our home.
“Is it about her ?” Ollie asks, excitement gleaming in his eyes.
Simon only looks at me expectantly from his designated armchair. The reading light is on, and there’s a closed book in his lap.
“Hold on, he just walked through the door,” Mattie comes next to me and rubs my back. “Did you have a good day, cucciolo ?”
Swallowing, I nod. I appreciate he’s trying to let me get comfortable before diving into this mandatory pack meeting that I called, but all the information I learned today is burning to spill out of my throat.
So I blurt out the story. The whole thing, from start to finish. How Cady is unbonded, the experimental drug, how Reggie is not her alpha, but her pet cat, and how her spot as the Knotty Omega is in jeopardy unless she finds a pack, and she’ll be going to the OMS.
They all look at me, a little dumbstruck, when Mattie shakes his head. “Well, I can see why you didn’t want to say all that over text.”
Everyone else is silent, absorbing the bomb of information I just dropped on them.
Ollie is the first to speak. “So when are we going to the OMS?”
Simon looks at him, running a hand through his short auburn waves and pushing his glasses up his nose. “Why would we do that? We should just talk to her. There’s no guarantee we’d match if we go to the OMS.”
As much as he’ll never admit it, Cady’s scent hit Simon just as hard as the rest of us. Being a doctor, he prides himself on the control he has over his alpha. So even though it doesn’t seem like it, I know he’s struggling on the inside. He only fidgets with his glasses when he’s nervous.
“She hid her pack status for a reason,” Titus growls. “She clearly doesn’t actually want a pack, and is just trying to save her job. You guys really want to bring her here when none of it will be real?”
“I believe she’s our true scent match,” Mattie says quietly. “Not just scent sympathetic.” He had noticed his missing pocket square, and I told him what I had done. Then he jerked me off with the fabric imbued in both their scents, and it was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced.
Which is really saying something, because my alpha is Italian.
“Why do you think that?” Simon asks at the same time Olllie blurts out “I fucking knew it!”
Titus just looks pissed.
“I may have left her a little present with Mattie’s signature all over it to see her reaction,” I admit. “She…fuck. I caught her huffing up the scent like it was a line of coke or something."
“Have you ever seen someone snort a line of coke?” Simon asks skeptically, raising a brow.
“Okay, no I haven’t.” I throw up my hands. “But she was holding it to her nose like Ollie did to my jacket for two hours after the first time she ran into me! When she turned around her pupils were blown and she perfumed . ”
A pained groan sounds throughout the room, followed by a grunt courtesy of Titus.
“Lucky bastard.” Ollie mutters.
“Did she know it was Matt's scent?” Titus asks. “Shouldn’t she be asking around to see who it belonged to? That’s what any other omega would do.”
“I think she thought it was a cologne or something.” I shrug. “Also…I think she has some trauma related to packs, and that’s why she’s been hiding her status.”
“What makes you say that?” Ollie frowns, looking genuinely perturbed at the idea.
“It’s just a feeling.” I shrug again, then look around the room. “So…? The OMS?”
Simon sighs. “I still say we just go talk to her. We can’t even guarantee they’ll present her with our cards. Not to mention that the scents get diluted enough that she won’t be able to tell we’re a scent match.”
“No,” I say vehemently. “This needs to be under her terms, or she’ll feel out of control and run the other way, true scent match or not. Besides…one of my sisters works for the OMS. She can at least make sure the cards are present. If by some fucked-up stroke of fate she doesn’t pick us, then we can approach her.”
Mattie puts a hand on my shoulder. “I agree. Omegas in general, and this one especially, I suspect, need to have some semblance of control. This is how we do it without scaring her.”
“She still doesn’t really want a pack,” Titus grumbles.
“That’ll all change once she scents us all together. She already likes me, I know she does.” I say with more confidence than I feel.
“What’s better, Titus,” Ollie pipes up, “a random omega who settles with us because she’s needs a pack and ‘we’ll do’? Or an omega who will fall madly in love with all of us despite the fact she didn’t originally want a pack?”
“Fine.” Titus stands up. “But if I feel for one second that she’s about to break everyone’s hearts, I reserve the right to pull us out.”
“If that’s what it takes for you to agree, then fine.” Mattie nods at him. “We’ll go to the OMS to register our scents tomorrow, yes?”
Simon and Titus murmur their agreements before both disappear from the room.
Sighing, I pull out my phone and send a text to my sister.
Bethany has a lot more questions about the situation than my pack mates did, but I had to catch her up from the beginning.
“So, can you make sure our scent cards are present for her to test?” I ask hopefully, tapping my foot as I pace the living room.
“Archie…” She sighs. “Yeah. I can make sure they’re present, but I’m not going to pressure her to test them, and I’m not going to sway her in any way. Got it?”
“You’re the best Bethy! We’ll be in tomorrow to register.”
“Yeah, yeah, you owe me lunch.”
Hanging up, I grin at Mattie. “She’ll do it.”