7. Jess
Jess
We watch as the omega, Miss Sunny Howard, walks away to deal with a ridiculous customer.
"Fucking goddamnit," I mutter to myself. This is just our pack's luck lately. We finally find a scent-sensitive matched omega, and who is it? The very person Cole's been harassing for months.
"What do we do now, Hoss?" I ask, desperately hoping he has a magic wand to resolve this, or a solid plan.
Cole rakes a hand over his face and into his wavy, perfectly styled hair. "Let's regroup in the car.” He doesn't wait for anyone before marching across the dirt lot and getting into the driver’s seat. We follow behind and get in.
As the car door thuds shut, a thick silence envelopes us, punctuated only by the faint hum of the engine. Hunt turns his gaze on all of us. His eyes are wide with curiosity.
"We all felt that, right?" he asks. Luca nods thoughtfully, and I find myself on the edge of a shrug or a rejection but I can’t.
A spark of excitement flicked on when I'd smelled that warm, honey scent from the omega, surprising me with its intensity.
With a newfound sense of enthusiasm, I nod in agreement.
Everyone seems just as shocked as I am when I don't protest. Well, fuck them. This is different.
She's different.
"I've met her before," Luca says, cracking the silence along with everyone's calm because Hunt, Cole, and I all begin interrogating him at once.
He holds up his hands, and Cole is the one who continues. As the dominant alpha, it's his right, not ours.
"Explain how in fuck you could find our mate and not tell us?" he demands.
"I didn't realize she was scent-sensitive matched to us. I was at that café, and it has scent neutralizers."
"Scent neutralizers shouldn't cover up a scent-sensitive match. It'd just dampen it," Hunt points out. He's a lover of documentaries. If anyone would know this stuff, it'd be him.
"And they didn't, but they did dampen it enough that I didn't recognize it for what it was right away. I was in a café that makes teas and honey cakes. I thought that was the normal smell of the place. Not her specific smell."
Sunny's scent is all honey straight from the hive and a long-steeped tea. I can see how Luca could write it off in a café, especially with the scent-neutralizers.
Luca's shoulders are hunched, and his head hangs low, a visible weight of regret pressing down on him. The look on his face reveals just how upset he is about missing the signs.
"We're not doing the back expansion of the property, right? We can’t keep trying to buy her property now that we know…" I trail off. I can’t voice that she’s our mate. Not yet. It seems so crazy to me and yet so right.
"Obviously," Cole growls. I don't know why Sunny doesn't want to sell. We'd offered to double what the property was worth, but she's refused every time. I don't think starting our courtship off on that kind of pressure will help anything.
"And what about the resort?" asks Hunt.
"We've already made the investments there. It's not something we can stop now. The ball's rolling."
"We don't know if that's a strike against us until we talk to her," Luca adds.
I cough, and they all turn to me.
"What?" he demands.
"The group trying to sign petitions to shut down construction on the site is called Northern Michigan Restoration," I remind them.
"And?" Cole barks. I'm also an alpha, but not nearly as dominant as Cole. My alpha submits immediately.
"She has several signs along the drive and the parking area. Including in front of the farmhouse." I tell them.
Cole and Luca swipe a hand through their hair, underlining their close relationship, even if they aren't brothers by blood. Hunt moans and stares at the car skylight.
"So," I continue, feeling the need to lighten the mood, "we've basically thoroughly fucked up this courtship before it even started. Pretty normal then."
Cole doesn't appreciate my sense of humor. He never has. "Except this isn't just another courtship. This is our one and only scent-sensitive match."
"I know," I grit out.
"Then solutions before bullshit." He growls.
“At least I didn’t bully her via email,” I mumble. He snarls at me.
"We can't have any solutions until we talk to her," Hunt says. He's always the most reasonable of us. "We need to figure out where she stands on the scent sensitivity and go from there."
"When?" Cole asks. He's falling into his usual role—the big-picture guy who gets all the information and then deliberates.
"The apiary is closed on Wednesdays, so we can email to ask for a meeting.
If she accepts, we can bring some gifts and discuss how to move forward with her.
Make it clear we'd be honored to court her.
" Hunt holds up his phone to show where he'd Googled her website.
Tomorrow is Wednesday. The thought that we could see her again so soon sends my heart soaring.
"And if she refuses to meet us?" Cole asks. That thought sends it plummeting back to earth.
"Let's not create problems where they don't exist," Luca replies. Cole shoots him a look. If Hunt or I had said it, we’d probably get barked out, but Luca can get away with that.
Finally, Cole nods, and we head back to that very sad hotel. But my mind is stuck on the omega with blonde hair and overalls.