Chapter 16 Ty
TY
I’d never been the kind of guy who found himself connected to a woman beyond the initial physical chemistry. Some ex-girlfriends had told me I was emotionally unavailable, and I didn’t blame them. I was a workaholic who refused to settle down with a hot piece of ass, no matter how hot it was.
Now, I had suddenly been thrust into a relationship where I was connected to Liza in a way I couldn’t even describe. I wanted to protect her, take care of her, and make sure she never had to worry about a room full of shifters looking at her like that ever again.
Being the next in line for the title of alpha was a cumbersome load to bear, but the weight of it had lifted the first time I stared into her eyes.
I’d assumed I would move forward with my fated mate, taking my rightful position as alpha and relieving my father of a position he should’ve stepped down from years ago but remained in because I was yet unmated.
Now, my mind was laden with our family’s dark secrets. My father’s confession had sent my thoughts into a tailspin, ultimately leading me to break things off with Liza, which hadn’t quite gone as planned.
After the coffee shop incident, I was conflicted.
On the one hand, I needed to break things off with Liza to protect our family’s future.
Dad had made it perfectly clear to what lengths he’d gone to in erasing our family’s past. No wonder he had looked like he’d seen a ghost when Liza and I spotted each other at the mating ceremony.
I’d been resolved to breaking things off with her—reject her as my mate—but her scent was irresistible. The need to claim her was overwhelming. Everything I had planned on saying to Liza had been forgotten. I couldn’t reject her.
Watching the other shifters catch wind of her pheromones had been like a scene out of a movie.
It was an immediate reaction as their cocks hardened and their breaths quickened.
I shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if I hadn’t gotten Liza to my car.
It was something she’d need to protect herself against. Or I would.
Even more surprising than their reactions to Liza’s presence was the shock and confusion that had marred her beautiful face.
When I’d asked her about it, she claimed that her hormone pills should have kept that from happening.
It must not have been the first time her pheromones had caused men to react in that way.
I shook my head as I started my convertible.
It was a gorgeous day, so I put the top down and let the fresh air fill my lungs.
Maybe a little sun on the drive into work would help clear my mind.
The elements of nature often calmed me, and since I couldn’t go for a run right now, this was going to have to do.
I pulled up in front of Bryce’s house at the usual time. Since we were business partners, we carpooled when the morning was filled with meetings.
Once every quarter, we brought all of the branch managers under one roof to discuss the companies that were shielded under the umbrella of Keller Enterprises. Although each business was a separate entity, we wanted to ensure that they all complied with the Keller Enterprise mission statement.
The meetings were notoriously long and sometimes boring but necessary to keep our businesses operating at optimal levels.
I turned off the engine and got out of my car, inhaling deeply to clear my mind.
I needed to focus on work, not Liza’s pheromones or my family’s secrets.
But now that I knew what I knew, everything was connected—the businesses to the history and the history to the secrets and the secrets to Liza—there was no shield I could throw in place to make it easier to focus.
“Hey.” Bryce was already waiting outside, staring at this phone. “Are you driving or am I?”
“Let’s take the convertible.” I stretched my arms high over my head and hopped back into the driver’s seat. “I haven’t driven it in months and figured it was about time to bring her out into the wild again.”
Bryce buckled up—he was a nervous nelly and not a fan of open-air vehicles—as I pulled out of his driveway. “What’s new? Any new developments with Liza?”
I sighed. Talking about it wouldn’t help me clear it from my mind. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Bryce shoved his sunglasses over his eyes. “Try me.”
He had a myriad of crazy female stories from his many escapades. He was a known womanizer who didn’t even try to deny it, and he’d made his way around the block more than once with multiple women in town. There was probably no better person to ask about pheromones.
“Have you ever gone through a rut?” I glanced at Bryce out of the corner of my eye, wondering if he’d laugh immediately or give me a chance to explain before he laughed in my face.
As if on cue, he chuckled. “That’s something teenage boys experience when girls are going through heat. You know… when their hormones are raging and it’s difficult to hide the scent.” He explained it to me as though I was unfamiliar with the phenomenon. I, too, was a teenaged wolf once.
“Yeah. I know. Have you seen it happen in grown men?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know many grown men who have experienced it. Actually, I don’t know of any. Why?”
How much did I want to share with Bryce? Finally, I decided to tell him exactly what had happened at the coffee shop. Hopefully, he’d have some brilliant insight I hadn’t already thought of.
I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. “Yesterday, I met up with Liza for breakfast. As soon as she walked into the coffee shop, every guy in the place turned and stared at her.” Fury heated my blood just thinking about it.
“Well, she is an attractive woman, Ty. You can’t expect other men not to notice her, even if she is your fated mate.
” Bryce took a sip of water from his stainless-steel water bottle.
If it had been just a couple guys, I could’ve bought that because she was pretty.
“Really, Ty. I never took you to be so naive about attractive women and how men react to them.”
I shook my head. I loved Bryce like a brother, but he had a tendency to be an asshole. “No. I don’t mean they wanted to look at Liza. There was a vibe.”
“A vibe?” He cocked an eyebrow like he was unfamiliar with a vibe as a concept.
“Yes, a fucking vibe. They wanted to fuck her.”
Bryce scoffed. “I know you have an everybody-wants-what-I-have complex because you literally have everything, but I’m gonna need some more information before I can tell if you’re right or if you’re just being you. You start reading minds all of a sudden?” Yeah, he was an asshole.
“Her pheromones were so strong that every guy immediately reacted. Even I was caught off guard. In all my life, I’ve never smelled such a potent and blatantly sexual scent in my life.
” I paused, trying to think of a way to describe it in a way he’d understand.
“It was like I didn’t have any control over my own body.
I was starving, and she was dinner. All I could think about was stripping her naked and fucking her brains out on the barista’s countertop. ”
Bryce’s eyes widened. He knew me and knew the control I exercised every minute of every day. “Sounds intense.”
“Intense is the fucking understatement of understatements.” I could still feel that… intensity. “And it wasn’t just me, it was all of them. And I mean all of them.”
“What did you do? Don’t tell me your dad had to bail you out of jail for indecent exposure.” Bryce laughed at his own joke.
I wasn’t laughing.
I pulled into the parking lot of Keller Enterprises’ headquarters and turned off the engine. “What else could I do? I got her the fuck out of there and into my car. I had to stick my head out the window like a fucking mutt while we drove so the fresh air could bring me back to my senses.”
Bryce was contemplative for a few moments.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that happening before.
Sure, we’re all physically attracted to a wolf in heat.
Our dicks might perk up, but a primal reaction like that from a crowd…
It’s unheard of.” Bryce went quiet again.
He stared at the manicured lawn, obviously in deep thought since he wasn’t glued to his phone. Finally, he spoke up again. “Unless...”
I loathed it when he left me hanging. “What? What were you going to say?” When he remained silent for longer than I could stand, I slapped him on the shoulder.
“Say what’s on your mind. I’ve probably already thought of it, anyway.
I’ve been driving myself crazy thinking about it.
” And I had plenty of other things to worry and think about.
Bryce laughed it off. “I was just wondering if maybe Liza was an omega.”
I snorted, immediately dismissing the idea. “Omegas aren’t real. They’re a myth. A legend at best.” Weren’t they? “And even if they were real, they existed a very long time ago.”
It just wasn’t possible.
Bryce shrugged. “It was just a thought. Don’t get your panties in a wad.”
“I’m just surprised you came up with that as an option. An omega. Hmph.” It would explain a lot. It would also generate a shitload of new questions.
“From the stories I’ve heard, omegas have intoxicating scents that draws unmated wolves to them. Like moths to a flame.”
I rolled my eyes. “What I experienced was more like steel to a magnet. I was powerless.”
“Need I remind you that the Keller pack is rumored to have derived from an omega.” Bryce cocked his head to one side. “Maybe it’s not so far-fetched.”
We had no time left to hash it out. We had to head into our first meeting, but I struggled to keep my mind on the matters at hand all throughout the day.
I zoned in and out of meetings, the idea of Liza being an omega continually interrupting my thoughts.
It made me look incompetent, and more than once, a manager had to ask the same question multiple times until I registered what they were saying.