Chapter Eight
Altan
I was one bite into my meat loaf when her scent took over as the bell above the door rang, announcing a new customer.
I’d only met her once but I would know her scent anywhere. She was one daisy in a field of sunflowers, but my wolf could find her in an instant.
All three of us stopped eating. Our eyes met.
“It’s a small town, Altan. There are only about four places to get lunch. We’re bound to run into her.”
“Sovann, do you think I’m complaining? I’m not. I…damn it. I don’t understand. This is not how it’s supposed to work.”
Sovann and Orin were on the other side of the booth, their backs turned to Hema and her friend. They came in and our eyes met, only for a fraction of a second.
“Look, all I’m saying is that if she is who we think she is, then it will work out. It might not be us at all. Maybe she thought of something or had a bad experience with weddings. Maybe she’s even been married before. We don’t know. It’s too early to make any kind of assumptions.”
The thing was, I was already making inferences in my head. Reasons she might not like us. The ways she would reject our pack and leave us to go on alone. Because even though we’d only met Hema a few minutes ago, less than an hour, I didn’t see myself with anyone else but her.
Ever.
I tried not to look at her. I did. My wolf snarled and snapped inside me, demanding that I go over there and take her back to our den. Make her ours and mark her.
Finally have our omega.
But that wasn’t the way things worked. My human side wanted to court her. Give her courting gifts. Ask all the questions that first dates did. Learn her likes and dislikes. Let her hear my purr. Allow her to whimper when she needed me like omegas did.
Fuck, all of this was not going to plan.
Maybe the best things didn’t.
“Do we give her space?” I asked my bond brothers. My eyes were on her. Lunch was forgotten. Almost forgotten. My wolf would never let me forget a meal entirely.
“No. We have to find out what happened. We can’t correct what we said to upset her if we don’t know what it is. Right?” Sovann leaned back, mimicking my stance. “Why is everyone giving up so fast?”
Her laughter interrupted my thoughts in the best way possible. She was with a friend and they’d ordered.
What did she order? How did she like her steak? Was she a salad-with-dressing-on-the-side girl, or did she like their famous avocado-bacon burger with three kinds of cheese?
Goddess, I had to get hold of myself. This desperation was uncalled for this early in the relationship to be so needy. And yet here I was, yearning for her like my next breath. My pack brothers felt the same. I didn’t have to ask them to know.
Once an alpha found their mate, especially a shifter alpha, there was no question of his priority.
I calmed myself slowly as did Sovann and Orin. We resumed eating and, while there were a thousand other noises in the town and in this crowded diner, all I could hear was her. Noises of affirmation. The sound of her laughter.
We ordered pie because we wanted to extend our time here as long as possible and when it was delivered, her friend received a call. There was giggling, followed by said friend scooting out of the booth and waving goodbye to Hema.
This was it. Our time to find out what we’d done and to pledge to never repeat a mistake. We were half human after all.
“I’m going to ask her to join us. She’s sitting all alone.”
Orin’s eyes widened. “We just talked about giving her space and time.”
“That was before. I can’t… I have to try.”
Before any more rebuttals, I was on my feet and walking toward her. She looked up at me with those huge baby-blue eyes and I paused as the world around her faded away.
“I saw your friend leave.” My voice sounded gravelly. Nerves. Goddess, I was like a boy, nervous to talk to a girl for the first time. “Did you want to join us?”