Evans
Sweat drips into my eyes as I try to regulate my laboured breathing.
Lifting my jersey, I make a poor attempt to wick it away, blinking and squinting as I trudge towards the locker rooms. Seeing Hunter in the coffee shop with those two omegas had left a bitter taste in my mouth earlier in the week, the acidity lingering since he hasn’t been home since. At least, not when I was there.
“I hear there’s a party on-campus this weekend,” Anton, one of our wide receivers says as he slings an arm over my shoulder.
My skin is clammy and raw after practice.
Yet another session where I’d been so distracted I’d spent most of it on my back.
It was becoming a problem. If I keep this up, Coach is going to bench me and that’s all I need right now, another reason for my father to chew me out.
“It’s at the omega house near the library, you know the one. It has all those pretty omega dance students.” Sasha grins, waggling his bushy eyebrows at me as he sits on the bench and unlaces his cleats.
The rest of the team filters in, the volume notching up despite the aches and tiredness we were feeling.
“Yeah, because Sadie‘s gonna let him go to that.” Blake snorts, stripping out of his clothes and heading to the shower with his towel slung over his shoulder. He wasn’t taking her re-appearance very well.
In fact, a couple of times I almost thought he might say something to her directly or ask her to leave.
I think maybe a small part of me wanted him to, but Blake was a nice guy, too nice to embarrass an omega like that.
“He’d be in a body bag by Sunday with his dick stuffed in his mouth. ”
Well, mostly a nice guy.
A few of our teammates laugh, used to Sadie’s dramatics by now. She wasn’t afraid of causing a scene, especially not in front of the guys.
Once, when she thought I’d been flirting with an omega at the store (I wasn’t) she actually broke into the locker rooms and stole all my clothes while I was showering after practice. Everyone else had already left, even Coach, so I didn’t have many options.
I don’t know what she was expecting, but I had no issues walking around in my towel, that was until campus police caught me and kindly gave me some items out of a lost property box.
I’m not ashamed of my body, I work hard for it and I’m an alpha.
It would take a lot more than that to make me hide.
If anything, her petty plan backfired, since I had omegas lining up to hand me their numbers.
Not that anything came of it. It never did. They always seemed interested in me to begin with, but then slowly they all went quiet. Blake joked that Sadie was sabotaging me, but he doesn’t know her like I do—she wouldn’t do that.
Sasha nudges me, leaning in with a conspiratory whisper, that’s actually nothing like a whisper. “Well, rumor has it that Sadie is out of town this weekend.”
I shrug, my mouth suddenly dry. “Her family has this event back in Stanmore. It’s like a charity thing for orphans or something.”
She’d wanted me to attend with her, but I shut that down pretty quickly.
We weren’t exclusive, and bringing me to her parents charity gala would send the wrong message to the press and both our families.
There had been tears, and pouting, but I was used to it by now.
Sadie was persistent. It was like she was hoping that one day I would just magically change my mind.
Goddess, why did I do this?
Why couldn’t I just end it once and for all?
Put us both out of our misery and be done with it all. And then what? A small voice whispers in the back of my mind. Then you’ll be alone again.
“So…does that mean you’re down, man?” Another nudge. Another shit eating grin.
Clearing my throat, I feel the corner of my mouth lift. I was always down for a good time. “I mean…”
“Evans…Are you sure that’s wise?” Zale’s eyes narrow with concern as he pads over to his locker, eager to get back to Shiloh. “Aren’t you and Sadie like a thing now?”
A thing. That made what we have sound like some sort of monstrous beast. A thing, crawling up out of the pond ready to eat everything it comes into contact with. A horrible, oppressive, suffocating thing.
“We’re not together.” The words feel fat and heavy in my mouth, even if they’re true.
“Evans is in!” Anton cheers before twisting his towel and trying to whip me with it. “Ready for all those gorgeous omegas? Since you’re a single Pringle and all.”
I chuckle, but the sound is hollow. Maybe this weekend I’d finally pull myself out of the funk I was in.
Swallowing the last of my beer, I crush the red solo cup in my hand before cheering and tossing it in the bin. It goes in easily, earning me more cheers from the surrounding omegas.
I’m not really sure why I agreed to come to the party, but I’m glad I did. I’ve just finished playing beer pong in the lounge surrounded by pretty omegas, all keen to talk to me as they ask me about the football team and laugh at my jokes. It’s a good ego boost after the week I’ve been having.
Sometimes, I think I forget that there are other options outside of Sadie. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice whispers but you always end up alone. Tonight, with the alcohol in my veins, another voice whispers in reply: are you alone or does she just want you to think that?
I’m not a complete idiot, I know that Sadie always positions herself as the best option. As my only option. And that I accept it too easily. I have attachment issues according to my therapist. No shit, I think as I snort to myself. Have you looked at my family? Attachments are weaknesses.
Hunter hasn’t been home again for the last two nights and I try to push thoughts of the aggravating artist away. He shouldn’t be occupying real estate in my head.
Across the room, I spot Zale in the kitchen and I watch as he cracks open a bottle of water and offers it to his omega. They’re pretty sure that they’re expecting a baby, but they are waiting until the doctor‘s appointment next week to confirm it.
A baby. At this age? While still finishing up college?
No thanks.
I do have to admit, that since becoming mated, Shiloh Vos has changed.
I mean not just because I thought they were a beta previously, but it’s like having a mate has given him the confidence to be himself.
He no longer shrinks into the background, hiding behind his glasses.
Tonight he’s dancing with his housemate, Bell.
And he’s wearing a mesh T-shirt and a pair of black jeans so tight they look like they’ve been painted onto his lithe, trim body.
Bell looks equally tempting, wearing a cropped sleeveless vest with a pair of faded flared jeans. I feel a little boring in comparison, in my jeans and t-shirt with my football jacket.
I’d never been with a male omega but I thought about it, and after Crest Haven those thoughts were coming harder and faster. That was Hunter‘s fault. Having another man in the bedroom definitely changed something in my brain. Now, I found myself watching more. Wondering. Wanting.
A sweet blonde omega who smells like lilacs and vodka comes over and wraps an arm around my waist. I see her sometimes in the gym and she was in one of my business classes last semester, but she doesn’t talk to me on campus usually.
“Evans!” She says with a wide grin. She looks hot tonight in a tight blue dress and a pair of chucks. “Where’s your girlfriend tonight?”
“Kelsey, babe! You know I don’t have a girlfriend.”
She glances around looking for Sadie as if she might jump out from behind the sofa or enter from the kitchen.
I don’t blame her, stranger things have happened.
Like seriously, this one time she was already in my bed when I got home.
I still don’t know how she got in since I was the only one home that weekend.
And she’d rearranged my furniture for better feng shui or something.
The omega giggles, her arm dropping slightly lower so that she can slide her fingers into the loops on my jeans. She chuckles, wobbling a little worse for wear as she clutches her red cup.
“Now, now,” she teases, lips almost pressed against my neck as her hot body pushes up against mine. “Sadie told everyone that you’ll be announcing your engagement soon.”
Our engagement? We’re not even exclusive.
“Nah, it’s not like that.” I say with a tight smile. “Sadie knows you can’t tie me down.”
Might as well fuel the playboy rumor mill while she’s out of town, maybe then she’ll understand that I can’t be what she wants me to be.
“Well, that’s not what I heard.” She tuts, but her hand wanders over my chest now as she gets a good feel of the muscles I work hard for. “But if you’re single, how about a dance?”
We dance and drink for a while as I accept shot after shot from omegas and alphas alike until the world starts to blur around the edges.
Why can’t I just stay like this? Lost in the space where it feels good and everything else fades away?
The sweet omega scents in the house just make it all that more relaxing, the pheromones soothing the agitation that comes with being an alpha.
“You good, bro?” Blake pops off the cap and hands me another beer as I walk into the kitchen. His gaze narrows in on me, and I hate that he’s been checking in more now that Zale is loved up. Like maybe somehow our housemate’s absence is going to tip me over the edge.
Thinking of Shiloh, or more like his pretty roommate, I look around. “Yeah man. Where’s Bell?”
“I think that ship already sailed, my friend.” Blake claps a sympathetic hand down on my shoulder before he points through the doorway to the lounge where Bell is kissing another alpha.
“Fuck,” I curse as I shrug off my jacket and toss it over the back of a kitchen stool. I have no idea where Kelsey has vanished either. “They were cute.”