Chapter 42
“ A re you sure no one has come to see me?” I asked, tilting my head to the side and hugging myself. The keeper shook his head with a grimace. "I'm sorry, Miss Juniper, no one's turned up yet.”
I huffed and stomped back down the hallway. It was the day. They were supposed to be here. It had been a year, and I’d sent them the invite. Have they forgotten about me?
As soon as I got back to my place, I opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of chocolate milk, chugging it straight from the carton.
"That's nasty," a sweet voice said from behind me.
I turned to see Fawn, who was glowering playfully at me. I shrugged. "Well, it's what I have to do. I'm having sad feelings, and I want chocolate milk. This, the entire thing, is mine," I said, holding the bottle aloft.
Fawn cocked her head to the side. "It's not even two in the afternoon yet. Your guys could still come.”
I grimaced. "I'm not so sure, honestly. If they were going to be here, wouldn't they have been here by now? Wouldn't this be the priority?" I asked, gesturing around us, indicating our entire situation.
Fawn nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, they should have been here at nine a.m. on the dot, if I am honest, but they could have gotten into some car trouble or maybe they had work come up. I mean, you're not going anywhere. It's not exactly the best look for them, but there could be any number of reasons for a delay. What if there was an accident and there's a lot of traffic backed up?"
I tilted my head. "Is there any traffic? Have you seen any reports?"
Fawn grimaced. "I haven't seen anything yet, but I haven't particularly been looking. Why don't you go and see if you can talk to Dr. Sarah while you wait?" she suggested.
I didn’t want to go and talk to the doctor. I had been talking to my therapist every day for the past year. We knew each other far too well, and I still intended to talk with her regularly on the phone once I went home—that was, if I was even going home. Slamming the chocolate milk down on the counter, tears filled my eyes.
"What if they decided they don’t want me?" I whispered, my voice breaking.
Fawn’s face fell, and she rushed over to me, pulling me into her arms. "If they decided they didn’t want to come here, Juniper, then it’s their loss. They’re stupid idiots who don’t deserve you. You've seen how many men are crawling all over themselves to see you. How many requests have you had for meetings in the last three months alone?"
I harrumphed in her arms. It had been quite a lot. I had actually been startled by how keen most of the alphas were to talk to me. But were they interested because I was me or simply in the fact that I was an available omega?
"I don’t want them, though. I want my guys," I whined.
"I know. I really hope something has come up, but you can’t dwell on this today. You’re going to drive yourself mad. Why don’t we go do something?"
"I don’t want to," I said sulkily.
Fawn pulled back and glared at me. "Okay, I’ve tried to be soft and sweet, but you are moping, and as your roommate, I cannot allow you to mope. You and I are going to go out. We’re going to get some delicious food, we’re going to go for a walk, and we are going to enjoy ourselves the best we can while we wait for your pack, okay?" she said, her tone final.
Her face was set, making it clear she wasn’t going to budge on this. Fawn could be terrifying when she wanted to be. She was so graceful and elegant and so well put together. Next to her, I usually felt like a gangly, lean idiot. She looked effortless, like royalty. I was a little bitter about it, but she’d let me raid her wardrobe on several occasions, so we were even.
"Why do you think they’re not here?" I asked in a small voice.
She shook her head. "There are so many possible reasons. We can’t dwell on it. So, let’s go enjoy ourselves. You’re looking all pretty, and we should go make the most of it.”
I nodded glumly. I had made a considerable effort that morning, letting Fawn curl my hair just right, putting on makeup, and wearing one of my favourite summer dresses that floated to my knees with a floral pattern. Over the year, I had really learned to embrace when I wanted to be more girly and feminine and when I wanted to present more masculine. There was no right or wrong answer. I simply did what I wanted to now without considering what I’d been through in the past. Alec couldn’t control me anymore, and, if I was brutally honest with myself, I loved a good floral print. I wasn’t going to make myself suffer by rejecting the things I loved just because they were what Alec wanted me to love. He wasn’t making any of the choices anymore. It was just me. I was in control of my life and everything I did.
Apparently , unless it came to my pack, who weren’t turning up. Ever since I had gone down to the meeting rooms at nine this morning, expecting them to be there, I had this pit in my stomach from the second the keeper had told me they hadn’t arrived yet.
For the first hour or two, I tried to stay positive. I had assumed they were on their way. They knew I wasn’t exactly a morning person, so maybe they were just being respectful. But as the hours crawled on, that pit in my stomach grew until it almost consumed me.
"Why don’t we call Lavender and see if she wants to come here? We can all go for lunch together.”
"Fine," I grumbled.
With a victorious smile, Fawn pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Lavender’s number. A minute later, she was hanging up and informing me that Lavender would be there in ten minutes.
"Just enough time to pull ourselves together and put that chocolate milk back in the fridge," she said pointedly.
Lavender didn’t even take ten minutes. Within five, she was knocking on the door to our rooms and embracing me in a warm hug.
"It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages," she complained as she pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.
"You saw me four days ago," I said pointedly.
"Yeah," she said, "that is forever ."
I chuckled and shook my head. Kane certainly had his hands full with her. We had come so close to being in the Haven at the same time. My brother and his pack had just claimed her a mere week or two before I arrived.
"Come on, I’ve been craving the pasta here. While the guys can cook, it’s never the same as what the chefs do here," Lavender said with a grin, pulling me down the corridor as Fawn followed behind us.
I couldn’t say no to her. She was so bright and bubbly, full of excitement at being home. She told me once that the Haven would always be home to her, even though her current home was with my family, her pack. There would always be a place in her heart for the Haven, and I could understand that. Even if I went home with my guys, I would still adore this place. The Haven had been my home when I needed it most. It protected me, it gave me care and let me heal at my own pace, in my own way. There was something pretty special about that.
The three of us found a table, and Lavender bounced off to get food while Fawn went for drinks. I sat, pulling out my tablet to check for meeting requests. There were none from my guys but several from other packs who were at the Haven. If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have even registered interest in another pack. I would simply have stayed as a single omega, only interested in my guys. But I had agreed that I would see what else was out there, so I had made myself public, and I’d had a few meetings that were nice enough, but they were just not my guys.
"Here’s that sugary concoction you adore," Fawn said, setting a glass in front of me. I beamed at her, picking up the glass. Strawberry cola, made with actual strawberry syrup. It was one of the best things I had discovered since coming to the Haven. As omegas often had a sweet tooth, the amazing thing was that the Haven catered to that. I’d been introduced to so many sweets and treats during my stay, I was surprised I wasn’t a lot more unhealthy.
I could understand omegas with a pack eating lots of sugar, because they needed energy to keep up with three or more alphas. Me? I spent my days in my nest all day, eating sweets, reading dirty books, and daydreaming about my future while going to therapy sessions. It was, honestly, quite an ideal life.
"I got us all the same thing," Lavender said with a smile, placing dishes of pasta in front of each of us. It looked like some version of chicken Alfredo. Lavender immediately grabbed the pepper shaker and started loading hers up with so much pepper that her entire sauce turned dark.
"Have you got enough pepper there, Lavender?" I asked.
"Nope, there’s no such thing as too much black pepper. It’s the spice of the gods," she declared.
Fawn chuckled. "You know, having an addiction to black pepper is the most basic spice you can be addicted to. There are so many better spices out there."
Lavender shrugged. "Judge me if you want to, but I like it, so I’m going to do it," she said, dumping more pepper into her pasta.
"So, why’d you call me here today?" Lavender asked, tilting her head. "I thought you were meant to be busy today. Weren’t you taking a meeting?"
Fawn shook her head. "Her pack was supposed to come back today, but they haven’t shown up yet," she said with a grimace.
Lavender turned to me, her fork frozen halfway to her mouth as she gaped at me. "Wait, that’s today ? It’s been a year to the day since you came here?"
She knew exactly what my plan had been and how I intended to spend exactly one year here. I had told her when I had reached out to my guys. When I had asked them to officially court me, so she knew where I was supposed to be a year to the day.
I nodded. "Yep, and there’s been zero sign of them."
Lavender’s face fell. "Oh no, I’m so sorry. I’m sure they’re just stuck in traffic or something?" she offered.
"I’m not so sure. What if they simply don’t want me? If that’s their choice, I have to respect that. It’ll hurt like a bitch, but if they decided they don’t want me and they want a different omega, I can’t really do anything about it, can I?" I said, trying to sound resigned.
"Well, if they decided that, then they’re the biggest, stupidest poopy-heads around," Lavender said, firm and final.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
"So, I'm guessing I’m here to help take your mind off it, because I’m a wonderful breath of fresh air, aren’t I?" Lavender said.
I grinned. "Exactly! And it was Fawn’s idea."
"Well, that’s because Fawn is very intelligent," Lavender added. "My former roommate happens to know what she’s doing."
Fawn smirked. "Either way, Juniper is going to do amazing. Do you know, in the last three weeks, this one"—she pointed at me—"has had more meeting requests than me?"
Lavender narrowed her eyes at Fawn. "While I would usually say that’s impressive, I also know what you’re like, Fawn. You’ve been avoiding pack after pack lately. So, I can’t really comment about how impressive that is. But at the same time"—she turned to me—"it’s really good that you’re getting lots of requests. It shows you that people are out there eager to meet you. Have any of the packs you met caught your eye?"
I shook my head. "No. They’ve all been pretty boring, to be honest."
Lavender nodded. "You have to kiss a few toads to find your Prince Charming."
I scoffed. "No, that is bullshit. You had to get kidnapped to meet your Prince Charmings."
Lavender shrugged. "I mean, if it works, it works."
We all laughed and finished our food, then decided to go on a walk around the grounds. They were both good company, and they were women I loved having in my life. I was so thankful that my path had brought them to me, and I was happy my brother had found happiness with Lavender.
Once upon a time, I had daydreamed about being with my brother’s pack—before he was a member of their pack, of course—but them with my brother and Lavender just seemed so right. Every video message I got from them had been so full of love and happiness, they just radiated joy from and with each other. I really hoped I’d find that soon myself.