3. Chloe
CHAPTER 3
CHLOE
I had opened up to an entire chapter that was literally titled “Testical Play.”
How the fuck was I supposed to take myself seriously, while reading about the nerve endings on a ball sack? This so-called ‘textbook,’ came complete with diagrams that I’m sure did their best to make testicles not look like wonky meat sacks.
It’s not like I don’t find men attractive—I do. But that didn’t mean that I wanted to read an entire fifty pages on balls—the different angles to stroke, the rhythms, rolling them, tapping them. Who knew they were so complicated?
Why did balls need all of this attention?
I don’t know. Maybe if they were attached to someone I cared for, I would be more motivated to learn about the benefits of manual versus oral stimulation, and various kinds of lube. But right now, none of this information was all that appealing.
Luckily, the ball research was the only homework assigned for tonight. It gave me plenty of time for my real learning.
My moms had relented and helped me sign up for an online college. All it would take was a few online classes each semester. I should be able to finish my online degree at the same time that I graduated from the Institute.
I cracked open a book and got to work.
Though the Institute hosted far more omegas than it did alphas, there were still entire facilities dedicated to alpha bonds—both the clinical and social aspects necessary for forming them. There were designated sections for alphas to meet, and decide which members they wanted to include in their packs. The alphas had event calendars and meeting areas for them to work out bond formation. The Institute also had all the medical clinics and registration offices that alphas needed to make their packs official.
Though it was never meant to be an area for alphas and omegas to intermingle, there were some areas where it just happened. The cafeteria tables were a major unofficial meet-up spot.
I texted Titus which table I was sitting at. I’d picked a spot outside of the cafeteria, near one of the willow trees. There were clear blue skies, and relatively comfortable picnic benches. There was a nice breeze, and it was far less crowded out here.
Titus was a bit older than me and had been busy with training, so I hadn’t gotten much time to hang out with him recently. He was at the Institute to start sorting out forming a pack of his own. Being here might be absolute crap, but I was looking forward to hanging out with one sibling, rather than a freaking dozen or more at a time.
I’d loaded a tray with a caesar salad and an apple turkey sandwich that looked pretty good. The food in the cafeteria wasn’t bad, but it came with the potential luxury of getting to eat it at a table that wasn’t already over-crowded with six or ten of your siblings. Especially when it was one of my brothers who got to lunch late and would then ask me mid-bite if I was planning on finishing whatever it was that I was eating. Utter lunacy, eating with siblings.
I dug my textbook out of my bag, opening it to the reading for the day. I’d probably be able to knock off half of my homework before Titus got here. Even though staring at my sandwich, I could already tell which side had the most perfect bite. It was tempting to start without him, especially since Titus might ask to ‘try’ some of my food, and end up taking a monster bite out of it. But we had agreed to meet for lunch.
I’d just gotten into the flow of reading when a shadow fell across my picnic table. I frowned at my sandwich. Titus said he wouldn’t get here for another fifteen minutes. So who…
“What’s a pretty little redhead like you doing out here all by your lonesome?” I looked up to see a bro-ey looking guy. I could just tell by the look on his face that his idea of the pinnacle of an intellectual conversation was about the exact content of his protein shake, and the optimal time to drink it in order to get the most gains. By his orange cream scent, I could tell that he was an alpha.
The alpha had a wide smile on his face like he’d said something incredibly charming.
If only he’d said something charming… something at least interesting enough to make it worth losing my train of thought as I was working on my studies.
I smiled wanly back, hoping for the right combination of polite and disinterested.
“Homework.”
“Learning about alphas? I could give you a hands-on lesson. Help you learn exactly how to please a man.”
Was there a polite way to tell a guy that he was a giant cheeseball and I was suddenly lactose intolerant?
I had more important things to learn than how to please a man. Is that the only thing people thought I was going to learn here?
Shit … Was it the only thing I was going to learn here?
“I’m fine. I grew up with loads of brothers, and they all seem to be growing up into alphas. I’m good.” Okay that came out a little more incest-y than I meant it. But I could literally ask any one of my brothers or dads anything, and they’d help me… or beat up any of my problems if I ever needed it.
“For some weird reason, I don’t believe you.” He had that stupid smile on his face again.
What?
Did he think that I was lying… about having brothers? Why the hell would someone lie about that? I didn’t dignify his statement with a response. Instead I stared at him blankly, hoping that he would take the hint and just go away.
He did not go.
“Tell me your name, darling.”
“Why should I tell you my name? I don’t know you.”
The alpha frowned. Like my words suddenly pierced through the fog of his delusion enough for him to realize that I actually wasn’t interested in him. A thought that didn’t quite register with him, as he smiled again, as if he took my reluctance as some kind of challenge. Like I was playing hard to get.
I was not playing hard to get. I did not want to get gotten. Why did no one seem to understand that?
He leaned in closer and lowered his voice as if he was telling me a secret. “I for one, am the top pick for the new Stryker pack. So you should stick with me. Can you picture being the omega for the Stryker pack? Who wouldn’t want that?”
Eww.
The Stryker pack? As in Titus Stryker’s new pack?
Who wouldn’t want to be the omega for Titus’s pack ?
Well his sister for starters.
Hints were not working for this guy. It was time to get more direct.
“No, I’m not interested.”
The guy gave me a look like I was crazy.
“Look, you must not know who the Styker pack is. Their parents were absolute legends. The dads in that pack took down four terrorist plots that would have de-stabilized the government and caused massive civilian casualties.”
“Five. But who’s counting,” I muttered. Not that the guy noticed. He kept going like I hadn’t said a word.
“Their moms were absolute beauty queens. They were Valedictorian omegas at the Institute, and made the top of the lists in all of the omega magazines. Either one of them could have been celebrities if they’d wanted to.”
I shifted in my seat a little. It was kinda weird to know that a guy had a hard-on for your moms. I was so used to thinking of them as the givers of band-aids and the kissers of boo-boos. The readers of bedtime stories. Not the stuff of this stranger’s wet dreams.
“Now their kids are growing into alphas and a bunch of their daughters became omegas. Word on the street is that every single kid in that family is drop dead gorgeous.” He had a smirk on his mouth, as if this guy was giving me privileged insider information, instead of just telling me awkward stuff I didn’t need to know about my own family. “I was too young to make the cut for Ember Styker’s pack. That was formed a few years before my time.”
I vaguely remember Ember complaining at the dinner table about some kid-alpha who’d kept nagging him for a chance to join his pack. Could this be the same guy? What would be the best way to ask?
“But now Titus Styker is looking to make a pack of his own, and I had a highly promising interview with him last Tuesday. ”
“Uh huh,” I said because he was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something.
“So what do you say? A gorgeous thing like you should be with the best. Stick with me, and I’ll make sure that you become the omega of an elite pack.”
Behind my unwanted admirer, Titus was walking up to our table with an overloaded lunch tray, hesitating as if he was worried that he was interrupting something. I waved him over.
Saved by the brother.
As soon as he saw my brother, the guy’s entire voice and posture changed. When the dude looked into my brother’s eyes, I swear to all the gods that he blushed all the way to his ears. Not in a—oh, you caught me being disrespectful to your sister—way. More like a DAMN you’re fine, kind of way.
I cocked my head at my brother, to try to see what it was that this bag-of-dicks saw in him.
Purely theoretically, I recognized that my brother was an attractive guy, I guess. Like I’m not blind. I can see that his features are all proportional and what-not. He has that square jaw and rugged physique that could be on the cover of any steamy magazine cover. Then again, it was also a biological fact that it was physically impossible to rate a guy’s attractiveness when you watched him grow up in the awkward phase before he discovered how to use deodorant correctly.
“Hey, Titus! Were you looking for me?” He was practically batting his eye-lashes at my brother.
Titus gave me a side-eye, as if to ask me, why does this guy think I would be looking for him?
The alpha raised his hand like he was warding off an attack. “I’m sorry, I had no idea that this was your omega.”
“His omega?” I echoed.
What did he think that I was? A possession? The most delicious and prized cut of the steak. Or some fancy car or something.
“Uhh…” Titus scratched the back of his head, like he knew that he was missing something. “Dorian, this is my sister.”
Dorian turned his face slowly away from Titus to look back at me, and his face went pale. I could imagine him thinking over every word he’d just told me, as the cogs in that thick noggin of his figured out what he’d done.
I gave him a little half-wave as if I was meeting him for the first time. Might as well have been. Figures this guy needed to listen to another man to get introduced to me properly. He’d just tried to mansplain my own family to me.
“It was a good thing you talked with her anyway,” Titus was giving me a calculating look that I did not trust at all.
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to silently communicate with him that whatever nonsense he had up his sleeve that he better knock it off. Now .
Titus smirked, as he kept going.
“Chloe is going to help me interview the alphas who want to be a part of my pack.”
No.
Nope. Not a chance.
I had too much on my plate already. That was not something I would…
“I’m glad that we were able to have our little chat then.” Dorian grinned at me, like he and I were in on a little secret together. Like our conversation had gone phenomenally well and all his little Stryker dreams about coming in my brother were about to come true.
Had he even heard himself talk? Did he honestly think that I had a decent impression after all of that?
But before I could correct him, and let him know that my brother was severely misinformed about my willingness to help his stupid cause, Dorian waved as he walked away from our table.
Just a few feet away Dorian was already on his phone, probably texting all the other alphas on campus how well his “interview” went with me. After news like that got out, there was no taking it back.
If what Dorian was saying was true, all the alphas were chomping at the bit to get into Titus’s pack.
I’d done my part to keep a low profile. Not answering all of the questions I knew in class. Not bringing up my background. And just like that, with one short conversation with my brother, and a few text messages, my quiet life at the Institute was irrevocably ruined.