8. Chloe
CHAPTER 8
CHLOE
Unwelcome Lunchtime Alpha Invasion: Day 13
Emmanuel, the alpha currently at my lunch table, was smiling at me way too widely, as if he thought that flirting with me was going to win him points in my brother’s favor. Was every single alpha in the whole damn city of New Oxford going to end up sitting at my lunch table and start eye-fucking me? What did a girl need to do to eat her damn sandwich in peace?
Emmanuel checked all the right boxes in terms of tall, dark, and handsome. He had high cheekbones and elegantly sculpted eyebrows that I could imagine him dutifully tweezing with a ruler. But there was just something that I couldn’t put my finger on during this interview process. I was pretty good at reading people, but I couldn’t quite get a sense of Emmanuel. He’d been perfectly charming so far and said all the right things. But I couldn’t ignore the nagging suspicion that something was off about him.
“I can’t imagine what an amazing experience it must have been to grow up in the Stryker pack.” His smile curved in all the right places, and his dark eyes flashed with interest that at first glance seemed genuine.
Who thought that it was an amazing opportunity to grow up in your own family? It was what it was.
I tried to think back about what part of my upbringing could be considered the glamorous part. The mountains of laundry from a family of twenty-three and counting was pretty majestic. More than a dozen siblings meant more noise. More drama. More dishes in the sink. I mean, my parents were famous, so if Emmanuel wanted to imagine how fabulous it felt for everyone to be in your goddamn business about it every minute of your life, he could do that.
He was honestly really hot… which would make it easier for someone distracted by pretty guys—like my brother Titus—to overlook any signs of bad behavior. Which meant that it was up to me.
It was time for me to go through my Alpha Asshole Red Flag Checklist.
I couldn’t do number one of the list, as he hadn’t done anything that I could casually comment on. He hadn’t been late. There weren’t any doors out here in this outdoor picnic area that he hadn’t opened for me. So I had to go straight to number two on my list.
Ignore him.
I took another large bite out of the sandwich. Today it was pastrami and provolone on rye. I’d had too many experiences of these meetings completely souring my appetite. This sandwich looked fucking good. I was going to enjoy it, damn it.
The alpha’s smile began to fade as I inhaled massive chunks of my lunch in front of him.
Bite after bite, I let the conversation stretch into an uncomfortable silence.
I didn’t look his way, though it was clear out of the corner of my eye that he was trying to catch my gaze. He was fidgeting, clearly not happy that I hadn’t responded to his perfectly phrased little compliment. It was the third or fourth time that he’d praised me during our conversation. It wasn’t quite enough for me to suspect that he was love bombing me, but enough that I couldn’t rule it out.
It was barely even two minutes before Emmanuel lost his cool and started fidgeting. By itself, that didn’t mean anything. No one liked to be brushed aside in favor of carbs and juicy deli-meat. I could be screwing up a perfectly decent romantic interest for Titus by aggravating this alpha for no reason, but I couldn’t ignore my suspicion that something was off.
“Has anyone ever told you that it’s rude to ignore people?” Emmanuel snapped.
Ummm… okay?
I stopped myself from blatantly rolling my eyes, leaned back in my chair and took another bite. I focused on the taste of the pastrami, and the gooeyness of the cheese, trying very hard not to let this alpha get in the way of enjoying my meal.
What the hell did he want me to say to him with food crammed into my mouth? I was chewing as fast as I could. It wasn’t like I had asked for him or any of the others to start invading my lunches.
I was not willing to starve for my brother’s future happiness. I might have thought twice about agreeing to help him if I’d known that it was going to come at the price of my lunch time.
Really. Was nothing sacred anymore?
I could spot the exact moment where something shifted in Emmanuel, like a thin cord snapped in half, as he clenched his fists so tight that his knuckles started to get white. He glared at me in a way that was probably meant to be intimidating. It probably would have been… if I didn’t have eight brothers. But why was he trying to be intimidating? Did he think that he could scare me into telling Titus to add him to his pack?
“Omega…” The way that Emannuel said my designation… he purred it like he meant to sound seductive. But I couldn’t help but hear the undertone of scorn.
He leaned in closer to me, until he was too close, and whispered into my ear, “maybe instead of joining Titus’s pack, I’ll take you on as my own omega. Someone needs to teach you some manners.”
His friendly tone changed, and malice slithered into his every word.
There was something about the way he kept a perfect smile frozen on his face as he spewed out his hatred, that made a chill go down my spine.
Emmanuel was hiding something really nasty behind his perfectly good looks and charm.
He was looking at me with his too handsome face, like he wanted to dig his claws into me and hook me deeper, until I couldn’t escape him.
Yeah… about that. I didn’t have time to deal with guys with those kinds of issues. I was nobody’s therapist.
This wasn’t like one of the trashy romance novels I loved to read whenever I could find the time. There was no way that little old me could get involved with someone with serious issues and maladaptive behaviors. I was trying to get my little old degree so that I could go on to work in a respectable office setting. I didn’t have the professional tools and the fancy psychology Doctorate to deal with him.
“Hey there, Gorgeous.” The voice was way too familiar, despite the fact I’d only heard it once before.
The deep and sultry scent of chocolate hung heavy in the air, as if I was dropped headfirst into a candy store, as my scent match strolled over to my table.
The same smile remained on Emmanuel’s face, but now that I recognized him for what he was, it seemed almost stretched thin, with all the warmth sucked out of it.
“The two of us are having a private conversation.” Emmanuel said in a confident tone that left no room for argument.
Except that I’d had enough of hanging around alphas with questionable mental statuses and wasn’t afraid of being just a little rude to get the fuck out.
“Hey, yourself,” I put a little more warmth into my greeting than I actually felt. Definitely more affection, attention and effort than I’d put into Emmanuel at any point. At this point, fuck it. He didn’t deserve it.
Emmanuel didn’t like that I was paying another alpha attention. He completely turned his back on me, as his aura pierced the air, with an energy that was crackling and unstable. “I said, we’re having a private conversation.”
Fuck. This.
This was getting way too dramatic. I was just here doing a favor, interviewing all these dramatic ass alphas. I did not ask for them to start getting all testy and belligerent, right in front of my poor half-eaten sandwich.
“Did you still want my help with that professor?” The playful tone in Kain’s voice was gone. There was no professor I needed help with. My academic situation was rock solid. But I knew exactly what Kain was really asking: Was this guy bothering you? Do you want my help?
“That sounds great. I have him next period.” I grabbed my tray, swiftly rising to my feet and away from the table before Emmanuel even realized what was going on. I was going to get the hell out of this conversation, and far from Emmanuel.
“This isn’t over,” Emmanuel hissed.
With that comment, I did roll my eyes. Whatever he needed to say in order to make him feel better about this situation. Did he think that I was going to become his omega because he got angry and glared at me? Did I look desperate or something?
No, I’d had quite enough from Emmanuel.
I had places to go. Mainly to my class. Brothers to kill… ev en if it broke the horny hearts of every single alpha lingering around the Institute. Like seriously, Titus was really asking too much of me. I had a lesson starting in fifteen minutes and I needed to leave now in order to get a seat in the front and center of class. I was not going to let any alpha-hole mess up the solid academic impression I was steadily making on all my teachers.
The last thing I needed was all this male attention right now. There was so much testosterone in the air that it was probably poison at this point, lowering my IQ with every breath I took.
I scarfed down the rest of my sandwich, even though it was way too delicious for that hasty goodbye, and dropped my tray unceremoniously on top of the trash cans furthest from Emmanuel. I let Kain place a hand at the small of my back, helping to hustle me out of the cafeteria area.
I sighed.
It really was too much for these alphas with anger issues to handle when an omega stopped paying attention to them for a few minutes. Did Emmanuel think that omegas were born specifically to worship his stupid little handsome face or something?
Today was turning into too much, and it was barely past noon.
Who would have thought that I would have to add “eat my sandwich” to my Red Flag checklist?