Chapter 13
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Marigold
Heath drags me into his office and points at one of the chairs on the other side of his desk. I take it because I have no other choice.
For the longest time, neither of us speaks, both dragging out the silence like it’s the opening move of a chess game.
I have some idea what this is about…as much as I don’t want to admit it.
Him giving me the power to choose my own dates has turned into me not going on many.
I’ve only said yes to the Alpha profiles I felt might be No One—a lot of tall, black-haired Alphas with light-colored eyes—but none of them ended up being him at all.
But knowing Heath, I haven’t met his date quota for this Season yet. The hammer was sure to swing down on me for not going through the right motions for my Season.
Today is as good a day as any for this lecture.
“What’s up, Heath?” I ask, playing dumb. “Do you need something?”
“Actually, yes,” he says. He drums his fingers against the desktop.
“I do. I need to know why you keep rejecting approximately seventy-five percent of the Alphas who ask you on a date. I granted you the responsibility to accept or deny invites because I assumed you’d be able to handle it. Don’t you want this?”
“I do, but Heath…”
He sighs and holds up my mini tablet, ignoring my hesitation.
He scrolls while he talks so I can see the screen.
“Then I’m confused. Christopher Belmar’s family owns about fifty jewelry stores all over the world.
And Caleb Duncan is going for his doctorate.
He has sent you a date request three times already, and you’ve deleted every single one. What’s going on?”
“They’re blond.” I say it like it’s obvious.
Heath pauses, confused. “Wait, what?”
“I can’t be choosy? It is my life.”
“No!” He rubs a hand down his face. “I mean, yes. But you have something against blonds now?”
“Well, no. Not exactly. I just…” Do I tell him that I thought I had the right Alpha, but I haven’t been able to find him again after the Ackerman ball? That I don’t have his name and don’t really know what he looks like, but I’ve been on this useless hunt to find him again?
He’ll probably think I’m stupid.
Actually, I know he will.
“What is it?” he presses and puts down the mini. “Come on, Mari. I’m here to help you with this. You can tell me.”
But I can’t. Heath certainly won’t be able to help solve my problem. Knowing him, he’ll write me off as flakey and set up the rest of my dates himself, if I tell him the truth. He won’t see it as a virtue but as a distraction.
My gaze drops to my lap. “I’m sorry, Heath. I’ll stop rejecting the dates, blond or not blond.”
He sighs. “I’m not…I’m not asking you to stop rejecting every blond dude who sends you a dating request.” Heath gets up from behind his desk and walks around to stand in front of me. “Look, I’m concerned. Your, ah, heat is drawing closer and closer.”
My thoughts instantly go to waking up with slick between my thighs after that dream about No One. I squeeze my legs together. “How do you know?”
“As an Alpha, I know. It’s hard to explain. But you’re of age, so even if I wasn’t Alpha, we both know it’s coming up soon.”
I don’t like how ominous it sounds. “Omegas can find a mate after their first heat,” I say, standing too.
“I’m aware of that. Just…it’s going to make things harder. It also doesn’t look the best for a Luxe Omega.”
Each new word out of his mouth cuts a little deeper. They’re small reminders, bombs going off, that I’m running out of time to make the kind of match I want. If Heath has his way, I’ll be saddled with an Alpha I don’t like simply because of my heat.
Where is the fairness?
“But Violet had hers before she was mated to Stephan.”
“True…but she was marked then, at least,” Heath says. “Look, Mari. I want this to go right for you. I want this to be the one Season where things don’t off the rails.”
As if any of it is within my control. I can’t even control the dates I go on.
My hands squeeze into fists. “That would be horrible for you, wouldn’t it?”
“Not me, Mari! You!” He curses under his breath. “You know what? Maybe you should call Violet and talk to her about it. She might be able to explain it better than I can. I can’t…I can’t worry about this right now, anyway.” He goes for the door.
“Where are you off to now?” I ask. Why does it always seem like he’s dashing out of here in a hurry? And why does he get to say his piece without giving me time to say mine?
“Busy schedule today,” Heath says over his shoulder. “But call Violet. She’ll know what to do.”
Then he’s out the door, his business here for the day done. I’m another check on his extensive list of things to accomplish.
But this is my life…
Fine, whatever. I’ll call Violet. At least she can have a normal conversation without flying off the handle or running away, unlike Heath.
I slink through the house still seething, past Dahlia coming down the stairs and clearly heading to the living room for the piano.
She’s so lucky she doesn’t have to deal with Heath. Yet. A twinge of jealousy spikes through me, but I ignore it and swing left, heading for the yard.
The moment the warm night air touches my skin, things begin to settle, and I smell Reece before I see him.
He’s under the gazebo, scribbling in a notebook, the fairy lights still strung up and glowing, offering him some light. He’s deep in thought. I can tell because his tongue pokes out between his lips and he’s so close to the paper, his glasses are fogging from his breath.
I chuckle under my breath. He’s so cute when he’s lost in his work like this.
“There you are,” I say lightly, trying to keep humor in my voice. “It feels like I never get to see you anymore.”
He looks up, his tongue retreating back into his mouth, which he wipes with the back of his sleeve. “Miss Gardener—” Closing his notebook, he stands. “I didn’t see you.”
I study him and try to ignore the way my chest clenches at the formal greeting. “I told you before. Please don’t call me that. We’re still friends, right? So, call me Mari.”
“Oh, yes, yes. Sorry,” he rushes through the apology. “Mari. Is there something I can do for you?”
I pause. Why is he acting so…I don’t know. Distant? Distracted? Uninterested?
I don’t like it.
I shake my head. “No, I was looking for you…to talk. If you’re not too busy.”
“For you? Never,” he says and glances back at the space beside him on the bench.
My cheeks flame. And I’m glad for the dim light when I walk over and sit.
This isn’t his business. I shouldn’t make it his. But Reece is the only person I want to talk to, the only one who listens with more than half an ear. He doesn’t converse with his responses already primed, tailored to whatever is going on in his mind. He hears me.
He sees me.
I settle with not nearly enough space between us. “Heath’s disappointed in me. I guess that means Mom is too. They’re surprised I’m not marked yet—”
“Marked, already?” he asks in disbelief and turns to look at me. “The Season’s just started.”
“I know. I guess they figured it would be easy for me. And I mean, it should be. I’ve had a lot of interested suitors.”
Reece swallows loudly, clearly uncomfortable.
“But to be honest with you, I’ve found them all pretty boring.”
He snorts a laugh. “I didn’t expect you to say that.”
I glance over, stifling a grin of my own. “What? It’s true.”
“I thought you said you had found an Alpha you liked.”
No One. I don’t even know who he is. “No. I mean, I did…I do.” I swallow over my shame. “I guess I worry because I’m of an age where…”
“Things change?” Reece fills in.
“I could make a mistake. And I’d pay for it for the rest of my life.”
As much as I don’t want Heath’s lecture to sink in, it has. If I go into heat at the wrong place and wrong time, then someone could take advantage. And that could be dangerous. Extremely dangerous.
I’ve heard of it happening before.
Iris was lucky Killian and Xavier ended up being not only kind and considerate, but her true mates as well. But that kind of luck doesn’t happen often and certainly not to me.
But the big thing that scares me is just how painful it all was for Violet. Especially since she had to experience her first heat alone. I don’t want to have to go through it like she did. I want it how it’s meant to be, with my mate.
Not just any mate, but someone who has my heart, my trust. Someone who arouses and intrigues.
And the only Alpha who has come close to any of that is No One.
I shift slightly and our shoulders touch. Reece’s solid heat sinks into me, soothing and calming me as much as my drawing does, but in a different way.
I take a breath.
“What is it?” he asks. “You can talk to me. This stays between us.”
I know that. He’s always been honest and trustworthy.
“Reece, I did meet someone. And I thought I liked him, a lot actually. But—” I stop and rub a hand against my forehead. “I don’t know why this is so hard to talk about. Maybe because it’s been a secret that I’ve kept to myself all this time, so saying it out loud, I—” But I falter again.
Reece watches me intently, not wanting to interrupt, but when I throw my head back in frustration, he twists and picks something up from behind me. To my surprise, a second later he places my sketchbook in my lap. The same one I had almost been caught drawing me and Reece about to kiss.
He hands me his pencil he’d been writing with. “Then why don’t you draw it,” he says with a slight smile. “Sometimes the best way to talk about something is to get it down on paper.”
My heart flutters. Did he open it? Did he…see my drawing of us? Embarrassment keeps the questions locked inside. I hope not. If he isn’t going to mention anything about it, neither am I.
“That’s actually a great idea.” I take the pencil and the sketchbook. Careful to skip the sketch of us, I open to a blank page toward the back.
“Go on,” he encourages. “Draw it.”
“I don’t know…” I start as the pencil begins to stroke across the page. “I met him at the Ackerman ball.”
“This Alpha you like,” Reece says as he watches me connect lines and shade from memory.
“Mm-hmm. I thought I recognized him, but it was hard to tell. He was wearing a mask, but I…I felt something. Or at least I think I did.”
With everything going on, the Ackerman ball feels like it was months ago.
I’ve been so fixated on finding out who No One is, it’s hard to even remember the parts of him I could see.
I start to draw his mask, which I remember was covered in white feathers to match his tux and woven with silver thread.
It may have covered half of his face, but his crystal-blue eyes shined through.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes that blue before. Well, besides Reece’s.
Why had I not thought about drawing No One before? What stopped me?
“Did you say he wore a mask?” Reece whispers, suddenly looking ill. There’s a grayish tinge to his skin, like he might throw up at any moment.
“Yes. He said he wasn’t from around here. He said he was from the mainland, but he felt so familiar.” I laugh, knowing how it all sounds. “You probably think I’m crazy. And I probably am. I didn’t even get his name. All this time, I’ve been calling him No One.”
The pencil moves at a feverish pace now as I shade in his tux and add more black to his hair.
“He wore a white suit. And his scent…I remember it in my dreams. He kissed me, Reece, and it was magic. Like the world opened. I’m sure it sounds silly.”
“It’s not silly,” he mutters, voice small. “Not silly at all.”
“I wish I knew his name. That would make all this so much easier.”
Reece hesitates a beat, but then says, “I’m sure you’ll see him again. Maybe at the next ball.”
“Yeah. You said that before.”
“I mean it. You never know. I guess the timing has to be right for these kinds of things.”
My pencil starts to slow, and when I pull back, the side profile and torso of No One is on the page, dressed immaculately in his white tux and feathered mask.
He’s so handsome, even in sketch form, and when I stare at it, again I’m hit with a strong sense of familiarity, but it’s one I still can’t place.
It’s driving me crazy.
I brush my index finger across the line of his shoulder and smudge the sketch a little.
The next ball.
“I hope you’re right,” I breathe. “I really hope you’re right.”