Chapter 16
ASHER
I linger outside my apartment door. Reed and Neven are in the Prez’s office for who knows what.
Maybe they are telling him about the scent match.
But if so, why didn’t they call me to go with them?
Being Neven’s neighbor is about as close as I’ve ever gotten to the guy before meeting Esper, but he doesn’t seem the type to leave folks out. So maybe it’s about something else.
Neven emerges first. He nods in acknowledgment to me as he passes back to his apartment.
“Hey, have you visited Esper today?” I ask. He pauses, and I can see the tension in his shoulders as he nods.
“Yeah, but she wouldn’t open the door. She just needs some time.”
I nod, trying to dampen the sour alpha inside me who is pissed. A door clicks open and I smell Reed’s pancake scent before I see him.
“Red,” I snap as he tries to walk past me.
“I can’t help you today,” he snarls back and I grab the back of his shirt and yank him inside my apartment.
“It’s not about that and you fucking know it.”
I drag him into my room, slamming the door. Esper’s face hasn’t left my mind since that day at the cookie shop.
Another scent match. A person designated to be with me through whatever god designed us for, and our first date ended in tears and an omega we should’ve been gathered around this very moment absolutely crushed by this jerkwad in my damn room.
My chest heaves as I drag him deeper inside my room, where my scent is the strongest. My pomegranate scent sours as anger courses through my body. His brow wrinkles as it thickens.
“You smell that? Have you always smelled that?” I ask as his face goes through a plethora of emotions. He sits on my bed, his arms holding him up as his nose is attacked by my scent. Wild eyes seek me out as he realizes what I always fucking knew.
“This whole time…”
“This whole fucking time. Fuck, maybe if I’d told you, you wouldn’t have been such an ass to her.” The thought has been running in my mind since his blowup.
I wish I had done things differently. Maybe if I told him, I could have borne the pain of rejection instead of her. No one should be saying no to her… ever.
I’d make sure it didn’t happen again.
Red jumps up faster than I can comprehend and swings. His right hook snags my chin and whips my head to the side.
“Fuck!” I rush forward, my hands finding his waist. I lift as his hands pound my back.
Slamming us down on the bed with a pair of grunts.
I’m quick and aware now, and I crawl up as he tries to escape, going for a kick.
I catch his knee, forcing it down as I pin him with my body.
I adjust, his wrists in my hands as I restrict him with his hands by his head.
He thrashes, accidentally rubbing against my cock and despite the rush of heat lashing through my abdomen I keep him down.
Forcing my knees under me to put some space between us.
His burned pancake scent makes me dizzy. Makes my alpha want to back down in case I’m hurting him, but also keep pushing in case he needs stabling and fuck I’m confused.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have…I would have…” he rants, withering under me as his eyes glaze over. My gut fills with what feels like oil. Dread, as I watch his face, his eyes, break in front of me.
“Reacted the fucking same exact way.” He knows it. I know it. He would have never been ready. It was always going to go the way it did, no matter when or how he’d found out. “Sure, I should have told you. But you weren’t ready.”
“How could I not tell?” His voice is raw and pained, but it feels like it’s my heart that’s being shredded. He shakes his head. “I couldn’t tell when I met Esper, Neven, or—fuck, Soren.” Red whines and my heart breaks for him. “I’m an omega, how could I not tell?”
I want to crush my lips to his. Soothe all his fears and worries. Tell him it’s okay. But I can’t. Not this time. Probably not ever. He’d hate that.
Plus, he’s not the one who got hurt.
I slide off of him, sitting beside him as he remains lying on the bed.
“You have to fix this. For her.”
“You?” he asks and I look away, focusing on the green plants around me to calm down. My heart pounds at what this could be, but I know realistically this doesn’t change anything. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Red may be my scent match. He may be my Packmate. But that doesn’t mean he likes me.
Not in the way that I love him.
“We’ll figure our shit out later. Fix things with her first,” I murmur.
“I… I will. She didn’t deserve that.”
“No. She didn’t.”
“How do I make it right?”
“Could start with chocolate chip cookies…” I suggest, but he shakes his head.
“Neven already dropped three days’ worth at her apartment.”
I chuckle. Of course he did. Neven is always two steps ahead. “You’ll figure it out. You’re an omega after all. It should be easier.”
"I'm sure a fuck won’t fix this,” he says and I slam my fist on his gut as we laugh. He jerks up but lays back down.
“Damn, Ash. I… I really like her. ”
“Figure something else out.”
“I will. I just… need some time.”
I let the silence take over the space between and around us. I just hope he doesn’t take too damn long.
As much as it would kill me to do it, we’ll form this Pack with or without him.