Chapter 17
SOREN
“You stalking me now?” Esper’s voice sounds from behind me.
I waited outside on her dorm steps for her after confirming she was free today.
Since I accepted a date from this omega, she’s all I can think about.
This little minx was all smiles and wide-eyed stares when I finally approached her at WPC Laundromat.
It warmed something in my chest, under my skin, that I will not name. But I liked—loved the feeling.
So I’m back. To take her on that date I promised her.
Except now, her eyes aren't as wide and she doesn’t wear a smile. Bags beneath her eyes are dark, and her shoulders slump as she comes closer. Her cranberry scent is sour under my nose and for a beat, it angers the fuck out of me.
“I am stalking you, but seemingly not hard enough. What’s going on?
” I ask. I crack my knuckles, attempting to cool the simmering anger at her sadness.
She lowers herself onto the steps next to me, dropping her head into her hands.
Her manicure is chipped slightly. The edges of her nails are white and stand out against her dark brown hair as she drags her hands through.
She sighs, and I start to get nervous.
“Trouble?” I ask again, and she looks up at me, resting her head on her knees.
“You’re my scent match.” Her eyes are pinned on me. She tracks me like a hawk and as much as I find myself liking the attention, things start clicking.
Her scent. I can smell it. Betas can’t smell scents like omegas and alphas can. Unless—
My face drains as I think about all the people I can smell. Because Esper isn’t the only one.
“You are mine,” I breathe, mind whirring on without my say-so. I’m more so at a loss for words, but my gut is telling me she needed an immediate response.
“Good.” She chuckles, but it’s dry. “I also know you are part of a motorcycle club. That you sell drugs, fight, all that stuff.”
“Well, I don't actually sell drugs.” My attempt at humor works, her eyes widening with surprise. “I’m a mechanic at Wolves Garage.”
She laughs and the chains in my chest loosen at the first sign of happiness from her.
Still, there are questions needing answers.
“How did you know all that stuff?” It’s not exactly a secret for me.
With my bike and tattoos, there is really only one conclusion people come to when they see me.
But Esper doesn’t judge… not in that way.
“Reed—Red, I guess, Neven or Hacker, Asher—oh, I don’t know his motorcycle name. Well, they told me. When we all found out we were scent matches.”
“Oh, I can’t imagine Red taking that very well.”
“He said you were friends.”
I give a hesitant nod. “Yeah, we’re friends. I’d say we’re close, but he didn’t tell me about you.” We aren't traditional friends, to say the least. We smoke together, let our guards down, defend each other.
If that's all you need in a friend, then we were the bestest friends.
“We were just supposed to be heat partners,” she says, keeping her eyes tracked on something in front of her.
“Are you okay?” I reach my hand up and trace a light line down the side of her face, moving a stray hair. Her skin is so soft, delicate. Much different from mine. It scares me. For a second, I wonder if Red is right to keep her at an arm’s distance, or whatever the fuck he did.
She’s so… magnificent. And we’re us. How could we risk tainting that?
But the way she leans into my hand, how her cranberry scent explodes from her as our skin touches. Blood rushes like a river under my skin as her place in my life solidifies. I can’t… I couldn’t let her go even if I wanted to.
She is mine. Instinctively I know that. And there is no going back to a world that doesn’t revolve around her.
Which leads to another problem.
My brothers.
If they find out about her, they would definitely taint her. Try to steal her from me. Ruin her. Ruin her to the point she won’t accept herself, let alone believe me when I say nothing could deter her from me.
I can’t let that happen. Which means I now have to deal with the problem head-on. An invisible timer ticks away the seconds I have to deal with this before the inevitable happens.
I have to get them before they get her.
The moment they see someone I care about, they’ll make a move, maybe one I can’t even anticipate. They know I would do absolutely anything for the people I care for.
Esper shakes her head, eyes shining. “No. My omega is hurt. Beyond hurt. She claws at my chest, wanting to like... take over?” Her eyes are filled with unshed tears and I wonder if the fool actually, formally rejected her.
I lift my arm, in invitation and she takes it. Cuddling her head into my chest as she scoots closer to me. The sour notes of her scent start to sweeten as she nuzzles into me, gripping my shirt like it’s her lifeline.
I fucking love the feeling of soothing this omega.
“I love the coaster you gave me,” I murmur against her hair, earning me a laugh.
“Do you actually use it?”
“I do. The black and white matches my furniture."
“The marble?”
“Yeah, though I have to ask… why a coaster?”
“I’m an interior design major.”
“Oh,” I say as if that answers my question, but I let it go. Besides, it was time to return the favor. “Do you want to see what I got you?”
Esper lifts her head to turn and face me, and the loss of her against my chest makes me a bit sad. But her shy smile makes up for it.
Sliding my bag off my shoulders, I carefully pull out my returning gift to her. There is no way an omega could gift me something and I not give something back.
She’s the one who needs to be courted, not me.
“You didn’t have to,” she says as her eyes light up with excitement. I glow inside. Omegas fucking love presents.
“I most definitely did.” Slowly, I pull out her gift.
“A hoodie! I do like hoodies—oh!” The real gift tumbles out of my lame attempt at wrapping and lands in her lap. She stares for a moment. “Gummy bears and a taser?”
“Special gummy bears and protection,” I clarify, suddenly feeling as if my idea was too brazen. Maybe I should have stuck with flowers?
“You’re joking?” She holds up the baggie of weed-filled gummy bears for closer inspection. I had Ash make this especially for her.
“All blue raspberry?” she squeals with a delighted look in my direction.
“All blue raspberry." I chuckle as she eyes them some more.
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth. “What is the dose?”
“Each has one milligram,” I say and nod.
“Can we try them now?”
“And skip our wonderful date down at Coal's Diner?”
“Coal’s Diner. Oh my gosh, Soren, you’re joking. I love Coal’s.”
“Not joking.”
“You know my dad’s name is Col?”
“Is that why you like the diner?”
“No, they just have amazing fries.”
I laugh, feeling light that I’ve managed to cheer my omega up. “Let’s eat first.” I stand up and hold my hand out for her to take. She does so, interlacing her fingers in mine while holding the gummies and the taser in my hoodie I gifted her. “Then we can get high.”
A Cheshire grin overtakes her face. “Sounds like a phenomenal fucking date.”
“How many have you had?” Esper asks, snatching the bag of gummies from my hands.
I chuckle, popping another into my mouth. “This is my first and only, Trouble. Don’t worry, I won’t eat 'em all.”
“You have to ride home is all.”
“Worried about my safety or kicking me out?”
“Definitely not kicking you out.” She giggles, crawling over my lap and settling into my chest. Her dorm room is very much Esper. I’ve only formally met the woman twice, but the cozy vibes of her little twinkle lights and piles among piles of blankets definitely fit her to a tee.
She wiggles her perfect ass over my stomach, dangerously fucking close to my dick. Her rosy cheeks threaten to hypnotize me as she gazes up at me.
“How many have you had?” I ask her. Not able to resist, I slowly take my hands up and down her back as she bats her pretty brown eyes at me.
“Only two.”
“Only two?”
“Really. I don’t like to go too crazy.”
I hum as she lays her head on me. Her cranberry scent blooms and gets heavier and heavier as she lays down. Nestling her face into my shirt.
“What do I smell like?” The question burns on my tongue. A question that feels so intimate but something like… maybe I should already know.
I know what I smell like to me, but to her… How do I smell to her?
“Cinnamon.”
“Cinnamon?” Her head rubs against my chest as she nods.
Betas’ scents aren’t always on the nose. Maybe other betas can tell what their own scent is, but mine has always been faint for me. It’s how I knew for sure I wouldn't present as an alpha. It’s not a sure way to tell but… I just knew in my gut. I wasn’t an alpha or an omega.
I was… plain.
“The best cinnamon. Like Cinnamon Toast Crunch with milk, on a sunny morning. One where there are fresh flowers on the table and clouds paint the sky in pretty designs, close to the sun but not enough to cover it. The kind of cinnamon that dances on your tongue. Battling the brown sugar crumbs in a dance-off as you eat.” She trailed off before adding, “What do I smell like?”
“How am I supposed to follow up after that?” I chuckle but am deadly serious. She hasn’t moved her head to look at me, but my cheeks are inflamed. Beet red, I’m sure.
I’ve never had someone talk to me, about me, that way before.
“Try.”
I sigh as I try to think of words to describe how enrapturing she is.
“You smell like the most intoxicating taste of cranberries. The kind you couldn’t dilute with water, the syrup is too powerful to try, too addicting to even want to.
With each inhale I take, I can’t wait to breathe just to get a hint of you in my nose again. ”
“Really?” This time she looks up at me. My face is still red as hell, but she doesn’t comment on it. Her eyes well with tears she won’t shed, and I nod in confirmation.
“I don’t know how anyone would resist.”
“Well, someone can.” She pouts and thumps her head back onto my chest.
“He’s an omega too,” I say carefully, and she bristles under my hold. Grips my sides tighter. “Maybe he needs to see if you can handle the life we’re in?”
“Life? Like he’s scared to…scare me off?”
I wait, weighing my response. Red’s problem is much bigger than that. His omega nature, though, remains unchanged. Omegas typically need to be proven to. I’ve read, in the bit of research I’d undertaken since meeting Esper, that omegas often run off survival instincts.
If they can’t trust you, then they have a harder time accepting you.
“His problems with scent matches doesn’t have anything to do with you as a person, but it wouldn’t hurt to do with him as you did with me.”
“Court you?”
“Court him.”
“He doesn’t seem like the type to like that.”
I hum in agreement. “On the outside. But at the end of the day, what omega can resist a courtship?”