Chapter 8
Alice wakesup in Grant and Caleb’s empty bed, pale sunlight flits through the windows that were previously covered in dense curtains. She pushes up on one arm and rubs her eyes. Her bones are less heavy than they were last night—all of her usual aches are eased.
The suppressants and blockers took their toll on her body, just as everyone said they would, but she didn’t know just how bad it had been until now. With her first heat done, she feels better than she has in months.
She’s still in Caleb’s hoodie, but at some point in the night, she kicked off the sweatpants . Their sheets are nicer than any of hers, the bed is so plush she could sink back into it for another heavy sleep, but something delicious smelling makes her stomach growl as if she’s never eaten before.
“Fine,” Alice mutters to herself. She swings her feet onto the plush carpet and flexes her toes before wiggling back into the baggy sweatpants. It’s absurd to be embarrassed about her body around Caleb and Grant after they spent the last eight days doing things that she can hardly think about now without her face flaming, but the thought of them seeing her bare thighs this morning is horrifying.
Really, it would be best if she didn’t have to see them at all. If she could sneak out without their notice and never speak of this again, that would be optimal. Unlikely, though, when she can hear them moving about downstairs.
There are a few unpacked boxes stacked in a corner. As she walks through the house, towards the smell and the noises coming from the kitchen, she sees various picture frames leaned against the walls, not yet hung up. They only moved in a few weeks ago and one of those weeks was taken up entirely by Alice, so of course their things are still half-packed.
When she pads into the kitchen, Caleb and Grant are both dressed, showered, shaved, and infinitely more put together than Alice is right now. Caleb pulls something out of the oven while Grant does the dishes, a picture of domestic bliss.
She realizes she’s never seen either of them in anything but business clothes… or, well, naked. Grant wears corduroy pants and a sweatshirt, Caleb dark jeans and flannel; Alice hasn”t looked in a mirror but she could make an educated guess that her red hair is a frizzy, snarled mess around her head.
She clears her throat and they both turn around as if an alarm just went off.
“You’re up.” Grant wipes his hands on a dish towel.
“How are you feeling?” Caleb removes his oven mitts and rounds the corner approaching her, but stops when she tenses. “What’s wrong?”
Alice’s mouth is dry, but she gulps.
“We didn’t, um, bond, right?” she asks. She remembers begging them to bite her, to seal the mating bond and take her, but doesn’t remember if they did it.
“No,” Grant says, his voice serious and low. “You’d feel it if we had. The connection.”
Alice lets out a relieved huff.
Bonding would be horrifically permanent, something that could only be broken with a lot of pain, distance, and time. To Alice’s mind, it was not a decision to be made with two strangers in the throes of a first heat. Many of Alice’s siblings bonded during their first heat, but that was different. They wanted that, they’d had a conversation beforehand.
They hadn’t gone into a sudden, frenzied heat at the place of their employment.
“Good,” she says, then again, “good.”
Caleb and Grant share a look that Alice catches but doesn’t dwell on. Surely they’re relieved too, right?
“Can I have some of that?” she points to the casserole. She has no clue what it is but it smells like cinnamon and blueberries and that tells her enough.
“Definitely, yeah—yes.” Caleb grabs a bowl and cuts into what looks like oatmeal and steam billows up from the dish while Alice takes her place on the stool she sat on last night. “This is a blueberry oatmeal bake. You’re not allergic, are you?”
Alice shakes her head and snatches the bowl, not letting it cool before taking a bite that promptly burns her tongue. It’s delicious.
Grant pours a glass of orange juice and places it next to Alice, standing close enough that his scent fills her nose with the cinnamon of the breakfast.
“Thanks,” Alice says. She blows on another spoonful. “I’ll eat, then I’ll get out of your hair.”
Grant’s eyebrows dip towards each other and he leans on the counter. “What do you mean out of our hair?”
Alice looks back and forth between them. They’re both tense now, faces turned down in concern. With both of their attention on her, Alice feels warmth creeping back up her neck. They are exceptionally handsome.
“I’ve been in your house for nine days,” she says around another bite. “You have your own lives to get back to, I’m sure.”
“You’re our scent match,” Caleb says, picking right back up into their argument from the roof. “Both of us.”
“Right,” Alice says. “But I don’t see why that has to. . . mean anything.”
“Here we go,” Grant mutters and puts his hands behind his head.
“You’re not serious,” Caleb insists. “You know how rare this is? Why would we not want anything to change?”
Alice takes her time chewing and drinking before answering. She doesn’t know how to express this in a way that they can possibly understand. They’re already a pack together, so it probably makes sense that they’d get an Omega—they’d want one eventually, and here she is, conveniently placed in their laps, single, and their scent matches to top it off.
“I’m not looking for a pack,” she says finally. “Not that I thought you were implying I join?—”
“We are,” Grant cuts her off. “We want you in our pack, Alice.”
“Well,” Alice shrugs, searching for the right words. “I’m not—I don’t want all that.”
“All that,” Caleb repeats, drawing out each word. He sounds like she’s telling a joke he doesn’t much appreciate. “Please do go on.”
“It’s not where I’m at,” she says. “I can’t be your doting, submissive, perfect little Omega that stays at home and raises your basketball team of little babies. It’s not in my nature and I don’t want it now, maybe not ever. I’m not ready.”
“Why are we talking about babies? Caleb, did you mention babies?”
“I didn’t,” Caleb says.
“I’m not an idiot, I know what happens in a pack,” Alice defends.
“I didn”t say you were an idiot, but I am surprised that you think us wanting you to join our pack means that we want you barefoot and pregnant next month,” Grant says. “We can take things slow, neither of us is trying to bond with you today?—”
Caleb hums like he might in fact love to complete the mating bond today. Grant shoots daggers his way.
“We just want to explore this. How many people do you know that have the chance to get to know their scent match, Alice?” Grant finishes.
For her, the answer is zero, like she’s sure it is for them. Rationally, she knows she should feel lucky to even have one scent match, much less two scent matches, and for them to not already be mated. But that’s just it! Do Caleb and Grant only want to explore this because she’s their scent match? Would they ever have come to her by their own interest?
Alice feels a cocktail of dread and fear and longing to be close to them while convincing herself that it’s not real and she should stay away.
“I just . . . need some time,” she says.
Neither of them look happy about it, but they agree. It’s not like she can avoid them really, they work in an office together after all. Even if she did want to quit, she needs a job if she wants to keep living here, and her job is a good one for the most part.
She just needs some time to figure out what the hell to do about the two Alphas who want her forever.
When she goes into work on Monday morning, Alice tries to pretend that everything is normal. The story is that the three of them all came down with a horrific flu that knocked them on their asses for the entire week, and it works. When Grant speaks, people believe him. He has that sweetness about him. Everyone is sympathetic and none are suspicious.
Well, everyone other than Lily who has sent half a dozen texts peppering Alice with questions about how she and their hot coworkers managed to get the same sickness at the same time.
Once Lily was finally convinced that Alice wasn’t involved in their week away, Lily started speculating about their personal lives.
Lily
Do you think they have a pack? Maybe their Omega was in heat? I get the feeling they’re Alphas.
Alice
Gah, gross. I try not to think about my colleagues as sexual beings.
Of course, she wants to tell her friend the truth. If anyone would be understanding, it’s Lily. But she would have lots of questions and Alice is still not ready to think too deeply about these things herself. Lily’s messages are tame compared to the barrage of texts from every single one of Alice’s family members.
Apparently after day three, Caleb and Grant turned on Alice’s phone only to find a voicemail inbox completely full, and dozens of texts ranging in levels of stress and concern. Grant had the honor of answering the phone when Alice’s mother called for the fortieth time and broke the news that although Alice was in her first heat, she was being well looked after.
Her mom was beyond thrilled at the news and apparently had sent out a group message about the baby of the family finally going through her first heat and being taken care of by two of the sweetest Alphas. Alice was horrified by this, but unsurprised.
When Alice clicked on her phone after Caleb dropped her off yesterday, she was met with a slew of congratulations, questions, and otherwise nosiness from her family. She sent a message in the family group chat that she was alive and well and was way too tired to respond to any of their messages. She then powered down her phone and tried to get her head on straight for the next day.
It was a fitful night”s sleep compared to the previous, but her body still feels so much better than it has, now free of the heat blockers she’d been taking since she turned twenty-one. Unfortunately, though, there’s no escaping Grant and Caleb’s scents.
They permeate the air she breathes and seep into her clothes. It’s a shock to her that nobody else in the office can smell them. She can barely get any work done, too distracted trying not to be distracted by the Alphas twenty feet away.
Luckily, Thanksgiving is this week which means she only has two more full days in the office to deal with them before the four-day weekend. That’s when she’ll do her best to forget about Caleb and Grant and the way her body perks up at the very thought of them touching her.
“Alice?” A dark voice interrupts her staring blankly at her computer screen. Caleb.
He stares at her like he might be able to tunnel into her thoughts if he looks hard enough. Her legs clench together under her desk because her body is traitorous and cruel. At least she’s not dripping slick like she was last week. Her heat managed to make her marginally less horny all the time.
“Hm?”
Caleb’s eyes rove over her desk, papers, notebooks, and sticky notes are scattered everywhere except for the section where she keeps all of the little trinkets and toys her nieces and nephews have given her. Plus, the few tiny horse figures that she bought herself.
She’s suddenly self-conscious of them with Caleb looking at them like he is. Does he think they’re childish? Is he judging the mess?
“You missed lunch,” Caleb finally says. “It’s 2:30.”
“Observant,” she says wryly and stands up to stretch her back. “I had a protein bar.” Or at least she thinks she did. She peers into the trash can, sees a wrapper, and nods in confirmation. It was one of the expensive peanut butter chocolate ones they always keep stocked in the break room.
Alice catches his eyes lingering on her neck.
“Did you bring lunch?” Caleb asks. He’s talking low enough that none of the nearby cubicles can hear, but Alice is still embarrassed by his attention.
Alice’s eyes twitch with the effort not to roll them. “Another thing that is none of your business.”
His face reflects hurt and, great, now Alice feels bad. She sighs and tilts her head.
“I brought leftover takeout,” she says. “Thanks for the concern.”
“Come to dinner with us tonight,” he says, almost a whisper. “Please.”
Alice looks away from Caleb only to see Lily watching them with rapt attention, her eyebrows waggling at Alice like they’re an afternoon soap opera.
Alice pastes on her most professional smile.
“Not tonight,” she says.
“Tomorrow then,” Caleb says. “We’ll cook, or we can go somewhere, whatever you want.”
Whatever she wants.
That is a loaded concept as Alice currently has two wolves warring inside of her; there’s her rational self that knows spending time with them will lead to confused feelings and then there’s the horny ass Omega who wants nothing more than for Caleb and Grant to claim her in short order. Preferably now, in the office if needed.
“Why?” she asks. “You don’t owe me anything. You’ve done more than enough.”
“We want to be with you,” Caleb says. “To spend time with you. Outside of board rooms.”
Was this Grant’s idea? She could see Grant wanting to spend time with her; he is kind and generally excited to interact with her in any way that he can. Caleb, on the other hand, is always either scowling in the distance or looking at Alice as if he’s a lost puppy with no in-between.
“You don’t even really know me,” Alice says. Caleb’s face breaks, and it’s good that his back is now to Lily because she would be all over this, asking what Alice did to make him look so devastated.
“I want to know you better. We both do.”
She clears her throat. “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now.”
She can’t trust that she’ll make the most sound decisions, especially not if Caleb is going to be watching her like this and Grant too, both of them with their broad chests and thick fingers—oh absolutely not.
“Thank you, though.” Alice grabs her empty water bottle and inches past him. “I’m going to have that lunch now.”
“Right,” Caleb says. His Adam”s apple bobs, but Alice decidedly looks away from it and escapes to the kitchen where she tries to cool off and not think about anything. Especially not about them.