Chapter 11 #2
A breeze smacks me in the face with her scent and my eyes almost roll back. She smells like my new favorite dessert. I’m going to go buy some green airheads on my way.
Only the green ones though. It would figure that she would smell like this. Those candies are chewy and tough until you can get it to soften over time. That’s how I imagine Isolde to be as well.
“Could you stop?” she asks, picking up the pace.
See, this isn’t going to make me less interested. I enjoy the chase. It’s why I’m so good at what I do.
“Nope,” I grunt. “No scent blockers today?”
“They’re less effective when I sweat,” she winces, sniffing herself.
“Why do you hide? You have scent matches, a pack when you decide you’re ready to accept them. I just want to understand,” I explain.
“I kill people for money, and omegas are thought to be too soft and emotionally unstable to do the work I do,” she says. “The woman who auctioned me off is still in Minnesota, and I don’t want to constantly look over my shoulder.”
“Auctions are illegal,” I grunt. “I know they happen, but it would cost her a lot of manpower to come for you.”
“Ophelia really hates me,” Isolde says, her voice haunted as she turns down another street. Her breath isn’t labored at all, her body completely relaxed as she moves. “I killed the alphas she sold me to so I could get out. They were into snuff sex.”
“What did you just say?” I ask. She just nonchalantly blew up my protective nature.
“They wanted to fuck me until I died,” she clarifies.
“I know what it is,” I growl, my hand running over my short hair. My feet are refusing to work properly, I struggle to keep up with her.
Don’t get me wrong, I knew that it had to have been bad… I didn’t realize how bad.
“I’m sorry,” I wheeze. “I’m having this problem where I want to kill people on your behalf.”
“You don’t even know me,” she says dismissively. “I already have three alphas that I don’t know what to do with, I don’t need a fourth.”
My feet finally stop as I watch her leave, my chest pinching so hard I have to rub it. Yeah, we aren’t scent matched, but I’m definitely into her. The alpha inside is screaming at me even without any kind of biological bond.
I want her, and apparently that’s enough for the rest of me to start suffering from withdrawals as soon as she leaves my presence.
Is it too much if I light her rental on fire? Deciding that it is, and that even then she won’t move in with Lucas, I pull out my phone and begin looking up private landlords. She wouldn’t have run too far out of this area.
I’m going to find her, bring her presents, and give her my goddamned hoodie. I’ve never courted an omega before. It goes something like that, right?
Now that I have an area in mind, it’ll be child’s play to find her.
This town isn’t that large, and the private landlords are scarce.
I overheard Isolde say that her landlord didn’t want to accept her full rent, which means this is the only possibility, because larger property management companies would never do that.
Sticking my phone in my pocket once I have an idea of where she is, I turn around and begin jogging back to the mansion. She’ll be there soon enough for breakfast, and I need to break it to my boss that I’m courting her.
The gates open as I arrive and I blow out a breath as I run through them toward the front door. Rita opens for me as I step up on the front stoop, smiling with a water bottle.
“Hey, Rita. Thank you,” I say, following her inside and taking the water from her.
“You’re very welcome. I think it’s too cold for a run, but what do I know?” she asks, shutting the door behind me before moving onto her next task.
My lips twitch since she’s constantly fussing over Lucas and I. My job is to be where he is, which means that I spend a lot of time here. Sucking down my water, I pad down the hall to head to my room to shower.
“How was your run? Next time you should get my ass out of bed to go too,” Lucas calls out, scaring me.
I almost spit out my drink, and instead just manage to swallow it down. The liquid burns as it works its way down my throat, and I cough, rubbing my chest. Fuck, that hurt.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I croak out. “I got up early to hit the pavement.”
“Alright. Are you good?”
I nod because I don’t know how to dive into this conversation yet.
“I am. I finished my run with Isolde. I found her on my route,” I explain.
“Oh that’s good,” Lucas says. “Are you over being a shithead toward her?”
“Ah, yeah. I think she’s great,” I say, already walking toward the stairs to shower.
“You think…” Lucas gets deadly silent, and I already expect to get slammed into the wall. So much so that I’m hardly surprised when he does it.
“What’s going on?” Oliver yells from the living room. The man is always working. Though, I shouldn’t judge.
“What the fuck is going on with you?” Lucas growls. “You fucking hate everyone. You think she’s ‘great’? What does that mean?”
“Lucas, it’s not something I planned,” I sigh. “I really fucking like her. It’s not about finding someone to fuck, or getting in your way. I’m stalking her, okay? I want to buy her shit that she doesn’t think she deserves and leave her presents on her porch.”
“What porch?” Oliver asks, coming into the foyer.
“I know where she lives,” I say. “And no, I’m not telling you. Court her like normal alphas.”
“Court…” Lucas is looking at me as if I just grew two heads. “Well fuck me. This is really weird. Though, it’s possible that you could kill each other if you weren’t obsessed with her.”
“Did I say I was obsessed?” I ask.
“Ah, you just did,” Oliver grunts. “You’re not scent matched?”
“Nope. Though, I really wanted to follow her home,” I confess, pushing Lucas off me. “I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s like a compulsion to be near her.”
“Hmm,” Alesso says, pushing off the wall from where he was listening. He followed Oliver in. “I’ve heard that sometimes alphas can have strong attachment to an omega without being scent matched.”
“Even if that first emotion is hate?” Oliver snorts. “Looks like our merry little pack is getting bigger.”
“Breakfast is going to be interesting,” Lucas says, shaking his head as I continue upstairs. “We aren’t pressuring her, Grant!”
“Trust me, I wouldn’t dream of it,” I promise, remembering what Isolde told me about alphas who bought her for a snuff and fuck.
If they weren’t already dead, I’d do it for her.