Chapter 8
Zachary
My phone rings, Hunter’s name lighting up the screen. A photo I took of him after a late night out in college, passed out on our old couch, and Alric had taken a red sharpie to his face. A drawing of a large dick with a knot on his cheek fills up my screen.
But he can’t be calling me, because he’s currently screaming at Alric in front of me, without a phone in his hand.
Alric pounds against the door, yelling about the omega he was talking about at dinner yesterday. Madeline. He looks like he’s about to burst into flames, while Hunter’s face twists up with guilt. I yank Alric away from the door, ignoring his growl.
“What the fuck is going on?” I demand.
“Madeline is here!” Alric says, as if that clears up anything at all.
“I brought Sophie here!” Hunter says, his eyes on the floor.
“You both brought your omegas here? Since when did our yearly memorial trip here turn into a house party, and why wasn’t I allowed to bring Emilie?”
No way my omega doesn’t get a chance. I don’t care how intriguing Madeline is, or how beautiful Sophie is. Emilie will win whatever insane pack matchmaking game is being played, but I’m annoyed as fuck at both of them.
“They’re the same omega,” Hunter says, his voice small. He runs his hands through his wet hair. “I…I wanted you both to meet her!”
Alric takes a step closer to Hunter. “She and I had been dating up until Friday night, when she ran off and blocked me on everything. Now she’s locked herself in my bedroom.”
“She looked so fucking scared. Fuck. I’m sorry! I had no idea they were the same omega! Or I never would have brought her,” Hunter pleads.
Alric throws his hands up in the air. “You never should have invited someone to my home without asking me anyway!”
“Wait!” I face Hunter. “Did she know Alric was going to be here? I doubt an omega would have agreed to come to a remote island with alphas they don’t know.”
Hunter’s shoulders sink. “I may have implied it was just the two of us, but—”
He’s done some ridiculous shit in this lifetime, but this is the least thought-out idea yet. “So you took her across international waters under false pretense? Hunter, there are omega protection laws about that. She could have you arrested.”
The rain patter on the roof is the only sound for a few seconds.
He runs his hands through his air again, pulling on the blond strands. “Shit,” he says under his breath.
I point at Alric. “You need to calm the fuck down.” I glare at Hunter next.
“You’ve made a huge mistake. Now both of you step away from the door.
” Hunter immediately listens, but Alric stays next to the door, so I keep going.
“I don’t know what the fuck is going on with you and your omega.
She’s hiding in a bathroom from you, so I’m going to speak to her, and we’re going to see what she’d like to do without you two breathing down her neck. ”
Alric takes a deep breath, but finally moves away from the door and I can relax a little. Once both of them have moved a good distance away but still within hearing range, I knock gently on Alric’s bedroom door.
“Hi Sophie or Madeline, not sure what name you’d prefer, but I think there’s been a big misunderstanding.
Hunter has made a mistake and he’s very sorry.
I’d like to assure you that you’re safe no matter how growly Alric is at the moment.
Would you be willing to come out and speak to us?
We can explain a bit more as to what’s happening. ”
A voice I’ve come to love so much yells, “FUCK OFF, ZACHARY!”
My heart plummets to my stomach and I knock again. “Emilie?” I stutter. “Sweetheart!”
Emilie is here? I whirl on Hunter and Alric, and we all stare dumbfounded at each other. “Have we all been with the same sugar baby this whole time?”
I hate that she is upset right now, but shit, this has to mean something, right? If we had known she was the same person, this all could have gone so differently. She could be so much more than our sugar baby.
She should be part of this pack—she could be our omega.
No omega would be as loved and as spoiled as she would be.
We might know her by different names, but we’ve all fallen for the same woman.
All those reasons we listed last night why each omega would be perfect for us, she’s all of those things.
A pack with my best friends, a booming business, and her at the center of it all.
Summers here in Greece, fall in upstate New York.
She’s truly the perfect omega for us. If she ever forgives us for this.
A smile spreads across Hunter’s face. “We’ve all been dating the same omega? If she—”
The smell of something burnt and acidic hits us. It’s a punch to my gut and with every intake of breath, a pounding in my skull takes over any thought I’m trying to say to Emilie.
It’s a natural omega defense mechanism, the only way to keep alphas at bay.
One I’m thankful exists, but now the scent of her distress, her anger at us, nearly takes me to my knees.
A horrible reminder that while we are out here planning a future that might never happen, she is trapped in a bedroom, terrified of us.
“We have to let her know everything is okay,” Alric says, his words strangled.
The hallway closes in around me. I can taste her anger and fear on my tongue and I’ve never hated anything more. It’s a scent no alpha would ever smell in their lifetime, if they kept their omega happy. The smell of an alpha’s failure.
“You two! Leave now!” I bellow at them.
We’re barely able to stay standing and they leave without fighting me on it. When they’re out of sight, I knock lightly on the door, my forehead pressed to it to try and alleviate the pressure there.
“Emilie?” I say loud enough so she can hear me. “Please let me in. Alric and Hunter have left, it’s just you and me, okay? Please let me in, and I can explain everything.”
I think she’s going to ignore me—I wouldn’t blame her—but finally, there’s a soft click from inside the bedroom.
The door opens a few inches and I can’t stop my sharp inhale of breath.
Her eyes are red, her cheeks tearstained, and it’s like a punch in the gut.
It’s agony to know we’re the reason she’s this upset, that we could have done something, even by accident, to bring her this much pain.
I’ll do whatever it takes to get her to forgive us.
She peeks her head out to ensure that Alric and Hunter are really no longer in the hallway. The door flies open and she grabs my wrist, pulling me into the bedroom before locking it again. The scent of her stress is even sharper here and shreds the inside of my chest with the wrongness of it.
I need her to feel safe and happy again.
The omega distress pheromone is something I’ve never smelled, only ever heard about or read in books.
Now that I’ve experienced it, I hope I never smell it again.
It burns like acid in my chest. I’m desperate to pull her into my arms and tell her everything is okay, but she’s already locked herself in Alric’s bathroom to get away from me.
She may trust me enough out of the three of us to join her in the bedroom, but that trust doesn’t go nearly far enough.
“Explain,” she snaps. “And slide me your wallet under the bathroom door.”
I’ll do whatever she asks, so I pull it out and slowly lower myself to the floor, my back against the bathroom door, and shove my leather wallet to her.
“You can have as much money as you want. You can take all my credit cards if you’d like, but I need you to know that you’re safe. Okay? Hunter did an idiotic thing, but no one here would even think of doing anything to harm you.”
She’s quiet for a few minutes before she says, “I’ve booked myself a flight out of here. You need to ensure that I get to the airport by five p.m. tomorrow.”
Fuck, we’ve messed everything up. This could have been perfect.
“I’m so sorry this all happened like this. Of course, I promise to do everything in my power to get you on that plane, but there’s a storm happening and it’s getting worse by the hour. I completely understand why you need to leave. We’ll find a way to get you home.”
I mean it, too. I’ll hate it—a week with her sounds like the perfect vacation—but we would never keep her here against her will.
“You said you would tell me what’s going on?” Her voice is so small when she says it, breaking my heart. I need her to know that this has been a misunderstanding, but that we were all the same alphas who have been crazy about her for the past year, that we want to give her the world.
“Hunter, Alric, and I have been friends since college. Alric had this business idea to connect customers directly with his business from anywhere. He asked me to come on board, and that’s the app I’ve been working on for the past year.
Then we thought, hey, Hunter is a super famous health and fitness guy, let’s see if he wants to join us on this, so he came on board.
We had such a great time working together, we decided that we should start a pack.
The subject of having an omega came up on Monday night and obviously, I wanted the guys to meet you.
Then Alric said that he wouldn’t be in a pack unless you were the omega and of course, we didn’t know you were the same person.
And then Hunter apparently decided that his omega was going to be the one we selected.
So he brought you here to meet us first to ensure you would win.
” I let out a humorless laugh. “Turns out that was quite unnecessary, as we’ve all been seeing you for the past year. ”
“That’s an understatement,” she says sarcastically, but it’s such an improvement from her sad voice, so I’ll take it.
“I swear, I had no idea you were going to be here. He didn’t tell us he was bringing anyone. He was supposed to fly out with us yesterday but convinced us he was about to shit himself so we would leave without him.”
She chuckles softly at that and I smile at the enticing sound. Her gentle generic omega scent has returned and I sigh with relief before continuing.
“This week was supposed to be an uneventful trip with just the three of us. The pack paperwork is drawn up and this is going to be the final test run of being a unit before we make it official. A little pause on everything before the craziness of the app launching and a new life together.”
I slip my fingers under the bathroom door where fluorescent light streams out, letting my purr rumble to try and bring her some peace.
My hand is large, only half of it fits, but I need her to know that I’m here for her.
“Please believe me when I say we never would have let him do this. Even if we didn’t know you, we would have said no.
This isn’t one of those reality dating shows where everyone wears nothing but bathing suits and runs around an island trying to find true love or whatever those horny fuckers do. ”
She snorts and it may be my new favorite sound of hers, next to her moans, of course. “This was a ludicrous plan on Hunter’s part. This isn’t a rom-com.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “Yeah, it was, but he has a really big heart. Sometimes he does things without thinking, which is probably the reason he makes all that money showing his pretty face on the internet. He’s genuinely a great guy, though.’’
Her fingertips touch mine and my heart stops at the gentle caress. “Yeah, I know that. He’s like a golden retriever who was granted a wish to become human and accidentally became famous.”
My laugh booms around the room. “I don’t think there’s any better way Hunter could be explained.
” I love that she’s feeling better, but she’s still owed the biggest apology.
“I’m so sorry he brought you here under false pretenses, something that he’s fully aware is illegal.
You say the word and I’m sure Alric will personally be the one to deliver him to jail, but you should have heard the way we all were talking about you last night when we thought you were three different people.
We all adore you and would never ever hurt you.
We’re alphas and we should have made you feel welcomed, instead of scared.
The fact that you had to run in here and lock the door says a lot more about us than it does about you. ”
The door clicks and I scramble to my feet. The bathroom light halos her and she’s never looked more like an angel.
Automatically, I open my arms and Emilie steps into them, sighing loudly when they go around her. My purr grows louder and she snuggles closer to me, the smell of her distress pheromone gone.
“Yeah, I know that, but I panicked. Alric looked so upset and Hunter lied. I just needed to get away.”
I place a kiss on her forehead. “In Alric’s defense, all that anger was really directed at Hunter.”
“No, he’s pretty pissed at me. I ended our arrangement on Friday night, but I think he was too stubborn to realize I had actually broken up with him. I think he thought we were having a discussion on a relationship, and not that it was over.”
“That sounds pretty damn awkward.”
“Yep.”
Emilie backs out of my embrace, leaving me cold. “I’ll bring you dinner and you can stay locked in here all night. I’ll stand sentry outside your door like a faithful knight to ensure the guys don’t bother you, if that’s what it takes to make you feel safe again.”
That draws a small smile out of her. “Let’s go talk to them first.”