Chapter Nine
Tawny
My wolf didn’t growl once.
After the horror of the almost-ceremony, I’d been glad to avoid males, even male customers who came into the thrift shop, gently nudging someone else to help them or disappearing into the back room.
I slept with my face in my pillow so I wouldn’t disturb Janis when I woke screaming in night terrors.
And my wolf had, so far, agreed with me, encouraging me to keep my distance.
Every man on the street or across the bakery counter or anywhere, could be one of them.
I had figured out the males I bowled over were the pack I’d been destined for, but in wolf form, running full out, I hadn’t gotten a very good look.
Not good enough to recognize their faces, at least.
I’d heard nothing so far, about what happened after I left. The lands where I grew up were a good distance away, I believed, but as to where the mates I’d escaped lived? No idea. For all I knew, they were right outside Pleasant.
But one thing I knew for sure. The male who had stopped in to visit with me was not one of them.
My wolf would have let me know. And none of those narcissists would have offered to help an omega with her business.
Or asked questions, shown interest. Nothing like that.
The little speech I’d received from their concubines told me that much.
While they depilated and fussed over me, they’d let slip that my future mates had high expectations both inside and outside of the bedroom.
Outside as in the kitchen and nursery with young.
Not a big surprise, since I’d seen that sort of relationship all around me all my life.
Standing in the dusty space that held my future, I swore not to ever let myself get pinned into a life I did not want. Fate had given me a second chance, one I would hold on to with both fists.
In the little office in back, I found a legal pad and pen and returned to the front to make a list of the most desperate needs of the store. My lack of any relevant experience had me slightly daunted.
Maybe more than slightly.
I paced the floor, clutching my writing implements and taking in the various shelves.
They ran from front to back in straight rows, each labeled with one or more genres.
And every book coated with a thick layer of dust. Setting the pad and pen down, I picked up a random volume from the collection marked Local Interest. The one I held was a history of the area, going back a couple of hundred years, and as I brushed some of the dirt away to read the back cover, I realized something that made my spine tingle.
I owned this book. I would sell it to someone else, so I’d want to be careful not to damage it. But it was mine.
And the one next to it, the one next to that… Forgetting about my plans, I carried the book to the corner and sat down on a chair, sending up a puff of dust. Opened to page one and settled in to learn all about the town that had made me so welcome.
But while I read about the founders, part of my mind kept going back to the male who had stopped by and been so gracious to me. I couldn’t possibly ask him for help. I’d come a long way to make it on my own, and bringing a male into the mix felt wrong.
No, my wolf had not objected to the male’s presence, which was entirely new.
But even if I had an interest in him, now was the time for business, for putting together something special.
For taking advantage of an opportunity that had been placed before me.
One this omega never would have dreamed possible.
It would be easier to put the alpha out of my mind if he hadn’t been so charming, talking about his tomatoes. And if he hadn’t smelled so good.
What would the founders, a married couple, have thought of the town today?
I hoped they’d be glad I came.