“Wait, you didn’t ask her out?”
“I did. She just didn’t give me her answer.”
“Case…” Jenny frowns at me. “If she’s not interested, you should probably leave her alone. The poor woman probably gets accosted by Alphas all the time.”
“Who said she’s not interested?” I match her frown, and a new possessive side of me slinks to the forefront. The mere idea of other Alphas harassing her makes my skin prickle uncomfortably.
“She did, kinda.” Mike scrunches his face up like he hates having this conversation. I suppose no one enjoys having to explain to someone else that they’ve been rejected. But that’s not what happened. Little Miss Nevaeh Shields danced around the topic but never said no.
“You don’t understand, she didn’t reply. There wasn’t a yes or no.”
Jenny and Mike glance at each other and have one of their mated silent conversations, as if knotting the living daylights out of each other gives them telepathy.
“Jen, please let me walk Oscar to school for a while. I just need the chance to talk to her a little more. You say it yourself, I’m a tough bugger to get rid of once I’m under your skin. Let me burrow, Jen. Let me get skin-deep in her.”
“Okay, super creepy big bro. I need you to know that all of that–” Mike waves his hand in my direction with a cringe. “Was a whole boatload of creepiness, but it’s definitely convinced me that the teacher is your mate. Only an Omega could send an Alpha this loopy.”
He shoots Jenny a goofy grin.
I nod my head at him enthusiastically, grasping his forearm and pleading with my brother like a man possessed. “Yes, Mike. You understand, the only cure for my creepiness is for you to let me use your son to stalk his teacher.”
They both groan.
Mike shakes off my hand, rolling his eyes. “I was wrong. You might just be insane.”
“Well, it’s not like I can just turn up on my own. I’d be accused of being a creep.”
Jenny looks amused, and she tilts her head in thought. “You seriously want to wake up at six-thirty in the morning just to go flirt with Oscar’s teacher? Who already rejected you?”
“Yes!” I shout. “But she didn’t reject me.”
“Sure she didn’t, buddy.” Mike pats me on my head condescendingly.
“Okay, fine,” Jenny sighs, shaking her head at me her smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “You can walk Oscar to school for now. I’ll let the school know. Just … keep the creepiness away from my pup.”
“Jenny, you’re the best sister-in-bite an Alpha could have.” I bound around the counter and hug her tightly.
“Yes, I know,” she laughs before swatting my head. “Now go wash off that grease. You’re getting it all over me.”
“Oscar!” I bellow out the back door to where my nephew is rambling through their back yard in wolf form. The snow is lightly falling, little snowflakes settling on his chestnut colored fur. “Guess who’s walking you to school from now on?”
He jumps and shifts mid-air, burst out of his fur and into his flushed skin, naked as the day he was born. I should know, I was there.
“Yay! Uncle Special Case!”
Later, when I recount the story of Oscar introducing me to his teacher using that nickname, Mike laughs himself silly. The jackass.
Chapter Three
Iregret asking for just once a day – it’s not enough.
By the time a whole day has passed, I’m as irritable as a junkie craving his next hit. I can’t focus on the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette restoration I’m working on or the paperwork piling up in my office. The only cure for my withdrawals is in my nephew’s festively decorated classroom and the scent of maple syrup and apples.
Each morning, I take special care of my appearance and carefully note which outfit Nevaeh responds positively to. The day I wore a button-up shirt with the top two buttons unfastened, she’d perfumed heavily while staring at my tattooed chest. Guess what I ran out to buy more of to wear on every visit?
Usually, after I settle Oscar at his desk, I linger near the front of the classroom and wait for her to turn her attention to me. I ask her questions about her interests and dislikes, her past and her plans for the future. I still don’t know why the pack Alphaslet her go unmated, but I wait patiently for her to tell me. Slowly, a picture forms of a quiet, sweet, and lonely Omega.
She doesn’t talk much about friends and only ever mentions her grandmother when talking about her family. I know she spends every Sunday cross-stitching in her grandmother’s living room while the old Omega shares the latest gossip from her lawn bowling club. I learn she enjoys working with young children but yearns for pups of her own, and I add a breeding kink to my already extensive sexual fantasies featuring Nevaeh.
