“Desperately.”
It feels good to admit that to someone out loud. Sure, Mitchell knows how I feel about Felix, but it’s another level to acknowledge the depth of my obsession to my Beta.
Her expression transforms to one of pain before she looks away. “I love him,” she whispers. “I’m in love with him. He’s my best friend, and he doesn’t feel the same for me.”
She cannot seriously believe that. I saw the way he looked at her. I imagine it’s like how I look at him.
“A Beta doesn’t need an Alpha, but an Omega does. Now that I know his feelings for you are reciprocated, I will not get in the way of his happiness.” Her voice quakes, making my heart crack in two.
I know in my gut that she doesn’t need tobe afraid of his reaction to her feelings. She and I scent matching can only be a good thing.
“What if we tell him we’re matched and pursue him together?” I look over my shoulder to see if Felix is on his way back to us. He got stopped by Katy, his back to us. I angle my body so I can keep an eye on him and not risk him overhearing our conversation. “We tell him we both want to court him.”
She takes her hands from mine and stares at me. “And become the pity Beta he accepts so he can get the Alpha he wants? And you? Am I a stepping stone to help you get to him?”
Her words are like a slap, and I realize, in my excitement and hope that everything I could ever want was falling into place, I have botched it. I have not acknowledged my desire to pursue her independently of Felix, to court her.
“No. You are much more than that. You are meant to be mine.”
I try to keep it under wraps, because it’s not very ‘Alpha’ of me, but I am a romantic at heart. My parents have one of those love stories for the ages, where they met across a crowded room, drawn together by a force that neither could deny. They were married three days later.
I cannot help but see the parallels to how I met Clara.
She looks like she is about to protest, to reject me, but I can’t allow that to happen before she even gives me a chance. A glance across the room shows Felix still engrossed in a conversation with Katy, so I grab Clara’s hand and pull her away from my coworkers, through the hallway, and into the event manager’s office. It’s, luckily, empty.
“My parents are scent matches. They have told me my whole life how incredible it was the first time they met. They were all in from the first moment. I have longed for a love like theirs my entire life. I will not squander my chance to havethat kind of love. Especially with a woman as beautiful as you.”
Her eyes are wide, her hands shaking in mine as she looks up at me. I’ve got at least a head on her, and the difference in height between us makes me want to pick her up and wrap her legs around my waist and never let her go. She’s about the same size as Felix, and now all I can think about is what it would be like to have both of them curled up underneath my arms.
“I…” She looks around the office, searching for something intangible that will give her the answers she’s searching for. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just give this, us, a shot. Please don’t reject me before you’ve had a chance to get to know me. You are mine as much as I am yours. And it means something that we both want that handsome Omega out there as our own.” I pull her hand to my face, rubbing my cheeks along her wrist, subtly depositing my scent there. “I cannot think of anything that feels more like fate than this.”
“Scent matches aren’t fate,” she mumbles petulantly, even though she is leaning into my touch. “It’s science.”
Is she always this pragmatic, or is she just scared because of how quickly this is happening? I don’t believe that science is the only thing that draws scent matches together. There is more to it than that.
I step closer to her, our bodies brushing against one another, giving her plenty of time to pull away. I wrap my hand around her neck and duck my head, ghosting my lips across hers. When she doesn’t shove me away, I try my luck again with a gentle kiss.
Her lips part on a gasp, and she presses herself against me, ensnaring me in a kiss that has my heart stopping.
Thisis the moment I will tell our children about. The kiss that started the rest of our lives.
When we pull apart, I rest my forehead against hers, breathing hard, like I just ran a marathon. “Tell me this isn’t more than science.”
“I don’t know what it is. But I can’t allow myself to think about it. I love Felix, Gabriel.” She takes a step backward. “And he has feelings for you. I can’t… I can’t pursue anything with you when I know that he wants you. He needs an Alpha. It’s not right for me to take the one that he wants from him.”
“No, what’s not right is you pretending like this isn’t fate at work. You wouldn’t be taking me from him. We both have feelings for the same Omega, and we’re scent matches. That means something. The three of us could be incredible together. He’s ours, Clara. There’s no reason why we can’t all be together.”
She backs away, pausing in the office’s doorway. “I… I can’t do this. I need some air. I need to think.”
As she gives me her back and practically runs away from me, I feel like something inside me is breaking. Why can’t she see that this could be perfect? How could this have worked out any better than it has?
I need to win them both over. That’s the only option. Now that I know Clara, having tasted her lips, I cannot be without her.
And finding out that Felix wants me the way I want him? I’m not letting anything keep me from him anymore.
But how do I pursue a relationship with two people who love one another but won’t admit it?
