“Okay, rude?” Jesse huffed. “I am so not too chicken to play.”
They were, but that’s what made it funny when they joined Tara and me for a round. Or even played with our mutual friend, Indi.
I didn’t know him well, but damn, they sure knew how to get through repairing circuit boxes.
We piled into Charlie’s overly expensive four-door sedan, Tara squished up against my side to take selfies as the alpha chauffeured us around, our conversation dying off in favour of the low hum of the radio.
My Mary Jane-clad foot tapped against the pristine mats, high white socks hugging the squish of my thigh as I fidgeted with the hem of my skirt. The closer we got, the more this was feeling like a mistake.
I hadn’t been to Omega’s Lust in… forever. Not to mention for an event like this. An entirely open-door sex party was a pretty significant jump from using a few alphas to get through my heat.
Would I have to redo all my paperwork? Create a new scent card? What if no one matched with me and I spent the night awkwardly stuffing my face with cotton candy and riding the Ferris wheel solo?
Wait, actually, that didn’t sound so bad.
Official plan B, secured.
“Relax, babe,” Tara said softly, putting her hand on my knee with her silvery rosary-themed hand chain glinting in the passing streetlights.
“Yeah, Eva. Don’t worry—we’re gonna find you a hottie all of your own, maybe even a rich one,” Jesse said with a wink towards Charlie.
The alpha and beta wore matching all black outfits, spiked collars catching the lights as we drove.
“Is that all you’re in it for, the money?” Charlie teased Jesse. “Gold digger.”
“Don’t forget that big, fat cock,” Tara shot back, making Charlie go red as the rest of us laughed.
Their banter was the cutest. And though I loved to see it for my best friend, damn did I wish that I’d managed to find something like that for myself. Packing up had always been a dream of mine, even though at this point the commitment-phobe inside of me had been kicking the romantic’s ass for so long that I didn’t know if I’d ever get there.
Maybe I wasn’t cut out for a relationship, much less a whole pack.
How the fuck was I supposed to manage one bond, much less two or even more?
As the giggles subsided, I caught Charlie’s eye in the mirror, offering him a grin. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the hell their costumes were. The black greasepaint on their noses not helping in the slightest.
“As if, I am so not some little kept omega housepet,” I tossed back at the beta.
“Hey!” Tara complained.
“What are you even supposed to be, huh? A goth clown?”
“We’re little alpha and beta housepets,” Jesse smirked, reaching into a black bag I hadn’t noticed on the floor of the car at his feet and pulling out matching dog ear headbands. “We’re Tara’s scary dog privilege for the night.”
“Literally,” Charlie chimed in with his bark-like laugh as he pulled up to the amusement park’s front gate. “Dobermans.”
It didn’t take him long to find a parking space, even though the lot was very full, and the car had barely stopped before Tara was opening the door, yanking me out of it.
She towed me excitedly towards the gates with the rest of her pack hot on our heels, Jesse and Charlie putting on their ears as we approached the wicket at the front.
“Welcome,” the man with a distinctive bump in his nose greeted through the little speaker box from behind the glass. “And welcome back to some,” he said, gesturing to Tara and Charlie.
“Thanks, Phil,” Tara said with a smile. “I’ve brought a few friends who need entry stuff done, they’re here to party with us tonight.”
He looked a bit uptight, his suit crisp and his blonde hair coiffed back with gel, totally at odds with the general unkemptness of a carnie moving from place to place.
“How lovely,” he replied smoothly as Charlie used his long arm to reach over our head and slide his credit card to him, taking the order to pay for our entries for what it was. “Did you fill out your intake forms online?”
“Sure did,” Jessie answered. “Should be under Jessie Sinclair and Geniveve Kent.”
