With every step, I feel something brewing inside me. My omega is alert, which is another sign that something awaits us on this next floor. The smell of the house starts to morph into something cleaner, something fresh. It mixes until Sam’s apple and Kit’s watermelon scents resemble something like toothpaste in the air.
The first door we come across is ajar, and the tiny sliver of essence that comes through it hits me right in the face.
Crisp, mint leaves. Bristles so clear, I can feel them between my fingertips, and taste the sharp green on my tongue. I barely keep the omega whine inside my chest, letting it burn as it tries to come up my throat.
Three scent matches. I’m stuck in a house withthreescent matches.
I thought it was bad enough when I met Sam almost a year ago and immediately went into heat. Then we ran into this omega beside me at that hockey game a few months ago, and I realized his watermelon scent did things to me that I couldn’t even process because he’s another omega.
A veryhot,anime-loving omega that I have thought about way too often during moments of weakness.
But this is just icing on the cake. This is officiallysome kind of prank. How can I be scent matched to all three of these men? And how did I end up moving in with them?
Fate must be a real jokester.
My omega practically snorts, and I slap my chest to metaphorically shush her.
Thatcher’s scent is minty gooey goodness tied up in a wonderful little menthol bow. I find myself stepping forward without thinking, my nose pulling in a tiny bit more of the forbidden scent inside. I’m so enraptured by it that I almost forget that I have an audience.
“Yeah, Thatcher’s scent is strong,” he says as he interprets my reaction to Thatcher’s scent as being a normal one.Thank the universe. “It keeps the place smelling nice, though, like we all just cleaned. And let’s be honest, we haven’t.”
He laughs as he walks on by, leaving me to catch up as I struggle to walk away from the mouthwatering smell coming from that room.
I clear my throat, trying to distract myself by asking, “So, how did you guys get this house anyway? It’s pretty nice for college students.” Renting houses for college students isn’t uncommon, both Rory and Stacia’s packs have houses near campus, but this house isn’tjustnice. It’s near pristine. It’s just missing the chandelier hanging right inside the front door.
Not to mention the neighborhood that it’s in. The tax bracket of this neighborhood is not one that I think I will ever be in, not on a teacher’s salary.
Kit hesitates, clicking the side of his mouth in a nervous tic. “Sam has an inheritance, but to be honest, it’s a touchy subject.”
I’m about to ask what that means when I hear something.
“Did you hear that?” I ask. The sound was muffled and likely coming from the TV downstairs, but then I hear it again. It’s much clearer the closer it comes, tiny dramatic meowswarning us before a ball of fur comes around the corner, the strands dark as night.
The omega gives a knowing chuckle. “You mean my cat?”
The void kitty marches up to Kit’s leg and rubs against him. Her presence suddenly lights me up from the inside out as I get down to my knees and gawk at her.
“You have a cat?!” I whisper-yell at him.
“Yeah, I should have asked if you were okay with animals. This is Jemma.” She meows again, looking at me with bored and impatient eyes. “She takes her dinner time very seriously.”
A sincere laugh falls from my lips as I put my hand closer to the gorgeous being. She leans forward, giving my finger a hesitant sniff before rubbing her head into my hand. My heart melts.
“Let’s get this baby her dinner, then.” I get up to walk downstairs. When we get to the bottom, I turn back to Kit. “I love animals, by the way. Cats in particular.”
He smiles then, his face soft. “Something told me you would.”
NINE
“Cowan, what’s gotten into your head today?! Protect the fucking house!” Coach Zane yells at me across the ice. I grit my teeth and skate closer to the goal. Everett flashes me a look of sympathy as he goes back to scouring the ice.
My head isn’t in it today. Normally, I can lose myself in the game, defend the ice with everything, but right now it’s not working. All I can think about is going home and meetingher. Our new roommate.
When Sam and Kit asked if we could invite Opal into our home, I agreed, but having a stranger under our roof is somehow stressing me out. Not just a stranger, but another omega. I know she can’t be an unpleasant person because Rory and Stacia are kind, but the idea that we won’t get along worries me. I already feel like a stranger in my own pack. I don’t want to feel even more isolated by not being on board with this plan of theirs.
But going back home is inevitable, and it’s that certainty lingering over me that’s causing me to make stupid mistakes during our defenseman drills.
Luckily, it’s just practice. Although that doesn’t matter to Coach. No matter the circumstance, we’re supposed to treat it like a game, and I am not taking it seriously enough for him today.
