I clear my throat. “Every date I’ve been on has basically been dinner at a nice restaurant. Which don’t get me wrong, it is a fine date and all. I just…”
“You want something special,” Hayes says with a squeeze. “I can do special, Hailey. I can do over the top.”
I grab his chin, and he looks down at me.
“Not too over the top,” I say, meaning the ridiculous nature of how tonight went.
He grabs my hands and kisses my fingers.
“No. Nothing like tonight. Everything from here on out is about courtship. Get ready to be courted so fucking hard your head spins,” he says, kissing the top of my head.
I snuggle closer to his body. It takes me forever to fall asleep with the excitement.
Courted.
A pack wants to court me and I’m going to do my damn best to let them.
CHAPTER 11
NATE
I’ve changedmy clothes five times. God, Hayes was right. I need to add more to my wardrobe than basketball shorts and old station T-shirts.
Even though we aren’t going anywhere fancy and it’s for the whole weekend, I still want to dress to impress. I’m still not sure if this date is where we should start off, but whatever it takes to court Hailey, I’m ready to do it. Did I think a weekend getaway was going to be the first step? No, but Hayes wanted to do something grand.
“Stop stressing. I can smell it all the way over here,” Hayes says.
He looks put together, and so does Sterling. Both of them oozing effortless confidence.
God, Erin really did a fucking number on me. Not just me either. I only spent three months with the older Omega. Hailey has spent her whole life with that woman.
I grew up raised by two Beta parents. We didn’t have much, so when I met Erin and her pack I was starstruck. The seventeen-year age gap didn’t bother me. I was also drawn to the fact she had so many established, successful Alphas in herpack. I naively thought that they could help guide me in the right direction.
I had no experience with packs, or really what being an Alpha meant, and I thought joining a big pack would help me get there.
I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I can see that now. Her Alphas wanted nothing to do with me. They weren’t friends or lovers like a pack should be. Erin liked me for my looks, and that was about it. She liked control over Alphas, that’s what it always was with her, control. I didn’t even know she had a daughter until we’d been dating for two months. When I met Hailey, I could already see the major differences in their personalities.
Hailey was a nuisance to Erin, and I was just some young arm candy with a knot. I was already trying to figure out a way to not bite into the pack, how I could get out from underneath Erin’s thumb and away from her cutthroat Alphas, when I heard Hailey crying in the bathroom.
She’d designated, and I’d never been more attracted to a scent in my life. It made me feel like an absolute piece of shit. I was lusting after the woman's daughter I was actively trying to get away from. Luckily for me, Sterling helped me get out of there, but who helped Hailey?
Guilt weighs heavy on my chest as Sterling rubs my shoulder.
“Just be yourself, Nate. You’re good enough,” he says, and I sigh.
“I left her there with Erin, not knowing she kicked her out. She’s been working at a strip club to make ends meet and I’ve just been here, healing with you two. It doesn’t seem right that I get this chance with her.”
Hayes surprises me by being the one to speak first. “But we’re here now. You’re making things right. Give yourself a little grace, man.”
“Maybe talk to her about it later tonight if it’s weighing on you this much,” Sterling says.
“I don’t want to ruin the date.”
“You won’t,” Sterling assures me as we leave the house.
We toss our weekend bags in the trunk and head toward Hailey’s apartment.
Sterling and I sit in the front, while Hayes sits in the back. This trip is Hayes’ big idea. He said that Hailey wanted something grand, but not too over the top. I’m pretty sure this is over the top as hell, but hopefully it wows her.
