“Okay, enough.” Calder raises his hands. “You need to stop taking quizzes online. My sexual habits are not up for discussion right now.”
“Surely, you should believe in scent matches more than anyone?” Hale probes him. “After all, your parents are a scent match.”
“And look where following their instincts got them.” Calder shakes his head. “A lifetime of hardship.”
“They’re happy now, though,” I remind him.
Whenever I’ve been around Calder’s family, they’ve seemed content, his parents’ love for one another obvious. Watching them make their morning coffee felt like some kind of dance, where Calder’s dads revolved around his mom like a planet orbiting the sun. Although I don’t know everything they went through when Calder was younger—Calder prefers not to talk about it—I do know that Calder’s mom was almost forced by her parents into an arranged bond with another pack. She ran away with Calder’s dads and bonded with them in secret, which caused a huge scandal. And because she was from an influential family, they suffered the consequences for years.
“That’s not the point.” Calder raises his chin indignantly. “It took them years to claw their way back to where they are now.” He harrumphs. “Scent matches cause nothing but trouble.”
“Isn’t what Kady’s father’s doing to her the same as what your grandparents did to your mom?” Hale raises a good point. “Only Kady doesn’t have a pack.”
“It’s not the same,” Calder mutters before stomping off to the kitchen, quickly returning with a half-eaten candy bar. He tends to stress-eat when he knows he’s in the wrong and doesn’t want to admit it.
“She doesn’t want anyone to be there for her, Hale.” Ezra, now finished cleaning up, returns. “The sooner you accept it, the better.” He heads for the door. “I’m going out.” He flicks his wrist. “I need fresh air.”
He slams the door behind him. With an omega as stubborn as Kady and two alphas who are afraid to even recognize her as their scent match, this doesn’t look good.
“Look.” My heart lifts, spotting the scarf Kady left behind. Although it didn’t match her otherwise coordinated outfit, the look of joy on her face when she explained that her friend made it was priceless.
“I can take it to her.” Calder grabs it, his nostrils flaring the moment he touches it. He may not want to accept that Kady is our scent match, but considering his physical response to her, his body obviously disagrees. “She may be coming toTheValley Voiceoffice tomorrow, so I can give it to her then.”
“Be nice to her, Calder,” Hale urges. “She’s an omega who’s hurting right now, even if she doesn’t want to show it.”
“I can be nice, you know.” Calder glares at Hale. “She’s the one who doesn’t play nice.” He turns to leave. “Anyway, I have to finish proofreading the next TVV issue.” He trudges away, Kady’s scarf in hand, leaving a trail of her scent behind.
Hale turns to me. “You really believe she’s our scent match, don’t you?”
I nod. “Everything lines up. It’s statistically unlikely to be anything else.”
Beyond the statistics, I canfeelit. The way I’m drawn to Kady is as strong as the gravitational pull towards the Earth, which makes our connection impossible to ignore.
“Let’s hope we don’t blow this before it even has a chance to get started.” He sighs. “She’s ours, Riven. And somehow, we have to make her and the other guys see that.”
TWENTY-ONE
Kady
Delilah links her arm through mine as we stroll through Omega Village. The air is brisk, stinging the tips of my ears as the sun peeks over the tops of the houses we pass. Her thick rainbow fleece coat makes me feel like I’m cozied up to a very big sheep.
“Are you sure you don’t want a pair? I’m getting better, right?” She holds up her gloves. They’re oversized in a pink and purple chunky knit with a thumb three times the size it should be. “I could make you some in the same colors? Or how about bright pink?”
“Sure, Del,” I reply distractedly, my gaze fixed ahead.
I didn’t sleep well after spending last night with the Valen Pack. My dreams were haunted by sexy alphas that I definitely shouldn’t be thinking of in that way. I can’t even get away from them when I’m not fully conscious.
“Okay.” Delilah stops in her tracks, putting her oven mitt-like gloves on her hips. “There is no way you’d ever wear anything bright pink. What’s on your mind?”
I smile weakly. “It’s nothing.”
“I know you, Kady. Whatever this is, it isn’t nothing.” She blows away one of the loose brown tendrils escaping from underneath her cat-themed earmuffs. “You’ve been jittery fordays. I swear, I saw you slip some milk into your coffee this morning, and you just agreed to wear pink.”
“Seriously.” I feign a grin. “I’m fine. It’s just been a busy few weeks, and I’ve been taking some time to decompress. I just need to get back to normal.”
Her lips purse in a way that tells me she doesn’t believe what I’m saying, but she doesn’t press further, linking arms with me again, her mass of curls snuggling into my shoulder. Regardless of my irritable mood, Delilah always has a way of making everyone feel better.
“Did the book club enjoy their last read?” I attempt to change the subject.
