“Are you okay?” I ask as my eyes check over him. Jackson was here, and if he knew about me, about them, he’d hurt them.
He’d hurt them worse than he'd hurt me. How could I have been so stupid? How could I risk them like that? The Gray Pack doesn’t deserve my mess.
I should run. I need to. I can’t go back. Not when?—
“Noa, answer me, baby, what’s wrong?”
“Um,” how in the world do I explain this? I look over his shoulder. “Was anyone there?”
He sighs and lets go of my shoulders. My omega sighs in defeat at the loss of contact, but it’s probably for the best.
“No, no one was there; everything is safe.” He stares at me, and I know he wants to ask me. He wants to know what I was so panicked about. But I can’t- I’m not ready to share this part of my life with him.
“Thank you,” I mutter, grabbing his hand and kissing the back of it. I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t help myself. “Oh, my- I’m sorry.” I instantly drop his hand. I’m making such a fool of myself.
My bright pastel sweater doesn’t help the building sweat on my forehead.
“The pleasure is all mine,” he says, grabbing both my hands and bringing them to his soft, thick lips.
I love the feeling of them against my skin, and I know I want more. I almost step forward, but then the bell to my door rings, signaling a customer.
My eyes dart to the digital clock above the register. I have a lot of work to do to clean this place up before opening.
But I don’t want him to leave. The conflicting feelings of want and need battle inside me. I should let him go and pretend he never existed. If the Fallon Pack found me, I'd need a plan. I need to keep my scentmatches safe, and I can’t do that if I’m putting them in the direct fire of the Fallon Pack.
Holding back a whine at what I have to do, I push Silas towards the door. Dread fills my stomach knowing this is goodbye, and tears bubble behind my eyes.
“Promise to text me every hour.” His voice is calm with an edge, and it makes me snap to meet his eyes. His deep, beautiful brown eyes. Can he tell something’s wrong? Is my scent giving me away?
“Every hour? No,” I say, and as soon as the words leave my lips, he stops in his tracks. I try to push him again, but he doesn’t budge—damn hockey strength.
“I’m serious. I want to hear the ding of a notification every hour, and when I pick up my phone, it needs to be your name on my screen.”
“I don’t even have your number,” I mutter, as if he’d hear the ding at the hockey arena, anyway.
He holds out his hand, waiting for my phone. I slide it out of my purse. My brain is yelling at me to refuse, as if I could refuse my scent matches. The creeping feeling of failure crawls over my shoulders as I imagine all the worst scenarios of the Fallon Pack finding me, finding me with them.
I’ll just have to block his number. I have to keep them safe.
My hands find my neck, not as rough as before, but I can feel the heat radiating off my skin as I wait forSilas to type in his number. As he hands the phone back to me, his fingers slide against mine. The brief touch brings sparks shooting down to my core. For what I know is the last time.
Fuck, my chest hurts. I smile tightly. Hoping my scent isn’t perfuming the air.
“Every hour, Noa. I mean it.” He lands another quick kiss on my forehead, for the second time today, as he leaves me stunned at the door.
“Come on, Noa, I’ll help you clean,” Ollie says as she comes in and locks the front door. Her alphas wait until we walk away to head to their practice, and I’m rendered mindless as I take in my new reality.
I found my scent matches. The few people I was destined to be with, and I can’t have them.
CHAPTER TEN
NOA
“What are you doing here?” I ask. It’s been five hours since I last saw Silas. In those five hours, Ollie and I washed every blanket and scrubbed every surface, and because of her help, I could go home and shower.
After grabbing lunch, I’m open for business, and my store is rosemary scent free. It’s so clean in here that I could almost forget the looming problem of the Fallon Pack being in my store.
I do my darndest to keep my face from scrunching, especially since Silas is standing in front of me with Thorne behind him, watching me like a hawk.
