32
Peter
Peter looked around the coffee shop from his seat in the corner, the cheerful abstract paintings and inspirational quotes on the walls reminding him of the coffee shop he used to study at before his old life went to hell.
The place had a relaxed atmosphere that Peter liked, and every time he’d come by—even if that was only three times—the employees had been smiling and joking with each other like they were having a good time.
Peter wanted to be one of them. He wanted to smile and joke and hang out with people who didn’t know his whole life story, people who saw him as more than an omega. Carver and Tex were great, but they werealphas, and Peter had never felt so much like an omega as when he was with them.
It wasn’t a bad thing, necessarily. Being Carver and Tex’s omega wasthrilling, but sometimes Peter wanted to be just a regular guy without a million submissive instincts making his life complicated.
That was why he’d been thrilled when he’d gotten the call for an interview just a day after dropping off his application.
He was now sitting across from his potential new boss, palms sweaty and frantically trying to remember everything he’d researched about going on a job interview.
“So, I see you have an alpha,” the manager of the coffee shop said, nodding at Carver’s statement of a claiming bite. He was an alpha, though after weeks of living with Carver and Tex, Peter was having trouble thinking of him as a real one. He was just so… skinny.
Also, his name was Madden, which, for some reason, made Peter want to giggle.
Peter forced himself to stop being such a dick, even if it was only in his head. Not all alphas could be six-foot-seven werewolves, even if plenty of omegas probably wished that they were. Madden was probably a perfectly nice guy who would make any omega he claimed happy.
“Two, actually,” Peter said, pointing to Tex’s much more reserved claim with a brief gesture. “I matched with them a few weeks ago.”
“Wow,” Madden said, eyes wide. “That’s intense. How’s it going?”
“Very well,” Peter said, happy that he could be honest. Thingsweregoing well. “But I’m a little bored waiting for school to start in the fall, and they suggested I get a job.”
“So, it’s not something you wanted?” Madden asked, making a little note on his notebook.
“No, I mean, yes, I do want one. It just hadn’t occurred to me.” Peter took a deep breath, wondering how he’d fucked up before he’d even been asked a job-related question. “I do want to work here, very much.”
“Good to know,” Madden said, smiling at Peter’s flustered babbling. “I see you didn’t put down any prior work experience on your application?”
Peter shook his head. “No, my uncle didn’t want me to work. He said it would be a distraction from my schooling.”
“So, what’s changed?”
Madden’s question brought a bittersweet smile to Peter’s face. “He’s no longer in the picture. Besides, I’m not starting my final year until the fall, so I don’t have any school for work to get in the way of.”
“That’s actually why I called you in for an interview,” Madden said. “We have some shifts that we’re having trouble with because all of our employees are students, and they tend to have class around the same time.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be a problem for me, at least for the rest of this school year.”
“Good to know.” Madden smiled again, making another little note. Peter wondered what he was writing. “Are you comfortable working with alphas?”
Peter nodded. He knew that the question was actually ifCarver and Texwere okay with him working with alphas, but for legal reasons, Madden wasn’t allowed to ask him that. At least that was what the blogs he’d read claimed.
“That’s fine; I don’t have a problem with alphas,” Peter said.
“That’s a pretty intense mating scar,” Madden said, and now Peter knew that he was breaking the rules.
“He was in rut and I was in heat,” Peter said, blunt.
Madden blushed, his cheeks flushing a bright red, and he busied himself with his pen and notebook while he pretended not to be flustered.
Peter held back a snort. He’d been spending far too much time with Tex if he was being this irreverent about ruts and heats. The old him would have died of shame even mentioning the wordsrutorheat, and here he was using them to a strange alpha.
“That explains it,” Madden said, putting down his pen without having written anything. He asked a few more questions, all things Peter had expected, ending with, “Is there anything you want to ask me?”
