Trusting my crew would have the mess hall set for guests, I left them to their tasks and headed to the storage bay. From the echoes of his footsteps paired with the scent of his unique seafoam scent, I could sense Jaxom following close behind me. He probably wanted to make sure that I had support just in case things got heated between Quinn and me—or he was nosey and wanted to learn more about the omega who created a stir amongst the pack.
I ignored him, seeing no harm in him coming with me. We were already taking too long. The last thing I needed to do was give a gamma a reason to question why my crew had taken their time to greet her. We had a respectable reputation with the station and had never caused problems whenever we had transactions. Enough so that they had always allowed us to port to fuel up between our longer trade routes, giving my betas the freedom to shop amongst The Center.
I slammed my hand against the scanner. The storage bay’s door slid open, revealing Quinn standing at attention in greeting at the bottom of the ramp. She appeared the same way she had left us, uniform and all. The only thing that had changed was the lack of Elara beside her.
“Greetings, Gamma Quinn,” I announced, placing a hand over my station’s badge. “May I welcome you aboard my clan’s vessel,Paradise? My crew prepared for us a beverage and some snacks while we converse over the reason for your visit.”
“That sounds perfect, Mr. Coco,” she replied, relaxing as she shot a glance around the hanger bay. “I have to ask a favor from you—and it’s urgent. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time.”
“Urgent?” I stilled, refusing to believe something terrible had happened to Elara since their departure. Why else would a gamma I didn’t know want something to do with me? “What can I do for you?”
“Yes, but please, can I come inside to discuss this?”
She hadn’t pled—no gammas were above begging an alpha for something regarding their assigned omega. However, the look in her eye made me not want to refuse her request, no matter how beneath her she felt it was.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose from the urgency in her voice. The instantaneous sharpness of Jaxom’s airy beach scent turning into the heaviness of the air before a hurricane meant he hadn’t missed it either. A person in need was someone in need, no matter what gender or class Quinn or Elara were.
“Of course.” I stepped back to allow her to enter, nearly taking out Jaxom with my sudden movement as my arm grazed his. “Right this way.”
He swiftly apologized as I glanced over my shoulder to see what had gotten into him. It wasn’t like him to be so antsy when it came to dealing with others, but for some reason, he always acted paranoid when it came to non-clan members boarding our vessel. I’d always chalked it up to his taking his inventory management job seriously and being suspious that our guests would snoop around our goods and grab something. However, he was a stickler in accounting and panicked whenever the numbers were off, needing to know why and how right away.
Why would he be interested in my conversation with this gamma when we had already delivered our products to our customers. There wasn’t anything in our storage bay to steal, and I was going to leave her alone unoccupied. It was getting late, and I was ready to hit the sheets after a long and eventful day. We were leaving tomorrow evening, and I would like to hit The Center one more time before we disembark for Tera 9.
“Thank you.” Nodding, Quinn walked up the ramp as if it were her own. The amount of confidence and ease she projected through her movements were mirrored by her foggy morning scent. “I promise not to take too much of your time. I understand you are a busy man.”
As soon as her foot stepped within the threshold, her sharp gaze scanned the surroundings. Finally, her eyebrow lifted at the bay’s emptiness.
“I’ve never been inside a Class 13. They are as elegant as their maker’s description described.” Then, pausing, she jerked her head toward Jaxom. “Are they as fast as people keep saying they are?”
“I’m not the pilot, but yes indeed.” He nodded, nervously shooting a glance toward me. I wasn’t offended that the gamma decided to add him into the conversation. If she had acted as if he didn’t exist, I would’ve questioned her personality and whether, indeed, her reason for being here wasn’t something good. “I am the clan’s inventory manager. If you want to discuss flight specs, our pilot or engineer are the ones who enjoy explaining the fine details of our vessel.”
“Perhaps another time,” she muttered dismissively, already over the topic as she took one last look around the room before turning toward me. She tilted her head as her brown eyes looked over me. It were as if she was determining whether I passed some test of hers. If it weren’t for the lack of aggressiveness in her behavior and the muted scent of her aroma, I would’ve taken it as a challenge, regardless if she were a gamma or not. Finally, satisfied with whatever she was looking for, she nodded with a quick grin. “Let’s skip the formalities and get to the reason why I am here.”
“Go on.”
“I would like to formally thank you for stepping in earlier, regardless of whether or not you were truly needed. I had it under control, but as you know, omegas near their heat tend to get easily perfumey, especially when they areunbound.” She drew out that word and paused to allow it to ring within the silence of the room. The twinkle in her eye meant she did it on purpose—to make sure I was focused. “It seems you left an impression on my omega, so much so that she was distraught when she found out that you are registered but not signed up on any rosters.”
Jaxom snapped his head toward me. His questioning gaze was all I needed to know that I hadn’t heard wrong.
Elara wanted me.
And somehow, I was already in the system, but I didn’t know how or why. So it had to be some mistake…
“I thought—”
I raised my hand to silence him, and he instantly pursed his lips as his hurricane scent flared in annoyance. I would deal with him later. For now, I needed to confirm that I’d heard correctly.
“Can you repeat that?”
Quinn’s eyes flicked between Jaxom and me, unsure what to make of our interaction.
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“I thanked you for earlier, even though I had it under control.” Quinn huffed as she pulled out a tablet from her belt and pressed a few buttons before spinning it around to face me. “You left an impression on my omega. Enough so that she begged me to come here to ask you to place yourself on her roster for her maiden run tomorrow.”
She was correct.
