‘PACK SMYTHE. Eloise, age 17, finally agreed to meet PACK SMYTHE. Went on two outings with the pack and then refused to leave her room. PACK SMYTHE was charmed by her but it seems she has no interest in them. Apparently their pack leader, Andrew Smythe, came on too aggressively and she cut them off. Not a very good first try but I am happy that she is trying. Better than her keeping up with the idea that she was going to wait for the beta boy. We will try to get her to meet with another pack before the month is out.’
Further down was another pack name, one I recognized as a rather successful pack full of lawyers and doctors.
‘PACK LYLE. Eloise, age 19, it took two years from the last try but this time seems to be sticking better. She has gone on several dates with two of four of the alphas but does not seem to be interested in the other two alphas. This has caused issues within the pack as the other two alphas feel slighted by her. Will update.’
Finally, at the bottom of the page:
‘PACK MEIJA. Eloise, age 20, This is a smaller pack with only two alphas and one beta. Those who are interested in Ms. Taylor’s affairs believed it was the ‘beta’ element that she desires and wished to give this a try. Unfortunately this pack was a poor choice by all accounts. There was a miscommunication within our systems and it seems we had paired Pack Meija with another omega. Pack Meija chose the other omega who, by all accounts, seems to have less baggage than Ms. Taylor. We, at the head office, were very upset by this turn of events but Ms. Taylor just shrugged when we told her and proceeded to go to dance class.’
Leaning back in my desk chair I ran a hand through my hair and sighed with frustration. Eloise had almost gone through as many packs as we had omegas. Not that I would know of course, I’d only been with the pack for three years. They’d stopped actively looking for an omega almost five years ago. I wondered what the academy was playing at putting together two very stubborn entities and hoping for… a connection? I wasn’t so sure that was possible with Leon or Dominic. Gage was too quiet and reserved to push his will forward. Eric was the one pushing so hard for this and I could see it in his eyes that he was genuinely interested in the little omega that had stumbled into our midst.
Personally I was curious about her. She was cute with her little nose and smattering of freckles. Her big brown eyes also seemed a little too wide-eyed for someone who was carrying such a big chip on her shoulder. She smelled delicious too, her chocolate and champagne scent had wrapped around me when I’d introduced myself to her earlier and I had wanted to lean in and press my face to the side of her neck where the scent was the strongest.
I was so deep in my thoughts about Eloise that I didn’t hear the door to the home office open.
“What are you up to?” Leon’s gravelly voice made me jump and I quickly threw up my email screen, feeling guilty.
“Just responding to some emails. Jackson in HR can’t seem to figure out the difference between a PDF and a DOCX so I was trying to spell it out really clearly to him.” I shut my computer and stood, offering my alpha a smile.
“Still grumpy?” I asked, rounding the desk to stand in front of him. He stood a head taller than me and I had to tilt my chin up to stare into his dark and stormy blue eyes.
“I was never grumpy, Owen,” He protested as he gripped the collar of my shirt and jerked me forward until our bodies melded together. “I was simply speaking my mind.”
I opened my mouth to respond snarkily but his lips crashed down onto mine and the rest was history.
Now, as I lay panting on the sweaty sheets and trying to catch my breath, my previous thoughts of Eloise came floating back as the tingle of my orgasm left my body.
“You know,” I began, rolling over so I could look at Leon, “You’re going to have to acknowledge her. At least as a guest. She is here for eight months after all.”
Leon scowled at me, “Just as I forgot the reason I was so worked up in the first place you have to remind me? What is up with that,mio cucciolo,huh?” His cub. He only ever called me this endearment when we were together in bed and it, as always, filled me with a happy glow that was enough to distract me for a moment and I almost pushed for another round, but then I remembered that he was avoiding my question.
“Leon.” I scolded.
With a groan that was full of every bit of his thirty-five year old soreness, Leon sat up and swung his feet off of the bed and they landed on the floor with a thunk. I sat up with him and pressed myself into his back as he finally gave a big sigh.
“I will be cordial to the omega. But mark my words this is a very bad idea and it’s just going to be traumatic for all parties when she leaves next year.”
I just nodded and pressed my lips to his shoulder blade, not sharing my next thoughts with him because while I had seen that Eric, Gage and I seemed to be enchanted with the omega, I had also seen interest in Leon’s eyes as he had stared down at the omega. Needless to say, I knew that the next few months would be some of the most interesting months any of us had ever seen.
8
The sound of knocking woke me up out of the deepest sleep I’d had in a long time. My eyes cracked open and seemed to want to stick shut as I blinked them open and closed a few times. The scent of pine needles and mint wafted off of the blanket that was practically smothering my face and I couldn’t help but inhale the scent deeply into my lungs. I couldn’t remember the last time that I slept so soundly—especially in an unfamiliar place like this.
The person at the door knocked again.
“Yeah?” I called groggily as I struggled to get up from the mattress on the floor and stood on wobbly legs. I hurried over to the dresser and pulled out my bulkiest sweatshirt and sweatpants.
“Ellie? It’s Ric.” He said something else but I couldn’t hear it because it was muffled as I threw my sweatshirt over my head and pulled on my pants, nearly teetering over as I shoved my legs inside.
“Sorry,” I said as I pulled the door open, “What was that?”
Eric stood on the other side of the door dressed in a pressed gray suit that was undoubtedly tailored to fit his broad shoulders perfectly. He looked me up and down for a moment and his nostrils flared and he took in my scent. I inhaled and the smell of rain soaked earth seemed to wrap around me and, for a moment, I imagined myself sitting in a cushy window seat while it poured outside. My inner omega was hopping up and down.
Don’t drool over the alpha Eloise, I silently reminded myself,he isn’t for you.
I schooled my features into the neutral mask that I had perfected over the years and waited for Eric to answer.
“I was just reminding you to come down and eat breakfast. You didn’t eat dinner last night and we were worried.” His eyes left my face and scanned the room behind me, a little line formed between his brows as he took in the sight of my empty bed frame.
