“The mattress is in the closet,” I admitted sheepishly, “this room is lovely but it’s too much space for me so I just pulled the mattress and the bedding Gage brought me last night into the closet. It’s perfect for me.”
At my reminder that I was indeed an omega who needed a nest to feel safe, realization seemed to come over Eric’s features.
“My apologies Ellie, it’s been so long since I was around an omega that I have been remiss to your needs.” Eric looked legitimately upset over the situation and I couldn’t help but reach out and touch his arm, allowing my omega pheromones to soothe his ruffled nerves.
“It’s ok really, Ric, I am fine with my closet nest. I actually got a wonderful night’s sleep last night—that’s why I slept through dinner. You said there was breakfast waiting?”
Distracted by the possibility of feeding me Eric nodded, “It’s Gage’s turn to make breakfast this morning so the chances of it being delicious are pretty high. Watch out for Leon’s mornings though—the man can’t cook to save his life. Some Italian he is.”
Eric chattered about anything and everything as we headed down the stairs and into the kitchen which I hadn’t gotten the chance to see yesterday. Despite how modern the Russo pack’s home was, the kitchen was warm and inviting and looked like something out of a Mediterranean home magazine. The cabinets were painted a cheerful robin’s egg blue and instead of marble, or some other sleek stone that many in San Francisco favored, the counters consisted of mismatched yellow and blue patterned ceramic tiles. A vase of sunflowers sat in the sunlight coming from the large bay window over the white apron style kitchen sink. On the shelf in the bay window were several pots of trailing house plants that reached for the sunlight on what was a surprisingly sunny San Francisco morning. There were two large yellow ranges and a large stainless steel range hood against one wall and a pretty glass door fridge a few steps away. I could see that all of the contents of the fridge were immaculately arranged, whoever was in charge of the kitchen seemed to like everything in a certain, special, place.
I was so busy taking in the bright and sunny kitchen that I almost didn’t notice the group of people sitting at the long island counter in the center of the kitchen who were very much staring at me.
“Good morning, Eloise!” Owen greeted me from his place next to Leon, he had a computer open in front of him and one hand was on the keyboard while the other held a fork that had a piece of sausage speared onto it. He was dressed in a more business casual outfit than Ric was with a soft looking dark blue sweater and black jeans. His tortoise shell glasses were perched on the end of his nose and if he wasn’t so boyishly cute I would think he was an old man.
Dominic waved groggily from his stool on the end, unlike the men around him he was still dressed in the dress shirt and slacks that he had been wearing yesterday. They were quite a bit more rumpled and there was a dirty smear on one of his elbows. It seemed that Dominic Dubois was a party boy.
Gage was standing at the stove flipping something inside of his pan and whatever it was it smelled delicious. He gestured to an open seat at the island with an empty plate and I hurried over there and sat down, avoiding Leon’s stare as I went. I was usually pretty good at reading people but Leon Russo was a mystery to me… well other than the fact that he seemed to hate me. That much was pretty obvious.
Gage put a steaming omelet on my plate and I inhaled the savory scent of eggs, cheese, onions and canadian bacon mixed into an enticing aroma. My mouth was practically dripping and I smiled my thanks up at him.
“Juice?” He asked quietly, his deep voice washing over me and I couldn’t help but nod. He filled up a little crystal glass with some freshly squeezed orange juice and I accepted it, taking a sip of the sweet liquid. The sweet, citrusy scent reminded me a little bit of my childhood memories and I put it down, feeling a bit sick to my stomach. I’d forgotten all about my promise in the past twenty-four hours so easily and the guilt gnawed at my insides. I picked at the omelet, the happy feeling I’d had when I’d woken up was gone now.
I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I didn’t realize that Gage had sat down next to me until he spoke. “I can make you something else, if it isn’t to your tastes.”
“No, it’s delicious, really. Thank you. I’m terrible at eating breakfast in the morning so it’s a bit of an adjustment for me.” I offered him another smile which seemed to perk him up a bit and tucked into my omelet, willing my stomach to calm down. I didn’t want to upset the giant, quiet alpha. He’d been nothing but thoughtful and caring since I'd arrived.
“I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you talk at once, Gage.” Dominic said from the other side of the island. He looked more awake now as the cup of coffee he was nursing was beginning to take its effect.
“Dom, that might be more because you never let him get a word in between all of your chatter rather than just him being quiet.” Ric joked from the other side of me as he scrolled through what looked like emails on his phone.
Owen and Leon chuckled at their packmates' joke and Dominic put a hand on his chest in mock offense.
“Moi? Talkative? Please. You should meet mygrand-mèreand you will think that I am as quiet as a church mouse.” The men all laughed and I felt a small laugh of my own bubble up but I pushed it down and focused on my food. But my amusement must’ve shown on my face because Leon’s stormy blue eyes landed on me and nearly skewered me to my seat. So much for not drawing attention to myself and flying under the radar.
“Omega.” His voice cut through the laughter and the kitchen fell silent. What would he say to me? Yesterday had been a less than ideal meeting as he seemed, well, omega-adverse.
“Yes, Mr. Russo?” I responded politely, finally finding my voice. Owen snorted at my calling him ‘Mr. Russo’ but Leon ignored him.
“I hear you went through three packs before this one. Why is that?”
Embarrassment filled me and I knew that my face had to be flaming red at his words, how did he know that? Meetings omegas have with potential alpha packs is supposed to be as private as possible—barring the occasional famous pack courting an omega. The three packs that I had briefly met hadn’t been anywhere near famous enough. So how did Leon get that information? My question was quickly answered when Owen gasped and turned to look at the alpha next to him.
“Leon, you looked at my computer?” The beta’s voice held a note of betrayal as he stared at the alpha who was ignoring him in favor of staring me down.
I looked around at the men of pack Russo and realized that the majority of them knew at least some of my past and I knew nothing about them.
“Answer the question, omega.” the head of Pack Russo rumbled again, his voice containing a bit of that alpha bark that made others submit to him. My inner omega begged me to answer his question but my anger quickly pushed that down. How dare he look at me like he had me all figured out?
I set down my fork which I had been gripping tightly in my hand, “I see that you all have access to my files from SFOFA. So you know all about my quote, unquote, “sordid” past.” It wasn’t sordid at all but the way Leon had said it made it seem that way.
“Two things. One: One of the alphas in the first pack that I was courting backed me into a corner at a restaurant and tried to force a bonding mark on me that I didn’t want. In the second pack two of the alphas smelled ok and were ok. The other two smelled like sulfur and a garbage dump. They were all or nothing. The third pack was accidentally matched with another omega and chose that other omega. This is because, like I’m sure you are aware, you absolute jackass, I am not looking for an alpha pack. I have someone I’m waiting for and I am sure as hell not going to jeopardize that for some aggro-alphahole who would rather call me omega rather than my damn name.”
I inhaled a sharp breath and held up my second finger.
“Two: My name is Eloise. El-o-ise. You can either call me Eloise or nothing at all. I don’t care if you ignore me for the next eight months but either way I am going to be here. It wasn’t my choice and it’s very clear you have some omega issues that you need to work through. Might I suggest therapy? Either way don’t take it out on me.”
I stood up from my stool and looked at each of the slack-jawed men in the room, landing on Gage last.
