Emerson gave me a good-natured shove, “You do realize that you doalsoneed to sleep, right?”
“Eh. That’s debatable.” Over the years I’d become great at running on very little sleep.
Emerson sighed, “I hope you know that this is why the newbies have nicknamed you the Cyborg.” The newer agents tended to give me a wide berth. I wasn’t interested in going for drinks or becoming friends with them. I just needed them to do their job and do it well. Apparently, that meant that I was robotic and unfeeling in their eyes.
“Wow, Emerson,” I put as much sarcasm in my voice as I could muster. “It sounds like you're not as tired as I thought. Maybe you’re right, I do need to go and take a nap instead of you.”
Emerson’s blue eyes narrowed, “Over my dead body.”
With that, she turned and left the apartment, her blond ponytail bouncing behind her. Now that she’d gone to get some sleep, I felt better about leaving the investigation to her. If she was going to be in charge she needed to take care of herself.
Completely ironic, I know, but I am a firm believer of the ‘do as I say and not as I do’ mentality.
“Collins.” One of the techs called from where he was taking a picture of Kenny, the dead mixer. I sighed and went to join him, it was going to be a long afternoon.
––––––––
––––––––
––––––––
“We can’t buy that!”My eyes bugged out of my head as we stood in the appliance section of a department store. In front of me was a shelf full of different stand mixers. I had gravitated towards one of the more expensive mixers, a bright orange one. Kenny had been on the cheaper end of mixers—the academy tended to be cheapos when it came to omegas like myself, Cherry, and even Eloise. The girls who came from richer families referred to us as ‘foster omegas’ so getting the academy to buy me anything was like pulling teeth. I’d only managed it by bribing most of the administrators with my famous chocolate chip muffins. With extra chocolate.
Aria had seen me ogling the orange mixer and had grabbed one of the boxes from underneath the display and put it in the cart. The cart that was already packed full of things. Theo and Matteo dawdled behind us, carrying bags full of clothing and toiletries to replace the one that had been destroyed. I hated not being able to take any of my things. They were my things, and they’d been tainted by an asshole. I didn’t hate shopping, in fact, I usually really liked it. I mean, I only ever shopped online from the comfort of my apartment, but even still this entire shopping trip had started to err on the side of ridiculous in the last hour.
“Why can’t we buy it?” Aria asked as she patted the box for good measure, “I told you I’d get you a Kenny Jr. right? I think you’ll find that I keep my promises.” Her smile was smug as she pulled her long straight brown hair into a ponytail, pulling at the strands at the top to smooth any bumps on her scalp. Something about that was so attractive to me, and I was beginning to think I was broken. There was definitely something wrong with me today. I flipped between panicked, upset, and—well—attracted to the alphas around me. It was decidedly not normal behavior.
“Yeah but this isn’t a Kenny Jr. mixer, Kenny was a skinny hillbilly compared to this mixer. This mixer has a house and a 401k. This is the Chadworth of mixers that has the ability to call me poor in ten different languages.” I will acknowledge that I did sound a bit crazy right now. Especially considering the funny look a woman gave me when she and her child passed us by.
“Chadworth?” One of the guys said from behind Aria, but she was too busy stepping in front of me, forcing me to look into her amber eyes. Her rose scent curled around me like a comforting blanket as she worked to soothe my frazzled nerves.
“Look, Tibby, I’m going to kill two flies in one swat here,” She began.
“What?” That didn’t make any sense.
“Two birds with one stone.” Theo provided.
“You get used to it,” Matteo added.
Aria rolled her eyes but continued, “Yes, two birds with one stone. First, you never have to worry about spending money when you’re with us. We wouldn’t offer it if we didn’t have the money, and if it was something that we didn’t want to do.”
“Please tell me we aren’t naming the mixer Chadworth? Ouch! What?” Matteo yelped as he was swatted over the back of the head by Theo.
“Time and place, idiot.” That was all the other alpha said.
“Second, you’ll learn quickly that if I say I’m going to do something...then I’m going to do it. I’m very stubborn like that. If you like the mixer, we get the mixer. Now, do you like the mixer?”
I paused for a moment to think about it before I finally nodded and Aria’s serious expression melted into a satisfied smile that made my heart give a little pitter-patter. Aria squeezed my hand.
“Good. Now let’s get some other kitchen utensils because we never cook in our kitchen. So, it’s pretty devoid of anything useful to make food.” She manned the cart again and we continued on our way, my head still spun as we continued to add things into the cart.
“You’ll get used to it,” Theo rumbled in my ear and I tilted my head to look at him yet again through the fresh eyes of adulthood. When I was fourteen he had been my protector—clad in black with face paint. I’d always built him up on a pedestal of decidedly ‘not human’ and ‘not reachable’.
But now, looking at his blond hair which was ruffled because he constantly ran his hands through it or his gray-blue eyes and long straight nose and full lips, it was apparent that my childhood crush on him had definitely not disappeared as I grew up. His spearmint scent was intoxicating, and I wondered if this was how cats felt when given catnip. He was so tall and handsome that it was almost unfair.
Nope. No way. There was absolutely no way that I was going to ever get used to this.
