“Am I wrong?”
He ran a hand down his chest, and that was when I spotted the tattoos peeking out beneath the sleeve cuff on his wrist. A man with tattoos—there was something incredibly sexy about it. “Maybe you are, maybe you’re not. I guess you’ll have to wait and see if you get any offers tonight, Dryers.”
Calling me by my last name, how original. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know my first name. I had the feeling this guyliked the game, if his reaction to me and my comments meant anything.
He stood, but when he did, the movement was jerky, almost robotic, like it pained him to pull himself away from me. “I suppose I’ll leave you alone for now. Let you sit here by yourself and stew in whatever self-inflicted misery you brought with you. It was fun chatting, though.”
I didn’t say anything to him. The only thing I did was watch him go… and the weirdest thing happened as I watched him leave me. Something ached in my chest, something that had never happened before.
My heart hurt. It actually hurt as I watched him walk away from me. For some dumb reason, it was like parts of me had decided they liked this particular alpha.
What the hell was wrong with me?
Literally the one thing I wanted tonight, to stay away from alphas, and my freaking body had other ideas. All because of that one alpha. Every other time I’d come here before, no other alpha had ever made me react like that.
Shit.
I ground my jaw and folded my arms over my chest as I wrestled with myself over it. For some reason, the damned alpha chose another omega only a few tables away, and even when he was sitting down and talking to said omega, those blue eyes of his kept flicking over to me.
Was he trying to see if I was watching? Ugh, screw him.
After it happened a few times, I abruptly looked away and got an itch on my head, which I then itched with my middle finger.
Alphas. They always thought they were the shit. How annoying.
Back to the present, I answer Asher’s question: “I’m just a bitch. I make fun of them. I’m mean. Usually it’s easy to dissuade alphas and push their interests elsewhere. You lot have real thin skin when it comes to that stuff.”
Asher doesn’t address the alpha-wide insult. “That really works? You’re a little mean and because of that, you never get offers?”
Honestly, after that last one… Rourke, that was his name, I actually thought my act wouldn’t work on him. I was surprised to learn he didn’t put anything in for me. With how he acted that night, how he responded to me, the way those pupils of his dilated and stayed that way, I thought my aunt would be jumping for joy at an offer, even if it was from a lone alpha with no pack surrounding him.
But no. That alpha never submitted an offer for me.
Which is fine. It’s what I wanted. What I want. No offers means I get to keep moving forward with my plan.
“Yeah,” I say softly. “It works.”
“Wow.” He sounds amazed. “I never thought… I mean, I guess I just assumed that when omegas are surrounded by alphas, matches were bound to happen.”
“That’s what everyone thinks, and it might be true for most omegas, but I’m not most omegas. I’m…” I quiet, mostly due to the fact that I don’t know how to finish that sentence. No one knows how broken I am, other than my aunt and my doctors. I settle for saying, “I’m just different.”
The way he glances at me, I can tell he knows something’s up with me, but he doesn’t push. He only says, “Being different isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You’ve got to be tough to be willing to do what you’re going to do. I don’t think most omegas would even try to get through their first heat alone.”
Most people would say it’s a stupid plan, especially since it’s just for money. Even if he is lying, I’m glad he doesn’t say it. Inever really got much comfort growing up after the accident, so even if it’s a lie, I’ll take it.
But I don’t really know what to say to that, so I don’t say anything.
The rest of the drive is uneventful. We make it to the cabin, which I hesitate to call a cabin in the first place. Situated on over one hundred acres in the mountains, it’s more of a mansion than anything else. No neighbors to be seen anywhere, along with a long, winding driveway that eventually ends at the three-car garage attached to the side of the impressive estate.
No snow here, not this time of year. I can’t imagine how crazy a place like this gets in the winter, but that’s when Asher and his family come up. They have the holidays here—or they used to, way back when. I suppose I’m lucky his family still has this cabin. It has been just over ten years, and things change.
We pull into the garage, and Asher parks the car. We get out, grab a few bags, and then I let the alpha lead the way inside. We’re going to have to make multiple trips thanks to all the extras I got at the store, but I’d rather be overly prepared than not have something I need and be unable to go get it.
“I’ll show you the heat room,” Asher says. “You can either stay in there the whole time or wait until your heat starts and move over. It’s totally up to you.”
I nibble my bottom lip. I don’t know what I want, what would be easiest. This is not something I’ve ever been through before, so I have nothing to compare it to. This is new to me in every single way.
Thank goodness Asher agreed to help. Thank God he’s going along with my plan, as silly and petty as it may be. I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done without him.
