I remember her being the talk of the grapevine all those years ago; everyone knew her business. Everyone knew what happened. It instantly made her different from everyone else, and as kids, we were all dumb and mean when she finally came back.
She wasn’t the same. I don’t know that I was expecting her to be the same as she was, but the girl that came back to school after months and months wasn’t anywhere near the girl she used to be. Frail, skinny, with a hollow look on her face. She never smiled, hardly spoke unless the teacher spoke to her first, and she always kept to herself.
“She changed, obviously,” I go on. “But we were all stupid kids. We were in the same class. We were close friends before the accident. When she came back… it wasn’t good. We weren’t overly welcoming. I stayed away from her.”
“You mentioned that before, but what does this have to do with her being upset now?”
I sigh. “She hasn’t had an easy life. Her aunt sounds like a total you-know-what. To someone who’s been lost in that kind of misery, I can imagine when there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, it might feel too overwhelming to process. Maybe she’s not responding how a typical omega would because she’s not a typical omega. She’s spent the last ten years shutting everyone out, doing what she could to protect herself.”
Rourke studies me. “You might be right. So, where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know.” I glance over my shoulder at Jess, who is once again laying on the blanket. “I know she doesn’t want a pack before her heat, but… maybe we can show her that being in a pack’s not so bad, that we can wait until she’s ready, however long that is.”
The other alpha picks out one word to focus on: “We?”
Crap. I didn’t even realize I said that, that I lumped us together. It came so naturally to me.
Now it’s my turn to feel uneasy. “Um, yeah. I mean, she and I have some baggage we need to address, but… I don’t want to go back to the way things used to be. I missed her, and I don’t want to let her go again.”
“Sounds to me like you’re suggesting we court her together, but that would be crazy,” Rourke remarks with a twinkle in his eyes. “Alphas don’t court an omega together unless they’re a pack.”
He’s right. What I’m suggesting is totally crazy—but based on the tone of his voice when he said it, he’s not outright denying the possibility.
“This pack you may or may not be suggesting,” he goes on, “would your brother be a part of it too?”
“I don’t think he’s ready to admit it out loud, but yeah, he would be.”
This whole conversation took a strange turn. An über like Rourke shouldn’t ever contemplate something like this. I mean, he’s clearly a lone wolf, and if Jess is his scent match, he could theoretically feel an innate need to have her all to himself.
And to have two übers in one pack together? I don’t know that I’ve ever seen another pack like that before.
Rourke shakes his head as he says, “I knew something was going on with you guys and Jess the moment I arrived. Damn, things got complicated real fast, huh?” He gets to his feet, and I stand with him. “Let’s focus on getting through her heat first, then we can discuss what comes after.”
He’s not saying no. I can only take that as a win, considering everything.
“Now,” he says, rubbing his hands together, “let’s see those fishing rods.”
I bring him to where I deposited the rods and the bait boxes, and as we approach, Jess sits up, no longer teary-eyed. Her bored mask is on as she clearly seeks to hide her true emotions.
“Are you guys really going to fish? How boring,” she mutters.
“Have you ever fished before?” Rourke asks her.
“No.” Her reply is accompanied with a roll of her eyes in a very dramatic fashion.
“Exactly,” he says. “Get up, grab a rod with us, and try it out. You can’t bash it till you try it.”
Jess’s snarky reply is, “I don’t need to eat a worm to know I won’t like it. Same goes for fishing. You two have fun.”
I join Rourke’s team and say, “Nope. I brought three rods. We’re going to see who can catch the biggest fish. Get up. We’ll let you have the first pick of the rods.”
She pouts, but as she glances between me and Rourke, it soon becomes clear to her we won’t let up until she agrees to join us and do a little fishing, at least. We aren’t asking for her to join any fishing competitions or anything, just to give it a shot.
In the end, Jess gets up and takes one of the rods. I help her pick out a suitable bait and attach it to the end of the line while Rourke does his own. After I do mine, we’re ready to go. The three of us head back out onto the dock and together, Rourke and I teach Jess everything she needs to know about fishing.
How to cast, how to reel it in, what to do when you feel that first tentative nibble on the end of the line. How certain fish like different baits.
It’s all pretty normal, if you ignore the whole scent match thing. The three of us just hanging out like we’ve done it a thousand times before. It’s actually kind of nice. After a while, even Jess is getting into it, saying she’s going to catch the biggest fish in this lake and show us how it’s really done.
