None of the guys are home, and though my twin is known to leave a candle under the warmer sometimes, it’s never been a scent like this. Tart, freshly picked apples and the sweet undertone of honey. It’s summers in the orchard with our grandparents and a thick wave of nostalgia that makes my chest go tight.
My nose goes into the air, sniffing like a bloodhound. Going lower makes the scent more faint, and I growl. I needmoreof the scent, notless.My room isn’t large, so a couple of long strides takes me to a small desk I have pushed up against the wall. The closer I get to this part of the room, the stronger the scent gets.
It takes longer than I’ll ever admit to realize the tantalizing scent is coming from a vent high up on the wall. At 6’1 I’m not exactly short, but damn if I can reach a vent that high up without help. It just so happens that my desk is perfectly positioned underneath the vent and is probably sturdy enough to hold my weight.
The climb is easy enough, but as soon as I stand the desk wobbles precariously beneath me. “Fuck.” I mutter. The last thing I need is to fall and break my neck before finding out what this smell is and where it’s coming from.
My nose is pressed against the vent hard enough to leave a mark and I’m huffing the air like I’ll die without another lungful of this scent.
“What the actual fuck are you doing right now?” Mack’s booming voice startles me so bad I whip around and growl,only I briefly forgot I was standing on a desk so when I turn, my foot catches on the edge. My body tilts backwards, arms flailing through the air as I brace myself for the painful impact.
“Woah there, Spidey. I appreciate you falling for me, but you’re like my annoying little brother. And you have a dick.”
Landing in my big brute of a pack mates arms is humiliating in a way that’s hard to explain, and I know he’s never going to let me live this down. When muffled laughter comes from behind us, I toss my head back with a groan. Of course Paxton is here to witness this too. Mack takes one step back without warning and tosses me onto the bed with a shit-eating grin. “Care to fill us in?”
I growl, glaring at the both of them while simultaneously trying to search the air for more apples and honey. Mack is affectionately called “Mack truck” around campus because he’s fucking huge. 6’7 and 250 pounds of mostly muscle, he’s the largest guy on the baseball team, maybe the whole NCAA, and somehow one of the quickest. Someone so large shouldn’t be able to move the way he does, but with two dads in the NFL, I’m sure it’s at least partly genetics.
“Yeah, Park. Don’t you have a shift tonight? I figured you’d be getting in a cat nap before work.” Paxton eyes me suspiciously. One of the worst parts of having an identical twin is that you can’t hide shit. Pax is extremely emotionally intelligent which makes him intuitive as hell, meaning I can’t get away with anything around my brother. It’s looking like this won’t be any different.
Just as I open my mouth to tell them to fuck off, Mack’s lips part. His pupils dilate, nearly eclipsing the hazel of his iris as his cotton candy scent explodes around us. “Holy fuck,” he chokes out. “What isthat?”
Paxton looks confused for a second before he inhales deeply, getting the same dopey, half-feral expression on his face that I’m sure was on mine whenthey showed up.
“I don’tknow,” I snarl back. “All I know is it’s coming through the vents and I’ve been hard as a fucking rock for the last twenty minutes.”
My brother glances at the wall, a pensive frown on his face. “Doesn’t your wall back up to one of the rooms in the apartment next door? It’s a one bed, right? Maybe whoever lives there now has a really good candle burning.”
Always pragmatic, my twin. Too bad he’s dead wrong this time.
“No fucking way is that a candle,” Mack protests, shaking his head and pressing a massive hand down on his quickly tenting jeans. “I’ve been alive twenty-two years and never once smelled a candle so good it had me on the edge of coming in my pants.”
Pax snorts, smacking Mack on the back of the head. The big idiot doesn’t move, his wide eyes still locked on mine. I’ve never seen him look so… frantic. McKenzie Madden is many things, but never anxious like he is right now. His fingers tap against his jean-clad thigh in an unsteady rhythm, nostrils flaring in rapid pulses that make me think he’s about to hyperventilate or something. “That’s an omega,” he whispers.
My eyes widen even as my head shakes. A denial sits on the tip of my tongue, but the longer I think about it, the more it makes sense. I’m with my pack mate in that I’ve never smelled a candle that got me hard before, but I’ve also never met an omega who smelled likethat.Which could only mean…
“Do you think they could be our scent match?”
“Why are we still just sitting here? Let’s go knock on their door!”
I don’t understand why my pack mates aren’t chomping at the bit to go find out who this omega is and if they really could be a scent match. It feels like my entire body has been reprogrammed to only notice this scent, and my alpha is screaming at me to find the source. Knowing they are literallyright next door?I’m about to break down this damn wall.
Parker is shaking his head vehemently, and Paxton is watching him with wary eyes like one might watch a wild animal. I ignore Park for the time being and whirl around, looking down at the more stable twin. “Come on, man. Don’t you feel it? Our omega could be right on the other side of that wall right now.”
I have been dying to find my omega since I was sixteen and presenting for the first time. Growing up with an entire pack of parents in the limelight is a nightmare for some kids, but it gave me a perfect example of how to keep your omega happy when you play a professional sport. Two of my four dads are NFL players out in Massachusetts, but every second of their free time during the season was dedicated to making my mom happy. My goal has been the majors since I was a kid, and growing up the way I did prepared mefor the realities of that level of fame. It helps that my pack mates are some of the most supportive guys I’ve ever met.
Paxton’s teeth dig into his bottom lip, but I can’t read his expression. I’m not as good at all of the touchy-feely shit as Pax is, a fact that normally doesn’t bother me. But right now I’d give anything to have a pack bond and be able to know what he’s feeling.
He reaches a careful hand out, moving slowly so my alpha doesn’t see it as a threat. I’m not in danger of going feral, but I appreciate the caution anyway. I’m a big guy. I know that. I’m four inches taller than our pack lead, and half a foot taller than the twins. His caution makes sense, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting a little bit. “Mack, let’s just take a second, okay? We all need to step back and wrap our heads around this. And absolutely nothing should happen until Jude is home and can weigh in.”
As soon as the words leave his mouth, the front door crashes open, admitting our final pack mate. Only… this isn’t the Jude I know. The Jude I know is methodical and composed to a fault, occasionally leaning more robot than human. But this alpha is crazed, a frenzied energy buzzing around him that makes even me a little bit twitchy. “Jesus fuck,” he snarls. “That scent is goddamneverywhere.I can’t escape it.”
My eyebrows shoot up, and I see the twins mirroring the expression. Our pack lead is riled, and we need to figure out why before something gets broken. “Hey, Jude. You okay?” I ask quietly. I worry if I raise my voice at all he’ll take it as a sign of aggression, and since I don’t know what has him so on edge, it’s best to lead with caution.
His head whips my way, brown curls in complete disarray like he’s been running his hands through them all morning. “No I’m not okay, McKenzie. I caught a scent outside of my classroom earlier andleft my classto chase it. My alpha was fully in control and I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him.”
“Can you describe the smell?” Paxton asks, his voice evensofter than mine. Of all the members in our pack, Pax hates confrontation the most. It takes a lot to rattle our peacemaker, but even when he is, he rarely shows it. And right now? He’s rattledandshowing it, which means this is a big fucking deal.
Jude growls, his hands raking through his hair again. “It was… it was like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. Apples and something sweet. I could practically feel it sliding down my throat it was so thick in the air.”
