“You have been,” she replied with a threatening growl against my throat.
“That was a long time ago,” I managed to reply, but it was barely a whisper.
She ran her nose up to my ear.
“What happened?” she asked.
“My first shift, when I learned I was an omega, I was… a-attacked,” I said, unsure if it was the way Cole’s heat bled into me or remembering that night that caused me to stutter.
Cole growled softly; the exhale of her warm breath against the shell of my ear was like fire. I moaned involuntarily.
Suddenly, Cole’s hand was at the base of my back, pulling me against her. The skin of my abdomen pressed against her mink silk shirt, and her lips brushed against my neck.
My chest heaved, gasping for air from the contact and inhaling pure Cole.
Somewhere in the back of my fog-filled mind, I registered the impact of pheromones. The sweet scent coating my mind. But I had never been hit like this. Like a freight train to the chest. Like I wanted to be folded and moulded into whatever shape would make me lock with her.
I’d recognised other alphas polluting the air, burning my nose, Ashford repulsing me. But Cole… Cole was different, warm and spicy and sweet, like mulled wine. I could drink her down and down and…
“W-w-what?” I asked, confused, as just as quickly as I was consumed, I was discarded, alone and cold.
I reached out to pull her back to me.
Cole stepped back, shaking her head.
“Get dressed,” she growled out before stiffly turning and retreating from her office, leaving me there, standing in my bra, chest rising and falling fast, a dampness between my legs.
It wasn’t until her scent began to dissipate that the fog lifted from my mind entirely.
I found my top and apron and tried my best to calm myself, to stop thinking about her.
All I could do was think about Cole.
Chapter six
Wolfsbane
Ihung my apron on its peg in the cleaning supplies closet and wiped my palms on my trousers. I had completed the rest of my tasks, my mind floating easily back to Cole, not consciously doing so, but finding myself in the process of trying to remember how she smelled, like a dream just out of reach, like a craving that had to be given in to.
At the end of my shifts, I had fallen into the rhythm of meeting Cole in the kitchen, where we and a few other council members, and most often Sara, would eat dinner. Dinner was served buffet-style with serving dishes in the centre of the large chef’s table and the dull sound of chatter from the general dining room on the other side of the wall. That first night, Cole made a plate for me and then watched me until I had begun to eat. It was excruciatingly awkward to be watched like that. But this was going to be worse.
How could I even look at her after… that?
I felt like I was seeing someone I had kissed drunkenly and deeply regretted it, only the roles were reversed, in that I was aware that I was the object of regret. And nothing had even happened. Not really. Apart from undressing me. Which wasn’t okay. I should have been mad, angry, furious… instead, I was nervous.
I walked into the kitchen, and Cole was already sitting. I took a deep breath, the smell of the food filling my lungs. A part of me was disappointed that it wasn’t the scent of Cole. My eyes found her; she was speaking with Sara. Sara’s mate Branden was at the table too, speaking with Darren and Ophelia. Walking towards the table, Cole looked away from Sara and caught my eye. I looked away briefly, and when I looked back, she was no longer looking in my direction.
The seat next to Cole was free; I knew her, and everyone at the table would expect me to sit beside her. It was likely why the seat was left empty in the first place. An unspoken expectation. I was offended by it. By the obligation and by the way I wanted her to want me to sit next to her.
I sat between Darren and Ophelia.
Cole turned her attention to me as I pulled out my seat. She looked momentarily irritated, and I sat with a smile.
“Hi,” Ophelia said when I sat down.
“Hi,” I said back.
I had been brave enough to sit away from Cole, hoping for some sort of reaction, but had received none, and I felt worse for it.
