“Charlie,” I cut over the alpha, frustration dripping from my tone. “Are you getting a divorce?”
“What?” his shocked voice almost deafened me as I unlocked my car with the fob. “No?! They went to that stupid no-alphas club downtown with Eva.”
I paused with my hand on the door handle, hardly daring to breathe as my heart kicked up with excitement.
Eva. That was the name of the omega from the mirror maze.
The one that’d gone into heat in the middle of a Halloween orgy and found herself in the center of my pack for three blissful days before she’d all but disappeared.
Indigo had known who she was, but they were too much of a coward after she’d left without a word to reach out to her.
And me? Maybe I was no better.
Or maybe, maybe I was just trying to do somethingrightfor once. We already had an omega in our orbit, Joon settling over the last few weeks into a more consistent fixture in our household.
But progress was slow, and I still wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to pack up or if he was just enjoying the attention that came along with courting. We’d had that before, and none of us were interested in it again.
It’d beenweekssince I’d seen the girl, the changed leaves falling from the trees to give way to snow. Too long.
“Oh… yeah?” I said slowly, trying to seem casual. An idea that was betrayed by the subtle edge in my voice.
If Charlie noticed it, he didn’t comment, heaving another sigh that was entirely unbecoming of an alpha. Alphas didn’tpine,and they certainly didn’t bitch and moan when their packmates went dancing without them.
“It’s so unfair—” the alpha went on, oblivious to these unwritten rules. “I was hoping you’d want to game or something,keep my mind off it. I just dropped them off, so I’ll head home, and then we could hop on?”
I opened the car door, sliding into my leather seat and tossing my bag into the passenger’s side. With a tap of a button, the car hummed to life, the built-in screen glowing with the app selection screen. I tapped the map, glancing at the clock.
Ten o’clock.
“It’s a little early to go dancing, isn’t it?”
“Jesse has an early meeting with his agent,” Charlie said, like it was obvious. “And we were already out, so it was a little last-minute.”
“Right,” I murmured, zooming out to look at the little blinking cursor that represented my car on the larger map.
Downtown was only a short fifteen-minute drive away.
“Anyway—so, games?”
My mouth moved before my brain had fully made the decision. “Sorry, man. I can’t tonight. Maybe try Indi?”
Charlie groaned. “I hate you, for the record.”
“I can only hope,” I replied tersely. “Gotta go—good luck with your separation anxiety.”
“You fucking?—”
I hung up, taking my headphones off and tossing them on top of my bag. Normally, thinking about that would send me into a tailspin, but I was so focused on putting my car in drive and going, I barely considered it.
There were a lot of limits I had when it came to relationships and omegas. Unfortunately for Eva, stalking wasn’t really one of them.
"Oh my god,"Tara howled over the blare of music, towing Jesse and me to the dance floor the moment we were inside the club. "Pup, it's my jam!"
The three of us danced until we were sweaty and breathless, singing along to the lyrics of a pop anthem that'd been at the top of the charts the summer before.
"I need a drink!" Jesse shouted over the music. "Anyone?"
"Yes!"
