I ignored the flickering thought of the germs that'd soaked into the weave of the fabric when she removed it, grateful that I was taking her to her place instead of mine.
Rounding the car, I slid into the driver's side, relieved to find that the omega's sobs had subdued a little, even if her miserable scent continued to permeate the space.
I drove out of the lot, glancing at her sidelong. "Are you cold?"
"No," she sniffed, cuddling her knees.
Should I… touch her? Is that comforting?I wondered, frowning a little as I took the first turn to take us towards her place.
I reached into the glovebox, pulling a travel-sized packet of tissues from the compartment and handing it to her. “Here. Please use these.”
“Um, thanks…” she mumbled, opening the packing and pulling a tissue free to blow her nose again. "Don't you need my address?"
I laughed, shaking my head. I knew where I was going, though I supposed to her that it was a surprise. It didn't matter, not really. I was her alpha. Surely it made sense that I knew where she lived.
Hertemporaryalpha, though the distinction felt all wrong.
Remembering the little plastic holder I'd removed from her car, I fished it out of the pocket of my jacket to offer it to her. "For your insurance. Did you have anything of value in there?"
"N-no," she said, the dangerous wobble of her tone warning that she was on the brink of crying again. "I-IIi—don't know what I'm going to do! The stupid thing barely drove as it was, and I can't afford a new one!" She sobbed, her face going into her knees as her shoulders shook.
With her cloying scent nearly making my eyes water, the addition of the sound—loud sobs and broken words that were difficult for me to piece together even after speaking English natively since I was twelve, it was overstimulating to the point of maddening, making it hard to focus on the road.
I slammed on the brakes as I nearly rammed into the back of a commuter car ahead of us, the stoplight above glowing red.
My heart leapt to my throat, arm flying out as we came to an uncomfortably jerky stop.
"If you stop crying," I said through clenched teeth, so tightly that my jaw ached. "I'll buy you a new car. But you need to stop. right now, before you kill us."
If only temporarily, Eva stopped crying, and the knot in my chest loosened, allowing me the first real lungful of air that I'd managed since I'd started driving.
"You can't just buy me a new car because I'm crying," she said, her tone conveying her complete confusion and disapproval. "That's crazy."
"I'll give you whatever you want—you need that studio space too, right?" I asked, talking fast as I sensed another wave of emotion coming.
I wasn't equipped for this sort of thing, something I was going to need to work on before the baby.
The baby.
I looked at Eva sidelong. "What color is your hair naturally?"
She blinked, and I realized that I must've interrupted her midsentence.
"What?"
"Your hair, it obviously doesn't grow out of your head pink?"
"Well, no…" she hedged. "I'm like, a mousy brown naturally?"
The corners of my mouth ticked up in approval, imagining her like that. "Cute."
I briefly wondered if she had any photos from her childhood. I would need to check the next time I “let myself” into her apartment.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"I was simply… curious," I said, thinking that that was likely not the moment to press the surrogacy issue.
Though if she was this upset over a relatively manageable issue, finances had to be a fairly serious factor in her decision-making process.
