“Iris—”
“I—” Our words are cut off when a tepid woosh of air hits my back. I jump in surprise for the second time in minutes and turn to meet the intense hazel gaze and towering figure of Wilder Quinn.
“Ah, Iris. Here you are,” he says gruffly. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Chapter four
Mateo
AftermeetingAugust,Ididn’t think it was possible to fall in love at first sight again. I thought I’d used up my fate allotments, and if by chance we found an Omega that fulfilled our pack, it would be the kind of love that was nurtured and grew like a flower in spring.
But all it took was looking into Iris Walker’s silver-grey eyes and touching her soft skin to believe that she’smine. My Alpha is practically clawing out from under my skin, begging me to touch her again, to throw her into a shower and scrub her clean of the awful de-scenting pray and whatever else she’s got caked on to block her scent. Confirm what my instincts are already saying even if I can’t be 100 percent sure.
Mierda. Augie is never going to let me hear the end of it when I tell him. I was just teasing him about crushing on this Omega for so many years through a screen, but now that I’ve met her, felt her presence near me, I know I’m going to be as equally obsessed with her as he is. It makes me wonder if my mate’s instincts somehow knew what she could be to us, even through a TV screen.
My gaze finds Augie’s as I walk through the set door behind Iris. He’s standing next to Jett, his green eyes locked on the Omega and skin already flushed with nerves. I can’t wait to see how he reacts when they shake hands. I wonder if he’ll feel the same way I do right now, even if I know he already will.
Then there’s my other pack members. They tend to be more guarded in their feelings and a bit dense. Without her scent I don’t know if they’ll have the reaction I just did to her.
Wilder stands next to Augie with Jett on the other side of him. He doesn’t look at me, but to the Omega, an annoyed pulse coming through our bond, no doubt from our tardiness. My Alpha almost growled when he interrupted us, but it’s good that he did. Regardless of if my instincts want to pick Iris up and throw her over my shoulder, taking us to a private spot where I can fuck her seven ways to Sunday, that would be highly inadvisable. A lawsuit waiting to happen. And my pack would kill me without talking to them about my discovery first. Or what I hope I discovered.
I don’t like that Iris didn’t seem to react to my scent. There’s some de-scenter the crew sprays in the air that dampens the many scents here so it’s not overwhelming to everyone working, but she should have been able to pick mine up with how close we were.
The image of mi conejita scrunching her nose consumes my thoughts. She did look like a cute little bunny every time she made the action, but now I’m wondering if her Omega didn’t care for my honey scent. It would be odd considering I attract enough bees to pollinate my hive on the regular if I so choose.
“I see you met Mateo, our cinematographer,” Wilder addresses Iris as we come to a stop in front of the three of them.
I shake my inappropriate thoughts away as Iris holds her hands in front of her, fingers gripped together with what I can only guess are nerves. I want to take her hand and assure her she has nothing to be nervous about, but I don’t blame her with the way Wilder is coming across.
He’s an intimidating Alpha at six foot five and covered in tattoos. I’ve joked before that he looks like a biker and a rockstar had a baby, much to his annoyance. But once you get to know him, and if you’re lucky enough that he lets you in, he’s a teddybear at heart. He’s also a damn good director and the best Prime our pack could ask for.
“Yes,” her answer comes out a bit shaky so she clears her throat and tries again. “Yes, I did.”
“Good,” Wilder replies. I try to read him or see if I can feel a spike of any sort of emotion through the bond other than the fading annoyance, but he stays level. But that’s not unusual for him. He’s good at remaining professional no matter the circumstance.
“We’re running a tight ship as you may know,” he continues. “This isn’t how I normally like to do things, but we really have to jump right in or we’ll fall behind. That means we don’t have much time for pleasantries. Hopefully we’ll get to know each other as the shoot goes on and during meal breaks.”
What Wilder doesn’t know is I very much plan for our pack to get to know her, but I keep that to myself for now. I don’t need my Alpha going wild and making things awkward. I need to remain calm while we work and figure the rest out later. Thank the gods I’m good at restraint.
Iris dips her chin and I notice she’s relieved by his rushing and lack of niceties, because the grip she has on her hands is easing.
“I understand, sorry I came in late.”
“That was my doing,” I cut in. Their eyes turn on me, including Iris’s. “I scared her and sent her into a coughing fit then offered her regular coffee like an asshole.”
That’s not exactly what happened but I don’t want my pack to think she took too much time to show up on her first day of shooting. She was right outside when I ran into her.
“Here,” Augie’s warm voice cuts in. He holds out a water bottle I didn’t see in his hand and she looks down at it. “It’s unopened.”
“It’s okay—”
“Please, it’s yours now.”
“Thanks,” she says softly, her hand reaching out to take the offered drink. My eyes fall to the bottle and I see the momenther fingers brush my Beta’s. Iris gasps and he pulls back without thinking, the actions causing the water bottle to drop to the floor.
“Shoot,” Iris proclaims, and I know what’s about to happen before it does.
She bends down to grab the dropped plastic bottle at the same time my mate does. Their foreheads collide and they both curse, yet they go back in for the bottle like kittens over a ball of yarn. Just before their heads whack again, Wilder’s tattooed hand strikes out like a snake and grabs Augie’s shoulder, stopping him from hitting her again. There’s even a brief second where I think he growls, and not in a normal angry way but in a way that an Alpha protects his Omega.
