This was just my fucking luck. Here I was, trying to have a casual hookup with a woman, and she happened to be the omega Lars had been obsessed with for years. He would want us to be a pack, and I justcouldn’t. The presence of this omega in our town meant the end of my pack life with my brothers. They would choose her over me. I’d known this outcome was inevitable. I just didn’t realize it would happen so soon.
I pulled my fingers out of her. I wanted to lick her slick off them, but resisted, reaching down instead to grab a crumpled napkin. She must have sensed the change in mood because she moved off my lap, pulling up her leggings.
I busied myself with picking up my trash, doing my best not to look at her, but I still caught her wiping up my cum with some napkins. Her scent was fading, but what lingered in the air had a bitter note to it. My alpha urged me to fix it, to pull her into my arms and take her home. Instead, I looked around to make sure I had all my trash.
I cleared my throat. “It was nice meeting you.” And then I fucking fled like a coward.
12
OLIVE
The lightsin the movie theater came on and I was still standing there, holding cum-soaked napkins.
I didn’t understand what had changed. The alpha had seemed to be into what we were doing… intome. But his abrupt departure left me cold and unsure.
This was only what I deserved after I’d run away from Easton and Lars. At least, that’s what I told myself as I got on my bike, feeling decidedly wobbly. I’d had anonymous hookups before, but none of them had left me feeling like this.
It didn’t matter that the alpha didn’t want anything more with me.
It didn’t matter.
Didn’t matter.
Tears blurred my vision as I made my way down the unlit path home.
13
LARS
Finn’s footstepssounded on the stairs and then he slipped into the kitchen, heading straight for the coffeepot and pointedly avoiding looking at me.
I leaned back in my chair, staying quiet as I sipped my coffee. Finn would speak when he was ready.
Finally, he ran out of things to pretend to add to his coffee and turned to me.
“Where’s—” Something caught in his throat and he paused to clear it, taking a sip of coffee. “Where’s Easton?”
“He ran out to get coffee and breakfast for Olive before we head to the lighthouse.”
“Olive?” he asked.
I wanted to roll my eyes but contained myself. The fact that he hadn’t been bothered to learn her name was unreasonably irritating to my alpha, who wanted to climb to the top of the lighthouse and shout to the world that she was mine.
“The new lighthouse keeper.”
“Right.” He looked down at the floor. “I’ll apologize to Easton when he gets here.”
I nodded slowly. “Good.” I took another sip of coffee, wishing it was a pumpkin spice latte. Hopefully Easton remembered to get meone. “He needs to apologize to you, too.”
Finn’s eyes widened, and I huffed a deep breath. “What he did was shitty. We don’t work like that. We’re a team.”
A flash of emotion crossed Finn’s face before he covered it by chugging his coffee. My brothers were a mess. I had to remind myself that they hadn’t been as lucky as me growing up. I had four amazing moms who were bonded in a committed pack. Finn’s mom had died when he was little. He’d had amazing grandparents in Fredrik and Carina, but he lost them, too. And Easton’s parents weren’t worth a shit. We’d thrown a party when his mom finally moved out of town.
The front door clattered open, and Easton rushed in. I leapt up to grab the drink carrier out of his hands before he dropped it. Easton had grown about a foot in a month after he revealed as an alpha, and he’d never quite gotten used to his body.
“We should leave,” he said. “I don’t want to keep Olive waiting.” He realized Finn was in the kitchen and froze.
The two of them stared at each other and both said, “I’m sorry” at the same time. Easton threw the bag of pastries aside and pulled Finn into a hug.
