I’d touched her as little as possible as I wrapped her ankle, but her scent lingered on my skin and I couldn’t bring myself to wash it off.Her ankle was swollen and there was the start of a bruise, but I didn’t think it was broken. I’d placed an ice pack over it and stacked a couple of pillows on the coffee table for her to elevate her leg.
I kept stealing glances at her as I prepared grilled cheeses and tomato soup. My alpha was fucking feral that she was wearing my clothes. Or rather, my sweatshirt, which was so long on her it acted like a dress, and wool socks.
And no pants.
No. Fucking. Pants.
When I’d spluttered, red-faced, at her bare legs and demanded to know why she hadn’t put on my sweatpants, she laughed and pulled them on, easily fitting both of her legs into a single pant leg.
“How long have you lived here?”
My heart raced as I turned around to find Lucy sitting mere feet away on a kitchen stool, a blanket wrapped around her like a cape.
What the fuck? How did she sneak up on me like that?
She smiled and my scrambled brain struggled to process her question. “A year,” I finally responded.
“Why haven’t I seen you in town?”
Because I’m an antisocial bastard terrified of sweet little omegas.
I shrugged. “I’m at the firehouse when I’m on shift. Otherwise, I’m here.”
“You work long shifts, right?”
“We do forty-eight/ninety-six. Two days on, four days off.”
“That’s pretty intense.”
I grunted. Sometimes I even took extra shifts to cover for my guys. Our department was small, and it wasn’t like I had much to do on my days off, anyway.
“Are you warm enough?” I asked, keeping my eyes fixed on the pan as I flipped the grilled cheese onto plates and dished up two bowls of tomato soup. I wasn’t a chef by any means, but my mom had insisted I at least learn the basics so I could care for my future omega. My parents had remained confident that I would find love, even after I was kicked out of school and shunned by the entire town becausemy diagnosis made me a danger to society. Now that they were gone, there was no one left to believe in me. Including myself.
“Yeah,” she responded softly. “Toasty warm.”
I stole a glance at her face as I set the food in front of her. Her cheeks were rosy, eyes bright, and her soft smile made my chest squirm.
She hummed and did a little dance as she took her first bite. “This is amazing. Thank you so much. For everything.”
My alpha puffed up at the compliment. “You live in town?”
“Yeah, I live above my shop. You might know it—Spring in Your Stitch?”
I drove down Main Street every time I headed to the fire station for a shift, but I did my best to avoid the stores. Besides the market and occasional take-out order from the local Chinese restaurant, I kept to myself. Although now that I thought about it, I bet Lucy’s shop was the pink one with flowers all over it.
“You shouldn’t tell strangers where you live,” I grunted.
Lucy scrunched her nose and giggled. “Well, I know where you live and work, so you better be careful.”
The idea of this omega being a threat to me made me grin, but my smile quickly fell when I realizedIwas the threat to her. Not that I would ever intentionally hurt her, but my inner alpha couldn’t be trusted.
“If you have any clothes you need tailored or mended, drop them off at my store,” she continued, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “I’m pretty sure saving my life entitles you to free tailoring services. Several of the firefighters come in regularly to have me tailor their clothes.”
The thought of my guys—young, attractive, and moving around the world without my baggage—going into Lucy’s shop ignited a vicious feeling in my chest that felt suspiciously like jealousy. I could imagine them fawning over her, trying to get her attention.
I ground my teeth. “I bet they do.”
“It must be hard to be so tall and muscular you can’t fit into regular clothing.” She batted her eyes almost like she wasflirting.
