“Sure thing.” The bartender took his card and swiped it in her machine. “What can I start you with?”
“Whatever you’d recommend that you have on tap,” Chad said. The bartender—her nametag read Jane—looked surprised.
“Really?”
From the look on Jane’s face she hadn’t meant to say that.
Chad laughed. “Sure, why not?” He unzipped his coat and put his elbows on the bar, leaning forward.
Jane was cute, and Chad wouldn’t mind getting to know her a little better. He’d always enjoyed flirting, and there had been precious little of that in the eight weeks he’d been off working with a group of nothing but alphas.
“Oh, it’s just… you know. Alphas usually tend to know exactly what they want, you know?”
Chad wasn’t offended. That kind of posturing—where you pretended to know everything—had always seemed foolish to him. He was an alpha; he didn’t have to prove it to anyone by being an asshole.
“It’s just a beer. Why? Would you like me better if I growled my order at you and slammed my fist on the bar?” Chad grinned, quirking his eyebrow in a way he knew women found charming.
Jane blushed.
“No. It’s just a nice change, that’s all,” Jane said. She took a glass and started filling it up, looking down and smiling.
Chad had this in the bag.
Just as Jane was sliding his beer toward him, still smiling and making eye contact, Chad felt an alpha push his way into the space between him and the beta sitting on the stool to the right. Looking up, annoyed, Chad swallowed his protest at the sheer dominance radiating off the newcomer.
The alpha was taller than Chad by several inches, and he was bulky with muscle in a way that made Chad look lean. There was a cruel smile on the alpha’s face, his eyes mocking as he stared down at Chad.
“Are you trying to score with the bartender, kid?” the alpha asked, laughing like it was funny. Chad couldn’t help the way his head tilted back to expose his neck, acknowledging just how outmatched he was.
“Yes,” he responded honestly. He might be intimidated, but he wasn’t going to cower. Not unless he was forced to.
The intimidating alpha’s grin widened. He reached back and physically pushed the beta sitting behind him out of his seat, taking the stool without so much as a look at the poor guy he’d shoved to the floor.
“So you’re not saving up for a cute little omega?” The alpha took a sip of his bottled beer, looking at Chad as he swallowed.
Chad shrugged, confused. What did saving to buy an omega have to do with hitting on the bartender?
“Well?” the alpha demanded, his tone suddenly hard.
“Yes, I’m saving for an omega. Why?”
The alpha shrugged, looking Chad up and down like he was sizing him up for parts. The scrutiny made Chad want to shrink back, and his stomach felt weird and fluttery.
He didn’t want to be here.
“No reason. I’m not allowed to be curious?”
Chad thought the question was rhetorical, but when the silence stretched out and the alpha’s stare turned into a glare Chad realized it hadn’t been.
“Of course you are.”
“Good boy,” the alpha said, his lip pulling up in a smirk. Chad shifted in his seat, wondering what the other man wanted.
Was he just unaware of how he affected people?Chad dismissed that idea right away. The alpha was playing with him, and he knewexactlywhat he was doing.
“Name’s Aiden,” Aiden held out a big hand for Chad to shake. “And you are?”
“I’m… uh, Chad.” Chad took Aiden’s hand, wincing when the alpha squeezed down like he was trying to crush his hand.
