CHAPTER
ONE
ABEL
“Kev! I think this one might be the one!” He places his hands on my shoulders to lean closer.
The small intake of air he lets out when his eyes land on the omega filling my computer screen is enough to tell me he has the same gut reaction I did just a second ago. “Is he available?”
Available.
That word makes me sick to my stomach. Kev and I, as the two successful Alphas we are, shouldn’t have to browse an auction dating website… but here we are.
Kev was a professional wide receiver and played for almost a decade for the Nighthawks here in Boise, Idaho before he retired. We met eight years ago when he was a couple of years into his professional career and had hired me as his contractor to work on this very house we call our own now. And I’ll always be thankful to whoever put us on one another’s path because I could not imagine this life without him.
His pack.
A pack desperate for an omega.
I’m staring at the door where Kev just barged in mere seconds ago, letting my brain do it’s imagining of what life could be with an omega at the center of our pack. Needing to know more, I’m pulled out of my daydream about the sweet little omega on my screen.August, has a slight tinge of pink in his hair that has my blood pumping through my veins twice as fast and heading south to my knot before I know it.
We’ve been on too many dates to count over the past couple of years since deciding we wanted to bring an omega in. It’s always been Kev and I against the world, but the more we fought for dominance, the more it made me realize we needed softness. Anytime an omega was brought up, I could see the need and want in Kev’s eyes. Add in the soul-deep need I feel to bury my knot in an omega’s channel and we couldn’t deny ourselves any longer. I want to provide, care, and worship the ground my omega walks on, but we haven’t found the one yet.
When I met Kev, I knew immediately that he was mine. I never questioned anything. The moment we met, it was like my body pulled to him as if he were the other side of the magnet I was missing, and I had no desire to be connected to anyone else.
“I’m sending the message. We have to at least go on a date,” I rush out while typing my response.
This dating website—if we can even call it dating—is on the sketchier side, but one of the guys I work with found his omega on a very similar one, and they’ve been bonded for years now. This is the first omega that has stopped me in my tracks while just scrolling, and I refuse to let any promising omega slip through our fingers.
Kev pulls me out of my rabbit hole. “I’m going to shower and get ready. Let me know what the game plan is if you hear anything back.” I know he feels it too; none of the previous omegas even had him talking, let alone asking for an update, so I’m taking that and running with it.
This website is known for being quick and responsive, so I’m hoping we can see the omega tonight. Knowing one singular picture of the sweet omega caused this reaction from both of us may just put us in the beyond-certifiable category. But I have a good feeling about this one.
A feeling I’ve only experienced when it comes to Kev.
I barrel into Kev’s room, yelling into his en suite where the shower is still running, “Are you almost done? They responded and gave us the address to meet at for the date! We can’t miss this.”
Even though we’re together we still like having our separate spaces—the Alpha hormones become too much for us to bear sometimes. Because we’re both , there’s usually a fight for dominance, a quick dirty fuck, and then we go back to our own rooms. It’s why we’ve been on the hunt for an omega. We want the affection and care they can bring to a pack—the softness they require from their Alphas.
I may or may not have already put the payment through… Kev can’t say no now.
“Yeah, finishing up now.” There’s a pause, and I pull the glass door open since I can’t see through the condensation to make sure he’s okay. “Are you sure we should do this… what if this website isn’t taking the proper precautions and they’re hurting the omegas.”
Oh, Kev, my poor sweet soul. He overthinks every situation he’s in, but that overthinking sometimes saves our asses, so I don’t fully dismiss it.
I reassure him, “We’ll never know unless we go, and if we get there and it’s a bad situation, then we’ll call the authorities and leave.”
But not without taking our omega first.
He gives me a slight nod and turns the water off, and I hand him his towel. As I’m ogling him, my phone chimes in my pocket. My stomach falls to my ass as I read what’s on my screen from an unknown number.
Unknown
You have thirty minutes to get here, or your payment is forfeited, and the omega is given to someone else.
It’s in heat and is smelling up the whole place.
I read through the message one more time, and my stomach sinks yet again at the thought that Kev could be right about this whole situation. As much as I don’t want him to be.
