Fuck. Me.
Her scent fills my cab quickly, sweet on my tongue and twisting my soul until my cock is hard in response. Women smell good, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve never encountered someone like her. She’s something else, fucking with my brain, and I have to shake my head and open both windows before I can drive.
“What the fuck? Are you insane?”
She even curses good, and I swallow a grunt, shifting on my seat so she doesn’t spot the tent growing on my lap. I press on the gas, and the truck speeds down the hill where Wilde Ranch sits. The wind is loud enough to muffle her words, and the dust is so uncomfortable that my cock goes down, and I can relax again.
Willow Ridge is a small town, and a little boring if anything. There’s not much to see besides a bar, which I’ve been to a few times, and some local stores that mostly carry cowboy attire. People here like to be in everyone’s business, which means I have to work extra hard not to be dragged into gossip. There's no way they won’t notice we now have a woman.
And the most beautiful woman anyone has ever seen at that.
Fucking St. James knew what he was doing when he sent me his granddaughter. She’s gorgeous and full of attitude, and I don’t know what to do with her. Of all his lies, I’m fairly sure he wasn’t lying about her age, which means she’s twenty-one. She’s too fucking young, twenty years younger than me, and I should remember that especially when her sweet scent clouds my mind and leaves me empty with a hard cock.
There’s so much I want to ask and plenty I need to understand, but to engage in conversation, I’d need to close the windows, and I obviously can’t do that without losing my cool. It’s useless. This whole drive is out of my control, and I can’t do anything but remain silent until I find a place to park right on the main street. I’m relieved when Iget to leave the truck and breathe out, but damn, manners will be the end of me, and I round the truck and open her door quickly before she even takes off the seat belt.
“Thank you.” The words slip through her lips. She blushes and snaps her mouth closed into a thin line. She didn’t mean to be polite in return, but I guess it’s hammered into us.
Derrick and Jesse are not far behind. They look frustrated, and at this point, I am too, so I just shake my head to let them know I don’t want to talk about it.
“Come on, Veda. Show us what you can eat,” Jesse says, showing her the direction of the grocery store.
She smiles at him so easily, making my teeth grind. Fuck this. I watch them make their way down the street. Her backside moves in a way that makes my mouth water, and I have to shake myself from the trance. This is not good. Not by a long mile.
“Did you learn whatever you wanted to learn?” Derrick interrupts my salacious thoughts.
I lean against my truck, but my eyes are still glued to her, drinking her in until she goes inside a store with Jesse, and I can finally swallow the uncomfortable knot in my throat.
“Have you noticed her scent?”
My gaze shifts back to my brother, and I find him stunned after my question. He pushes his hat down into his brows, choosing his words carefully.
“She smells good.”
Too good,I want to say, but I don’t. The obvious connotation of my question rings between us, but I don’t even know what I mean by this. Is it possible she’s an Omega? We haven’t seen one around here this generation. It just doesn’t make sense.
And what about St. James? I met him a couple of times, and I know for a fact he’s a Beta and has never seemed to know about Alphas and Omegas. Our world. There’s no reason he should have an Omega as a granddaughter, so I can’t ask. What kind of question would that be? If he doesn’t know about us, I will sound insane.
“I keep thinking about Mom’s lecture when we started leaving the township for a few nights,” Derrick says, reading my mind. “Never let anyone know who we are. The township is hidden for a reason.”
“She used to say the same thing every time I went out, even if it was just to grab supplies.”
He surprises me by chuckling. “When I left for the rodeo, she lectured me for hours.”
“She thought you were going to fall in love with a Beta and knot her.”
“Never felt the need to knot them.” He shrugs, and I know what he means.
Mom was always scared that we would have sex and accidentally knot someone, as if that was a possibility. Our dads tried to reassure her that it wouldn’t happen. There’s no drive to knot someone when you don’t scent-match, but Mom is an Omega who only ever was with her pack. She doesn’t understand the emptiness of sleeping with someone who isn’t your fated mate.
Knotting someone was never a risk.
Veda laughs as she and Jesse leave the store. The sound is musical, and we both turn at once. My mouth waters when I take her in, and something in my gut goes tight and twists at once. She makes a liar out of me because I want nothing more than to knot this woman.
eight
Veda
Jesse throws his head back, wind brushing away his curls, as I watch in fascination. It occurs to me that this might be one of Grandpa’s tests because I’ve never seen men so gorgeous as the ones at Wilde Ranch. They are larger than life, not only in personality but also incredibly tall, over six feet, and take up all the space everywhere they go. Wide chests, big hands, and smirks. It’s hard to think with them around.
