The omega with the designer luggage and a claim on Calder.
Heat rushes up my neck and into my face as though she just caught me kissing her boyfriend. Or as though she knew I was thinking about it. Which is just as bad.
“Ginny said she’d seen you heading this way.” She spots me, and her eyes narrow briefly. She arches an eyebrow when her gaze tracks down to my hands in the soil, a look of distaste twisting her mouth into an unpleasant shape. “It’s late.”
Calder’s expression doesn’t falter. “Sophie, this is Elowen.”
“Elowen,” she repeats. “New girl.”
I bristle. “Just Elowen.” I smile at her until she looks away, my heart hammering.
“Are you coming, Calder?” There’s an edge to her voice now.
He inhales deeply. “Yeah, I was just leaving.”
He hesitates then moves toward the door and pauses, glancing back at the tables, at the pots beginning to fill. I sense his eyes lingering on me, but I refuse to acknowledgethem.
Then Sophie links her arm with his and the door closes gently behind them.
I open the third packet, refusing to follow them with my eyes.New girl. She probably meant nothing by it, so why am I letting it get to me?
Who am I kidding? She meant it exactly as it was received.
“Focus, Elowen.” Deep breath.
Feverfew seeds, powder fine. These go into the last prepared pot, scattered across moistened soil. I press them gently into place and step back.
The greenhouse smells like earth and cedar, only now there’s a faint scent of caramel lingering in the air.
Sophie. Of course.
“Stupid,” I mutter to Juniper, who is sitting on the workbench staring at the door like she might bring him back with her magical cloudy eye. “I came here to learn, not to get sidetracked by a good-looking alpha.”
But my fluttering heart is warning me that it might be too late.
4
ELOWEN
My first scheduledclass is small, an introductory seminar on pack dynamics and consent theory. The room smells faintly of chalk and old wood, windows cracked open to let the breeze through.
I take a seat near the side, close enough to hear but far enough to observe.
A voice drifts toward me before the professor arrives. "This seat taken?"
I glance up. Inhale maple syrup and summer grass.
The alpha arranging the bowling event stands there, notebook tucked under one arm, expression open in a way that suggests he's never had to guard it. He's wearing a faded cream-colored tee layered under an open button-down in soft blue, the kind of casual that looks effortless. Comfortable jeans, canvas sneakers. His hair is lighter than Calder's, sun-touched brown with natural highlights, curls escaping a loose tie at his nape.
“Go for it.” I try to focus on my empty notepad as he settles into the seat next to me. He has a girlfriend too. Not that it’s important, or any of my business, or even something I should be thinking about. But I heard him on the phone to her in town.
He arranges his books with unhurried movements. "I'm Tyler."
"Elowen."
"Nice to meet you, Elowen." He says my name like it's meant to be spoken out loud, and my pulse picks up a notch. "First class nerves?"
"Not really." I don’t meet his eyes when I add, “Nerves are for big moments.”
