Opening my eyes, I saw her hopeful face. Nothing of what I’d said had gotten through to her. She wasn’t wrong to get the matchmaking done quickly now that I was done with college. My reputation around town would only be improved by a decent match. My heart longed for something else, something more than an arrangement.
Mom and Dad were a love match, because Mom wasn’t the only omega in her family. The matchmaking was saved for her brother, who ended up loving his alpha. Maybe I’d be like my uncle and get lucky.
“Does that mean—“
“We’ll discuss it with Dad!” Another deep breath. “I’m heading into town.”
“Do you have your inhibitor?”
Holding up my arm, I flashed her the silver bracelet which covered my prey animal scent. “Got it.”
“Had to check,” she said sheepishly. “You know what you’re like.”
Yeah, I hated wearing it, though it was part of the town’s rules. One of the many things to get used to again in this godforsakentown. I’d gotten out of the habit of it while away for college since I barely came home for holidays, working on campus instead.
I’d still been the target for gossip the couple of times I’d visited in the last few years. My parents actually took time off work to visit with me instead.
Stone had come to see me at college a couple times, one of the few Haenvale residents I actually wanted to stay in touch with. He was policing the tear on the human side, meaning he was uncontactable for the next few months. I worried about my friend. The tear was dangerous. Supernaturals on Earth One got desperate, violent even. I didn’t want him to get hurt.
The sun glinted off my inhibitor, blinding me momentarily. Our mayor, a witch, had insisted we all wear them, hiding our true selves to make it easier for us to get along. As if there weren’t other reasons for people, shifters, witches, vampires, trolls, etc, to fight. Though I suppose not being attacked for being a little quokka by a wolf shifter was a bonus. Worth wearing the damn bracelet, even if it made my nose twitch.
Certain she would win our coming argument, Mom vanished back into the house, and I mademy way towards the center of town to blow off some steam.
Life had been so different in college. Freer. Except, the only reason I’d been allowed to go in the first place was that it was for prey animals only. There was a building on campus of witches and other supernaturals, like the odd troll, but vampires and predator shifters were strictly forbidden. It was a haven, much like our town.
Was it perfect? No. It didn’t really teach us how to cope around predators, or for them to handle being around us, I guess, unless they were from big cities. My parents had terrible experiences in their pasts, not always having lived in Haenvale. Hence why we lived in a town like mine.
Haenvale was once a community of like-minded prey shifters who were sick of always being afraid. They’d come to the little beach town and made friends with a witch. From there, the town had grown into the bustling town it now was.
The rules were simple: always wear your inhibitor outside of your house and never, ever, go wandering in the woods to the westof the town alone.
“Sully! Over here!” Trisha called from the corner of Rosie’s café. It was the regular meeting spot for many of the residents of Haenvale. I’d worked there while in high school. I’d quit after the incident in the woods, unable to take the snide comments from Cress and his friends who’d gotten into trouble for drinking and daring me to go into the woods.
Haenvale was a bustling town, fairly densely populated given its size. There were bars and chain restaurants all over the place. It was a popular tourist spot, after all, but none of them were as special as Rosie’s.
Being at college had been kinda lonely without Trisha nearby. She had gone to study law at a mixed college where I was expressly forbidden to visit. Thankfully, my bestie came through and would meet me at her aunt’s or come stay in my dorm.
“Hey,” I called and headed to the counter. I waited patiently in line for my caffeine fix,knowing the iced caramel latte I was about to order would hit the spot.
A cold beer would’ve been nice, but alcohol messed with my heat suppressants. I was not going into heat in this godforsaken town with a line of alphas waiting to mate me, especially considering some of those candidates!
“Usual, Sully?” Rosie asked as I got to the front of the line. She was a sweet, older alpha rabbit shifter who had been running the café since before I was born. It was a wonder she still remembered my order since it had been at least two years since I’d last set foot in the place. If possible, I loved her more for recalling such a small detail about me.
“Please. Oat milk if you have it.”
“You got it. I’ll have Taylor bring it out.”
I should have guessed Taylor would be working. They were Rosie’s omega partner, a female presenting non-binary mouse shifter I adored. The couple were, obviously, couple goals. I loved them together and they, unlike my parents, modeled the kind of mating I wanted.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my parents together, they just didn’t always communicate well. Even though she was the omega of the house, my mom usually got her way, oftenignoring what Dad wanted. Not that he was any better. Dad always wanted an easy life, giving her anything she took a fancy to, often at the expense of me and my older siblings.
Yep, I was the baby. Mom wanted me mated to have their house back to themselves. I honestly thought if we were wild quokkas like they had on Earth One, I would have been the baby she would have dropped out of her pouch to distract dingos sniffing around our den. We didn’t always have the best relationship. Sometimes I wondered if she resented me for coming along after she thought her family was complete.
Rosie’s fond smile brought me back to the moment. “Great. I’ve not seen Tay in ages. How’s things?” The café was pretty busy as usual with a mix of townsfolk and tourists alike.
“Oh you know how it goes this time of year.”
Yeah, I really did. I was dreading work later because a ton of new people had already arrived and were sure to need something during the night. They always did. During school, when I wasn’t working at Rosie’s I was working at the hotel, helping out where I was needed.
