“Miss Gilmore,” I nod. “Come on in. Was kinda hoping you’d swing by sometime.”
My tone is cheerful but completely fake. The tension in the room shifts a little, not for the worse, but also not for the better. She’s surveying me. Trying to figure me out. Reading every single one of my tells for any falseness.Oh, don’t worry, darlin’, they’re all there, but your pretty little eyes won’t figure out shit.
Lennon hesitates a little more before finally shaking her head, her own soft smile replacing any doubt she may have felt. I’m not a fool. I know that a woman like her in a world filled with Alphas like me is bound to be protective of herself. I thought she’d be a helpless, defenseless Omega, but I’ve come to learn that I’m not always right about my assumptions. A rarity. And as my eyes lock onto hers, I can’t deny how glad I am of the fight we’re inevitably going to be faced with when the time comes. Even if, deep down, there’s something inside me that hates the mere idea of that. But I can’t entertain it. Won’t entertain it.
For Sasha.
“Sorry that it’s taken me so long. The idea of time in this place is insane. If I didn’t have a watch, I swear I’d lose myself in here,” she chuckles shyly, walking past the threshold and over to the bench I was just working at. The corner of my mouth twitches as I close the door behind her, the lock sliding into place with a muted click.
“It’s fine. Really. The equipment manager is hardly on your list of important people to see,” I chuckle darkly. I sort of meant it, but I don’t care enough about it to write to management. That’s how it always is here. Besides, I know my job and I do it well. The last thing I fucking want is to be micromanaged, or to have some young intern asshole fuck with my vibe. Which will no doubt happen if I so much as make a single complaint. So, I keep to myself and do my job, and in turn, everyone here leaves me the hell alone, save for my guys.
Lennon frowns at the sudden change of tone in my voice. She’s right there. No more than three feet away from me. Her scent might as well fucking drown me because my whole body feels like it’s on fire with her being this close. It was the same as the other day when she bumped into me. Her being close enough to touch is sort of electric. As if her mere presence ignites a spark in me, and now that I know what it feels like, I can’t get enough.
“That’s where you are wrong, Dominic.”
Fuck.
The way my name sounds on her tongue is far too tempting. It makes me want things. Things I know that I can’t have.Yet. Not until Sasha, my Alpha, says so.
“The way I see it,” she continues, drawing me out of my wayward thoughts, which seem to be happening a lot more frequently in the past few days. “The equipment manager plays a vital role within the club, one that goes far too under-appreciated. You are the backbone of every single practice and game day. You are the one who ensures that our players are equipped and ready. Don’t sell yourself short, Dom.”
Well fuck me dead.
In a matter of moments, this Omega has chipped away at the walls I had been fortifying. With every moment I seem to be spending in her presence, she shows me just how perfect for us she really is. How fate chose right when they made her ours.
It was reality that fucked up when they destined us together. Tying the daughter of a monster to three equally terrifying creatures was a mistake. One I plan on using in my favor.
I narrow my eyes at her, trying to get my own unbiased read on the woman. I know what I have been told to feel. The part that I am expected to play in all of this.
That doesn’t mean I am a blind sheep.
“You are different from what I thought you would be,” I murmur, more to myself than to her.
“What? Didn’t expect the new owner to be an Omega? Or is it because I am a woman?”
There is a defensive note in her tone, her walls quickly beginning to form, and I know if I don’t do something drastic now, I will have to work ten times harder to slither my way in to break her back down.
She goes to turn, but I catch her hand, pulling her into my body. She grunts, her form slamming into me. I let go of her hand, only to direct my touch to her hips.
If I had known how much of an effect she would have had on me this close, I might have let her get away. Because now that I have her in my arms, it's going to be real fucking hard to let her go. But I have to. I can’t keep her. At least not permanently. Even though that thought alone goes against everything my body is programmed to feel.
Her gasp has my attention drawn to her lips. The plush surface taking every single thing I had promised Sasha and turning it into dust.
Fuck.
“You are beautiful. So fucking beautiful it is hard to breathe.” I can’t stop the words as they spill out of me, my voice low and raspy, like I’m fighting for damn air. Well, it’s too late. They’re out there, and there isn’t a single thing I can do about it now.
“I…” she begins, but I stop her before she can say anything else, placing my finger over her lips. My knot continues to throb painfully, begging me to sink into her depths. To feel her warmth as it wraps around me, welcoming me home like I know she would.
“You’re an enigma to me,” I confess quietly. “A contradiction. One that I am desperate to know.”
For a moment, I give in to the fantasy. To the dangerous notion that I could have this. That I could get the girl, the one fate delivered to our doorstep. The one my body recognizes ashome, even when my mind screams otherwise. That somehow, against all reason, all the shifting pieces would fall into their rightful places. But reality crashes over me like a bucket of ice water. This isn’t some fucking fairytale. So I gather myself. Rebuild the walls that almost crumbled beneath nothing more than a smile and a pair of soft, nutmeg eyes. Reminding myself of the mission at hand and the role I am supposed to play. Because she’s so easy to get lost in. Pure temptation is pulling me toward the parts of myself I would rather leave buried. Parts I don’t like. Parts that look at this woman, this Omega, and wonder what life might have been like if fate hadn’t decided to be so fucking cruel.
Whoever said finding your scent match felt like heaven wasn’t lying. Then, ripping everything out from under me, the second it feels too real. Only our situation is rather… unique. Because while my body sees salvation, my mind sees disaster. Every instinct inside me screams to protect her. To touch her. To keep her close. To claim what fate deemed mine. But that’s not how this is going to go. Because reality reminds me who she is. Who am I? And somewhere between instinct, loyalty, and duty, attraction and vengeance, my mind and body are locked in a war neither seems willing to lose. A war that might just destroy us all. There will be no winners here.
Sasha might not see it, but I’m sure he will in time. Probably when it’s too late.
We’ll all have a scent-match-sized void carved into our fucking souls. One that nothing and no one will ever fill. Ever mend. And once what’s done is done, we’ll be left with nothing but ghosts of the men we once were. Hollow versions of ourselves. I just know it. I can already see it happening. In the way her brown eyes glisten beneath the fluorescent lights. In the way she looks at me. Not with fear, though the thought of her fearing me makes mycock twitch beneath the fabric of my jeans, but with something that has no business existing between us.
