Page 14

How can I have forgotten anything about my Alpha and Beta?

I press play.

There is a rustle first like wind, followed by something metallic clanging in the background.

My brow furrows in confusion.

Then Beau’s voice fills the room.

My heart aches.

“Berry, I’m at the feed store. They ain’t got that coffee you like. They got the other one, though. The one in the red bag. Just text me which⁠—”

“BUY COOKIES!” Evan shouts behind him.

Beau sighs. “And apparently we’re buying cookies for our already too hyper Beta.”

When the recording ends, I stare at the phone.

That’s it, only twelve seconds.

I press play again, three times, until my cheeks are slick with tears.

I lay the leather jacket over my head, cocooning myself with the phantom scent and ghost voices, and allow myself to pretend that if I only send them a text back about the right coffee, Beau will return with the red bag of beans, while Evan will be at his side happily munching cookies.

Please…

Unexpectedly, the door bangs open, and I jump.

“Beau.” I throw the leather jacket off my head, dropping the phone.

I sit up. My hair sticks out wildly at every angle.

“Are you still alive in here? Because it smells like something died.” My Beta sister barrels into the room.

Sophie’s faded T-shirt over her jeans reads I LIKE DOGS AND MAYBE THREE PEOPLE. The lettering is half-hidden beneath enough golden dog hair that I know she must have worked a night shift at the Second Chance Animal Rescue.

Sophie’s dark, choppy pixie cut is almost as much a tangled mess as my own hair. She also has a silver hoop piercing in her nose. She is a couple of years younger than me. Her hazel eyes are dancing with a life that I don’t think mine ever will again.

She is clutching a small brown bag and a steaming white paper cup, which is stamped with the blue oak logo of the Feed Store Café with a black plastic lid snapped over the top.

I sniff the delicious scent of the coffee, interested despite myself.

It’s my favorite.

For a moment, I allow myself to pretend that it is the scent of my Alpha.

My sister is the devil. She knows how to tempt Omegas. But then, this year, she has had a lot of practice.

I press my hand to my aching head. “Too loud, Soph.”

“Just loud enough,” Sophie replies brightly. She bangs open the shutters, and I scuttle back out of the stream of bright sunlight that floods into my bedroom.

“Too bright.” I wrap my arms over my eyes.

“What are you? A vampire Omega?”

I squint at her. “I bite.”