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Chapter Five
Aurora
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THE MANSION DOES INDEED have a library. And it is blessedly empty when I finally find it. I rush in and sink down onto one of the plush couches with a groan, the scent I caught still messing with my mind.
Rose eyes me from the doorway. "Are you all right?"
I wave off her concern. “Yeah. Just overwhelmed by the scents."
Rose's face contorts into a commiserating grimace. "Want me to stay with you?"
I shake my head. “You know I'm perfectly happy holing up in here. Are you going to be okay? I can come back in with you?"
"I'll be fine. Robert and I always team up once I get you settled."
He’s another omega friend of ours who is fucking over this bullshit. He’s planning to age out like I am, but he has a little more patience for these events than I do. And he’s very good at tearing down alphas who get a little too puffed.
"Thank you. Come find me when you're ready to leave. Or if you need me for anything."
Rose nods. “Of course. I'll sneak some more food into you later."
"Good luck."
Rose blushes as she ducks from the room, unable to keep the flash of hope out of her eyes. She may like to act like she's just biding her time until she ages out of this program, but she truly does want to find her pack. She doesn't have a happy home to return to if she doesn't find one.
Something I can empathize with, though at least I have my father. And a long education and a career waiting for me, even with an alpha ultimately in control of my life and affairs. Rose joined the exchange early, right out of high school, desperate to get away from her family.
Hopefully, this town is finally the one where Rose can find her pack, her home, her happily ever after.
I don’t hope for the same thing for myself. I stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings a long time ago. The first time I saw my father's black eye. Finding someone with an incredible scent who makes my mouth water doesn't mean I’ve found my perfect match or other half or soul mate or any bullshit like that.
The delicious scent I caught outside still lingers in my nose, keeping me off balance. It almost smells like whoever it is has been in here recently. Or is coming closer.
The scent is caramel and cinnamon, like one of my favorite sweet treats.
I shoot back up to my feet, backing away from the door, staring at it with wide eyes and a pounding pulse. All these years and I’ve never come up against a smell that is so tempting.
When no one enters, I relax and turn back to the shelves with a clenched jaw, determined to forget the scent and the party outside. This library is more tempting than any scent out there and I pull books off shelves, stacking them onto one of the couches, one by one, until the towering pile is taller than me, threatening to topple over.
Wishing I had my journal or computer with me, I sit next to the pile of books and start flipping through them, committing as much information to memory as I can, snapping pictures with my phone of other pages. This isn’t even the town's library, and already there's so much information that relates to my research and work.
Whoever's library this is might be a bit of a kindred spirit. I’ll have to find out and maybe they'll let me borrow some of the books. Or the space. Someone is interested in the biology of our species, just like me.
I lose myself so deep into my research, I don’t notice the new presence in the room with me until they clear their throat from right in front of me.
I jump and almost spill the book to the floor, barely catching it in time and gripping it against my thumping chest as I stare at the handsome beta. "Uh, hello. Sorry, I didn't notice you come in? Should I not be in here?"
