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Gray stomped away without looking back at me, and my heart surprised me by falling slightly–this was just sex. And, really, it wasn’tsexsex, it was… heat sex. That was different. It was medically necessary.
Right, Madison. Sure.
I resolved to pay for my own dinner.
That way, this wouldn’t feel so much like a date.
* * *
“I don’t have,uh, I don’t have the cash on me right now to pay.” I didn’t mention that just one of the fancy french bottles of wine on the menu in front of me would overdraw my debit card. “But, I promise, I will. I don’t want you to have to pay for me.” I could pick another shift at work, probably.
“I can think of a way you could pay us back,” Rian purred, his eyes twinkling, then, “ouch!” as I heard someone kick him under the table. We were at an unassumingly casual French bistro that had seemed surprisingly chill–no tablecloths, satisfyingly sturdy ceramic dishes and an open kitchen–until I had checked the prices next to the various dishes on offer.
“Sorry–” both alphas said.Twokicks. I almost giggled, but Lucas continued. “We don’t have to pay for you.” His brows were drawn close as he frowned at me. “Wewantto pay for you. We asked you to dinner, we’ll pay. Don’t worry about it.”
I looked down at the menu instead of holding his gaze. “I don’t expect to be treated like… like this just because I’m an omega.”
“Like what?” Lucas asked.
“Like…” I let out a deep breath. “Like, taken out to a fancy restaurant. You don’t have to buy me dinner and stuff, just because of my designation. I don’t expect that kind of thing, just because I’m an omega now. I don’t need to be spoiled, or whatever. Maybe you forgot that I was a beta until like, three months ago.” I looked to Rian with a smile on my face; he would understand. But the expression he wore was unreadable.
“If you’re uncomfortable with us buying you dinner for, uh,moralreasons,” Lucas started, but Gray cut him off.
“Rian will pay,” he said, simply.
“I will?” Rian asked. “I mean, yes, I will. I’m happy to. I don’t know whyme, but–”
“Because you have made about enough to pay for dinner…” Gray continued, “aboutnow, if I had to guess.” Rian was blushing, his eyes moving between mine and Gray’s. “Rian is Chief Executive Officer at a publicly traded company. A profitable one. I’m sure you saw that in our files, but perhaps you didn’t understand what it meant. Between the time we sat down, and just a moment ago, his share of the company has earned him enough money to pay for your dinner, and his, and mine, and yes, even Lucas’s. I’m being conservative, of course. I’d hate to put him out.” Gray was watching Rian turn faintly pink, the blush coming up from his shirt collar. “He could probably just buy the whole restaurant.”
“Still,” I said. “I–”
“And he’s a beta,” Gray concluded, flagging down a waiter, his assertive voice brooking no argument.What was that supposed to mean?But… I did feel more comfortable with Rian, it was true. I knew it was because he was a beta. A neatly dressed man scurried towards our table. Gray requested an eye-wateringly expensive bottle of red wine. Lucas turned to the waiter as well, ordering an array of starters, and I imagined the twelve hours of filing it would take me to pay for a meal here with my hourly salary.
“Let me,” Rian said to me, while the others were distracted with their orders. “It would make me happy.” He hesitated before he spoke again, and I knew that through the magic of compound interest or whatever, he was making money just sitting there. Maybe he could give me some stock tips. “I know it can be uncomfortable, letting an alpha pay–”
“This isn’t a date,” I confirmed, and saw his grimace. “I just mean, I don’t want–”
“I understand,” he said, holding his hands up. “No expectations. Just one beta buying another a meal, I promise.”
It was his smile that did it: small and slightly crooked, the first imperfection I had noticed in his face, there and then gone, making him look even more handsome.
“Fine,” I nodded, and the smile that grew now was his usual one, broad and charming.
“Finally.” He looked at his menu once again. “Now, do you like steak?” I did, but… I had been planning on getting a salad. He cut me off even before I had a chance to protest. “You stalled for such a long time, I think…” he pulled out a wallet from his back pocket and peeked inside. “Yes, I think I can afford it right about…now.” He winked at me as he put his wallet away, and ordered two steaks, one for each of us.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Lucas
Gray sometimes surprised me,even still.
I had expected him to be… jealous. Greedy, even, when it came to Madison.
And for that matter, when it came to Rian, too.
It had taken us a long time to come to an equilibrium, just the three of us; Gray and I were too similar in some ways–and too different in others–to ever have managed as a pack of two, even temporarily. We needed Rian’s stabilizing force. But it had also taken Gray–us,I self-corrected,I had certainly not been faultless–a long time to feel comfortable with the idea of Rian and me. I expected it would be the same now, with this latest (potential,I self-corrected again,temporary) addition: a delicate give and take between us, the two alphas of the pack, feeling out each other’s boundaries as they shifted like lines drawn in sand.
Watching my pack’s other alpha play the beta and omega off of each other back at home, and then suggesting Rian pay for dinner?
