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The fairy tale of love and happiness. Of a future where I never have to hurt again. That isn’t life. That isn’t real. It is as fake as a mirage of water on hot cement in the summer, always there just out of reach but disappearing when you go toward it.
“No, I don’t want a pack. Especially one with three alphas. Do you think I’m crazy?” My perfume has a metallic scent, like metal melted in with the brownies. It turns my stomach.
My gaze shifts to Dean, and he looks pale, as if I physically hurt him with my words. As crazy as it sounds, I want to snatch them back from the air. I don’t want to hurt any of them, because it feels a lot like hurting myself.
“We would never force our bite on you,” Dean utters the words, and they sound hollow, like he is only a husk of himself.
“Good.” I want to retreat into the room, but I don’t. Instead, I face them both as if waiting for something else. To what? Tell me I’m wrong? Force me to submit? Is that what I want?
“Audrey, I know you feel it, too,” Felix says. “You can’t run from a match.”
A shiver racks my body, and Dean steps forward to steady me, but I dodge his touch. “No.”
“Felix, drop it. We will force nothing on her.” Dean steps back, putting an ocean of space between us with the single movement. “Austin wants to take you out tonight. You can wear a mask to conceal your identity. He’s requested you be ready by seven.”
He didn’t have to say ‘or else’. I knew Austin now, and he would get pleasure out of dressing me like a doll.
“Where are we going?” I’d need at least that information to be in the right clothing.
“A fight ring.” He sounds dead inside, and it twists my heart in my chest the same as if he had reached inside and done it with his fingers.
“He agreed to that?” Felix turns wide eyes on Dean.
Without answering, Dean presses his lips into a tight line and retreats to his room. Leaving me alone with Felix. Who hadn’t tried to trap me after all. I curl my fingers into the sleeves of the hoodie as we stare silently at each other. Shifting my weight, I’m not sure what to say.
Felix toys with his eyebrow ring, while sucking his lip ring into his mouth. He doesn’t look like I devastated him. He looks a lot like he is trying to figure out how to get me to see his point of view. I can see the wheels turning.
“I’ll give you time to adjust. But once Austin realizes, all promises are off. He doesn’t want an omega any more than you want three alphas, so at least you’ll be on the same page of denial. But once he is all in, he will get what he wants.” The way his voice lowers in promise sends a tendril of excitement straight to the pit of my stomach. Not that I want to be trapped, no that isn’t it at all.
Instead of answering him, I hug myself and nibble on my lower lip. “I’m going to get ready.”
He nods but doesn’t move a muscle, so I back into my room and shut the door between us. I don’t know if he stays outside the door, but I can almost feel his presence on the other side. Entering the walk-in closet, I eye the racks of clothing. It is probably more clothes than I had even when my parents were alive.
Designer jeans in the perfect size and in every shade imaginable line one full rack, and I tug a black pair off. I have a feeling that a fight ring isn’t a cheerful place. Sin would love to go to one, but he’d want to be in the ring, not watching.
Completing the look with a soft navy t-shirt and another hoodie, I lift my shirt over my head. Getting a face full of Felix. After pulling my hair free, I press the old hoodie to my nose and inhale deeply. Just the smell of him fills me with warmth. I am so screwed.
There is something about his scent that calms me. And I am sure it is because he is a scent match. I’d pegged that as a fairy tale, only onOmega in Paradise, but the feelings swirling in my stomach don’t feel like something that is fake.
Tossing the hoodie on top of the one that still smells like Austin, I hesitate before pulling that one out and sniffing it. The same calm when Austin’s spicy fall scent hits me. Because insanity is obviously my middle name, I pick back up the Felix hoodie and shove my face into it, bringing Austin’s hoodie to my nose at the same time.
My whole body tingles. Can you have an orgasm from smell alone? I am pretty sure if I had Dean’s scent in here, too, I’d be in heaven. Since, apparently, I am embracing the crazy, I carry both hoodies back to my bed and put them on my pillows.
I can fantasize about each of them. It doesn’t mean I have to accept their bite. Do I realize I am headed down a dangerous path? Yes. One-hundred percent. But this train car is out of control, and there is no stopping it now.
Once I change and apply new make-up, I am as ready as I’m going to be. Felix is on the sofa, staring out the darkening window. He has thankfully found a shirt. Instead of dropping next to him like I would have prior to what happened, I take up Dean’s armchair. I know it is because it smells like him. Enveloping me in a hug that is a sharp bite of lemon, followed by the soft leather.
A sigh slips out as I curl up into the large chair, and Felix eyes me knowingly, but keeps his comments to himself. I wonder if he can tell I want to climb into his lap and nuzzle into his neck too. Stupid hormones.
At almost exactly seven, the door swings open, and Austin strides in. His suit jacket hangs open and his hair is slightly disheveled, as if he ran his fingers through it during the day, and sunglasses block his violet eyes. It is full on dark, and he has on sunglasses. I snort, and he pins me with a look.
“What are you wearing?” he barks.
I shift in the chair beneath his intense attention. “Jeans and a hoodie–” I say, trailing off as if it is a question instead of what I am actually wearing.
“You are not going to the club in that.”
“Club?” I squeak. I thought we were going to an underground fight ring. Silly me.
