“That implies a choice, Ryan—one I thought I didn’t have. You’ve had time to work this out, to get to the point where you were prepared to pull up stumps and come and find me, but I didn’t get that. We didn’t keep in touch. I forced myself to never Google you, never stalk you on social media to see which omega you ended up with. I was told to forget you, and I did.” I stared at him then. “Just like you forgot me.”
I stiffened then, wanting to push my chair away from food that didn’t smell appetising anymore. I believed in communicating, in getting your thoughts out there, adding to the discourse, but…when I did that with the pack, the usual rules didn’t apply. Everything got so fucking intense.
I jumped when he settled down beside me. I hadn’t even heard him move. He wrapped his arm around me, sheltering me with his body, and it felt so good. I hated that and the way my body wanted to automatically lean into him. It was as if we slotted together like two puzzle pieces, made to fit. I hated that my stomach instantly settled, then grumbled for some food. So I focussed on grabbing another chip and then another, chewing them mechanically.
“Hey, I get it now…” he said in a soft hush of a voice, his arms going around me. “This is the shit we needed to know.”
“What, so you can revise your plans?”
“Too right. The first one is this, if you’ll listen to it.” I didn’t reply, so he took it as tacit approval. “We’re not going anywhere, love, no matter what happens. You reject the bond, we’ll still be here. We were friends before, and we can be again. We were a part of your life, and that’s gonna continue going forward.”
Damn, wasn’t that tempting? In just a few words, he’d created a mental image I couldn’t resist. We’d have to spend time together after work and on weekends, but it could be just like before. But instead of hanging around at school or in my room, we could go anywhere we liked—cafés for brunch, pubs for a drink, or even the clubs when Candy was done pestering the shit out of me. Which reminded me of what usually happened when I went out with her. She took her self-appointed status as wingman seriously, trying to find me a guy to take home that night.
“So what, you’ll wave me on my way when I go out on a date with some nice beta dude?” I asked.
That was when he went rigid, a low growl escaping his chest. He fought it, I could feel it in the slight shake in his arms, but it came out anyway. I might not have been an alpha or an omega, but I knew what I’d find when I turned around.
His eyes blazed bright silver, his lips drawn back from teeth that had lengthened, and his focus? It was entirely on me.
“Just…don’t talk about other guys, OK?”
I wanted to taunt him, rub it in his face that this was our reality, but I managed to bite my tongue, for once not digging myself a bigger hole. I did care about him. He was my friend, and friends had lunch together all the time. So I picked up a chip and offered it to him as an olive branch.
He just stared at it for a second, making me think this had an alternate meaning, especially with what I remembered of Blake last night. I went to pull my hand away, but his wrapped around my wrist, holding me still as he swooped in and took a bite of the chip. He bit off pieces until he got to my fingers, then his lips parted around them, his tongue sliding between my fingertips to retrieve the last bit, swiping away grease and salt as he did.
“This is one of those mating things, isn’t it?” I asked.
“Fucking oath it is. Do it again.”
“Ryan—”
“My dick feels like it’s taken on a life of its own and is determinedly burrowing its way through my jeans to get to you, so feed me again, Riley.”
The dark urgency of his tone had my eyes flicking around, as if we were about to get caught doing something truly salacious, rather than just something slightly intimate.
“Worried people will see?” That mocking tone was back. “Scared people are gonna see you feeding the big bad wolf?”
I broke off a piece of fish with a hiss and then offered it to him with a glare.
“You haven’t changed a bit,” I shot back. “Still the fucking shit-stirrer.”
He grinned, right before he took the fish from my fingers, cleaning them up all too thoroughly, but when I went to start in on my own food, he was there. Apparently, I was to eat only from his fingers, his smile growing with every bite. When we were finally done, wiping the grease from our hands, I turned to him.
“So the food thing, it works both ways? An omega feeds her mates, alphas feed their omega.”
“Food is about survival,” he replied, staring into my eyes, his almost the same colour as the sky right now. “When you give up your immediate need for food for the other person, it’s an act of love.” His thumb brushed against my bottom lip. “It says right now, they’re the more important ones, that you feel the need to care for and nurture them. To us, that’s pretty heady stuff.”
“I need to know more about all of this. You’ve obviously been schooled in everything alpha and omega, but no one bothered to tell me, for obvious reasons,” I said.
“Anything you want, babe.”
“Anything?” I smiled then, and I saw his grin falter slightly, as if he was worried about what he’d just committed himself to.
And for good reason.When we returned to the institute, his brothers were all waiting for us in the undercover carpark, leaning against their car. The minute I was out of the ute, there they were, forming a loose circle around me.
“So Ryan explained?” I asked them. “This is a meeting with one of my colleagues and me to determine the scope of the study—what you’re comfortable with, how far we go.”
“I think you’ll find we’re open to anything you suggest,” Fen said, pushing forward, that all too familiar cocky grin on his face. “We’re all yours. Take what you need.”