Page 7 of Golden Omega

“Give me a few minutes. Feel free to look around the store while you wait.”

I tried not to stare while Hema began keying in the order and our price. It didn’t matter what it was. This wedding was important, not only to our friends but for the speakeasy. And for the community. It was good to get together and celebrate.

She was hard at work, typing away, biting down on her bottom lip. All three of us moved around the place, which was bigger than it seemed from the road. She sold all kinds of things and even had some plants from another pack. Flint was the one who propagated plants from their pack. Their omega’s name was Tawny.

In between arrangements and refrigerators units were other things. Tea sets. Candles. Knickknacks. Homemade items.

What a lovely shop she’d created for herself.

“Okay. Here we go. I didn’t know what name to put on the invoice. I usually use the bride’s name. What is it?”

The three of us shared a look. This all had to be done in secret. If there was even a chance Karissa would see the invoice, we couldn’t risk it. “Um, why don’t you put it under my name,” Orin said and wrote his name and phone number at the top.

He paid for the order and while he did, the omega’s scent soured even more. When she bid us goodbye, her eyes barely raised and her smile was forced. Not that she had to smile at us but it was lovely.

What had we done to make things go so wrong?

“How about lunch?” I suggested. “I think we need to talk.”

We went to the diner and sat down, ordering the special for the day, meat loaf and mashed potatoes, along with honey-mustard roasted carrots.

“Do I have to say it?” Orin pushed his drink to the side after the waitress left with our orders.

“I can’t be the only one.” Altan looked torn.

“She’s our mate,” I blurted. “Our omega.”

Altan blew out a long breath and leaned back in the booth, crossing his arms over his shoulders. “Then why did her scent completely warp the moment we mentioned the wedding?”

“I don’t know.” Orin shook his head. “I’ve gone over the encounter in my head. I can’t think of anything we said or did that was wrong.”

“Maybe we met our omega and she simply doesn’t like us. Maybe she’s mated.” Altan was giving up already, and I hated how defeated he was lately.

“No. There was no alpha scent on her. We’ll figure this out. We have to.”

Chapter Seven

Hema

After they left, I stayed busy. Their order was enough to make for a good day, but I couldn’t be as happy about it as I normally would be because I kept remembering the fact that my long-suppressed libido had been surging forward, accompanied by my wolf who demanded we go find them and tell them that we wanted to know them better. She could be a pushy beast, but she’d never shown the least bit of interest in any of the alphas in our life before.

Not that anyone had been decent to us. Before we presented, we’d been tolerated. Each day we did not present, we were treated as if we’d chosen to be difficult. As if our latency was our choice. At the time, I’d been willing to accept blame, to consider myself as less than the rest, but since arriving here, since taking the steps to get myself where I was, my confidence had grown. As had my determination not to put myself in a position where others had power over me.

And what was an alpha but that? I’d seen enough omegas whose packs ran rampant over them, to not want to be in that position.

And then I met my friends here. Tawny, for one, and Karissa. Both of them had really great alpha packs. I’d been to both their homes and seen the way they operated. Polar opposites of those I’d known before, and maybe that was why my wolf had suddenly decided she wanted to have mates of her own? A pack?

Close to noon, I finished a row of small arrangements for a restaurant in town. Just carnations and baby’s breath, extremely retro, but they liked it and didn’t want anything more. My stomach rumbled and I decided to go out for lunch. Normally, I just ate at the counter and kept the doors open, but I felt like there wasn’t enough air in the shop and needed to clear my head. So, as soon as the guy from the restaurant showed up and took their order, I called Tawny, since she’d suggested a lunch date, but her shop was busy and she couldn’t get away.

Not a fan of eating alone in restaurants, I was going to grab takeout, when I got a call from Jenny, another new friend who was free and wanted to know if she could bring me anything to eat. She knew I rarely went out, but I surprised her by saying that today, I needed to get away from work and clear my mind. She was already at the diner.

Like me, Jenny was single and planned to stay that way. Although she did love watching others hook up, claimed it made her feel like the one omega with her head on straight. My singleness did not change her feeling of singularity. But she was fun and a good listener on any other topic, so I put up the Back in a half hour sign and locked the door behind me. I needed a little time to talk about something besides those three males who were about to get married. Maybe it was all for the best because I didn’t want a pack anyway.

“Hema, over here!” I walked into the little diner and followed the sound of Jenny’s voice to find her at a table by the front window. “I hope this is okay?”

I took a seat facing out. “It’s great. I like to people watch.” And maybe see a few alphas going by? “How are things at the library?” Jenny was a newly minted librarian, but this was her day off.

“I love it so much there. We just got a donation of some very valuable books, and I’m getting to help with logging them in. It’s just a dream, really.” The server arrived then, and we both ordered salads and iced tea, along with a large basket of fries for the table. Having more than my share of curves, I strove for balance in all things. It was fine to be me, but since I didn’t eat all that healthy at home, I tried to get a salad in me when I ate out, if possible.