Page 28 of Scheme
“Soon. Did you know it was approachingsoon?”
I turned, leaning back against the bench with my arms crossed and giving him an assessing look. “As I said, I’m thirty-two. It comes in late spring every year. I’ve never been caught unawares by it.”
“If you don’t want a mate, shouldn’t you stay at home this time of year?”
“Are you suggesting a voluntary house arrest for a couple of months each year in anticipation of a five-day event? I’d tread carefully if I was you.” My voice was mild, but there was no mistaking the edge of impatience in it.
“No, I’m not suggesting house arrest. It’s just… don’t you ever worry that you’ll trick an alpha into claiming you if they get a hint of your pre-heat scent?”
Trick.
“You tricked me.”
They really were all the same, these alphas. I really didn’twantKit to be the same as Fraser, but they’d both used that same, awful word. That cursed word that implied that I was the problem just by existing and having an appealing scent that I had no control over.
Kit hadn’t evensmelledit.
“Were you not just marvelling at my ability to mask my scent?”
Kit had the grace to blush, suddenly looking very interested in a scratch on the wooden tabletop. “It only takes one slip. And you said yourself that you have no intention of hiding it at Bryce and Kane’s place.”
“Among a thoroughly vetted group of people who are familiar with me as a person and an omega approaching heat. I’m hardly the only one who goes there to get their rocks off.” He was dancing around what he wanted to say, and it was making me surprisingly furious. Why did I care? Did his good opinion mean that much to me? Clearly, it shouldn’t. “Just come out and say it, Kit. What’s on your mind?”
“I guess I’m wondering if it was all a ruse. If you masked your scent deliberately, knowing I’d be at Nico and Violet’s party, to lull me into a false sense of security.”
“That sounds like an awfully elaborate scheme. To what end did I concoct this nefarious plan?” I asked sharply.
“I don’t know. To entrap me into claiming you when my guard is down?” Kit replied with an almost breathtaking level of insensitivity.
Truly, there was nothing quite like alpha confidence.
“Are you seriously suggesting,” I said slowly. “That I came up with an elaborate plot to ensnare you with alpha-bait pre-heat scent before I’d evenmetyou—because, obviously, you’re just that wonderful? Not only that, I somehow hypnotisedyouinto showing up atmyscent-free flat to propose a plus-one-relationship-of-convenience as, what, a ruse to spend time with you? Am I missing anything? It was a real evil mastermind move for me to accompany you to the pub with your friends and politely allow myself to be totally disrespected by them, no? What a genius I am. Perhaps I’ll write a book for other single omegas: How To Ensnare an Alpha in a Thousand Degrading Steps or More.”
I paused my increasingly snarky rant to catch my breath, my face thoroughly on fire at this point from a mixture of rage and humiliation.
“Margot—” Kit began, pushing up from the table to stand.
“Because I couldn’t possiblywantto be single, right? That would be absurd. It’smuchmore logical that I’d be desperateto throw away the comfortable life I’ve built for myself for an alpha I hadn’t evenmetyet.”
“Margot—”
“The absolute nerve of you to complain that the people in your life don’t respect your choice not to take a mate and then come to my house, and sit at my kitchen table, and tell me that not only must Iactuallywant an alpha—despite my assertions to the contrary—but also that in my desperation, I must also be a morally bankrupt person wholulls alphas into a false sense of securityin order totrick theminto claiming me.” My stomach churned, and I briefly wondered if my rice bowl was going to make a reappearance.
It was one thing to be accused of being a sad, desperate, on-the-shelf singleton, but it was wholly another thing to imply what Kit had implied.
“Margot, I’m sorry,” Kit rushed out quickly before I could open my mouth to resume ranting. “I’msorry. I didn’t mean that, I wasn’t thinking—”
“Yes, you were. Youwerethinking. You were thinking that all single omegas are untrustworthy snakes, out to sink their teeth into you the first chance they get. You’re full of ideas about omegas that run well into offensive territory, Kit, did you know that? Sinclair wasn’t the problem the other night, your asshole friends were. How often is that the case?”
To think, I’d thought we would become friends. I’d thought I would help him review some of those offensive notions he had and show him the error of his ways. Then again, why should I? I’d spent half my career correcting outdated assumptions at work and being the default go-to for such questions as the highest-ranking omega in the firm. Sometimes, I just wanted to be seen for myself, not as an endless fount of information.
There was a faint dull ache in my chest, the echoes of an old wound that like to pop up occasionally and remind me that the only way any alpha would ever be interested in me was if I tricked them into it, but I was long beyond the days of letting that pain rule me. There was more than enough going on in my life to fulfil me, I didn’t need an alpha to make up the difference.
But I still had my pride, and that pride was stung by the implication that I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from begging at Kit’s feet for scraps of his blessed alpha attention.
He still looked as though he was scrambling for an answer, but I wasn’t interested in hearing it. Actually, what I wanted to do was rail against him some more, maybe throw something to make myself feel better, but it was an irrational reaction and very unlike me. With every ounce of calm I possessed, I forced a mask of perfect civility back into place, looking at the alpha standing across the kitchen from me as the stranger he felt like.
“Thank you for lunch. I have to get back to work,” I said, proud of how natural my voice sounded when my throat felt so tight.
