Page 40 of Bubblegum Pop

If we rejected each other, completely severed the attraction formed by a scent match, we could find peace from the physical pain, at least.

But no matter how much the three of us resisted the urge to bite her, we wouldn’t break our connection.

“Benny wants us now,” I said, waving the silent phone in my hand. “The longer we put this off, the more pissed off he’ll be.” I ran a hand through my hair as I sighed.

“If we tried it, if,” I pressed, pointing the phone at them both, attempting to quell Zeus and Candy’s excited looks, “then Benny would be the best person to talk to.” Because Benny could at least be a buffer for us before he dropped the bomb on Michael.

There had been a crazy number of stories about Benny letting people off with small things like skipping out on a night of work or booking a home visit where the guest was actually the host’s family. Benny knew the best ways to wriggle around Michael’s rules. Though, considering how hard Michael could come down on people and what a tight rein he had on the organisation, I suspected he let Benny get away with it.

I wanted Zeus and Candy to temper their expectations. If they had too much hope, it would only hurt more in the end.

“Then let’s talk to Benny,” Candy said. “You said he might listen. And if he does tell Michael our plan, then we’ll deal with it.” She swallowed, her hand back on Zeus’s thick forearm. “I want this, to do this, with all of us together.”

“And if he says no?” I asked.

She moulded herself to Zeus. “Then we stay like this. If I can be near you, at least it won’t hurt so much.”

Silence blanketed the four of us, our breaths out of sync as we weighed it up.

“We can do it,” Odin said, his gaze firm as he stared at her. She blinked in surprise and wasn’t the only one. I thought he was most against the plan, or maybe enduring pain to be close to her was his happy medium.

“Really?” she said hopefully. “Even if they say no?”

He gave a sharp nod. “Zeus is right. I can’t be apart from you. Especially when we feel like this.” He pushed out a sharp breath, his nostrils flaring. “I know it will hurt more, but we’ll be together, at least.”

It would be the same for all of us, the same as it had been since we first met her. Aching, longing, craving her every second of the day. But at least if we were close to her, it would stave off the madness that came with not biting our scent match and bringing her into our pack.

I was about to reply, but the phone rang again. I snapped my mouth shut. We all stared at it, sitting innocently in my hand, like it wasn’t going to take her away from us.

“I’m answering.” I looked at them all, face fixed with determination.

There was a reason I was the pack lead, and it wasn’t because I’d been Zeus and Odin’s manager back in the day, or because my aura was stronger. It was because I didn’t mess around when it came to the hard stuff. And we could all tell this conversation was going to fall under the category of ‘hard stuff’.

I just hoped we’d still have our jobs by the end of it.

We had to be patient. We had no idea what Benny would say yet.

I sighed, shaking my head as I swiped the phone, bowing my head and answering the call.

Candy

Benny sat behind his desk, arms and legs folded, body tight as he glared at us.

I’d only met him twice, once on a tour of the studios and once when he handed out the schedule for my first month of dancing at the club and to discuss who had won the bid for my heat.

His eyes went from mine, up to my alphas behind me. “Please tell me you aren’t fucking serious?” he growled.

“Of course we are.” I forced his attention back to me.

I had signed a contract, and the money I brought in with my first heat had to pay for most of my training, at least.

I worked hard pumping guests for weeks to make sure they were panting over me, so, when it came to the bidding, they’d spend anything to own me. Some of the other omegas were pissed that my scent coated everything. They said using my perfume was cheating, but we each worked with what we had. It was still fair.

I realised my mistake now, anyway. I should have spent time tempting guests who would have treated me right. I refused to blame myself for what happened during my heat. I had been thinking about money, and it was my body that caused it, and the beta attendants who refused to help me.

Benny leaned back in his old desk chair, creaking under his weight. He was an older alpha, mid-sixties, pallid skin, wispy grey hair, yellowed teeth, and a rasp to his voice from years of smoking. His belly hung out over the waistband of his trousers, and his sharp suit helped hide everything else. He worked for Michael Farringdon, after all.

“And how do you think your boys are going to take it when you’re with guests every night?” He scoffed.