Page 57 of Alpha Ruined
It’s all Cole’s fault for rubbing his scent so viciously on her mating gland.
If Darlene notices, she doesn’t say anything. Instead, she asks about him as they peruse the shop.
“So, he took you out on the date, anyway? Just swept you away to Elmwood?”
A dark vintage desk sits in a corner, marked with an obscene price tag. Bree drags her finger along the top of the wood, imagining a new workplace in her apartment.
“Yeah, he did,” she murmurs, eyeing the fountain pen set displayed proudly on top of it. “It was fine.”
The set is in a lovely polished mahogany box with leather covers for each of the pens.
She picks the box up, then recoils when she sees the price tag.
“Okay, so then, what happened after?” Darlene asks, rummaging through a box of old magazines. “He dropped you off, and what? You’re never talking to him again? Was the date that bad?”
Bree sighs and fiddles with the lid of the box. “No, it wasn’t bad. But he kissed me.”
Darlene turns to her, an eyebrow raised. “So, he kissed you, and you didn’t like it, or…”
“No, I did. But I kind of panicked.”
“Why?”
She sucks in a breath. “It’s complicated.”
“Aren’t all relationships complicated in some way?”
Bree huffs and turns to a shelf, eyeing the trinkets on display. “We’re not in a relationship. And you should be onmyside, not his.”
Darlene chuckles. “I am. I just have a feeling about him.”
“What kind of feeling?”
“I don’t want to tell you, because you’re going to think it’s weird and I don’t want to creep you out.”
That gets Bree’s attention, and she turns to look at her friend. “What do you mean,creep me out?”
“Like I said, I don’t know if you want to know.” There’s a glint in Darlene’s eyes. “I just usually have an instinct about things like this.”
Bree glares and crosses her arms. “Explain, please.”
“You know your scent changes when we talk about Cole, right? It turns sweeter.”
She blinks. “What?”
“Your pupils also grew wide as saucers.”
“So?”
Darlene narrows her eyes. “Do you really want me to say it?”
“You already said it’s just Heat symptoms,” Bree mutters stubbornly. “I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“If the mere mention of someone makes your scent change, you’re all but mated, Bree.” Darlene says it like the most obvious thing in the world, and Bree stares at her, dumbfounded.
“Absolutely not.”
“Soulmates. Mates. Whatever you want to call it,” Darlene shrugs. “Maybe it’s fate. It happened to me with Kyle.”