Page 42 of Pack’s Prize

Ava lookedtired and pale when she joined me in the kitchen where I was fixing breakfast: fried eggs, sausages, a huge mountain of pancakes. I was sure that even Theo would be ravenous enough to eat a big breakfast in the classic American style. I passed her a second cup of espresso as she settled at the kitchen island, watching me cook.

“Thanks,” she murmured, and I nodded and poured her a tall glass of water, too.

“You’re probably dehydrated,” I said, and she blushed. Shit. That wasn’t what I meant. “I just mean, you shouldn’t only drink coffee.”

“No, of course, you’re right,” she said, and both of us fell silent for a long while, the only sound the rasp of the spatula against the built-in griddle of our extra-wide chef’s range.

“You’re good at this,” she said.

“Hmm?” I asked, distracted. Her voice was a little bit hoarse. She’d have to drink some tea, later, to go with her coffee and her water.

“Taking care of an omega. My heat, and this morning. And… and the gifts, before, and just. Everything. Why… why don’t you want one?”

I flipped one last pancake and turned down the stove, trying to collect my thoughts.

This morning, I’d woken up to an email from the lawyer, stating that everything had been settled, that she’d heard from a friend of a friend that they’d met “the Stoll omega” and had been impressed. The lawyer was an old family friend of the Ilverwoodsens, who had been at the opening, and he’d expedited the process. I only needed to come in and sign some paperwork–and bring the omega, of course. I’d rolled my eyes.

Of course.He’d probably heard from the Ilverwoodsens or some other attendee that she smelled like sugar and looked twice as sweet, and wanted to see for himself.

It was all just as I had expected: the rumor mill of our small world of alphas and omegas had done its job. It was happening much faster than I had anticipated, though, and I knew we had Ava to thank for that. An omega going into pre-heat at a public event was sure to catch attention and set the gossip network ablaze.

A flash of triumph had burned over me, but it had fizzled out almost immediately, and left a cold, silent sadness in its wake. It didn’t take a genius to realize what I was feeling.

The shock of grief.

My time with Ava would be coming to an abrupt end. This was supposed to be the end of the bargain: I would sign the papers, and we would come up with some excuse to part ways soon after, and we would both go on to bigger and better things.

Me, a new business, and a return to my pack.

Her, a new pack, a pack that would be able to give her all the things that we couldn’t.

Which were… what, exactly?

I had sat, staring at my inbox, and understood that I didn’t want her to leave.

More than that, I wanted her tostay.

I wanted her,period.

I couldn’t tell her any of those things. Maybe after the papers were signed, but until then, it wasn’t fair to her. We had an agreement, and we would see it through as promised, and then, maybe… maybe she could choose…

Placing the spatula down, I turned to her.

“When I was twenty,” I said, “my grandfather walked in on me. With another alpha.”

Her eyes widened fractionally, but she didn’t say anything, just sipped her espresso.

“He threw me out. It was fine,” I hurried to add. “I had money, and I had friends, and I had my schoolwork, and I had my art.” I grimaced. I hated to think of the art I had made back then, taking out my rage in the best way I had known how: on a canvas.

Well… thesecondbest way I had known how. The first had been sleeping my way across Europe. That part was even more painful to think about than the embarrassing art.

“But he never forgave me for what I had done. To him, and his reputation.”Never mind howIhad felt.“Everyone suspected, of course. No one talked about it, but everyone suspected. The world of alphas is a small one.” She smiled. She knew as well as I did how few we were, alphas and omegas.

“You never talked to him again?” she asked, and I shook my head.

“I only knew he was dying because I read about it in the newspaper.” My heart had stopped when I’d seen the headline on the front page of the business section, but to Theo and Elias all I had said had beenI knew the old bastard had to go eventually.“I never forgave him, either,” I said to Ava. A confession. “I told myself I wouldnevermate an omega, would never even court one, not when it would be the one thing that could make him happy.”

“And then he wrote it into his will that you had to,” she said, her face clouding over. “I’m sorry.”