Page 36 of Mark & Don't Tell

Linc grumbles in protest but stays in his seat because he knows I’m right. We can’t overpower her. The choice we’ve given her is the first chance she has to say no. If she doesn’t want this, which in the history of fated mates has rarely happened, our egos will be bruised, but our hearts will be safe. We’ll go on living as we have been.

Though I’d hardly consider what we’ve been doing living.

Surviving is a better word. When Vic left, everything changed. I’ve been fighting to get him to see he belongs with our pack, but everything I do seems to push him away.

“There she is,” Linc murmurs.

I pull my gaze from the table, all my worries disappearing as I focus on the pretty omega eyeing us from the hallway. Daria’s skirt is tight around her full hips and flares out halfway down her thighs. Though the top she’s wearing hides her neck from me, there’s a peekaboo cutout right above her full tits, showcasing a delicious scrap of top cleavage. Her lips are a pale pink, a little glossy from whatever product she’s wearing, and I can’t help wondering what my cum might look like moistening her lips instead.

My cock jerks in my pants, and my bergamot scent thickens in the air.

“Down, boy,” Linc scolds. He’s one to talk.

“You’re thinking the same thing,” I mumble right as she pushes into the room, bringing a fresh wave of lavender with her. Linc and I both breathe it in without shame.

Daria bites her bottom lip and moves to the other end of the table, intentionally putting distance between us. That’s not a good sign. She opts to stand instead of sitting, placing both of her hands on her hips and staring us down.

Linc would call that a power move.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?” One of her pretty curls brushes over her cheek, and she flicks her head to the side, making all of them sway.

A smile tugs at my lips. She’s bold. I prefer that over meek and trembling. “Why are you all the way over there?”

Daria slides her gaze over my face, expression unreadable. “It’s safer this way.”

“Worried we’ll bite?” Linc teases.

“Mandy told me about your offer.” Her chest heaves. As much as she’s trying to play hard, our scents are getting to her the same way hers is getting to us. The heavier notes of her perfume are proof enough. I bet if I slipped my hand up that pretty skirt, I’d find her ready for my knot.

“She told you about the job offer, yes, but there’s more.”

Daria glances at Linc. “Oh?”

“We’d like you to come to dinner with us.” I watch her face, waiting for her reaction.

“You’d like me to come to dinner with you?” she asks, face scrunching. “That’s...one hell of a way to piss me off,” she admits.

I glance at Linc and frown. “You don’t want to come to dinner?”

She huffs. “Even when they’re old, they’re stupid,” she grumbles to herself.

I bristle at that. Old? I’m only forty-two. But to a twenty-something-year-old, I guess I qualify as old.

“I’m only going to say this once—and I’m giving you a pass because your scents are fucking with my head—but a woman wants to be asked. Not told.” She arches an eyebrow. “And you went to Mandy before asking me if I was even interested.”

“Are you?” Linc asks.

Daria pinches her eyes shut.

Fuck.

“I’m intrigued,” she says softly.

Okay. We can work with that. “I’m sorry for the way I phrased my statement earlier. I was presuming you’d want to and didn’t give you an opportunity to make the choice.”

Daria rears back, like she’s surprised I copped to being a jerk. “You’re forgiven, Malakai,” she says after a moment.

No soft okay or it’s fine. She’s sticking to her guns. This is an omega who knows what she wants, and that’s exactly what my pack needs.

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