Page 8 of Priceless

I pulled away, but he didn’t let go of me. “I should be grateful that you’re hitting on me at the gala that’s meant to honor my dead parents? Sure. That makes sense. Take your hands off me. Now.”

“No, you should be grateful because as an Omega with a body like yours, no one’s going to want you. Take what you can get, Ocean.”

The lance of hurt entered my heart even though I didn’t want to. Men like him were all the same. Thought they were god’s gift to earth while also thinking I didn’t know the reality I lived in.

I was fat. It wasn’t a dirty word, it was just a fact. Did he think I didn’t understand? He couldn’t say anything worse to me than I’d already said to myself. And it still hurt, because even if I knew the truth, I still wanted things the world didn’t think were meant for me. “Take your hands off me,” I said evenly. “Right now. Or I will make a scene. Wouldn’t want this to be the second of my family’s parties you get escorted out of.”

All he did was laugh. “Your aunt was the one who pushed you into me. I don’t think they’ll mind a scene.”

A hand came down on his shoulder. Hard. “She told you to take your hands off her.”

The man now standing next to us looked at Jason, and then he looked at me. Stunned. His gaze roved over me like he was shocked he’d intervened for me. He looked like he’d been struck by lightning and was staring into the sun. Like he’d glitched and needed a full system reboot. Like he didn’t even know where he was.

Then he blinked, looking back at Jason. “Do I have to remove your hands for you?”

Jason threw his hands off me forcefully and scoffed. “You bitches are all the same. Stuck up and too self-centered to see a good thing in front of them. Especially when it’s their only option.”

He stalked across the dance floor toward the refreshments table and left me standing there. I needed to move. Not only because people were staring, but because in about ten seconds Laura would find me and berate me for not dancing with him longer.

The stranger stepped in and slid an arm around my waist, and suddenly we were dancing. His scent wasn’t green. It was bright and balmy in a good way. In a great way. A light and sharp scent of lemons undercut with the sweetness of sugar. Lemon bars. The kind of thing that made your mouth water to taste that blend between the two opposing sensations. It was lovely.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped. I don’t take kindly to people who don’t understand the word no. You looked like you needed a rescue.” Warm green eyes stared down into mine, and I couldn’t quite find my words. Because this Alpha was smiling at me, and it felt so different it was almost comical.

When you looked like me, you figured out quickly how to tell which smiles, looks, and words were real, and which ones weren’t. The way he looked at me was genuine, and I found myself smiling in relief. “Not overstepping. And thank you.”

“I’m Cameron.”

“Ocean.”

His eyebrows rose. “That’s a pretty name.”

I laughed once. “My mother loved water. She did research on it before she passed. If she’d had more children she told me she would have done more. Like ‘Lake,’ ‘Rain,’ and ‘River.’”

When we spun, I barely felt it because he was leading me. It was gentle and steady, and I knew without having to think that I could trust him to take that lead. “That would have been quite the family reunion.”

“We’d have to wait until it was raining,” I said.

“And only have those reunions on the beach. Or lakeside.”

“Or,” I countered, “we could find a stream and be next to a body of water none of us were named for.”

Cameron nodded. “I think that’s probably the best way to go. So no one feels left out.”

“If it were a real thing, I’d definitely do that. But I’m an only child.”

“Ah.” His fingers tightened on my hand and my back, where his hand rested. In contrast to Jason, nowhere near my ass. “Me too.”

Glancing around the room, he looked back down at me again. “Are you all right? My packmates made sure he left the party, so if you don’t want someone else touching you, I understand.”

The words stopped me in my tracks. They shouldn’t, but they did. His packmates were in on it too? “I could use a drink, I think. Probably just water.”

“Of course.”

Cameron led me off the dance floor with a hand on my lower back, and I didn’t mind that it was there. Because I already knew it was a measure of protection, not possession. When we reached the refreshments table, two other Alphas stood close by. “Ocean, these are my packmates. Micah and Everett.”

I grabbed a glass of water before looking and finding the same kind of awed, dazed looks on their faces Cameron had when he first rescued me on the dance floor. One of them looked at Cameron briefly before looking back at me and inhaling deeply. “It’s lovely to meet you, Ocean. Like he said, I’m Micah.”

“Everett.” The second Alpha held out his hand. Dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes pinned me to the spot. A second later his scent curled through the air. It reminded me of cookies my mother used to make. Pistachio and almond, but sweet.

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