Page 2 of Blizzards and Brews

"It's this or I’ll tell him to double the veggies on your plate."

I snorted. "It's a bar, Adam, not a restaurant. He doesn't do veggies."

Adam's smirk stretched across his gorgeous face.

It was crazy that the three triplets I worked with were so similar, yet so different. Not only in their designations, but their personalities as well.

Adam had bulk to him, his shoulders broad and his height a few inches above his brothers, there was no mistaking his alpha designation even from halfway across the room.

Dustin was in the middle of the road, holding muscle but not the same level of bulk given his beta genes. He smiled easier and was more laid back, a fact I very much appreciated. His rocker style and lip piercing matched his vibe.

Then there was sweet Ollie. He was softer than his brothers but no less attractive. His boyish features made him a highly desirable omega. Thank goodness he spent most of his time behind the bar, or he would have had to fight the tourist off in droves. At least the locals knew better and that he didn’t date.

Not that I was going to look into the reason why…

While they all shared the same facial features, Adam's jaw was cut from stone and Ollie's face had a bit more softness to it. What really got me was their stunning blue eyes and light-brown hair that shifted color subtly based on the season.

They were gorgeous... and off limits.

I wasn't their omega. Hell, I wasn't an omega at all, and that was enough for me to keep my distance.

Adam still hadn't looked away so I abandoned the glass I was cleaning and made myself a fresh water. He didn't relent until I'd put it to my lips and drained the entire glass. I'd never admit it to the alpha, but I was far more thirsty than I realized. Even I could admit the coffee from earlier didn’t help as much as I’d like. The cold water sent a shiver down my spine.

His smile broadened, making his face less harsh and more gentle.

"See, you needed it," Adam said triumphantly.

"Don't act smug, it's water," I snarked, rolling my eyes as I turned back to the dishes I was working on, adding the water glass to the mix.

He didn't argue as he went back to work. The four of us were a well-oiled machine at this point. I cleaned behind the bar with Ollie while Adam and Dustin cleared the floor, wiping and sanitizing tables, stacking chairs, and mopping the floor.

"Order's up, and I'm out!" our cook called.

Leander was an older alpha. He was like a sarcastic uncle you couldn't help but love. He tapped a plate and winked at me. It had less broccoli piled on than the others and I snatched it before Adam could protest. Leander's laughter was followed by the back door as he snuck out into the night.

"Don't think I didn't see that," Adam yelled out but I was already happily eating the wings and fries on my plate. Ollie grabbed his plate and joined me. It was hard when they were this close. When the bar was closed, their scents were stronger, making it so much harder to act like I wasn't affected.

Especially with Ollie so close, his omega scent sweet and heady right next to me. He smelled like a caramel-covered marshmallow, the ones that came in pretty shiny wrappers for the holidays. One I wanted to sink my teeth into and devour whole.

They’re not yours, Lindsay. No matter what they say, you know it wouldn’t work. You can’t give them what they need.

“Don’t make that face, buttercup,” Ollie teased, surprising me. He was usually the sweet one. “You don’t live with us, yet. Just wait until you get the full force of his alpha caretaking all the time. I’m his triplet, and even I don’t get a break.”

I shook my head at him. “Have you been hitting the hot sauce a bit too hard again?”

Ollie raised one of his drumsticks at me. “One time. It wasonetime and you still have yet to let me live it down.”

“That’s what you get when you’ve been best friends with someone since kindergarten,” I said with a laugh, bumping his knee with mine.

I’d shown up on the first day of school with my trapper keeper and root beer scented pencil and was immediately befriended by the brown-haired boy with the missing front tooth who sat next to me. I let Dustin borrow my special pencil and he dragged me to sit with his brothers during lunch and immediately shared his mom’s homemade brownie with me. It was all over after that.

They’d been there for me through all of my life’s biggest moments, and stuck by my side when I’d lost my parents right before my seventeenth birthday. When there had been so much darkness in my life, they had been my light.

For the longest time I thought we’d end up together. For Hollow’s sake, I’d daydreamed about it enough. But all of that changed when our designations set in and our bodies began to change.

“Best day of your life,” Dustin said, interrupting my thoughts and taking the stool on the other side of me. His lopsided, pierced grin was one of my weaknesses. “You’ve been a fiend for mom’s brownies ever since.”

“It’s the only reason I keep y’all around,” I shot back before devouring another wing. Those little green trees of death could go to hell and stay on my plate forever as far as I was concerned.

---