Page 17 of Stella

A feeling I completely understood.

“It’s nice to see you again.” I smiled at Jerrick. I’d focus on his soothing beta energy to get me through this meeting. “I downloadedCrocodile on the Sandbanklast night.”

His face lit up. “I’ll reread it. We can read it together.”

“You two know each other?” Simon’s voice cut through the warm bubble that Jerrick’s demeanor had created for me.

“I told you last night.” Jerrick touched Simon’s leg. “About the omega woman who flirted with me at Hot Perks?”

Simon looked at me. “Stella?”

“What a nice coincidence.” Jerrick smiled, my insides turning to goo. “Saves me the trouble of introducing you two.”

Simon snorted. “You expect me to believe you just so happened to ask Jerrick on a date on the same day you run into my sister?”

My temper shot through the roof. Whatever Simon’s issue was, he seemed determined that I was some sort of scheming gold digger. “I don’t expect you to do anything. I’m in Hot Perks every Monday. Ask Grinder. I’ve been drooling over Jerrick for months.”

Evan looked pleased. “You have excellent taste.”

“Thank you,” I grinned at him. “I think so too.”

“This is ridiculous.” Simon glared at Evan. “You, an omega mere days from your heat, pick up my beta in a coffee shop, and then you offer your family’s services to my sister. It’s preposterous.”

I froze, the wet slap of reality making me cold. “Why shouldn’t I flirt with a beta?”

I looked at Jerrick. “He’s delicious. He’s tall and sexy, and I don’t know what he does to make his ass and thighs so great but I’m gonna need him to keep doing it.”

“Same,” Evan said, offering me a fist bump.

Simon pulled Evan’s hand down before I could bump it out. “He’s not an alpha.”

“So?” I snapped. “He’s got a dick, right? And if he’s impotent then he has hands and a mouth.”

Jerrick coughed at that, and Evan turned red.

“He was reading my favorite book. Should I be suspicious of that? Ask him why he’s entrapping me with a sexy ass and sexier reading habits?”

“And you happened to find my sister and offer her a place here?”

I threw my hands up. “I didn’t know she would be there. And she’s an omega who got dumped. She’s been told her entire life men would cut off their left testicle to be with her—”

“Their left testicle?” Evan asked. “Is there something wrong with the left one no one told me about?”

“No,” Simone said impatiently. “But—”

Evan looked down at his crotch, and then at Simon and Jerrick.

“And then she gets publicly dumped,” I finished. “She feels horrible. She needs to get her groove back, and advertising that she’s looking for a new pack will be a middle finger to those assholes.”

Simon glared. “I simply find it hard to believe—”

“Then leave.” My temper went from a simmer to a boil. I was horny, annoyed, and angry that somehow my coffee shop hottie was connected to Simon, the world’s most paranoid alpha. “I didn’t ask you to be here.”

“Simon.” Evan’s voice was sharp as he shot his packmate a look. “I’m sorry. Simon is paranoid under the best of circumstances, but where Meredith is involved, he takes it to another level.”

Jerrick shifted in his seat. It may have been my imagination, but it looked like he wanted to touch me. “Simon, it was a coincidence. I wasn’t planning on stopping by Hot Perks. Meredith wasn’t planning on going to the beach.”

Simon huffed. “Fine. I’m overreacting. Let’s get on with this.”

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