Page 2 of Stella

She gave me the stink eye, held up one finger, and went to retrieve her coffee from the barista. Grinder, a chill beta, always worked Monday mornings. Between his tattoos and balding head, he looked more comfortable working on motorcycles than macchiatos.

He had our orders memorized, and always gave us extra pumpkin bread. We had tried—and failed—to get him to come to the family matchmaking business several times.

Raina sat down on the side of the couch closest to me, crossing her leg. Her pantsuit was perfectly pressed, her gray purse completing her image of powerful career woman. She went to college and had a degree in psychology, which she used to refine our personality tests and matches.

I needed to get my cousin laid, loosen her up a bit. Maybe I could actually find her a male omega she wanted to hook up with. I thought I was picky, and then I paid attention to Raina’s love life.

I smoothed my green and purple flowy skirt over my legs. Me and my sisters Luna and Sunshine all favored the boho chick style. If I didn’t leave the house wearing three rings, ten bracelets, dangly earrings, and at least two necklaces I felt naked.

“You’re never early.” Raina pulled out her dark blue planner and opened it to this week. “You’re usually late.”

“Because I need my beauty sleep, and you start these meetings so early.”

“Exactly. So why are you here?”

I was saved from a white lie when Luna and Sunshine arrived. My sisters went to the counter to collect their drinks from Grinder and sat down on the other couch.

Even though we all preferred peasant blouses and flowy skirts, we were never mistaken for each other. Luna was the baby of the family, an omega, and painfully shy. She preferred her garden to people. She was beautiful, with long brown hair darker than mine, and had that perfectly sweet omega disposition that alphas seemed to love. Sometimes I wondered if my life would have been easier if I was more like my baby sister.

Sunshine tossed her golden hair off her shoulder and handed Luna her hot chocolate, before taking her white mocha Frappuccino. She was the next oldest after Raina, and a beta so she often acted like Mom number two with a sunshine personality.

She was only three years older than me at twenty-six, so we butted heads growing up. It didn’t help that I enjoyed sneaking out and going to parties while Sunshine liked to be the good girl with straight A’s.

“Stella was here first.” Raina ratted me out immediately.

Sunshine frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I added another coral dick to Wednesday, wondering if that would feel good or bad to have all those bumpy bits.

My lady bits tingled at the thought, and I broke out into a sweat. Okay, no more thinking dirty thoughts in the coffee shop.

Luna sipped her hot chocolate. As the youngest of the entire family, she was almost destined to be shy and reserved. She took care of most of the groundskeeping involving landscaping, interior design, as well making candles and herbs to sell in our gift shop. We all knew how to onboard clients, but people terrified her, so she didn’t have to work directly with the clients very often.

“Why does something have to be wrong?” I eyed the rest of my aquatic themed stickers. I should check the Internet for dick stickers. The Internet would never let me down when it came to dick.

“You’re never early.” Sunshine sipped her coffee. Her blonde hair was in pigtails today. Her paisley dress flowed past her knees and showed off the brown boots we bought for her birthday last year. “You’re usually late. Traffic.” Sunshine did air quotes.

“I slept weird last night,” I said. “That’s all.”

That wasn’t all, but I wasn’t about to go into more detail.

“Can we get to the topic at hand?” I flipped my planner back to this week. “We were supposed to onboard five more clients, but two of them canceled.”

“It’s that new place.” Luna didn’t frown, but there was a small crease on her forehead. “The Pack Institute.”

“Ewww, really?” Sunshine made a face. “It’s all sterile. Like a doctor’s office.”

“No accounting for taste.” I took a long drink of my sugary coffee, willing it to give me superpowers. Or at least take the edge of my hormones.

“That’s the third set of cancelations.” Raina frowned at her planner like it had personally offended her. “I was hoping people would reschedule once the newness wore off.”

“Apparently not.”

The bell over the door jingled and my cousins Zephyr and Terran sauntered in. They were laughing and headed for the counter.

Zephyr was the other alpha in the family, the next oldest after Sunshine. He seemed to be living his best single alpha life, never settling down for too long. He had thick brown hair pulled into a ponytail, a leather jacket we swore he slept in, and drove around on a motorcycle. The single ladies ate up the bad boy aesthetic, but if we thought he was actually turning into an asshole we would have tossed him into the sea.

Terran was the other beta, with piercing blue ears, dirty blond hair and broad shoulders he honed working landscaping and handyman work on the resort.

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