Page 11 of Slick Handling

“He’s okay?” I ask McKinley again. He’s changed into a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie before taking us down to the kitchen where he is currently making us scrambled eggs.

Moving the pan off the burner he turns, looking me up and down like he is trying to understand something.

“Do you need a hug? I’m in Omega studies this semester and they say sometimes Omegas can be touch starved but contact helps them calm down. Wait, do I smell okay to you?”

“I’m supposed to be at The Omega Academy to learn about being an Omega. Grammy was a Beta and she was an introvert. Liked to be alone from everyone except the folks we would see at church or in our small town. She thought that I was a Beta too. Then I got a little heat spike. I was diagnosed as an Omega after that and my scent really came in. Everyone in my town was mostly Betas, so there wasn’t much else I knew about. It’s the sort of place where you live and stay. We got a new nurse practitioner in town when Dr. Douglas got sick. Her name was Molly and she was so nice and had the prettiest hair ever. This coppery red color…oh I guess that doesn’t matter.”

McKinley plates the food and comes around the kitchen island to sit next to me. He does smell good. He smells like the champagne that I drank on the plane and I want to smell him more.

Betas smell more comfortable to me. They’re not as strong as Alpha or Omega scents can be. Since I grew up surrounded by them, the scents just feel more familiar to me. Grammy smelled like fresh laundry. It was such a soft smell but always made me feel like I was home.

“Was it the type of red that gets gold highlights in the sun?” His questions make me smile. Nodding my head, “That must be very pretty hair but I’m sort of partial to curly blondes.”

He means me and it makes me blush.

Is he flirting with me?

Stuart used to flirt with me but it made me feel uncomfortable with how he would ask me out. He was older than me and lived with his mother. Grammy let him drive me to church once and he kept touching my hand and leg.

It made me feel weird.

The boys that would visit The Omega Academy would flirt blatantly, but if I didn’t feel comfortable, a chaperone would come over and get me out of the situation.

This doesn’t feel anything like that. I sort of like this flirting.

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

“Yes.”

The fact he doesn’t hesitate makes my smile grow. I like when people are straightforward with me. Sometimes it’s hard for me to guess things or read between the lines of people.

McKinley telling me how he feels without hesitation is nice.

“You’re very pretty and you smell very nice, Clover. You would have learned a lot about being an Omega at the academy. Did your mom and dad teach you anything about your designation?” The way he asks doesn’t make me feel judged.

People think I’m stupid because I wasn’t raised like everyone else.

When I met Gracie at one of the mixers she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in me as an Omega. Not in a bad way, just that we would be better as friends. She’s the one who introduced me to her mother. Martha was the one who gave me the words to describe my upbringing.

The way I had normalized like in an all Beta society had confused her when we first met. She had sat with me when I was upset about Pack Weaver’s attack against me and asked me about life before The Omega Academy. When I explained being raised by Grammy in the village she had been shocked to find no one had taught me what being an Omega was like. The more that she talked about it the more I started to realize not everyone grew up like I had.

Martha had sensed how uncomfortable I was when she talked about ‘brainwashing’ and the ‘cult’ she said raised me. That’s when she had come up with a plan to get me away from everything for a while. Mama Joy had wanted me to stay so she could teach me herself about what being an Omega was like. Martha thought, not only would the space from the Weaver’s be good, but also being around other designations might help me grow more comfortable.

In the end everyone agreed and I was sent off again.

But how do I explain to other people what growing up was like? What if he didn’t like me anymore? What if he sent me away too?

“Hey, it’s okay. Just eat your eggs.” My scent must have turned at the thought of being kicked out.I make sure to listen to him, digging into my food so that I don’t cause any problems.

I have to be good.

Maybe I should go lay down. I had already made one Alpha mad at me and didn’t want to turn the packs Beta against me too. Plus the bed smelled like Apollo and I was still exhausted from everything.

Poking at the eggs, I eat them quietly as McKinley sits beside me. He seems to read me well enough to know that I don’t want to talk anymore.

“Did you have enough to eat? Good. If you want to watch a movie we can do that or if you’re tired you’re more than welcome to just leave me here. I know traveling is hard.” He’s so friendly and I feel bad for shutting down.

Not enough to be able to stop though.

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