Page 8 of Truth or Pack

“Tell me you noticed her scent, too? I’m not crazy?” I asked, finally addressing what the other two were ignoring.

Holt grunted, a wordless affirmation that he did, too. In fact, his blue eyes flickered back and forth to us and the stairs, as if waiting for his omega to come back.

“How is this possible? We knew her, right?”

“You know that school had a strict de-scenting policy. Air filters, blockers, the works. It wasn’t like she went to parties or out to events. She was practically a ghost in those halls.

“There was a reason for that,” Holt reminded me. His frown was even deeper now.

“We aren’t the same people we were in college,” I defended her, taking us all by surprise. There was a lot of that going on this weekend.

"I don't know, but first thing in the morning we are calling for a tow and getting out of here," Holt said as he explored the main floor. He must have found one of the rooms after as he disappeared and called dibs.

I let out a sigh. How was any of this going to work out if he was against it and so was she? My alpha wanted this omega even if I didn’t know the first thing about her anymore.

Honestly, we didn’t then, either. All I could remember was the shit our girlfriends told us. They were a group of friends, some of the biggest names in the omega pool at that damn school. Everything was about status and they were as vapid as they were rich.

We were cocky alphas who thought they ruled the world.

It was a recipe for disaster.

"You take the other bedroom, I can bunk on the couch," Mathias said to me, moving towards his makeshift bed by the light of his phone. He sounded so defeated I wanted to comfort him, but knowing Mathias, he needed time to process.

“Alright, thanks, man," was the only thing that I could think of to say to him.

"Good night, Ash," he told me as he grabbed a throw pillow and pulled it into his arms, hugging it as thunder hit again. He buried his face in the fabric and breathed in deep enough I could hear and I swear he let out a soft curse.

No, this wasn’t over yet.

"Sleep well, brother," I said as I went off in search of the other bedroom. There wasn't a blanket on the couch so I was going to search and grab one for him. I knew that I was still soaked and cold so there was no way that he wasn't. Mathias wouldn't complain or stick up for himself. Holt and I were always looking out for him.

The first room I came to, the door was slightly closed so I knew that was where Holt had claimed. I moved on to thenext door and my phone illuminated a bathroom. On the right of it was the second bedroom and I wasn't upset with the arrangement. It was a little more pink than I was accustomed to, but beggars can't be choosers, right?

Right there on the end of the bed was a spare blanket, so I grabbed it and headed back to Mathias.

"Here you go, brother," I told him as I threw it at him. “Try and actually get some sleep. We’ll figure it all out tomorrow."

"Thanks," he muttered as he stripped down to his boxers and curled up on the plush couch, shifting until he found a comfortable position.

There was nothing else I could do so I left him on the couch and went back to my temporary bedroom.Sleep never came easy to me, but that didn't stop me from getting out of my wet clothes and laying down.

My mind couldn’t let her name go. I was racking my brain on what her name was, Karen was close but I knew that wasn't it. At uni, she was the book nerd that all the girls bullied or ignored. Once word got around about her sleeping with the teacher and getting him to retaliate to the girls giving her a hard time, she was a lost cause.

My girl at the time was one of her worst bullies, and I did nothing to stop it. That was one of my life's regrets. Being young and dumb but also thinking I knew it all at the same time was a bad combination.

Guilt churned in my stomach but I knew it wasn’t going to do me any good. I’d have to face the music in the morning and apologize. Even if she didn’t let us talk it out, it needed to be said.

If only I could remember her damn name.

"Karen, Sharon, Marion, Taryn," I muttered each one out in an attempt to remember, the last one finally sticking. "Taryn, that's it."

How were we going to get her to believe that we weren't the assholes that we once were at school? Fate was a cruel mistress and karma was a bitch to have her scent be so damn sweet.

I pulled up my phone to search for her on the internet but then I remembered that I didn't know her last name. Taryn was an unusual name, there couldn't be that many right?

An error popped up that I had no service the moment I tried to search.

Stupid fucking storm ruined everything and now we were now stuck in a house with a woman that hated us, and no escape.

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