Page 1 of His Sassy Omega
Chapter One
Lachlan
My feet hitting the pavement made a rhythm, like a song playing in my head. I’d forgotten my headphones, so it was better than nothing. My long legs ate up the miles, my big feet pounding harshly.
I’d woken up in a foul mood, something that rarely happened. More to the point, I rarely allowed myself to indulge in my bad moods. But today I felt like wallowing in it. If only for the short time it would take me to complete my morning run.
You could only take so much shit before your mood turned sour.
I breathed the cold air into my lungs. I loved the cold, it always made me feel alive. Even if our weather had been unseasonably mild for this time of year, it was still cold enough that puffs of white air formed in front of my face whenever I breathed.
My hooded sweatshirt wouldn’t be enough to keep the chill out for most people, but the wolf in me tended to make me run hot. My wolf was itching to be let loose for a run also. My skin felt tight, like when you needed a good stretch, but didn’t have enough room to do it properly. My wolf was as restless as my soul was.
We usually had snow this time of year, but on this Monday after Thanksgiving, the ground was devoid of anything white. It was cold, though, and as I turned my nose up, sniffing a bit, I knew the snow was coming.
We may have been in California, but Sweet Alps (and wasn’t that just the dumbest name ever, even if one of my long-deceased ancestors had the honor of naming it), was in Northern California. I’m talking way up, where there was snow, cold, skiing, and people with common sense. Mostly. Sometimes. I mean people were people. We were a long way from the sunshine of Hollywood, and all its craziness.
My wolf snickered at my maudlin thoughts, but I ignored him. I wanted to keep wallowing in my shitty mood before I had to put on my “work” face, and be the guy in charge, that everyone was looking at forsomething.
My eyes glanced over to the huge mansion on the hill as I ran past it. My mom’s house, our family home. I saw softly burning yellow in one of the downstairs windows, the great room, despite the early hour of four a.m. My mom was often up this early, and I would usually stop in most mornings to check up on her. I’d grab a cup of coffee, make sure mom was doing all right, without looking like I was making sure, and then continue my run. She made sure to tell my brothers and me that she was an omega capable of taking care of herself. She was, but we still worried.
As one of the main founding families of the town, to say the Sinclairs were loaded was like saying Angelina Jolie had a few kids. The house on the hill was five stories of stone and gleaming wood inside and out. More rooms than my brothers and I had been able to explore properly in a day. It sat up on that hill, surrounded by hundreds of acres of wooded beauty, like a keeper of secrets. Maybe it was. It had kept my secrets from the day I was born until I’d gone off to college at eighteen. It still felt like it was keeping my secrets.
My brothers and I had all carved out our own homes on these acres. My home was the closest to our mom. My daily run was a good five miles, with mom’s house being the halfway point of the round trip. My brothers had all built their homes much farther away from mom. Deliberately, I was sure.
But as the oldest, even if it was only fifteen minutes between all of our births, I was the Alpha of the family. It was my responsibility to make sure mom was okay and had all she needed or wanted. I wanted to be close if she needed something, but also far enough that I had a little privacy.
I’d needed a sanctuary, someplace where I could escape, be myself, relax, and just breathe. Now my house, while gorgeous, felt cold and lonely. I’d built it after graduating with my MBA and returning home to Sweet Alps to run our family foundation. I’d been a wide-eyed alpha, still believing in fairy tales back then.
I’d built the house with a family in mind. I was sure I’d meet my mate, fall in love, and fill the house up with pups. I hadn’t been innocent, or naïve enough to believe I’d find my fated mate, but I thought I’d at least find a mate. A sweet, innocent omega, who would be happy to make the house a home, carry my pups, and raise them while I worked.
I snorted at my thoughts. Yeah, that dream was pretty much shot.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t had prospects. I’d had several relationships over the years. That’s all I’d had. I’d never been one for casual dating, and hookups just seemed so impersonal. No, when I met someone and connected to them, I wanted it all. Monogamy, working towards the end goal of mating, maybe even marriage.
Nothing had worked out as I’d dreamed.
And this past week, with family bonding time otherwise known as Thanksgiving, my mom had started making noise about me settling down.
“You’re thirty-eight, dear, not getting any younger.”
Never mind that my three brothers were the same age as I was. I was the oldest. Didn’t matter that all of us were alphas, I was the oldest. It fell on me to set the examples and do everything first. Mate, pups, all of it.
It also didn’t help that I constantly heard my father’s voice in my head. From the time I could actively remember anything, until the day he had died when I was ten, I could still hear him as if he was standing right next to me, a ghost whispering in my ear.
Hell, he probably was, the bastard, come back to check up on me and make sure I wasn’t being an embarrassment to the family name.
“You must always carry yourself as if people are watching, Lachlan. Because they are. Being a Sinclair comes with expectations. The people of this town are looking at you to lead them. And other people are waiting for you to do something to embarrass the family name. Never forget that.”
I hadn’t. I was always hyper-aware of eyes being on me wherever I went. From the business I ran, to eating in a restaurant, to pumping the gas for my car. I never could beme. I always made sure I wore the right thing, I said the right thing, I acted the right way. Even if none of it was how I really felt about anything.
It made me an anxiety-riddled mess some days.
My mind went back to Thanksgiving dinner, as I pounded past my mom’s house. I wasn’t in the mood to pretend this morning, and she didn’t deserve my foul mood. I just kept running. My wolf whined a little, and I ignored him. I’d let him loose when I was back home, even if it was just for a quick lap in the woods that surrounded the back of my property.
“What happened between you and Lisette, Lachlan? I was surprised when you called to say she wouldn’t be at dinner.”
Well, I’d been fucking surprised too. I’d actually had vague thoughts of proposing to Lisette at Christmas. I’d half-assed been browsing for rings online when I should have been looking over proposals and emails in myoffice. I’d been more thrilled with the idea of proposing on Christmas Eve, even if I’d yet to find the perfect ring.
