Page 15 of His Pretty Omega
Bennett gave me a wide-eyed look, “I know who that is! In the picture!”
“Wait, what?” Bringing the phone down, I stared at the picture on the screen. The picture that still caused butterflies to take flight in the pit of my stomach each time I looked at it. Which wasn’t that often. Really, it wasn’t. I looked at it a normal number of times. Absolutely normal.
“That’s Alex,” Bennett told me quietly, “the lawyer that helps out with the pro bono cases for abused omegas. The one I referred Shay to when he first got to town. I can’t believe you went all the way to Hollow Ridge and hooked up with Alex Ortega.”
Bennett worked at the hospital here in town in an administrative role. It was how we had met, actually. I had been working at the hospital at the time, fresh out of nursing school, and he had just started his job there.Bennett had some big, long-ass title, but the gist of his job was finding services for patients in need. Whether it be a rehab facility, nursing home, in-home nursing, or something more. He worked closely with abused omegas and the local shelter, helping them get free of their abusers and get a fresh start.
“Alex Ortega?” I repeated the name slowly, seeing how it felt on my tongue. “Shay’s lawyer?”
Alex.
I liked it. It was a strong name. And sexy.
Just like him, my cat chuffed.
“Are you just going to repeat everything I say?” Bennett asked, unwrapping another candy bar, swinging the chocolate covered bar at me when I gave him a look. “Don’t judge me. I haven’t had breakfast and I’m starving. Producing enough milk for Brodie takes a shit ton of fuel. Breastfeeding is hard work!”
“His real name is Alejandro, but he goes by Alex,” Bennett kept talking before I could respond, chewing his cookie and caramel bar at the same time, moaning in joy as he swallowed. “Alex lives here in Sweet Alps. Seth, he’s like the nicest guy. If you’re going to get knocked up by a total stranger, you could definitely do worse than Alex. I mean, not that you want a mate or anything, but…”
Nibbling on my lip, I stared at the picture, like I didn’t have it memorized already. But now I knew his name. And I knew what he did for a living. Andwhere he lived. What were the odds that we both lived in Sweet Alps, having met in a completely different town?
Fate, my cougar yawned, already bored with my drama. Asshole cat.
“Bennett, can I ask you something?”
He nodded, “You know you can.”
“How did you know you and Shay were mates?” Maybe what I was really asking was how had they known they were fated.
“You know we’re more than just mates, Seth,” Bennett sat back next to me, scooting his butt on the floor until his back rested against the vanity. “You know we’re fated. Is that what you want to know?”
Nodding, because I couldn’t say the words out loud, was all I could do. I had never put much stock in the fated mates folklore. Until a bunch of people around me started finding their fated mates. Until Bennett had found his.
“I knew the minute I touched him,” Bennett told me quietly, his voice taking on a wistful tone. “He was unconscious and I touched him and my entire world changed in that instant.”
“But how exactly did you know?” I pressed, because I needed to hear it from someone that I loved. Someone I trusted with my life and all its secrets.
“It was like electricity shot up my arm,” he told me, even then his hand ran up his arm, as if remembering that night. “And something inside me just knew. It’s hard to explain,but for a few seconds, it was like my world just shifted. And I saw him, and Lucas, and a bit of our future I think. I think when you meet your fated, your soul just knows. Like oh hello, there you are.” He shrugged, “I’m probably not explaining it well, but like I said, it’s hard to put into words.”
“Mmm,” was all I mumbled, but it must have been enough for Bennett, since we knew each other so well.
He turned his head and gave me a long stare. “Seth, do you think that you and Alex are–?”
“I don’t know!” I wailed, throwing my hands up into the air. “But there were sparks. So many sparks. And need…want…I don’t know. And I swear there were times I thought maybe I was in heat, but yet, not. It’s all so confusing! Because I still just get flashes of parts of that night. I remember a lot, but also I feel like I’m missing something. Could that something important be that we were fated? Gah, why did I drink so much?”
“Seth,” Bennett said my name softly, “you need to tell Alex about the baby. You need to go see him and find out.” He fiddled on his phone and then mine dinged with a text message. When I glanced at it, I saw it was from Bennett. “That’s his contact information. At least his office address and phone number. I’m not sure where he lives in town, but you need to go see him. You owe him that much.”
He was right, I did owe Alex that much. And I owed it to myself to find out if he was–we were–fated.
Chapter Seven
Alex
March
Like every other day for the past eight weeks, I couldn’t concentrate.
Instead of reading over my final notes before court this afternoon, I ran a finger over the black ink on the worn piece of paper. Reading the words, even though I had memorized them by heart.
