Page 55 of Dubious Match
It makes me so angry when people throw away years together for a scent match, but experiencing the pull, a part of me feels sympathy for everyone involved. However, these assholes werecowards who packed up their shit, and Kailee got home to them evicting her from the house she’d lived in for ten years with them.
Fuck, I’m getting mad again.
“What are you thinking about?” Remy breathes. “You’re touching your chest again, Hollis. Please don’t stab one of us.”
“And now, all I can think about are your tits,” Brice groans. “Ugh, okay Hollis, you’re killing us.”
Glancing down, I realize that I have been ghosting my fingers across my cleavage, where I have a knife in between them.
“Oops,” I murmur, dropping my hand away. “This particular omega has a really shitty past. I was thinking about it, and it made me stabby.”
“It sounds like they may deserve it,” Malcolm murmurs. “Your scent changes when you’re mad too. Think happy thoughts, Hollis.”
Snorting, I shrug. “I absolutely will when their knots are removed in the most painful way possible.”
The four of them wince.
“Fuck me,” Brice mutters. “Moving on…”
The next forty-five minutes fly by. The water bottle gets drained, my food is gone, and the chart is finally completed by the time we come up for air. Looking around, I notice that the sun has done some traveling while we’ve been busy. Checking the time, I see that it’s almost four in the afternoon.
“Wow,” I murmur. “I think we’re done.”
“I never realized how much work goes into this type of event,” Remy mutters. “To think that you’re doing it for free…”
“I mean, not technically anymore,” I admit. “Between your sponsorship and the donation from the Senior Families, I’m coming out the other side pretty well. I feel like I should donate the money I’ve been making with my side project that I was planning to use to fund this event.”
“I don’t think you should,” Felix says, leaning forward to begin carefully folding up the event chart. “You worked for that money. Do something fun with it. Helping you with the pieces you’ve allowed us to has shown us how damn hard you work.”
“Maybe,” I say. I think the last time I took a vacation was to the lake with Lars and Caleb. I was nineteen and it was my birthday. They insisted on celebrating even though I still don’t typically do anything special for it.
It just makes me miss my sister.
“Thank you for staying and helping me with this,” I say, changing the subject. “It would have taken me twice as long to work through this and then create a chart.”
“Don’t mention it,” Malcolm says, stretching. His black coat is open, which means that his long sleeved t-shirt crawls up his abs.
Don’t drool, Hollis. Keep your mouth closed.
Managing not to perfume, I look away from the body that I currently want to climb like a tree. Agreeing to let myself date this pack is very different from sleeping with them.
Packing up my bag, I feel a wave of exhaustion hit me. Closing my eyes, I rub my temples. One of the things that can trigger my migraines is lack of sleep. I don’t have time for this.
“Hollis.”
“Hmm?” I ask, feeling helpless. I have to go grocery shopping, make it home, check the dark web servers for Alisa and the missing omegas, and figure out what I want for dinner…
“Hey!”
My eyes snap open to find the source of the voice, where Brice’s blue eyes are boring into me.
“I’m right here,” I whine. “What?”
“Down boy,” Malcolm mutters.
Blinking hard to hold back tears, I stand, swinging legs over the bench.
“I’m going home,” I mumble, filling my bag with my things.
