Page 14 of The Pack Next Door
“You are nervous because you might meet your fated mates today.” Some instinct told me what to say. “You don’t know what kind of men they might be. Kind? Domineering?” She shrank back at that. “Able to see who you are and accept, no…” I shook my head. “Love all that you are. That’s what your fated mates will do.”
“You sure you’re not my mate?” She looked down the line and saw we were holding things up. “Somehow you seem to know all about me.”
It was then I saw how fate worked.
“I’m not the right man for you, Kirsty,” I said. “I can sense how you feel, because I experience the same.”
“You?” Her incredulous look was both a compliment and a life sentence. “I find it hard to believe you get anxious about anything.”
“And yet I do.” I squeezed her hand one more time before letting go. “If I was your alpha, we’d be locked up in a room, scared of everything.”
“But we’d be together.”
There was a promise there, of something, I couldn’t quite work out what. With a shake of my head, I dismissed that strange feeling.
“Your mates, when you find them, will make you stronger, not weaker. Remember that.”
And with that, I pulled away, turning to the next expectant omega. Reaching the end of the line and not feeling a pull towards anyone was both expected, and a crushing disappointment. My brothers and I, we were getting close to thirty. When? My heart throbbed. When would I find her? Omega Hart wound up the introductions, stepping up to the microphone to address the crowd, when someone called out, “What about Briar?”
I didn’t know who or what Briar was, but as I stared out into the crowd, my eyes found her. Too pale, wide eyed, and looking distressed, and yet I felt it like a punch to the gut. The wolf stood proud inside me, threatening to push his way forward. I didn’t even fight him for control as I took a step forward, then another.
Briar was my fated mate.
Chapter 8
Briar
“C’mon, Briar,” Jacinta said, nudging me in the ribs.
Next time I came to Moon River, I’d borrow Mr. Knotty from Candy. I could then use him as some kind of amulet, waving it in the face of pushy old ladies.
“Darling.” Gods, now Mum was getting in on it. “Maybe this is your chance?”
No, I’d had my chance, I wanted to tell them. I was one of those poor omegas, paraded on stage like I’d been signed up to a beauty pageant against my will. In some ways, the process was similar. Growing up, I’d thought the mate finding process was magical, but what a disappointment it was in reality. Not looking across a crowded room and discovering the other half of my heart in a pack of three or more men. No, instead the town looked on as alphas inspected us before letting us know we weren’t the one for them.
“I’m going to head back to the house,” I said, the last word not feeling right. “You’ve got your phone on you?” Mum nodded, looking so sad. “Just give me a call when you’re done and I’ll come and pick you up.”
Then, right as I stood up, Jacinta did something I’d never forgive her for. Damien was about to announce the next part of the process when she stood up and shouted, “What about Briar?”
I shouldn’t have let Mum bring me here. Most people didn’t even notice me, too focussed on what was going on up on the stage. Content to just sit low in my chair, I could’ve gone through the whole process and just talked about it extensively with my therapist when I got back home.
Instead, my very well meaning ‘aunty’ stood up, ensuring that every single person’s eyes were on me.
Including his.
For a moment, all I could do was stare, wondering how a man’s eyes could be such a strange shade of amber, right before they turned a perfect shade of silver.
“I…”
My throat closed up. I couldn’t speak as a lump formed around my vocal cords, but that didn’t even matter. This is why I’d left Moon River, never intending to come back. To betas, this was just sport, allowing them to walk away feeling all warm and fuzzy from the reflected glow of seeing omegas and alphas finding their fated mates.
For me, it was being thrust headfirst into a bubbling pool of trauma.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t stay there, and yet I couldn’t get my legs moving. A thin whine, that’s all that escaped my chest, barely even registering to the baying mob.
But he heard it.
People started to mumble, the sound growing louder and more excited with every second. My eyes flicked around as the wolf began to scrabble inside me, desperate to get out. She knew exactly what to do, showing me how her claws would tear at the grass, flicking it in the crowd’s face as we bolted. Running allthe way back home, if that’s what it took. She would get me to safety. With a shuddering breath, I tried to let her come forth.
