There are three alphas sitting at the table, their scents muddled amongst all the other scents floating around the dining room, but it’s still strong enough to slap me in the face: a strange blend of amber, orange, and chocolate that causes goosebumps to prickle their way up my arms.
“Hello, Jessy,” Caleb says, his eyes glinting with something dark and malicious as he folds his hands on the table in front of him. “Long time, no see.”
I can’t answer.
I can’t even think.
As my eyes slide to the opposite side of the booth, I find Sean and Derrick eyeing me with the same hair-raising glare. They look like predators who’ve just spotted their next meal.
And I’m the prey waiting for them to pounce.
thirty-one
JESSA
I can’t breathe.
That’s the only thing I’m certain of as my vision swims and I clutch the side of the table for balance. The fear racing through my veins is the shot of adrenaline I need to turn and run away, but for some reason, my stupid feet are rooted to the floor.
Unlike our encounter at the mall, there’s nowhere to run this time.
Where would I even go?
Reality shatters around me, splintering and stabbing at me like knives, and my knees go weak.
This can’t be happening.Why the fuck is this happening?
“Aren’t you going to say hello?” Sean asks, his velvet-smooth voice flipping a switch of defiance in me. They’re not going to attack me out in the open like this.Not with so many witnesses.
“W-why are you here?” I say, trying to find my voice. It’s hard to steel my nerves when the three of them are staring at me like they’re starved, and I’m the first meal they’ve seen in days.
It’s unsettling.
“We’re hungry,” Caleb answers for the pack, gesturing to the menu. “Aren’t you going to take our drink order, babe?”
The word grates against my nerves like coarse sandpaper, and my eyes shift back to him. When our gazes lock, nausea turns my stomach. His golden eyes are filled with a dark, calculated hatred. There’s no hint of charm in them, and I know it’s because I destroyed their pack bond and deserted them months ago.
I thought they would have gotten over it by now, but clearly not.
Not them. They’ll clearly never let something like that go.
They were serious enough about finding me that they tracked down where I work. How, I have no idea, and now, they’ve come to… get me back? Make me pay? The cliché possibilities are endless, but I don’t plan to give them any satisfaction.
I won’t let them have any effect on me, and if they start trouble, I’ll have Alessandro kick them out.He’d do that for me, right?
I stand up straighter, holding my head a little higher. “What can I get you to drink so you can choke on it?”
Derrick, who’s sitting closest to me on my right, flinches, and I nearly jump. The other two, I might stand a chance against, but I’m like a child next to Derrick’s brute strength. He could easily crush me if he wanted, and given the lethal look in his eye, I wouldn’t put it past him.
“You better watch that pretty little mouth,” he says, keeping his voice low. “Or I might have to fill it with something other than sarcasm.”
I scoff, still doing my best to put up a brave front, but the threat has me trembling on the inside.
“Go on,” Caleb says, jutting his chin toward the kitchen. “Be a good little omega and bring us some breadsticks.”
The wordomegaturns my stomach, and my eyes fly wide open.
“Shut up,” I hiss through my teeth, checking around me to make sure there’s no one within earshot. Thankfully, there isn’t.