Page 104 of Choosing Their Omega

With these beautiful clips in my hair, I feel claimed. Not in a barbaric way, but in a subtle way. I don’t know if anyone who looks at me will realize that these clips are from my Alphas. Probably not. But I’ll know.

We get to the venue for the charity auction, held in the large reception hall of the fanciest, oldest hotel in town. I should’ve expected that the organizers for this auction would go all-out in order to accommodate and impress the rich people attending, but I’m still stunned as Cruz helps me out of the limo and offers me his arm.

As the pack leader, Cruz leads the way from the front of the hotel where everyone’s being dropped off to the lobby and through down the hall to the reception.

“They usually use this place for weddings,” Miles explains in a quiet voice, and I can believe him.

It’s beautiful, lovely carved pillars jutting out of the walls to soar up to the ceiling, three large chandeliers hanging down to light the space, a polished floor filled with drapery and trees and ice sculptures, like a winter fairy forest.

Ben’s eyes are wide as he takes it all in. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

He nods, enraptured.

I can’t blame him. It is beautiful in here.

“It’s almost as beautiful as you,” Lawson murmurs in my ear.

My face heats up, and he chuckles. “Flatterer.”

“Hey now, I’m only speaking the truth.”

The thing is, I believe him. I know he’s just saying what he feels. All of my Alphas do. Their sincerity is why I care for them, why I trust them.

While I’m on Cruz’s arm, the other Alphas all flank us. A clear unit. Immediately, people start coming up to us, excited to see the Omega on Cruz’s arm up close. This isn’t the first time that my Alphas have been one of the guests of honor who offered up something for the auction, but it’s the first time they’ve brought a date, or Ben.

Ben is simultaneously excited and shy at the same time, and Knox holds him soothingly. But Ben reaches for me.

“Lily?” he asks, holding his hands out.

My heart breaks and reforms all in an instant. I look to Knox, worried that he’ll be upset, but he just smiles and passes Ben over to me. He looks delighted and proud, and I want to cry.

Ben trusts me. He wants me with him while he’s in this strange new place, meeting strange new people.

Ben rests his head on my shoulder and looks wide-eyed around the room. “You want to walk around and see all the stuff people can buy?” I ask softly, keeping my voice calm.

I’m sure that he’s got enough excitement and nerves, if I’m too excited it’ll overload him.

Ben nods. “Uh huh.”

“Okay, let’s take a look.”

“We need to mingle.” Lawson pulls a face, showing how much he likes that idea. “But our table is right over there. The dinner and the auction starts in about half an hour so we’ll sit down together.”

I nod and then lead Ben around the room. The items that are being auctioned off are either presented on stands under glass for people to look at, or are listed on a plaque for people to read information about. Mine’s not a physical item so it’s the latter. I had to send in a map of the tour I would give through the city and list the various places we’d be stopping and a brief essay of why this would be fun and interesting.

Ben is excited to see the signed hockey sticks that his uncles have put up for auction. There’s a lot of other fun things here too. Someone’s offering up their yacht for a weekend trip, and another person has put up some beautiful art.

My heart sinks a little. When you put it up next to all of these fancy presents, my gift seems kind of… boring and mundane. People are offering to pay for a resort vacation, a couple’s massage, giving up autographed items… and I’m just offering to take people around their city.

Maybe this was a mistake.

Ben smiles when he sees my little booklet explaining my auctioned item, though. That warms me.

When we finish looking at the items for the auction, I take Ben back to the table, where we all settle down for dinner. Ben’s basically glued to my side, and I feel almost like crying by how happy it makes me.

There’s no longer any doubt in my mind that he’s bonded with me, and it brings me so much joy. The only thing that competes for my happiness about it is knowing how much my Alphas care for me. Seeing how they look at me with pride throughout the dinner, practically preening at how beautiful they think I am, fills my chest with delight.

I look around at all the other rich people around us, eating this delicious, fine food, sipping this wine that has to be outrageously priced, and cooing over the various things they want to buy at the auction, all of them ready to drop thousands of dollars on it.

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