Page 17 of Stolen Omega

It’s so damn cute when her skin flushes like that. It reminds me how sheltered her life has been.

She’s devoted it so much to her music that she barely has time for anything else.

I doubt things will move very quickly between us once she’s ready for a mate.

My dick is being a real … well, dick. It seriously needs to go to sleep.

I don’t want to scare Zey off. I might be ready for more, but I can slow down to whatever pace she needs. Even if that means we barely touch. I’ve spent this long as a friend. I can spend even longer being whatever she needs me to be before I become her mate.

Uncapping one of the bottled waters, I take in a breath.

Despite being so close, I don’t catch another hint of her perfume.

It’s gone from the air, gone from her clothes as if it was never there.

That’s probably a good thing.

This is going to get complicated, fast.

Even if Zelena wants to be mine, to be ours, she isn’t free to make the choice to claim us.

That fucking contract her parents made her sign takes away her right to claim mates.

Of course, that fucking contract runs out in a few months, so the timing isn’t completely awful, but that does mean I’ll have to talk to her about it sometime soon, before she’s pressured into signing a new one.

It’s a lot, and I can’t really bring it up until it feels like she’s ready.

Archer would know how to tell. He has those finely tuned Alpha instincts.

I’ll feel better once I’ve spoken to him. He’ll know how to navigate this development.

I barely know how to sit here knowing she’s mine while she’s trying to hide it.

It’s the sweetest kind of torture I’ve ever had to endure.

“You okay, Russ?” Zey asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Yeah, sure,” I answer on reflex.

Convincing? Nope. But she doesn’t push for a real answer.

I feel like an asshole for not bothering to explain why I’m distracted, but there’s nothing I could say that wouldn’t be inappropriate. If I were an Alpha, I’d have my instincts to go on, but I guess if I were an Alpha I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.

All things considered, I’m glad I’m not an Alpha.

Chapter Six

Zelena

The guy I’m crushing on is being weird, and I’m kind of glad. If Russ was being his usual disarming self, my perfume might come rushing back. I’m pretty sure he must have noticed it before, because I can’t think of a single other reason why he’d be acting so suddenly distant.

God, that’s embarrassing.

I thought he was into me.

Why the hell would I think that?

He might spend a lot of time with me, and he’s always nice to me, but neither of those things mean anything on their own and I’d have to be blind not to see that.

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