Page 31 of Knotty New Year

I sighed. “Candy—”

But she was already on her way out.

Chapter14

Candy

The brilliant-cut, blue-white diamond ring on my left hand, etched on both sides with tiny candy shapes, felt heavier for some reason. Just like my heart did.

I shouldn’t feel sad; I should feel blissful. Lucky. I’d won the freaking omega lottery.

“I did, didn’t I?” I asked Rain. “I won the omega lottery, right?”

She’d just arrived in the middle of my packing frenzy. Pax had texted me that his siblings wanted me to come out to Telluride as early as possible.

I hadn’t mentioned that to Rain yet. Or Dr. Murray. Or why I had turned Pax’s notifications off on my phone until I knew I wouldn’t cuss him out if I heard his stupid voice.

“From what I can tell, you may as well have won an actual lottery. Your alpha is loaded. He probably shits gold bricks into his gold toilets. Speaking of smelly shit, itstillstinks in here.”

Rain wandered across my bedroom, one hand over her face now, muttering about the stench. Apparently, Pax and I had “permanently destroyed” the room on Christmas, and the residual perfume of our lovemaking, even days later, was so thick it was clogging her lungs.

She threw open the window and stuck her head out. “Yes, bitch, you won the lottery. You’re the brand-new fiancée of one of the richest men in the world, who is also unfairly hot.”

I sighed and picked up my e-tablet. “I know that. Everybody knows that. Did you see the article inAlpha Rollmagazine a few years back, where a bunch of women threw actual panties at him?”

Rain hmphed. “Apparently, an acceptable flirting technique for alpha chasers.”

“I know!” I’d been doing a deep internet dive on his personal life since I’d left his house. Partly to understand him, and partly to see if what Dr. Murray—the surprisingly gorgeous blonde beta, who was so educated and intelligent and renowned it made me want to tear her hair out at the roots—had said was true.

Had he really told no one about us?

Was he ashamed of me, and keeping it a secret?

I wanted to think it was just shitty timing. Apparently, the constant buzzing on his phone on Christmas night and the day after had been something awful going down at Paxson Pharma. When he’d finally checked his messages, he’d vanished into his home office and spent almost every hour there.

“He’s not just sexy and rich and ridiculously good in bed, Rain. He’s responsible, kind, hardworking, and generous. He raised his nine younger siblings after their parents died. He built his family’s company into—”

She interrupted my monologue. “This is sounding an awful lot like that time you tried to convince yourself bangs would work on you, me, and Soleil. You made a spreadsheet of reasons we should all enter hairstyle hell.”

“This is nothing like that,” I lied. “I wish Soleil had come back from St. Croix. At least she always says something cheerful.” Of my two besties, Rain was the pragmatic one, and Soleil, the optimist. It balanced out most of the time.

“I can be cheerful.” She twisted around to face me and bared her teeth. “See? Smiling. Now tell me what the asshole did.”

“It’s stupid.”

“Candy. Dresses without pockets are stupid. Decaf coffee is stupid. Doing the cinnamon challenge in gym class is really, really stupid. And except for that last one, you are not and have never been stupid.”

“Hey, I got out of eighth grade gym class for a month doing that challenge,” I protested, though she was right. I still felt sick if I tried to eat a cinnamon roll.

I scratched at my neck, my mate mark burning again.

“How long has that been hurting?” she asked, then looked around my room. “When did you come back here?”

“A couple of nights ago.”

She sucked in a breath. “Oh, shit. You broke up?”

“Ah, no. Come on, we can spend time apart. We’re not codependent. Yet.”

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