Page 17

Everything comes back to me in fits and starts. Running to try to catch the courier, passing out on the sidewalk. My cheeks burn with embarrassment, thinking of all the people who were walking by and must have seen me faint like some heroine from a period drama.
I take a deep breath, and it’s immediately a mistake.
Tristan’s scent is strong, on me and in his office, but the other Alphas’ scents are just as strong. Stronger than usual. It’s intense and overwhelming, and now that I’ve noticed them, I can’t stop. Something inside me shifts, reacting to the scents, and my stomach heaves so strongly that I’m hit with the urge to throw up again.
Their scents are always strong, always powerful, but it’s not usually this bad. Usually I can at least keep my head on straight when I’m around them.
It hits me a split second later. My blockers. They must have finally failed.
I’ve been rationing my doses for the last few weeks, trying to make the little I have left stretch until I could get more. The stress of the day and all the running around must have finally pushed my hormones too high.
It was always a possibility, but I thought I had more time. And I thought if it happened, it would happen at home, somewhere I could control the fall out.
Not in the middle of my workplace with the last three people I’d ever want to find out about me.
I look up at them, heart racing. They must know. They must be able to smell it on me.
“I know what’s going on, Penelope,” Xavier says. He pushes off from the wall and comes closer.
My heart sinks, and for a moment, I’m convinced that they’ve caught me in my lie. They’ve sussed me out, by the smell of me, that I was never a Beta, and I applied here with that lie on my credentials.
I don’t want to look at Xavier, don’t want to see anger and upset on that kind, handsome face, but I know I can’t run away from this. Whatever the consequences are, I’m going to have to face them.
And they’re probably going to suck, to be honest about it. I’ll get fired, I’ll be blacklisted from ever working with any company that Vantage does business with. They’ll drag my name through the mud, and Sienna will gloat and take great pleasure in sending out a company-wide email reminding everyone that being honest in your interviews is the way to actually make progress here.
In an instant, I can see everything I’ve been working toward come crashing down around me. I’ll be back at square one again. Broke with no prospects, and not able to afford my blockers or much of anything else.
Actually, I’ll be worse off because I’ll have fewer prospects than I had before I took this job.
There’s a voice in the back of my head that sounds like Sienna, telling me that this is what I deserve for lying. That I was a fool for thinking I could deceive three Alphas for longer than a few weeks.
Bile burns up my throat, and there’s that sick feeling again. It seems like it doesn’t want to go away today.
I raise my eyes to Xavier’s face, and I’m surprised to see him smiling kindly at me.
That can’t be right.
Maybe I’m dreaming. That would be nice. But the sick feeling is still there, letting me know that this is probably all happening in the real world.
“What… what do you mean?” I ask, mind racing as I try to figure out what I’m going to say to them.
“You’re clearly not a Beta,” Dominic says. His tone doesn’t give anything away. As always he’s gruff and to the point.
“You might have thought you were,” Xavier adds. “Or been hoping you would be. But this proves that you’re actually an Omega. The nose doesn’t lie.” He grins and taps the side of his nose.
I suck in a breath, my head spinning as I process that. I’m hit with a wave of relief when I realize that they don’t think I was lying to them. They think I’ve just presented. They think we’ve all found out about me being an Omega at the same time.
Most people figure out if they’re an Alpha, Beta, or Omega much earlier in life, and that’s how it was for me in reality. But the Alphas in front of me clearly think that I’m a late bloomer and they’re trying to be nice to me about it.
Well, Xavier is, at least.
Of all the ways this could have gone, this is probably the best thing to happen today.
It means lying more to them, but right now, I can’t bring myself to care too much about that. It’s the only way through this without having to spill my guts all over Tristan’s office.
“Oh,” I say, making my eyes wide with surprise. “I… that can’t be right, can it? I was so sure I was a Beta this whole time. Most people in my family present as Betas, so I just assumed…” I trail off, trying to look believably confused.
“It happens,” Tristan throws in, and I snap my gaze to him, surprised he’s speaking up at all. “You think you should be one thing, but you’re not. It’s normal.”