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Ember put it into her phone right away, and texted me, “This is Ember.”

I pulled my phone out, showing her the text. “Got it.”

Ember gestured at the line. “Thanks for letting me crash your morning.”

“Any time.” I winked. “Sundays are extra slow in the morning. We do inventory.”

“Good to know.”

She headed out and the rest of the kitchen held their breath. I hopped into my station, and even Logan was grinning.

“All right, you busybodies.” I huffed. “Get back to work.”

“Yes, chef,” Logan said with a smirk. Sunshine’s innocent look was too practiced.

Now to figure out when I should text Ember without making her feel pressured.

It was clear I’d have to move slowly, but that was okay. I had all the time in the world, especially for what mattered.

Chapter 9

Ember

Ispent the almost hour drive to San Francisco having my own personal dance party in the car. The ocean was at my side, the early afternoon was bright, and I poured my heart into every song that came up on my playlist. I sang along to all my favorite songs, going from 1980s dance mixes to the slow mournful tunes of Evermore West.

There was something about being in the car, or the shower, and listening to music. It felt like the voice of the artist poured into my soul, breaking me and making me whole at the same time.

In a lot of ways, music saved me. I listened to albums on repeat during my recovery period, lying in bed at night and letting the haunting melody of Evermore West or the husky broken voice of Burns wash over me.

It was a safe way to feel when my own emotions would have broken me, dragged me under.

Alejandro was somehow exactly what I expected, but also nothing like it at all. Watching him cook made me want to lick him. A competent man in the kitchen? Now I saw what made Sunshine fall so hard for Logan.

But he didn’t push me, didn’t even ask for my number until I prompted. It seemed like he was perfectly fine to keep moving at a glacier pace.

Which was good. Right? I didn’t want anything to be too intense, too fast.

Maybe I’d try to get to know the alpha chef enough to see if West and I wanted him at our heat in two months. We hadn’t had an alpha during our heat in almost two years. West had an inflatable knot he used on me regularly. We didn’t need an alpha to get by, even if we ended our heat exhausted.

But wanting was a different matter.

I didn’t like how annoyed I was that Ben’s faint hint of scent was no longer on me. I didn’t know him well enough to want to carry his scent. Or the sexy omega. Two omegas were a stretch but three? I shook my head.

Holly had two male omegas in her pack, but she was a beta and had two alphas as well. A two-omega pack wasn’t common, but people made it work.

But three omegas seemed like asking for trouble.

No. West and I were fine, and my body was being stupid.

Traffic wasn’t too awful, and I arrived downtown.

Computer Solutions was a massive tech firm. I didn’t need to freelance for money, but I liked being in the middle of other programmers. It kept my skills sharp, and I stayed on top of the latest technology.

I found a parking space and headed up the elevator inside the parking garage.

The office was a cubicle hell, with a massive section of desks all sharing space in the center of the room. Around the sides were actual, real offices with doors.

I shuddered, wondering for the millionth time how West managed to work in the middle of a massive, brightly lit room. Spite, I decided. Most people assumed an omega would gettoo twitchy to manage, and they’d be correct. But West was good at ignoring everyone around him and usually wore heavy headphones during his workday. He also got a cubicle to the far corner, so he only shared space with two people and had a hallway and wall to his other side.