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That makes him look up. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“How often do you see her?” It’s like he’s speed-running through trying to get to know her, at least what I know about her.
“About four or five times a year. Only when I’m in her area and she’s not away on business. Which isn’t very often.” And definitely not as often as I would like.
Even if we’re not into each other sexually, she’s great to hang out with and still makes me feel like I’m at home.
“Have you ever had sex with her?”
I burst out laughing, shaking my head as I pluck the pheromone cigarette from between his shaking fingers, lighting it up and taking a drag.
“I’ve never had sex with her. Neither of us have any interest in each other in that regard. We just hang out, complain about our jobs, lack of a love life and eat food.”
Pheromone cigarettes don’t do much for me, my pheromones are too strong to be suppressed with them, they’re only really useful if you already use other suppressing methods, or barely have any, like Mathew. But since he’s got this scent around him, me also being covered in it will make it more convincing.
Caleb’s voice is deep, quiet. “Why is she so angry with Mathew?”
The one question I’d hoped to put off until we were back home…
I think back to what Riley just said and try to come up with a way to say it without Mathew getting angry with me.
“She knows I’ve been waiting for years for my scent matched Omega to finally accept me, to create a pair bond with me. And now she suddenly finds out I’m part of a pack with an Omega who clearly isn’t the Omega in question and it’s also run by a ruthless Alpha. She’s just being protective.”
I glance at Mathew. “I never told her your name or even gave a clue that you could be the Omega. She thinks my scent matched Omega is someone who works at a company I sometimes work with. That’s all she knows. Which could literally be hundreds of Omegas.”
He looks surprised. “She never asked more?”
“We don’t really share details, safer that way in our line of work.”
“Right.” He nods. He looks surprisingly calm after I just confessed that I’ve been waiting for him for years. Though, he probably already knew that, no matter how much we both tried to ignore it.
“I only did what I thought was best. If you had at any point shown any interest in bonding, I would have introduced you two. But I wasn’t going to do that if it was only going to make both of you unhappy.”
“I still would have wanted to know. You should have told me.” He looks sad, though not angry anymore, which is progress.
“No, what Jorge did was right.” Caleb finishes up his cigarette. “He made the right choice. If you weren’t going to bond with her, it was better to let her find her own path.”
He looks at both of us. “A chosen relationship instead of a scent match might not be the ultimate goal, but it beats waiting for someone who might never return your feelings. He did the right thing.”
I stare at Caleb, not sure what to say. I expected him to get angry with me for keeping a secret, not that he would agree with me.
“So, nowI’mthe bad guy for getting upset?” Mathew crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at us.
“No. But that doesn’t mean that what Jorge did was wrong. If you want Riley to stop being suspicious of you, you’re going to have to act friendly with Jorge. Any anger you still have, you can deal with when we’re at home.” He looks at both of us, quiet for some time, then he nods, like he’s made a choice.
“We’ll stick to Derrick’s plan. Always have one of us between you and her. Then, you can ask her over for dinner or whatever tomorrow, so we can explain the situation to her in private. Unless either of you doesn’t want her to join the pack?”
I watch Mathew, who looks down to the ground. “I want her to join. She… She smells really good and I think Vera really likes her too.”
It’s pretty clear what Vera thinks of Riley, she’s been eye-fucking her from the start.
“You? What do you want to do?” Caleb eyes me.
“I want her to join. I want to tell her the truth.” There’s been nothing I’ve been wanting more for years, to finally tell her the truth and to stop lying.
Just one more evening. One more evening of keeping all of this a secret and it will all be over.