Page 20

My omega.

Presumptuous, but the tingle that ran down my spine confirmed how much I wanted it to be true.

I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans. Five more minutes until I got to hear her sweet voice.

Our first call had been slightly awkward, but I requested another one immediately. There was something in the spacebetween our words that swelled against my insides. It stretched my ribs apart until I felt weightless. It had been barely a week but I didn’t feel right unless I spoke to her every day.

How quickly Tahlia wove her way into my world.

Would Tahlia see it and imagine herself in my arms? Snuggling in the soft comfort? Omegas loved soft, cozy furnishings, and I would have done anything to make her voice sound like a smile.

What if she didn’t call? What if she wasn’t who she said she was? I cycled through the same tired worries, hearing them in Walden’s disapproving tone. His judgment was hypocritical considering how toxic his relationship with Pan was.

It might have started out of desperation and loneliness. But we’d grown into something different. She was a mirrored shard of my tender, craving soul. I knew we were both searching for something and she could find whatever she hungered for, in me.

Crazy, desperate, stupid.

Walden could call it whatever he wanted. Trusting my gut had always come naturally to me, and I wouldn’t stop now.

From a scrappy young kid with dreams in The Barracks to the most famous pack in Starhaven.

When I met Pan, I was still a hungry young man, on the cusp of adulthood. My scholarship thrust me into a world that made me dizzy from the glamor and riches. Ajax, Walden, and Pan took me under their wing.

It felt natural to form a pack.

But the glamor faded in time. Baylark Pack might look perfect from the outside. Internally, Pan and Walden were at each other’s throats, taking turns with who could hurt the other deeper.

Whatever tied us together was tight with tension. Leaving us gasping for air, hiding from blows, and waiting for theinevitable. Baylark Pack needed an intervention. We needed an omega. Someone we could orbit around.

Only Omegas had been a late-night, spontaneous decision. And Tahlia had saved me.

I knew what it was to starve. Physically. The dizzy, ravenous drive to chew anything and everything. Needing to stop the cramp in my stomach. But this hunger was different. It gnawed at my soul. Longing squeezed the breath from my lungs.

While Pan picked a fight with Walden or Ajax, I drifted into a dream world. Where nothing existed except for Tahlia’s warmth and the hum of her purr. The tension I carried became a whisper. I ached to see her in real life. Her pictures had drawn me in, but talking to her was the brightest part of my day. The lilt of her voice wiped my worries. I’d never even seen her face, but I swear I was half in love with this woman.

The screen lit up, and I swallowed hard as my shaky fingers opened the video call.

“Hey Tahlia.” The greeting sounded strangled.

Tahlia was curled up on her bed, with only her neck down visible. She wore a tight white tee knotted at her waist, leaving a sliver of her soft belly. I trailed my gaze lower to the flannel pajama pants, giddy at the sloth pattern on them. She hadn’t worn anything revealing since our first call, at my request. Seeing her relaxed added to my delusion that this was real. Not a call I was paying for. Her nails flashed with purple glitter.

“Hey, yourself.” She waggled her fingers.

A rapid flush flooded my cheeks at the sound of her voice, almost a sigh.

“Love the sloths.” I blushed.

What about her turned me into a complete puddle?

She ran her fingers along the waistband, smothering a laugh. With me, she cracked open a view of who Tahlia really wasoutside of Only Omegas. She wore these pajamas when she went to sleep. I wondered if she ever thought about me, like I did her?

“They do men's sizes. We could be matching,” she teased.

My flush intensified, and a prickle pulsed on my forehead. “Maybe a birthday gift? You could deliver them in person.”

She had me acting in ways that were unbelievable. I wanted to reach through the screen and feel the warmth of her on my skin.

It wasn’t fair to pressure her, but I was obsessed. We talked in the morning and late at night. I sent her messages all day long. Tahlia was a delicious ghost, haunting my every thought. She flitted between the spreadsheets and financial reports I was supposed to be concentrating on at work.