Page 14 of Follow Your Instincts (Fairview City Omegaverse)

Ben

Lucas clapped a hand on my shoulder. “You need to chill, we have plenty of time. You know this is hard for him,” he said.

We’d all taken the afternoon off, except Lucas, who had every day off if he wanted, for the meeting out in Brookwood.

I’d been obsessively checking the time all day.

Luckily, my morning client on Thursdays was Lucy, a wealthy older woman who seemed more interested in watching me demo her exercises than actually doing them.

I shouldn't have skipped my own workout that morning. Maybe then I wouldn’t have been so antsy.

“Someone should go up there,” Soren said, looking at Lucas. Lucas was the most relaxed and equipped to deal with a Lachlan brooding session, but I was sick of this shit.

“I’ve got it,” I said and stormed up the stairs to get our pack leader down, no matter if I had to drag him.

I didn’t bother knocking and just barreled into Lachlan’s room. He was standing in the middle of his room wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs and a bewildered scowl. As usual, I kept my reaction to seeing him in any state of undress to myself.

It’s generally not a good idea to fall in love with your heterosexual grumpy pack leader with intimacy issues, but my stupid heart hadn’t listened to that advice.

Lachlan reminded me of the dark, brooding hero of a Victorian novel.

His dark, wavy hair was always just on the verge of being unkempt.

He had hooded green eyes and a strong, straight nose that gave him the look of a jungle cat.

His lips were full, and the scar marring the right side of his mouth just added to the mysterious intensity.

“Have you just been standing here this whole time?” I asked and kept myself from staring at the strong, defined muscles that I had helped him cultivate over the last five years.

If you ever want to torture yourself, try being the personal trainer for a man you already find deeply attractive and help him get even hotter over several years, all while knowing he sees you as nothing more than a packmate.

I was truly the worst kind of masochist.

“Not the whole time,” Lachlan growled and shoved a hand through his hair. “I just have no idea what to wear.”

“You look good in anything,” I said and pulled a pair of dark jeans from a drawer, then crossed to the closet and grabbed the soft, moss green button up that brought out the color of his eyes.

I passed him the clothes and my heart clenched at the look in his eyes. Fear and hope that he was desperately trying to smother.

“Am I going to have to dress you, too?” I joked and clenched my fists to keep from stroking the side of his face. I understood his fears - anyone with his prior experience with Omegas would be hesitant - but I wasn’t going to let him sabotage this opportunity.

“If this Omega doesn’t work out, I’m going to leave the pack,” he said and started pulling on the clothes I’d picked. “ You’ll have a better chance without me.”

“That is such bullshit,” I said. “Our pack doesn’t exist without you. And I know I’ve got my hopes up and that freaks you out, but there are plenty of packs without an Omega. We still have each other.”

Lachlan didn’t reply, and I could see the stubborn resolve in his expression.

“Can you please stop with the brooding and get your ass downstairs?”

We walked down the steps together. I let Lachlan lead the way, mostly so he didn’t try to run back and lock himself in his room.

I didn’t want to admit it, but his fears were valid.

We were all already dating outside the pack.

Nothing serious, but it did feel like the bond between us was weakening slowly.

It scared the shit out of me. An Omega would be the glue that put us back together, that would let me stay close to the grumpy bastard who had no idea I was yearning for him, imagining it was him pushing into me when I finally broke down and hooked up with a guy from one of the dating apps I kept on my phone for such purposes.

I slept with women too, but that didn’t satisfy the Lachlan fantasy.

“Finally,” Soren joked when we made it downstairs. “Car’s been running.”

“You okay, Lach?” Lucas asked.

“Let’s get this over with.”

The drive to the Brookwood Omega Center only took about thirty minutes thanks to minimal traffic, but I couldn’t stop fidgeting the entire time.

We rode in Lucas’ Range Rover, one of the few ostentatious purchases he’d made after selling his company.

Lachlan drove, and I was driving Soren crazy in the backseat, jiggling my leg nervously.

“Did you find out anything else about the Omega from your work?” I asked. I had mostly been joking the other night when I insisted our new potential match was the same woman, but if I was right, I would be so smug. The smuggest.

“Captain told me to mind my own business. I know she’s on a leave of absence. Hopefully she’ll come back,” he said.

“And the asshole that attacked her?” Lachlan asked.

Soren sighed. “Administrative leave pending an internal affairs investigation. They always take forever. Charges haven’t been dropped, though.”

“Fucker,” Lachlan growled.

“IA hasn’t asked for my testimony yet, but I’ll do what I can,” Soren assured him.

All too soon, yet not soon enough, we pulled up to the Center.

The energy in the car was unbearable. Between my nervous excitement, Lachlan’s barely concealed terror, Soren’s quiet tension, and the cracks in Lucas’s usually unflappable calm, it felt like the moment when the fuse was lit and the fireworks were about to go off.

“Welcome to the Omega Center, Brookwood,” a woman with an English accent said through the intercom. “How can I help you?”

Lachlan looked frozen. “We’re here to meet an Omega,” Lucas said from the passenger seat, coming to his rescue.

“Oh, wonderful. Pack Murray?” the voice asked.

“Yes, that’s us,” Lucas said.

“Fantastic, please pull in and I’ll be out to greet you.” The gate buzzed and let us into the property. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my throat. Soren adjusted the sleeves of his leather jacket beside me.

We parked the Rover. Lachlan turned to look at us from the front seat. He opened his mouth to say something pessimistic, I was sure, and then closed it, shaking his head.

“Good speech,” I said and hopped out before he could growl at me.

The woman waiting for us was a plump and friendly older Omega in a flowy skirt, with long gray hair and reading glasses on a beaded chain around her neck .

“How nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m Steffi, the director.

Before we go in, let’s go over the ground rules.

You’ll be meeting with Maggie, and she’s excited to meet you, but if that changes at any point, you’ll be asked to leave.

All touching should be initiated by Maggie.

And we’ll keep it brief today, but if Maggie wants to make arrangements for other meetings or dates, we’ll facilitate things.

Can you all agree to that?” We all nodded dutifully.

“I wonder if you have any questions for me. I don’t believe you’ve ever met with an Omega staying in a Center before, have you? ”

“No, we haven’t,” Lachlan said shortly.

Lucas gave him a slightly disapproving look. “I think what he means to say is no, we haven’t, so we aren’t sure what questions to ask,” he said. “What do you think we should know?”

“Well, I just want to remind you that the Omegas staying with us are special. They don’t have the support that other Omegas do, so we feel quite protective of them, naturally.

And maybe I’d remind you to be patient,” Steffi said, smiling at all of us in turn, and raised her eyebrow at me as I shifted from foot to foot.

“Sorry,” I said, and stilled. “I can be patient.”

“Wonderful,” Steffi beamed. “Let’s go inside, shall we?”

The lobby just smelled like chemical descenter, no matter how hard I sniffed.

Steffi gave me another quietly disapproving look and I stopped huffing the air.

“Right this way,” she said and guided us to a set of French doors on the right.

My pulse quickened and my extremities went numb from anticipation.

As soon as she opened the doors, a faint trace of peaches and ginger crept into the air, and I whooped. I pushed my way into the room first.

“Ha!” I said loudly. “I fucking told you!”