Page 19 of Follow Your Instincts (Fairview City Omegaverse)

Maggie

S oren arrived alone the next morning to pick me up. “Sorry, it’s just me,” he said when I walked out to meet him. “Ben was being such a smug asshole all night, we thought he deserved to be brought down a peg.”

I blushed. “I thought gentlemen didn’t kiss and tell!”

“Ben isn’t a gentleman. But he also just kept bragging that you had called your run a date. Nothing about a kiss,” Soren said. He raised one eyebrow at me and opened the passenger door of the black sedan for me.

“Well, crap,” I said, blushing even harder. I slid into the car and looked up at Soren.

“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. Mostly because I don’t want to hear Ben bragging even more,” he replied.

His sharp grapefruit and hop scent had permeated the interior of the car, and I took a surreptitious sniff of the upholstery before he got into the driver’s seat.

“You okay if we stop and get breakfast on the way home?” he asked. We pulled out onto the road and started towards the bridge that would take us into the city. Even though it was only a 10 mile trip, it would take about 45 minutes to get there.

“Sure, where are we going?”

“Lucas wants bagels from a place we’ll pass on our way back.”

“Which place?”

“Sam’s on 35th,” he replied.

“Oh god, no, we’re not eating fucking garbage bagels. We’re going to get actual good bagels from BB’s - it’s on 39th street. I’ll get us there,” I said.

“Yes ma’am,” Soren said and smiled at me when I glared.

“It’s not my fault Lucas has shit taste in bagels,” I said defensively.

Soren lifted a hand in mock surrender. “Didn’t say anything.”

We rode in silence for a few moments and Soren switched on the radio, but turned the volume down low so it was more background noise. He didn’t seem to feel any awkwardness in the quiet, but I was getting antsy.

“Any updates on the Heitzig case? Have you heard from Greta?” I asked, latching onto a safe topic.

“No, nothing. I forgot to ask you, though, did she say anything about a pack when you were talking to her? Her family said she just started seeing one. Did she say anything about calling them?” He looked over at me, hopefully.

“Sorry, she didn’t mention a pack,” I said. “Do you know anything about them?”

Soren huffed. “Her cousin says their name was ‘something Russian.’ Super helpful,” he said sarcastically.

“Russians in Fairview City? Should be easy to narrow that down,” I joked. “Do you think she had something to do with the robbery?”

Soren considered the question carefully as he merged onto the bridge into the city. “I don’t know. I talked to her a bit after you left that day, and she seemed genuinely shaken up.”

“I thought so too,” I agreed.

“But disappearing like this… It doesn’t look good,” he continued.

I nodded, and jealousy burned in the pit of my stomach.

“You alright?” Soren asked after a few moments .

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just wish I were working on this case.”

“Me too. Maybe then Harcourt wouldn’t be threatening to stick me with Jacobs. Plus, I’ve heard good things about you and your work.” Soren said.

“You have?” I asked, bewildered.

“Yeah, from other detectives. Milsap said you were helpful in a few cases last year, and Fraser has always preferred working with you,” he said.

“Wow,” I said, blushing. “I’ve always really respected your work. So it sucks that I can’t work this case with you because of Todd’s inability to control himself.”

“It’s complete bullshit,” he agreed. “But you’re coming back?”

“Yeah, she said there would be an opportunity. After I… bond with a pack, I mean. My scent will settle or something? All this Alpha and Omega biology was not something I ever thought I’d have to deal with,” I said, blushing even harder. Could this be any more awkward? I thought.

Luckily, Soren didn’t seem bothered. “You never thought about being part of a pack before this?”

“No, never. I didn’t even grow up with a regular family, and the concept of pack life is so foreign to me. How about you?”

“I grew up outside the city, about an hour north, with Lachlan. Our families were close, and we basically grew up together. I was jealous of his life. Not that my parents aren’t great, but his house was just…

more. Lachlan has three older sisters, and they became like my older sisters, too.

So, a few years ago, when Lachlan asked me if I wanted to join him and create a new pack, I was all in,” he said.

“You make it sound so easy,” I said.

“It’s not always easy. Lachlan is a bit of a dick and Ben annoys the shit out of us. Lucas is too nice most of the time, but he’s alright. We love each other, so it works out,” he said.

“That’s kind of beautiful,” I whispered.

“Yeah, you are,” he said, smiling at me, and reached out with his palm up. I interlaced our fingers, and he squeezed my hand .

“What the fuck?” I said, bewildered, as we pulled up to the pack’s house. “I knew Lucas was rich but… what the fuck? Are you all loaded?”

The long, narrow townhome was three stories tall and made of gorgeous dark red brick.

A set of stone steps led to a grand front door flanked by large windows.

The top two stories all had three windows, and the roof was made of copper.

The whole house looked like something out of a storybook in which an orphan is whisked away to live with a rich uncle they never knew existed.

“Lachlan and Lucas are the loaded ones. You know what my salary is. We’ll go in around the back, I just wanted you to see the front,” Soren said, chuckling and squeezing my hand. “Don’t freak out.”

We made the block. Soren pressed a button to raise a garage door, and we drove down a small ramp into an underground garage with two spots, one of which had a Range Rover parked in it.

“I am so underdressed,” I said. I was wearing my normal black athletic leggings and a dark green shirt that Kira said brought out the color of my eyes. Thank god I hadn’t worn a band t-shirt like I’d been planning.

“You look great,” Soren said sincerely. He got out and grabbed the box of bagels we’d picked up at BB’s before coming to open my side of the car.

I just stared at him. “You guys have got the wrong girl.”

Soren smiled at me patiently, then put the bagels down so he could reach in for my hand. He pulled me out and laughed at my reluctance.

“Maggie, you are absolutely the right girl,” he said, skimming the back of his hand down my arm.

I shivered at the touch, and he stepped closer to tuck my hair behind my ear.

His blue eyes darkened and dropped to my lips as he drew his fingers down the side of my neck and traced the outline of my collarbone.

He leaned in and I caught my breath, anticipating his lips on mine, but he pressed a kiss to my temple instead, his breath ruffling my hair and his beard tickling my skin.

Tingles spread across my scalp and spine.

“Now let’s get inside before Ben has a heart attack.

And you still need to put Lucas in his place about his ‘garbage bagels.’”

I followed Soren up a flight of stairs on suddenly weak knees, and he pushed open a door. I immediately heard Ben say, “Jesus, it’s about time.”

We emerged into a large, open kitchen with navy blue cabinets, white marble countertops, and a large island where Ben, Lucas, and Lachlan were sitting, having coffee.

As soon as I walked in, Ben lunged forward and pulled me into a huge hug, inhaling my scent as I did his.

A small piece of my anxiety on seeing their house calmed as I breathed him in, even as my heart beat faster at his proximity.

“I missed you,” he whispered into my ear, then pulled back to smile at me. “Lucas, make her one of those fancy coffees.”

“God, he’s so rude,” I said, and looked over at Lucas. “I would like a fancy coffee, please. If it’s not too much trouble.” I had skipped out on coffee that morning in favor of blow-drying my hair, and I really needed it.

“Of course,” he said, smiling and strolling over to a huge, gleaming espresso machine. “What would you like?”

“I normally just do drip, so whatever’s easiest,” I said, feeling out of place again. Soren noticed my discomfort and pulled me deeper into the kitchen to take Ben’s stool at the island, next to Lachlan.

“Good morning,” I said to him. He looked a bit more casual in a t-shirt rather than the button-down he’d been wearing when we met, but his eyes were just as intense. His dark, smoky scent washed over me, and I squeezed my thighs together at the sudden throb between my legs.

“Good morning,” he said politely, but his voice was a bit strangled.

“You may rethink that fancy coffee once you hear what Maggie had to say about your bagel choices,” Soren said to Lucas.

“You don’t like Sam’s?” he asked me, his brows narrowed in genuine confusion.

“I mean… I think BB’s is better. We stopped there instead so you guys could try them,” I said diplomatically.

“She called Sam’s 'garbage bagels,’ actually,” Soren said, winking at me as I shot him a death glare. He was across the island, unloading the BB’s box onto a cutting board.

Lucas laughed, a rich, deep sound. “As a native Fairviewer, I’m sure you think you’re right.

But Sam’s is owned by Sam Dieman, who also owns a two-Michelin-star restaurant uptown.

He’s one of the most celebrated chefs in the city, and his bagels are supposed to be incredible,” he said, and started doing something complicated with steam and a metal carafe.

I shook my head. “Sam Dieman could be the best chef in the world, but his bagels are garbage, and I will prove it to you.”

I hopped out of my chair and joined Soren, selecting the perfect everything bagel from the pile. “Where’s the toaster?”

After toasting it to perfection in their very fancy toaster, I slathered it in onion and chive spread and slid it on the counter to Lucas just as he handed me a steaming, white ceramic mug that smelled incredible.