Page 8 of Happy Halloween, Omega

I press my hands against his rock-hard chest.

“No,” I murmur, trying to push him away. “No, I’m not yours.”

He growls, his grip on my hair tightening. “Yes, you are. You’ve been mine since the first moment I saw you.”

I shake my head, panic rising in my chest. “I can’t be what you want me to be.”

He sighs. “You already are, Kitten. You just have to stop fighting it.”

The music blares in the background, the sound of the crowd coming back into focus. His words echoing in my head.You already are, Kitten.

I take a deep breath, my mind racing. I want him. I want him more than anything. But I’m not ready. Not yet. My mother’s voice is still so loud. So insistent that I’m a Beta.

I feel the dark depths of his eyes studying my features. The frown lines next to his mouth deepen.

“You’re still running, Kitten. That’s okay, I’m enjoying the hunt. I’ll let you solve the mystery. Are you looking forward to finding out my identity?”

His fingers release my hair, and he takes a step back. The pang in my chest physically hurts as I reel from his abrupt departure. He went from scorching hot to ice cold in a snap.

“Tell me!” I splutter. I feel cold without his arms holding me close.

He looks down at me through the skull mask. Haunting. Promising.

“Happy Halloween, Omega.”

6

EveryHalloween,Igeta fright.

Except this time, the haunting didn’t stop at the end of the night.

It’s like he pulled a loose string within me and I’ve been unraveling ever since. It’s been seven months of trying with half-hearted effort to put the Alpha out of my mind. But it’s impossible. He’s haunting me. He’schangedme.

The purple pills now feel like lead when I swallow them every morning, and I question what my existence is really for. I wake up, take my pills, go to a soulless job, and return to watch Halloween re-runs with my cat. It’s not living. I realize the irony of calling the Alpha a ghost. If anyone is a soul trapped within the planes of living and dead, it’s me.

For the past year, I’ve slowly changed both physically and mentally. I’m coming alive and seeing the world in a whole new light.

I swear I can smell better. I can tell who is about to walk into a room before they appear. I shouldn’t be able to discern my coworkers’ unique scents as a Beta, yet day by day my senses sharpen. I thought it was all in my head until I heard a rumor of an Alpha at my construction company showing signs being near an unmated Omega.

My eyesight has improved and I no longer need glasses to read the spreadsheets at work. My breasts are heavier and my nipples hyper-sensitive. My stomach is fuller, softer. In fact, all of me feelsmore.

I should be terrified, but I’m not. There’s a strange sense of relief, like the mask is crumbling off and I’m finally becoming who I really am. I couldn’t say why the changes are happening now. I’m in my mid-twenties and long past puberty and presentation. I’ve never missed a pill.

I know what I want the cause to be. I want it to be as he said last Halloween. I want it to be because of my Alpha ghost. I want him to be the one triggering my inner Omega to reveal herself. It’s baffling and impulsive, but I want to see him again.

I know he sees me.

It’s a shadow at the corner of my periphery, causing the baby hairs on the back of my neck to prickle with awareness. A teasing scent in the air, so faint I can almost believe it’s not real. The brush of heat on my flesh, telling me I’m being watched with intensity.

He leaves no trace, just lingering hints, and I can’t shake the feeling that he’s always there, waiting for me. Watching me. My own personal ghost. It’s exciting and terrifying all at once, and I’m thoroughly addicted.

I know it’s not right, to want someone to continue stalking me and to foster the growing attachment to a person who could have nefarious intentions. There’s a force within me driving my desires and actions which I don’t understand. I’ve spent years learning how to manipulate the system to live as a Beta, but I know nothing about being an Omega. I’m woefully ill-equipped to deal with an Alpha showing interest in me.

Is that what this is? An Alpha showing interest in an Omega? Or is it a deranged man stalking a woman?

My mother certainly didn’t explain the mating process or the dynamics of the relationship between an Alpha and Omega. I’ve done everything I can to avoid those topics and information.

So, when I find my search history filled with‘how to tell if an Alpha is your fated mate,’I know I’m in trouble. What else could be the reason I’m so inexplicably drawn to this mysterious Alpha? I can’t stop thinking about him. His eyes, his scent, his body. He’s intoxicating.