Page 6 of His Pretty Omega (Sweet Alps Mates #7)

“Love you, Sethy.” Because I knew Bennett so well, I didn’t miss the undertone of relief in his slightly smug voice.

He’d known I would call him back. Because we always called each other back, even when we were sniping or mad at each other.

To be fair, we didn’t get mad at each other often, and it was usually because I was being bratty.

“Love you too, B.” Ending the call, I sat my phone down on the vanity and stared at myself in the mirror.

Goddess, I was a wreck. My once artfully gelled and styled hair was going every which way over my head and there was a massive tangle in the back of it.

Gah, it seriously looked like a bird’s nest. My eyeliner was smeared under both eyes, giving me a raccoon wannabe look.

My purple eyeshadow was smudged in one corner, and mostly missing from the other eye.

I still had streaks of glitter across my cheekbones, so I guess that was a look.

Tilting my head in the light, I could just make out the beginnings of a bruise right over my mating gland from the alpha’s sharp teeth. When had he done that?

Wolf shifter , my cougar muttered as if I hadn’t caught his scent, stretched lazily, then promptly went back to sleep.

“Well, that wolf tried to eat me up.” Pulling my mesh shirt over my head and wiggling my arms in the sleeves, I snorted as a memory from the night before washed over me, making my entire body flush with heat. His tongue in my ass while I held myself open for him. “He did eat me up. ”

Damn, that alpha had been hella talented with that tongue of his. And fingers. And well, fuck, his entire body. Not to mention that big cock of his with the lovely wide knot.

Yes, indeed, we had certainly rung in the new year with a bang. More than once.

But now real life was calling and I needed to get back to it.

Alex

He was gone.

Somehow, a part of me knew the truth, even before I opened my eyes. The aroma of fresh baked peach pie still hung in the air, teasing my nostrils and causing my cock to twitch.

Stretching an arm across the bed, without opening my eyes, I was met with cool sheets and an empty space where my warm mate should be.

Sighing, I reluctantly opened my eyes, groaning when a swatch of sunlight hit my face from just the right angle from the slight opening in the curtains. I hadn’t drunk enough to be hung over, but I had knotted my omega three times and I was feeling it.

“Alex, you are getting too old to be having hours long sexcapades with not enough sleep,” I told myself, sitting up and rubbing my hands over my face.

Looking blearily around the room, I saw that his discarded clothing and boots were missing.

Not that I expected anything less. But I still wanted to hold onto the lie I was telling myself that maybe he was just in the bathroom.

Soaking in a nice, hot bubble bath, waiting for me to wake up and order room service.

Snorting at my own delusions and nonsense, I flopped back against the pillows dramatically. Rolling over into the space he had occupied for a portion of the night, I grabbed his pillow, holding it close to my chest and sniffing it. Yeah, I sniffed it. Don’t judge me.

It smelled of him; peaches and sex.

For the first time in my life, I was going to steal something from a hotel room. This pillowcase was magically going to find its way into my suitcase, and I was never washing it .

I said what I said.

As a lawyer, I never condoned stealing, but needs must.

My eyes caught on a folded piece of paper on the nightstand, propped against the landline phone. Pushing up on one elbow, I grabbed it, reading the words quickly.

Thanks for starting my year off with a bang. It was fun!

That was it. That was all he wrote. He didn’t sign it. He didn’t even give a clue he knew what we were to each other.

He’d had a good time. Correction, he’d had a great time.

My heart ached with a need I couldn’t decipher and didn’t recognize.

Maybe he did know, my wolf said sadly . Maybe he’s taking the out clause.

My stomach sank at his words, my mouth going dry with dread, and I swallowed against the bile that threatened to come up the back of my throat.

The Goddess Fate had made a few rules when it came to fated mates.

At least according to the legends. One of them being what people referred to as “the out clause”.

Which basically said if fated mates decided they didn’t want to be together, didn’t want to mate, they could walk away.

Go their separate ways, and live a life of happiness, without their fated.

They could even meet, fall in love, and mate with someone that wasn’t their fated .

It never seemed to work, from what I knew. Mates could try to walk away, and could for awhile. Sometimes even years, but Fate always got her way, bringing the fated mates back together.

It was that thought I held onto as I packed my bag to check out, folding the note he had left me and placing it carefully in my wallet.

“Okay, Fate,” I whispered, walking to my car, the chill biting and causing puffs of white to form in the air as I spoke, “I’m having faith in you. Because I don’t even know his name, and I have no way to find him. So I’m gonna need you to work your goddess magic and bring him back to me.”

I refused to think about the fact that he very well might be doing exactly what my wolf had suggested.

That he might not want me as his fated and he might be walking away.

And without even knowing his name, I had no clue where to begin to find him.

So far, this year hadn’t started off great.

Sighing softly as I turned my car out of the hotel parking lot towards the highway, I headed for Sweet Alps and home, trying to push away the sadness that was churning in my gut.

The Goddess had put our paths together last night and I need to trust that she would do it again. I just hoped it was sooner rather than later.