Page 125 of In Doubt

“You’re the one not answering your phone,” I jibe back. Levi raises his eyebrows warning us both and I sigh. “I had it on silent. I guess I forgot to turn it back on.” I shake my head. “What do you mean you followed my scent?”

“When we couldn’t reach you, we called Sia, and she said you’d already left for the airport. At the airport, we caught a whiff of your scent at the main entrance and followed it until we found you.”

“That’s … that’s impossible.”

“It isn’t,” Jake says, taking a step closer to me. “I’ve always been able to smell your scent, Giorgie. Always. Clearer and stronger than anything else. It’s been driving me mad, pulling me towards you, every second of every day.”

“We can all smell it, Sweetness.”

“Like ripe watermelons.”

“Do you know what that means?” Dylan asks gently.

“Y-y-yes.” My voice shakes as the realisation dawns over me and I’m shaking. Not from fear this time, or some dark place, but from a warmth that sparks in my belly and spreads all across my body. A realisation. A possibility.

Perhaps I’d known this all along.

“Soul mates,” Jake says, “That’s what the Egyptians thought it meant.”

There are newer theories today. Suggestions that two people who can smell each other over blockers – an incredibly rare phenomenon – must be perfectly matching biologically, their offspring destined to be healthy and strong.

I prefer the ancient explanation.

“Soul mates,” I smile, my cheeks stretched wide.

Jake steps forward and somehow we’re standing in the circle of his pack, those stars winking at us like they knew this secret all along.

“Giorgie, I’m in love with you,” he says, drawing me into his arms.

“Is that what you call this?” I ask.

“Damn right,” he whispers in my ear.

“Then, based on all the available evidence, there can be no doubt that I love you too.”

He laughs, removing my glasses gently from my face. Then he kisses me, my cheeks, my forehead, my eyelids and finally my mouth, lingering there, kissing me deep, making my knees buckle.

I’m engrossed in that kiss but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel the others draw close. Jake does too.

He leans away, cupping my face in his hands.

"I'm sorry," I say to all of them. "I'm sorry I shut myself away, that I ran away–"

"Baby girl–"

"No, Jake, I need to say it. I messed up. It was the wrong thing to do."

"You know the best thing about packs?" Dylan asks. "We're here for each other. We help one another. You don't need to suffer these things alone. We can help you."

I glance at Aiden. Dylan is right. Aiden had helped me back there at the site. Not only saving me from that scumbag Carl, but pulling me back to myself.

“You’re ours now, Omega. All of ours.”

It isn’t a question but I nod anyway, as they push me down onto the lounger.

33

Jake