Page 21 of Small Town Shy Omega (Applewood Falls #1)

Now, I picked up books with silver crowns on the cover. Black backgrounds concealed washed-out flowers, and the retellings of fairytales were dark and thrilling.

My eyes would go to Blake, and I’d wonder why he wouldn’t want to kiss me. Maybe something was wrong with me?

One day while walking along my river, I muttered to myself and kicked rocks.

“He just isn’t that into you,” I said quietly, chucking a handful of wildflowers into the water. I watched as waves drowned them. “You’ve wanted to kiss him since he called you beautiful at the market.”

I began to spend more and more time with Josh, mainly to distract myself from Blake.

“Why won’t he kiss me?” I pouted to Josh one night, when Dreydon was in the kitchen making buttery popcorn for our movie.

Blake didn't want to watch it. He just… wanted to read. Up in my poetry room, alone.

Josh stared straight ahead. “We don’t always understand Blake, baby.”

“But you’re his pack. Surely you can help me?”

“When he kisses you…” Josh turned to me, passionately gripping my jaw. “You’ll understand why he waited.”

Warm sunlight gave way to dark and starry nights. I picked wildflowers, letting the petals fall at my bare toes.

Now he wants me, I’d think, letting the petals of a daisy twirl to the ground, now he doesn’t.

What other Omegas would Blake prefer? I thought of two of the most attractive Omegas in town, Harmony and Eucalyptus. Blake probably already was with them, I thought bitterly, a chill running through me as I remembered the day he went into town a few days ago.

The warm, sunny days of our earlier friendship faded, giving way to stormy weather.

Three rainstorms crept up in one single week, and I sensed it was a sign. A sign that things… changed.

“Blake,” I said peppery and bright to Blake one day, wanting to let him know I hadn’t given up on him. On us. “Why don’t we go fishing?”

“Just… don’t.”

Two words.

So terse, so scornful.

The Alpha who’d called me beautiful at the farmers’ market wanted nothing to do with me. He didn’t wish to speak. He hardly cared if I lived or died, I bet.

I’d sniffle, hurrying to my nest nook, where I’d throw myself on my pillows.

“Something’s h-happening,” I’d whisper, tears staining my collected sweaters and pillows. “I’m so…”

I was hormonal. I didn't dare say this to my Alphas, for fear they’d make fun of me, but I sensed what was changing.

My cycle… normally it made me weepy, and I always suffered from Pre-Heat Syndrome. That was PHS, for short.

Lots of Alphas made fun of us Omegas for what our hormones did, and I used to fight and say they were being mean if they pointed it out.

But… I had PHS. Pre-Heat Syndrome.

My body burned, and random puffs of perfume began to spurt out.

One morning I woke up, a cloud of glittery, pink mist hovering over my nest. While I slept, I’d perfumed.

My fragrance followed me, and I buried myself in oversized coats and blankets to try to bury it. To stop my scent from leaking out.

Blake looked at me one day… and it looked like he wanted to kill me. He desired nothing with me, I thought, turning away from his heavyset blue eyes. His Alpha eyes. I was worthless, no longer the Omega he found beautiful.

My cheeks grew puffier. My face had new wrinkles, and looking in the mirror was a death sentence.

“I might as well call Bronwyn,” I muttered, my friend who ran the local funeral parlor. No use. No use going on like this, an Omega just approaching her next heat cycle.

Things… were changing, and one day my jeans didn't fit. I burst into tears, and Dreydon and Josh had to read me Heidi all afternoon.

Brooding dark clouds hovered. I set out my crystals, asking Fate for more sunny days. She didn't listen, and even rubbing my crystals every morning didn't help.

The moonbeams illuminated my crystals, filling them with the universe’s energy.

No use.

None of my wiles, my tricks, my ways to cozy up to my Alphas worked.

I was an Omega abandoned. My pack didn't want me, they were only here to judge me, and the poetic Alpha who’d wooed me decided I wasn’t his type.

I realized now that I’d thought that Blake thought I was the prize—now I realized I was nothing, just nothing.

“Bye, Blake,” I muttered, hand on my windowpane. “I mean nothing to you, and I’m going to be alone for my next heat. Goodbye.”

The dark days kept coming. One Tuesday I rushed outside, ready to ride my bike with Josh and Dreydon.

Rain pelted the ground. It poured over the dirt paths and though I begged Fate to make it go away, it kept up.

My scent began to leak out at various moments, and suppressing it didn't work. It was bleeding through the suppressants the Alphas started me on after I attacked Dreydon.

One night, Blake ventured out alone. I was left in my nook, and because Dreydon and Josh were out finishing a project for the construction company, and my cottage was too silent.

Silence: originally all I’d wanted was silence. Leaving my nest nook, I walked through the empty rooms, touching the walls. Over the past few weeks my cottage had been a whirlwind of liveliness. Filled with love. Good conversation. Hope.

Now my books just sat on their shelves, wan and expectant.

I opened a book and shuddered. What was happening? For the first time in my life, I couldn’t focus on the pages.

All my life I’d wanted nothing more than to be alone in my cottage, with my raspberry tea and cookies, reading.

I couldn’t read.

A panic attack hit me, and try as I might to take deep breaths, nothing calmed me.

“Why can’t I read? All I wanted to do was read alone.

I originally rejected Josh, Blake, and Dreydon because they’d disturb my reading.

I read three-hundred novels per heat and I was on track to break four hundred this cycle.

Whimsical Wonders has sold me wonderful novels, and Rufus helped me pick out the best ones.

He even made me a custom hardcover sleeve that has little ridges, so I could pleasure myself with the book spine in case I stumbled across a really interesting passage. ”

Whiskers approached me, so I continued talking to my adorable cat. Sniffling, I buried her in a big hug.

“My books are my life. I wanted nothing to do with Alphas, who I thought would only distract me. Now, Blake won’t kiss me, and Josh and Dreydon are installing a patio or walkway for someone else.

I don’t want them to work at their construction company, doing things for people who aren’t me.

I want them here. Building me a patio. A fire pit.

My Alphas have all abandoned me and I feel… ”

Alone.

Against all better judgment I set down my book. For the first time in my life I set down my fucking book.

My book stared at me like I was betraying. Don’t go, Layla it whispered, and pain ricocheted up my ribcage.

I rushed outside, wind and tempest in my face. “Stay,” I commanded Whiskers, who promptly hurried to my sofa. She was forbidden there when I was home. When the Omega is away, the cat will play.

Whiskers snored and wagged her fluffy tail. She had no care for my struggles.

I gasped and raced outside—rain pelted my cheeks, but then suddenly…

It stopped.

Widening my mauve-and-sparkle eyes, I followed a moonbeam and saw Blake’s footprints.

They went through the forest, and I raced after him.

“Blake,” I called out, but he’d left over an hour ago, and I didn't know if he was still here.

A wolf howled, and something scratched so close to me. Pain and panic welled up—I wanted to scream, but if there was a predator nearby…

Well, the last thing an Omega should do is make the entire forest aware of her solitary presence.

I followed Blake’s footsteps dutifully. Like I was an Omega hellbent on finding her Alpha. Or Eurydice following Orpheus.

I imagined skeletons clawing my ankles. When I looked down I nearly fainted when I saw they were roots.

At last, I reached a clearing. It was wan—empty, moonlit, and slick with fresh rain. No rain fell at present, but the smell of petrichor wafted around.

“Blake?” I whispered, my heart trembling in my sundress. Why I wore a sundress out to follow my Alpha through a rainstorm, I’d never know. I was wearing it while reading… I should’ve changed.

No response—only my solitary echo.

Dropping to the ground, I followed Blake’s footsteps on hand and foot. It felt like crawling through a tunnel.

Where are you? I begged in my mind, needing to find him. The poetic Alpha who called me beautiful.

I was crawling toward a bear’s den when a firm mammoth hand gripped the back of my hair.

“Little Omega,” a deep, low voice growled, and I promptly screamed as the hand lifted my head up.

Suspended only by his hand, his arm so strong and yet dangerous, my eyes went to Blake’s.

Blake’s heavy blue eyes stared down at me with pure cruelty. No affection or emotion blazed within them, only moon spheres. His chiseled jaw moved not a whisper, and his lips were pursed and scornful.

“Oh Blake,” I whispered, hardly able to stop shivering. “I-I followed you outside, I—"

Blake growled, dropping to his knees in front of me. In front of my face.

“Layla,” my Alpha rasped, lips so close to mine. Icy, deadly—and yet his lips were not frozen yet, one inch away from growing frozen… I could still thaw them. “Why do you follow me through the darkness, girl?”

“I wandered away,” I sniffled, my voice wracked with sobs. “From my grandfather’s cottage—it was so silly, I should’ve stayed inside. Reading my novels.”

“Are you in your heat, Layla?”

“I-I think so,” I whispered, torturous agony blazing through me. “My scent won’t stop coming out, and…”

Blake inhaled deeply, a low growl escaping him.

“Are you scared?” he huffed.

My scent puffed out, and I groaned… I was totally exposed, unable to hide my true nature.

Pink glittery mist puffed around us. It billowed through the trees, sparkling with the moonbeams.

“I perfumed, Alpha.”

“Oh, did my little Omega perfume?”

“Yes,” I whispered, my lips trembling. “Please forgive.”