Page 29 of Small Town Shy Omega (Applewood Falls #1)

“You’re a queen, Layla,” Blake said, holding my hand. “It’s time to show the world who you are again.”

“You’re trying to change me,” I sniffled. “You knew I was an introvert when you met me. Don’t be like this.”

Blake reached up… He touched the mark on my neck.

“I know you want more, baby. When we bonded… Some of your soul entered me, and some of your thoughts are mine.”

“Are they?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why I’ve been craving tacos so much lately?” I drawled.

“Damn,” Blake teased back. “I have been in the mood for some good birria.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I don’t wanna change. I don’t wanna put on glass workshops, teach my skill to others, or even show my face in town. I’m perfectly comfortable with my solitary life, and…”

“Don’t be selfish, Layla. Others… would love how to learn this art, too. You had your grandfather to teach you—as you told us earlier this morning, right before the nearly fatal tour. Think of all the Omegas and little Laylas out there who’d love to learn this art form.”

“We’re just animals, baby,” Josh finally said, smilingly rubbing my shoulder. “Humans, Alphas, Omegas—we teach by passing down knowledge, and we learn by receiving knowledge that others graciously passed down to us.”

“You’re tryna make me more social!”

I hiccuped, because I was scared. Really, really scared.

I didn't mingle with the town, and I didn't want anyone to judge me.

Blake stared into my eyes. “Your soul is mine, and my soul is yours, baby. And… the shop is a block away from Whimsical Wonders, so…”

“Hhhhhhrm?” I said, curiously uncurious.

“Sooooo,” Blake said, humming, “if you ever wanna pop over and read… You’ll be super close.”

“Well, everything in Applewood Falls is a block away from everything else,” I snorted. “This is a small town, after all.

Against all my best judgment, my Alphas opened me a private glassworks studio.

Light sunshine shown through the window, a spider’s web of natural beauty radiating over my glass. Clouds breezily rolled by outside, and the open window brought in the smells of the fresh clover my Alphas planted outside my window.

I didn’t put on classes and I didn't wish to. I still created in solitude as artistic personalities prefer, but I got to wave hi to the Applewood Falls townspeople who passed by the window.

It was nice, I thought. Nice showing what I did, even if I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it.

Smiling, I displayed my new vases in the window. “Success,” I muttered, feeling dang proud of myself.

I lit up a bowl, then I had to put it out quickly when a little girl came up to the shop.

“Wow,” she said—and she had the purest, sweetest, most innocent voice.

Her mama came up a moment later, rubbing her back. “Oooh, look at those pretty things.”

“Mommy, look! I think that lady made them!”

Whoa… what was happening?

I opened the door to the studio, smiling as I introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Layla. I run this studio.”

The little girl stared at me like I held the secrets to the universe. “Layla,” she said softly, choosing her words carefully. “I’m Brigette.”

“She likes your work,” the mother said to me, smiling. “Every time we pass by, she wants to see you make something.”

“Well, come in,” I said with a shrug.

After spraying some air freshener, I let them in. Luckily the big fan I had had cleared ninety-nine percent of the stench out, so I wasn’t exposing a girl to fumes.

She trotted in, and I showed her my glassworks tools.

“Do you ever give lessons?” the mother smiled… and my eyes went to my pictures of Josh, Blake, and Dreydon that I kept on the wall.

So this… was what they were talking about. I hadn’t even thought someone might value my craft, not like this.

I thought I was… a solitary loser, some troll-like hermit who barely could stand the sunshine.

“Only if you sign a non-compete agreement,” I said sweetly, loving the thought of being a teacher. They agreed it sign it, and we settled on a lesson for next week.

My ice queen heart may be thawing, but I was still a slick business owner after all.

And that’s how I learned I made a pretty chill teacher.

Here comes the bride.

More like Bridezilla, I thought bitterly as I hung in a back pew with my Alphas.

Organ music filled the wedding chapel, flowers and Pachelbel in the air. The last thing I wanted to do today was attend my stepsister Jasmine’s wedding, but what was I gonna do? Cancel?

Absolutely not, I muttered, watching the flower girls sprinkle fresh petals over the chapel’s light-pink carpet.

Stained glass windows let in tinted sunlight, and the vase I created in my old she-shed/studio shone like a diamond on the altar.

“I can’t believe Jasmine’s using my wedding candlesticks before me,” I whispered to Blake, and he swatted my thigh.

“Hush, Layla. Support your evil stepsister.”

“Evil is putting it lightly,” I said. “She’s always been terrible to me, and she’s spent the last six months rubbing this wedding in my face.”

Dreydon shot me a look. “If you’re going to trash-talk your stepsister’s wedding… while at her actual wedding… keep your voice down.”

“I don’t see why I even have to be here,” I huffed. “She told me I couldn’t be a bridesmaid at the last minute, right after she found out I wasn’t sad and single anymore. Her poodle Charlie’s still a bridesmaid. She picked her dog over me.”

“How can a boy poodle be a bridesmaid?”

“How do you know Charlie’s a boy?” I wondered.

“The name?” Josh guessed.

“Oh, there are no girl Charlie’s? You asked my stepsister’s poodle what her gender identity was?”

“I just…” Josh looked up at the altar.

Charlie, the poodle donning my frilly pink bridesmaid dress, was humming the groom’s leg.

“Bleh,” Josh muttered, turning back to me. “Definitely a boy poodle.”

“Oh, and girls can’t hump legs?” I laughed, sick of all these stereotypes. “Come on, man…”

“Whose side are you even on?” Blake joked.

My eyes went back up to the altar, and I grinned.

“Charlie’s,” I said.

Jasmine was doing that thing where she clenched her fists to stave off a conniption fit. Most times she was successful, or she wound up take her pissy mood out on me.

Today?

This was my stepsister’s wedding day. She couldn’t bark at her whipping post, i.e. me, and she had no way to let the rage out.

“Bridezilla,” I huffed, nudging Dreydon.

“I wouldn’t want to be her pack,” Dreydon agreed.

Jasmine’s Alphas were all confused, quiet, and trying not to look at their Omega. One Alpha was trying to get Charlie off him, while the officiant tried his best to focus on the eulogy.

Okay, eulogy is the wrong word—but in this case, this wedding speech or whatever it was called might as well have been a funeral eulogy.

This was a tragic, tragic day in this pack’s life.

“I think we made a mistake,” one pack Alpha suddenly whispered to another.

“Is it too late to call this thing off?” the other Alpha gossiped.

The officiant looked out at the audience.

“Okay, if anyone has any objections to this bonding ceremony, speak now or can it.”

I rose.

I shouldn’t have, and it was absolutely in poor taste, but…

“The Alphas are gossiping about my amazing stepsister, Jasmine,” I said, saving my poor stepsister from a terrible fate.

Dreydon rose beside me. “We can hear them saying terrible things. We’d hate for Jasmine to go through with the bonding.”

My stepparents gasped, turning to me with daggers in their eyes. Now, they weren’t exactly in my life—my grandfather took me in after my parents passed away. Know why? My stepparents, these See You Next Tuesday’s that I was currently staring at, rejected me.

They rejected the Omega who had no place to turn after her parents died.

My grandfather took me in, and that’s probably why I was inadequately socialized.

Jasmine fumed at me. “Layla,” she snipped, fingers clenching. “How dare you?”

“Sis,” I said softly, trying to contain the shrapnel… of the war crime of a bullet I was firing at her. “You’re too good for this pack, babe. I mean, look—the Alpha on the left just clearly kicked your dog, and imagine how they’ll treat you after you’re married?”

“Did you kick Charlie?” Jasmine gasped at her Alpha.

The Alpha whose leg was attached by the dress-wearing poodle lifted his hands in self-defense. “I just kicked him off,” he protested, trying to claim innocence, “he was humping my leg!”

Jasmine threw off her veil.

“I cannot deal with this pack,” she snapped, her voice loud and hysterical. “They don’t respect my inner queen. They spend more time… with each other in their own private bedroom, than they do with me!”

Gasps rang out, and I grinned as I nudged Josh’s ribs.

“I heard the same,” I lied confidently.

God, I was a basket case… But this was my stepsister who did nothing but rub her popularity, success, and superiority over me.

It was time I put my foot down, and stick up for myself.

Jasmine crossed her arms. “This wedding is over!”

Attendees filed out, and to everyone but Jasmine’s pack, I was persona non grata.

“Thank you,” the pack members said, relief plastered on their faces.

“I’m so sorry you’re related to her,” another Alpha said, tugging Charlie on a leash. He’d ripped the bridesmaids dress off at the altar.

I smiled, leaning against Dreydon’s shoulder. “Step,” I corrected. “We’re not related by blood. After today, I’m not sure I’ll ever talk to her again.”

Unfortunately I was wrong.

Jasmine came up to me with tears in her eyes. “Thank you for saving me from that terrible pack, Layla. They really were… into each other also, and I just… bleh, ” she cursed out, ringing out her hands. “I mean, how could I have been so blind??”

“Is that like, a dealbreaker?” I asked.

“I mean, yes! Ew!” Jasmine stomped off, but not before giving me a hug. “I almost disinvited you today, but I’m so glad you came. I owe you won.”

“Ughhh,” I said to Josh when she left, trying to shake her aura off me. I probably looked like one of those dancing white inflatables at a tire dealership. “I can’t deal with her.”