Page 2 of The Omega's Fake Mate

Something would work out, though. Eventually! I only had to keep my head up.

I got fired, yeah, but that only meant that I was free to do what I wanted for the rest of the night.

Deciding that I could really use a beer or two, I headed down the street from the restaurant where I now no longer worked and entered the first bar I came across. It was a dark hole in the wall, but that fit my budget now. The light was low, the music loud, and if you could ignore the smell of sweat in the air, it was the perfect place to kill an hour or two before I headed home and fell into bed.

All I wanted was to sit at the bar and drink my beer in peace. Considering the day I'd had, I should have known it wasn't going to be that easy.

I'd barely taken a sip of my drink when some alpha took the seat right next to me. I cast him a sideways glance. “If you're here to tell me I'm pretty, save it. I've already heard it tonight.”

“That's because it's true,” the alpha said, not the least bit fazed. “Can I buy you a drink?”

I suppressed a sigh as I took a closer look at him. He was easy on the eyes. Brown hair, high cheekbones... young, too. He probably had no trouble picking omegas up in bars. It was just his bad luck that I had no interest in being picked up. “I'm perfectly capable of paying for my drinks myself, thank you,” I said, sliding over to the free seat on my left. Away from the alpha.

“I see. Have a nice evening then.” The stranger disappeared back into the crowd.

I returned my attention to my beer. At least the guy hadn't tried to push it. I was so tired of dealing with alphas who thought it was their god-given right to fuck any omega they wanted. Fucking disgusting. Involuntarily, I shuddered.

After that encounter, I wanted to get out of here and go home—but not before I'd finished my beer. It had cost good money, after all, and my parents had not raised a wasteful omega. If I was omega at all. Some days, I seriously wondered. Shouldn’t I be going crazy about alphas?

Somehow, none of the ones I met did anything for me, but it was probably better that way. Unlike certain members of my family, I was never going to lose my freedom to some possessive alphahole.

Once I was done with my beer, I set the empty glass down on the bar counter and left.

The weather had gotten kind of chilly by LA standards and I walked briskly toward the subway. As I did so, my phone rang. Pulling it out of my pocket, I glanced at the caller ID.Kade. My quasi-roommate. Quasi because he had moved out about a year ago without everreallymoving out. He spent most of his time in Maine now—in my hometown actually—but he still kept paying his share of the rent on the apartment, and he dropped in every so often. I didn't mind. It beat having to look for another roommate.

“What's up?” I said, answering the phone.

“Oh, you know, just the usual. Wanted to talk to you about... hey, aren't you supposed to be at work? I actually called to leave you a message.”

“A message? Oh. I'm so sorry for answering the phone. If you'd like, I can hang up and we can try again.”

“Don't be silly.”

“But I'm so good at it.” I stopped in front of the entrance to the subway. If I went down there, I'd probably lose the signal.

“Yes, you are. It's a particular talent of yours.”

Well, now I felt mocked. “Is something up? What are you doing on the phone so late?” I glanced at the digits on the upper corner of my screen. It was nearing 10 p.m., so it had to be past midnight in Maine.

“I thought of a new song. Had to write it down before I lost it. But never mind that, is something up withyou? You sound a bit down and you're not at your job.”

Kade, you really couldn't fool him. “Everything's fine. I got fired, that's all.”

“Only you can make that sound like it's not a big deal.”

I shrugged. “Another particular talent of mine, I guess. There are worse things than getting fired.” At this point, I'd gotten kind of used to it, honestly. “But it is a little annoying. Job interviews are tedious.”

“What got you fired this time?” Kade asked. As if I got firedallthe time, which wasn't true. I'd had this job for a little over a year already!

“I snapped at a customer who happened to be friends with the boss.”

“Yeah,” Kade said thoughtfully, “that sounds like you.”

It kind of did, I had to give him that. “Still better than that time I got fired from the fast food place because I told every customer that meat was murder.”

“Your vegan phase was weird,” Kade agreed.

I laughed. “It was fun while it lasted.”