Dragon's Omega Bride (Shifter Marriage Service 3)

“What are you going to do then?”

“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”

“I hope so. Leave it to you to get yourself in a mess like this,” Cassie replied.

“Thanks for all of the support,” Aileen replied, annoyed by her friend’s lack of empathy.

“I don’t know what you expected me to say, Aileen. I’m not the one that thinks she’s too good to do what Omegas were born to do for their pack. We’re the life bringers. We keep the numbers up. We’re the lifeblood of this clan.”

“Are you serious right now? What happened to you, Cassie? You didn’t use to be like this.”

“I don’t know what you mean. There is nothing wrong with embracing marriage and motherhood. Anyway, I have to go. Good luck with however you plan to get out of this mess.”

Aileen heard a click on the other end of the phone and realized Cassie had just hung up, not even saying goodbye. After a moment of feeling some combination of hurt and being stunned, she tossed her phone onto the sofa and went to the fridge to get a beer. Ten days. That was all she had to pack up her shit and get out of the home she’d lived in for the past five years. Not to mention, she’d just given a huge chunk of her money to some secretive agency in hopes of finding her some sort of fake husband.

Plopping down on the sofa, she retrieved her phone and began flipping through the want ads. Nothing there. Not for her, at least. She checked her bank account. She still had some money, not enough to relocate though. Even if she got a job tomorrow, the likelihood of her getting paid enough to put down deposits and rent on a new place would be a stretch.

“Fuck it,” she said aloud, opening another browser tab and looking for moving companies and storage facilities.

There was no need to waste another minute in this place. They wanted her out, she’d get out. She lined up a moving company for three days from now and rented a storage unit using their online form. After a quick follow up call with them, she arranged to come down the next day and get some of their extra boxes to begin packing. By the time the moving company arrived, she’d be all packed for them to transfer to storage.

The only question now was what to do after that. She felt a wave of apprehension at having no definite plans. Wasn’t this how people ended up homeless? They lost their job, their home and eventually, couldn’t even pay for storage - if they even could afford it in the first place. Soon, they were sleeping in their car, at least until they had to sell it and sleep under a bridge somewhere. At least she had one advantage if it came to that. She could shift and keep warm if she was careful where she did it. She could hunt in her dragon form, quickly and efficiently.

She opened her food app and ordered a pizza, a better one than the defrosted cardboard she had eaten las night. She might as well enjoy having a home while she could. While she was waiting, she grabbed herself another beer and walked around the house, making mental notes about how many boxes she would need and what she needed to pack. She retrieved a bag from the kitchen and began filling it with clothes she had been meaning to donate. That would, at least, be a bit less that she didn’t have to deal with.

By the time the doorbell rang with her pizza delivery, she had filled three bags of clothes, including coats and shoes. That was enough for today. Collecting her pizza from the teenager at her door, she returned to the sofa and spent the rest of the evening trying not to think about the mess she had put herself in. Eight beers later, she fell into a peaceful sleep in front of the television.CHAPTER THREEShe was startled awake by the sound of her phone ringing. Groaning as she pulled herself upright, she looked around for it, finally digging it out from between the sofa cushions.

“Hello?” she croaked into the speaker.

“Hello! Aileen Venegra?”

“This is she,” Aileen replied, still half asleep and a little hung over.

“This is Charlotte at the Shifter Services Office. I think we may have a match for you,” the woman told her.

Aileen was much more awake now, sitting the rest of the way upright on the sofa.

“What sort of match?”

“For a fake marriage contract. The client would like to meet with you tomorrow, if possible.”

“Tomorrow? Wow, that’s quick.”

“Yes. It is often that way here. Most people who come to us have time constraints.”

“Well, yes. Tomorrow sounds great. What time and where?”

“He would like to meet you off the premises, but we never send our clients to meetings alone. So, if you will come here, then you and I will meet with him at a construction site he is overseeing. We will sit down in the portable office there and talk. Nine A.M. okay for you?”