Tilly

Cruz growled, and Jackson’s lip turned up in a sneer.

“She was,” Luca said, his eyes penetrating into mine and I could see him trying to assess my response.

It was you?

The realisation it was Luca tightened the barbwire that was already encasing my heart. I could have seen it being Cruz, not knowing much about him. Or Jackson, because he was certainly the most obvious—not Luca. The one I thought would be different.

I pretended to not care, taking a sip of my drink with a quick nod of the head.

I plastered a massive smile on my face. “That makes sense.”

Luca arched an eyebrow, but I brushed it off and excused myself to go to the restroom.

I needed to think about this because getting close to them wasn’t such a good idea, with Sandy being Luca’s ex. I needed another suppressant, which I took with warm tap water. But the suppressant didn’t kick as quickly as I wanted and instead of going back to the table where their scents were overpowering me. I strolled around the now empty art gallery and went back to a painting I liked earlier.

It was an abstract painting with very little detail, but something about it caught my eye. I stared at the picture as I wrapped my arms over my chest, my hands rubbing up my upper arms.

“I thought there was nothing you liked,” the smooth voice behind me said.

“Excuse me,” I said, turning. My eyes locked onto pale grey ones. The floor beneath my feet quaked, but I knew I couldn’t show him any anger. I had to let him think I didn’t recognise him.

I wasn’t ready for this.

I wanted to be the one in control—the one who made the first move.

“We need to talk,” Cruz said.

“About what?”

“About you and me? We know who you are,” he said and my eyes shot open, wondering if he was going to admit everything. “You being our omega.”

“I’m not an omega,” I said, pushing my shoulders back.

He smiled, leaning closer to me, and I hitched my breath. “Tell me I don’t smell of sweet popcorn. Is it caramel?” He hesitated and stared at me. “Because that’s your perfume.”

“I need air,” I said, rushing away.

Blair told me about scent matching. It only happened with fated mates, those few alpha-omega pairs that found their genuine match. An alpha-omega pairing was a wonderful thing, but a scent matched pairing was what all alphas and omegas hoped to find.

“I’ll come with you,” he said, grabbing my arm and I made a sudden stop.

“By myself,” I spat, shrugging out of his grip.

He finally let me go and I sprinted until I was outside of the venue. Gasping for the air, he had sucked from me.

I paced around as I considered his words. My head dropped back, and I glanced at the night sky. My cousin Blair always looked for a lone cloud in the sky. She believed that a lone cloud was her mother looking down on her.

Blair’s mum was my aunt Matilda, the beautiful woman my parents honoured by giving me her name.

“What do I do?” I asked her, knowing fine well she wouldn’t answer. I needed to speak to Blair.

Blair’s life turned around when she got what she wanted. I always felt so sorry that she’d lost her mother when she was younger, but it was since I lost my mother and sister that I truly understood the pain she endured.

A hand rubbed over my back and it was only then I realised tears were storming down my face.

“Let’s go,” Luca said. “We’ll get a drink. I think you need it.” He took my hand and led me to a car idling by the entrance.

I stared at him, wondering if I should go home and leave him.

“Forget about Sandy. She is my past, and you’re my future. You’ll work it out soon enough, but I’m different to Jackson and Cruz,” Luca said, as the car rolled away from the kerbside. His voice purred and my body hummed for him. “We’ll all treat you like a princess, but I’ll be everything you need.”

I wanted to ask what he meant, but was too scared of knowing the answer right now. Especially after being confronted by Cruz. These alphas were getting desperate. Somehow they seemed to know I was an omega, and it was like there were in a fight for me.

I glanced out of the window as I thought of Cruz and his scent matching with me. Luca knew I was contemplating, and he pulled my hand to him, jerking me into his firm body. He wanted my full attention. That became very clear.

“Tilly, speak to me.”

“I’m scared,” I whispered. “My life is changing too fast. I’m not ready.”

His thumb stroked over my knuckles. “I’m sorry. We’ve waited so long for you. Cruz wouldn’t let us make a move until he thought you were ready.”

“Cruz did that?”

He nodded.

“How long have you known him?”

“We’ve known each other for years.”

“Years,” I whispered. “How many years?”

“Jackson and I went to school together, so we’ve known each other forever, but we only became a pack around four years ago.”

“Four years,” I repeated as the car pulled outside a cocktail bar; the driver held the door open, and we exited the car and walked into the bar and now that he was talking, I knew the evening wasn’t over yet.

“Hello, what can I get you?” the server asked as we took a seat at a table by the window. The moon was casting a silvery hue over the river, which looked strangely still tonight.

Luca smiled, waiting for me to go first.

“Cosmopolitan please,” I said, smiling.

”Espresso martini for me,” Luca said, and he took my hands inside his as the server walked away.

His thumbs stroking my knuckles as he leaned into me, brushing his lips to mine, and his touch was so unbelievably tender. I gasped, not quite expecting that, but there was a softness I hadn’t expected and it caught me off guard.

My heart jack hammered, and my mouth dried around the scent of strawberries and a rich tang of champagne. My eyes flicked to his chocolate ones, and there was a fire behind his gaze, like they were swimming in molten lava as he waited and wondered. Though he looked calm, utterly unaffected.

Unlike me.

His warm hands cupped my cheeks and my breath caught in the back of my throat as he crushed his lips over mine with surprising warmth and I was slipping. My hands grabbed his jacket as though it were a lifeline.

Not that I was ready to let go, either. His lips were possessive, demanding; and his scent was getting stronger with each kiss, making my knees weak and too stunned to work.

I was glad I was sitting down, because my body was weakening. One step away from whining for more.

Luca deepened our kiss, devouring me, opening his mouth and stroking his tongue with mine. It was heated and sexy and I forgot we were sitting in a cocktail bar in London, with people all around us.

“Your drinks,” the server said.

He smiled against my lips when we parted. My head felt woozy, drunken, and my heart rioted inside me. But it was when he pressed his forehead to mine and his hand softly touched the back of my head and my eyes closed at the intimacy.

That was what I’d missed.

“What happened four years ago? Why did you become a pack?” I asked, picking up the glass and taking a sip of my cocktail and trying to look casual, as though his answer didn’t affect me.

Luca took my free hand. He looked sincere as the words left his mouth. “I wasn’t there that night. I can tell you that.”

I gasped, staring into his eyes.

“Neither was Jackson. And the reason Cruz was there was for reasons other than you think.”

“Then why?”

“To protect you.”