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“Oh, for fuck’s sake. I’m not going to be passed on to a pack I don’t know just because our parents think it’s a good match!”
“Why not?”
God, my head hurts. This is an argument we’ve had since I moved into the building, a couple of years ago. Since I came of age. Eric can’t accept I’m my own man now.
“I’m perfectly capable of making my own decisions, Eric, and finding a pack on my own. A pack that suits me, preferably a scent-match?—”
“You don’t know if the one our parents chose isn’t a scent-match.”
“—and I don’t need anyone taking care of me!”
He is silent for a long moment. Then he sighs and says, “Oh, boy. You sound different these days.”
“From when I was a child?” I blow my nose, scrunch up the tissue, and throw it into the trashcan. Score! “Yeah, I grew up, Eric. Looks like you didn’t notice.”
“Dammit, Sawyer.” He sighs again as if I’m exhausting him. “Why are you being like this? Must be something in the air.”
“Pollen?” I growl.
“That, too.” He’s still looking at me as if I’ve hurt his feelings, as if I’ve transformed from this cute kid brother he had into a snarling hyena. “You know Mom and Dad won’t let up until you meet the pack they want, right?”
Fuck, I know. It was the same a few months ago, when they would call and call until I gave in and met with another pack they thought was a good fit.
A harrowing experience.
“I don’t have to do what they say,” I mutter.
“You owe them money,” he reminds me. As if I need a reminder. “The money you borrowed to get your business up and running.”
“They wouldn’t hold that over my head,” I whisper.
“Haven’t they before?”
I wince. “Fuck, yeah, they have.”
“Don’t worry too much,” Eric says. “They wouldn’t do anything drastic. They didn’t ask for interest, did they?”
No. But our parents are old-fashioned. They don’t believe in omega rights. They don’t believe in me.
Asking them for a loan had been a mistake. But I’d done it so I’d become independent from them. One day I would be, once I’d paid them back.
For now, I had to play along and hope they’d keep taking no for an answer.
My day hasn’t been going well. On top of my allergies and Eric’s visit, I managed to slip and bang my hip against the counter of the café, then drop and break a cup as I was pouring coffee, and then I walked into the closed door of the pantry behind the bar because my mind was on the business, my parents, the pack they are trying to marry me off to, and the pack I watched at the Alpha Bet bar.
And late, way too late, I remember the Book Club.
Fuck!
That results in me running around like a headless chicken, trying to locate Bee and see if she can come in so I won’t have to close the café. What was I thinking when I set this up? Why didn’t I set a reminder on my phone?
Idiot. Sawyer, you’re such an idiot.
Thankfully I’m lucky in my unluck, because Bee answers the phone and says sure, she can come over and cover me for the evening. As long as she can bring her pack with her—that is, at least Kaden and Jae, because they are studying for a college exam together.
I promise them Angelic, my patented cake, and I hear whoops of joy in the background when she tells them. It’s gratifying to be so appreciated, at least when it comes to baking. I’ll take any win, no matter how small.
Then I’m grabbing my bag and rushing to the library. I’d normally take the bus, but I’m late as it is, so I flag down a cab. I should have called an Uber, but my brain isn’t braining right, and I’m falling back into patterns from my childhood.
