Page 1 of Shifter Omegaverse AU

1

Author’s note:

If you want to avoid throw up, probably skip the first paragraph!

Welcome to the book!

Rowan

If the smell of butter-saturated popcorn wasn’t enough to make Rowan question every life decision he’d ever made, the sound of a small child throwing up said popcorn might be. There was a distinct, chunky quality to the sound as it hit the linoleum floor that Rowan could have gone the rest of his life without hearing.

“Jeez, whoever has to clean that up deserves a raise,” someone said to Rowan’s right.

He turned his head to look for the source of the voice, only to be smacked in the arm by a backpack.

His inner alpha red-tailed hawk bobbed his head. Up until now, he had been observing quietly, which was more often than not all he did. Sometimes, though, he would appear in Rowan’s mind’s eye and flap about, shrieking and making a racket when he wasn’t pleased with something that was happening.

Like, for example, being smacked around by a scrawny shifter’s backpack.

If it had only been one time, Rowan probably wouldn’t have said anything. He would have just turned back to stare at the criminally overpriced menu. However, as he watched, the person seemed to realize they had hit Rowan and swung back around, once again whacking him on the arm.

“Ugh,” the person grunted, as if it was somehow Rowan’s fault for having his arm obstructing the path of the backpack.

They turned around again, but this time Rowan locked his elbow, so that when the backpack hit him, it stopped moving. The shifter, carried by the ridiculous momentum they had somehow created, toppled forward, sans backpack.

“Oh my gods. What was that for?” they asked, staring up at Rowan with huge, gray eyes.

Most alphas had a strong enough sense of smell to detect what hormones another shifter was giving off. Bird shifters weren’t known for their keen sense of smell, but he could usually tell whether someone was an alpha, beta, or omega. The shifter in front of him had the typical beta smell, sort of floral, like the beginning of spring. They were wearing a bright pink chevron print dress over shockingly orange leggings and pink heeled boots, so he didn’t want to assume anything about their primary gender.

Despite what most people thought of him, he wasn’t an asshole; he was just quiet and liked to be left—

“You hit me with your backpack,” Rowan found himself growling, completely negating every one of his mental assertions. “Three times. Who even brings a backpack to the movies?”

Rowan’s hawk let out a loud kee-aww in his head, as if to accentuate the point.

The platinum blonde shifter, who was still spread out on the floor, cocked their head and looked at the backpack like they’d never seen it before. “I’m meeting my Great-Aunt Anabelle’s roommate, Ethel, to watch a movie. I had to bring supplies for her, but the shuttle she takes from the retirement home is running late because Leonard took a shit so big he thought he’d died—at least, that’s what her text said.”

Rowan should just return the backpack and walk away. He could text Ruben on the way out of the theater and say that he was tired of waiting and getting beaten up by bags. Ruben would understand.

At least, he had better understand. He’d ditched Rowan on countless occasions.

Unfortunately, before Rowan could pry his fingers loose from the faded pink fabric, the shifter began frantically patting the pocket-less front of their dress.

“Speaking of…where did I put my phone?” they mumbled, scrambling up onto their knees to pat their similarly pocket-less sides.

Before Rowan could make his escape, the shifter snapped their head up, staring unblinkingly at their backpack. “Hey, Rowan, could I have my bag back?”

A small child, possibly the one who had thrown up, began to cry and Rowan blinked at the strange shifter like he was an owl, not a hawk.

Undeterred, the shifter jumped up and pulled the bag out of Rowan’s hands. They ran their hands all over the outside of the bag, as if they would somehow find their phone stuck to the surface.

“How…do you know my name?” Rowan choked out.

“Rowan, he/him, Chief Financial Officer. Nice to meet you,” the blonde said, nodding at Rowan’s chest.

Rowan jerked his chin down to find he was still wearing his company badge. He’d come straight from a meeting with Troy, his brother-in-law and business partner, and had completely forgotten to take it off. He’d been in such a rush to be on time…

And look how that had turned out.