Page 19 of Trick Knot Treat

That stops me dead. “Felix’s Asher?”

“Yes, she’s here with her Aunt Ophelia. They are staying at the hotel.”

“In Angler’s Beach?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm.”

She makes a frustrated sound.

“What are they doing there?”

A terrible sound comes through the phone, loud enough that I have to pull it away from my ear. I jolt, looking at the line of seven seagulls that are about fifteen feet away from me, just watching intently. The biggest one opens its mouth and screams.

Weird, freaky birds.

“I don’t freaking know. I have a job and a life, and I met a cute beta, and we’ve been fucking like bunnies.”

“Ooh, details, what’s she like?”

“She’s adorable and has this mop of red hair and freckles everywhere.”

I wrinkle my nose and glance over my shoulder. The beach is empty. It’s still cold enough that most people wait until the sun's out to come down to the beach. But a beach without Jace…it’s all wrong.

“Fuck. He is getting so hard to resist.”

“Mmm, what is going on with you? Because I heard a rumour.”

I stop walking and swallow hard. “What kind of rumour?”

“One about a certain omega we’ve been trying to move on from and a Halloween match-making event.”

“Who am I cursing?”

“No one. Yolanda said it in passing, thinking that you would have told me. I mean, I would have thought you would have told me. Are you getting weak?”

“Me?” I scoff and then splutter. “It’s really not fair. It was supposed to be Asher, but the twins did a swap, and then I ended up with Jace, Zaire, and Felix. I swear, this town knows I’m trying to leave, and it’s like…let’s fuck him up and put him in a padded room just for funzies.”

“Zaire, Jace, and Felix?” Holly squeaks. “Fuck, I wonder if they will let me go on leave or call in a sick day or three.”

She bursts into laughter that has her gasping for air.

I wait her out.

“Are you done laughing?” I snarl. “This is my life.”

“Yeah, I know. You take a job, get blackmailed into one last event, and get your dream pack handed to you on a silver platter. Life is cruel.”

I scoff again and look up towards the street. “There’s someone else, too, though she’s not part of it. But Zaire and Felix won’t stop looking at her, and now I can’t either. Khione, the beta who paints the stones. You know her, right?”

“Hmm, no, it doesn’t ring a bell. Is she new?”

“She’s been in town for a year,” I grumble. I throw a hand up in the air, frustrated with everything but that Holly is somewhere else most of all. “I didn’t notice her either. It’s just, she’s really pretty, and she’s got these gorgeous eyes that look like how the beach looks when the sun shines on the shallows. Pretty lips, she’s all covered up with baggy old clothes, and she wears a cap, hiding her hair. It’s weird. How did we miss her?”

“It’s not like we go around inspecting everyone in town.”

“Felix noticed her.”