Page 14 of Lethal Alpha

Though, we better explain everything to her very soon, or she’s going to keep worrying about Jorge and she’ll keep having the wrong idea about Mathew, and that can’t end very well…

6

Jorge

As I stepout of the restaurant, I follow the scent of cigarettes.It’s mostly the scent of normal cigarettes, probably Caleb’s, but I also catch the light undertone of Mathew’s special ones.

Most people would think that he simply prefers his cigarettes flavoured —which might still be true— but it’s mostly to hide the scent of the pheromone suppressing chemicals.Flavoured cigarettes hide the chemical scent better than unflavoured ones and don’t give off a different scent than normal flavoured cigarettes, so it’s perfect.

Walking around the corner of the building, I find Caleb and Mathew leaning against some benches.Caleb looking only lightly irritated while Mathew’s face is scrunched up in anger.Ah, fuck.

I’d hoped that if I followed them a little later, he would have calmed down some, but that clearly didn’t work.

Maybe I should have gone outside with them immediately, that could have at least saved me the awkward questions from Riley…

The moment Mathew spots me, he stalks over, his eyes blazing.“Why didn’t you tell me about Riley?Why did you keep her a secret?”

“You kept Vera and Caleb a secret from me.”Though, even as I say it, I know that it’s a bad excuse.They’re two very different situations.

“That was aweek, and you and I had zero contact in that time.You kept Riley from me foryears.”He stalks back over to Caleb, stabbing out the lit but unsmoked cigarette in the ashtray.

As long as I’ve known him, he’s never actually smoked a cigarette, always lighting it and letting it burn until he would put it out.It’s like the actions of lighting it and the scent of them are what’s important to him not the smoking itself.

I follow him, anger boiling in my chest.“I kept herfrom youfor years?”My voice is quiet, but the way my heart races is far from it.

He’s making this all about himself, not considering Riley or my feelings.Not everything is about him.He can’t always get his way.And this time, I chose to do something that was in Riley’s interest, not his.

“Yes.”He turns to me, though something changes when he meets my eyes, something angry but also sad.“You kept herfrom me.She’smine.”

“No, she’s notyours.She’sours, and I did what I thought was best for her.You wouldn’t even acceptmyscent match.You were already pushing me away, refusing to bond with me.How was I going to allow you to treatherlike that too?It was better if neither of you knew of the other.”

I shake my head slowly, years of anger and frustration flowing through me.“Why would I let you put her through what you were putting me through?”I turn to him more.

“Were you going to bond with her?Before Vera and Caleb came into your life, would you have accepted a bond with her?”

Would you have accepted her while you were denying me?

Even though the thought of him accepting Riley but still pushing me away hurts, if I thought that there was even a slim chance that he would have done it, I would have introduced the two.But I never believed that he would have, which is why I did what I did.

He looks surprised at my anger and shakes his head.“No.I wouldn’t have.”His voice is quiet, almost apologetic.

Which makes me even angrier.“Then what thefuckwould have been the use of introducing you two?You were already feeling guilty enough that you couldn’t go into heat, so you couldn’t form a full bond with me.I wasn’t going to add even more to that by telling you about Riley.And I wasn’t going to putherthrough the same pain as I’ve felt for years.Why would I hurt either of you like that?”

I’ve felt plenty guilty over not introducing the two, but I’m still convinced it was the right choice.This way, Riley at least had a chance to find someone who wanted to be with her, even if that person wasn’t her scent match.

We didn’t have to both go through the pain of being near but never bonding with our scent matched Omega.

“When did you meet her for the first time?”Mathew’s voice is soft, hard to read.

“About a year after you and I met.You’d already made itveryclear that because you couldn’t go into heat, you didn’t want to be more than friends with benefits and that I should find some other Omega to start a family with.”Those words still hurt, even now.

“When did you realise that she was a scent match?”

“Immediately.”

That makes him look up.“Really?”

“Yes.”

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