Page 17 of Power Shift

“Better than anything I’ve ever smelled before. I could have bottled it up and kept it with me all the time.”

“I’m still not hearing the embarrassing part, Briar.”

“Which part should I start with? The whole tracking his smell through a restaurant like a dog part or the smashing into him and causing his dinner to go all over the both of us part? I also canneverforget about when I started pawing at him to try and clean him up before ripping a tablecloth off a table full of more food and dishes and using it to wipe the spaghetti sauce off his face.”

Clover winces, her lips pressing together. I rub my temples and nod.

“I’ve never been more mortified. He stood frozen and let me make everything worse before telling me to go away.”

“He told you to go away?” she asks, brows knitted. “That’s it?”

“That’s it. Then he ran out.”

“Could you tell that he thought you smelled even half as good as you thought he did? Did he have any claiming marks? Was there a pack somewhere nearby?”

I feel my throat growing tighter with every question.

“No. If anything, I think he thought my scent was disgusting. There weren’t any marks from what I saw, but I wasn’t really paying attention. The only thing I wanted was to go back a few minutes and not plow him down while actively fighting the urge to jump onto him.”

“I’m sorry, Briar. I know how badly you want a pack.”

“For a second, I thought—” I cut myself off, shaking my head.

“You thought you’d found your scent match,” Clover finishes for me.

“Maybe.”

Despite the distance I’ve put between us, she invades my space and pulls me into a hug. My breath catches in my chest at the comfort, needing it more than I thought I would.

“Don’t lock yourself up and hide because of one shitty alpha. Or, well, two, I guess. Maybe he had walked by someone on his way to the restaurant and gotten their scent on his clothes,” she suggests.

I nuzzle my cheek into the crook of her shoulder. “I wish I had been more conscious of what was happening. It was like my brain switched off and my omega instincts were the only things controlling me.”

“And you’re sure he didn’t react to you at all?”

“Unless disgust counts, no.”

“Well, you deserve a better alpha than one who would leave you standing all alone in a restaurant anyway.”

“And preferably one with a pack,” I add weakly. “I couldn’t smell anyone else on him in the time we were close.”

“Exactly. We don’t settle for the bare minimum here, Briar.”

“Never.”

“But in all seriousness, I do want that for you. The whole pack life,” she says with a steady hand stroking my back.

“Even after what you just went through?”

“Especially after what I just went through. My time in a pack may have gone up in flames like a dry field in the summer, but it was great while it lasted. There’s nothing quite like it, babe. And you of all people deserve a life like that.”

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“You’re welcome. But I’m not going to let you sit here and wallow for much longer. We’ve got three meetings this week, including one with a new omega.”

I lean back, glancing at her as my curiosity sparks. “Who is she?”

“Sadie Clark. Her brother called me yesterday asking if we had any availability.”

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