Page 39 of Power Shift

“A beta?”

“Yeah. Dash. I thought . . .” I spin my plastic cup, swishing around the melting smoothie as I force the rest of the sentence up my throat. “I thought he could have also been a scent match.”

Clover leans over the table, confusion swirling in her eyes. “He wasn’t? I didn’t think that was possible. Have you heard of that before? Just one pack member not sharing a scent match compatibility with an omega?”

“I don’t know enough about it. He smelled amazing to me, and I know I was busy trying not to lose it over Ronan, but there was a pull between us too. Or I thought there was. He didn’t seem to think so.”

“How did Ronan react to that?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t show a reaction.”

“Well, it’s unusual in the first place to have a pack with only two alphas, but considering one is a beta, maybe that’s just how it is,” she offers, putting a considerate amount of effort into reassuring me.

It’s not that simple.

“There are two others,” I blurt out. “Alphas.”

Her mouth falls open. “Four?”

“Four,” I confirm.

It’s almost . . . exciting being able to say that. But I hold off on getting too worked up over it. There’s no telling what could happen with the other two men. If they’re like Dash, I’m almost too terrified to think about what that would mean.

Scent matches are so easy that they’re complicated. Sure, if we allow biology to take the driver’s seat in situations like this, there wouldn’t even be a second to doubt or worry. Unfortunately, I’m not that type of person. I think too much to simply hand over control to the omega inside of me and present for a stranger at the drop of a hat, scent match or not.

And knowing that I could potentially have three alphas as mine, along with a beta who didn’t seem all that impressed with that idea, completely freaks me out. Suddenly, dreaming and yearning for a pack of my own has gotten a lot more complicated.

“And? Tell me about them, Briar. What are their names? Are they hot? Who am I kidding? They obviously are,” Clover states boldly.

Pain spreads in my chest. Last night, it kept me up for hours. It’s sharp enough to steal my breath as I swallow a hiss.

I work past it, hiding as much of it as possible. This is another complication that I’m learning comes with finding a scent match. After meeting the strange alpha in the restaurant, I’ve gotten weird phantom aches, but nothing quite like these. I push those ones aside, knowing they’re probably unrelated due to their lack of severity. It turns out there was nothing there, even if for a moment, I wondered.

Now, the initial connection I’ve made with Ronan is trying to bring us back together. My body craves him, even if my mind hasn’t quite caught up yet. Every hour that we’re apart becomes more draining on me.

“I know their names, but they’re strangers,” I admit, my voice cracking on the last word.

The emotion that rolls over me is alarming but not even unexpected at this point. I sniffle past the burn in my nose and take an angry sip from my smoothie.

“I’m so confused right now,” Clover admits.

“That makes two of us. I didn’t have much time to ask anyone anything before Dash was pulling Ronan away from me. He barely managed to give me his number first,” I snip, my sadness morphing into anger.

Clover watches me closely, elbows on the pastel blue table. “Have you texted him yet? Maybe he could help with your confusion.”

“I don’t even know what to say,” I admit.

“You could start with hello.”

I twist my lips before sighing. “Help me, Clo.”

“I know you’re nervous, sweetheart, but this is literally something all omegas dream of. You’ve got this, and I’ll be here to help anytime you need me.”

Half my mouth lifts into a thankful smile as I hand her my phone and watch anxiously as she types my password in.

“I’m honestly a little surprised that he didn’t demand your number before he left. That seems like a very un-alpha thing to do,” she says while her finger swipes down my screen.

“I think we were both too overwhelmed to think of much more than what we were feeling. It was a lot.”

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