Page 19 of Her Knotty Alphas

Austin doesn't know that he's not the only one that had a slight…obsession with the little omega. I looked her up a little over four months ago when he came home, telling me about how he had met an omega and even though the evening hadn't ended how he had hoped, he really liked her.

At the time, even though it had seemed out of character, I had thought he meant he didn't get to sleep with her. Now I realize something else happened to make him withdraw.

After some light stalking, I uncovered that she's an unbonded omega, who had lived with her step-grandmother since she was sixteen, presented at seventeen, and moved out on her own three years ago when her step-grandmother moved into an assisted living facility. She works at Designation Hair Salon, and has since she took the receptionist position at eighteen and then continued to work there as she went to cosmetology school. She spent a year as an assistant to a beta stylist by the name of Joanie, then got her own chair and has maintained a steady stream of clients since.

Lightstalking.

Okay, fine, we may have passed over into moderate stalking when I checked on her whereabouts after she didn't show up for work for two days in a row.

Heat fucking clinic.

At least now I know why my alpha went into such a rage at the thought of Hannah being attended to by other alphas. How many unsatisfied heats has she had? How many times has shebeen left feeling unsatisfied and unloved because of a biological function she has no control over?

The ball of anxiety still tight in my chest, I finish washing myself and get out of the shower, ready to sleep the first half of the day away.

I almost feel guilty for knowing that she's tried to court twenty-three different packs. Hacking into the OMS database after finding out she was in heat was not one of my finer moments, but I had to know if she was looking for a pack or not. First pack seen was when she was twenty, last pack seen was over four years ago. That's between four and five packs a year, if she was going consistently. But the last four years…it doesn't even look like she's stepped foot in the facility. Had she just…given up?

The thought sends a wave of protectiveness through my chest, my alpha uneasy at the thought of our mate giving up hope.

Exiting the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist, I immediately head to my room, lest Austin is still up and waiting for me so he can rip me a new one. Even though it seems like he must be in bed, I quickly shut my door behind me, not bothering to turn on the lights as I dig some boxers out of my dresser.

I'm half asleep by the time I crawl under the covers, but the one persistent thought in my mind is that I hope to hell Enzo's plan works because now that I know she's mine…I need Hannah Beckham.

Chapter 10

Hannah

My phone rings for the fifth time in the last thirty minutes, and I'm about ready to murder Cady. Grabbing my phone, I'm about to answer it just so I can give her a piece of my mind.

It's only…noon.

Shit. Iwayoverslept.

Figuring she's seen me in worse moments, I answer the video call.

"Oh my gods, you're alive!" Her voice rings out in the room, and I see my own feed in the corner of my screen, my eyes smudged with mascara and my pink hair a mess on my head. She's sitting on her couch, her long blonde hair woven into a braid that's tossed over her shoulder.

"I didn't realize it was so late," I admit, sitting up and propping myself against the pillows.

"Well, nap time is over, sleeping beauty. I've been awake for four hours and have been chomping at the damn bit to figure out what the hell is going on."

Sighing, I run a hand over my face. "Do you know why fucking Charlie Williams was at the party?"

Cady's face morphs to one of confusion before Ollie pops his head in the frame. "Oh, that's on me. He came to me to get a tattoo yesterday, and when we got to talking he told me he went to high school with Cady. He didn't mention you so I didn't even think to give you a heads up. I didn't know you guys had a history, I'm sorry Hannah." His expression is full of remorse, and I can't find it in me to be mad at him. He had no way of knowing just how much seeing Charlie would fuck with my heart all over again.

"It's fine, you didn't know," I tell him, and Cady gives him a reassuring smile before he goes off to do whatever he was going to do. Probably off to cause wholesome chaos somewhere.

"But you know, Hannah…" Cady trails off.

Here we go.

"Don't say it," I warn her. Cady never believed that what I told her was the whole story. She said she never saw Charlie and Cat together after I left, and that he never dated anyone else. That he went crazy looking for me, demanding answers from both her and my brother. It was only out of respect for my wishes that they didn't divulge my location.

"I'm going to say it," she declares. "I think there's more to the story than those texts that Cat showed you."

"What more could there be?" I roll my eyes, ready to recite the same argument we've had so many times. "He told her he liked me, but if I presented as a beta, he'd take her as an omega. I'd stay a 'dirty little secret'. Remember?"

"Okay number one, does that seem like something Cat would have been okay with?" Cady nearly snaps. "Do you think for one second she would have sat back and accepted being put on the back burner just in case you presented?"

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