Page 8 of A Pack of Honey
"Let's not create problems where they don't exist," Luca replies. Cole shoots him a look. If Hunt or I had said it, we’d probably get barked out, but Luca can get away with that.
Finally, Cole nods, and we head back to that very sad hotel. But my mind is stuck on the omega with blonde hair and overalls.
Sunny
I'mbonetiredbeforethe end of the day arrives. I decided to hire three new employees for the busy season, and they just started. Training is always a tedious process. Sean and Sally volunteered to train them, which is a complete godsend. I can't wait for them to take more of the day-to-day tasks off my hands.
I've been up since five in the morning, and I'm just getting back to the farmhouse at nine at night. The only upside is that I've been too busy to think about the pack from Night Associates. My stressed-out brain just can't deal with it right now. I grab a protein bar and eat it on my way upstairs. I run a shower and revel in the hot water. After, I collapse into bed completely naked and without the strength to even put on pjs.
Opening my phone, I check for any last emails before officially passing out. A couple of bills, my social media notifications, and an email… from the Night Pack.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I whisper. I consider just putting it down and not thinking about it until morning. Or ever.But a tiny piece of me, the curious part, knows it'll keep me awakenotknowing what they said. So, I open the email.
Miss Sunny Howard,
We apologize for trespassing on your private property earlier today, and for our overly enthusiastic business offers over the last few months.
I roll my eyes."Enthusiastic business offers"is a nice way to define bribes, legal threats, and beratement of my choice not to sell.
We were grateful for the chance to meet you this morning, and would like to extend an offer to meet and discuss the situation regarding your courting status. We are free on Wednesday. But if that doesn't work for you, we will make it work anytime.
Thank you for your consideration,
The Night Pack
"For your consideration," I mumble to myself. Did real people actually sign emails like that? We aren't pen pals in the eighteen hundreds. I fall asleep with my phone slipping out of my hand, never having replied to the email.
***
"I just don't know. Over email, they seemed so horrible," I whine to Calliope while Rose types on her phone as usual, and Winnie eats a cinnamon roll bigger than her head. These are the other girls from the Omega Book Club that Winnie and I are in, along with Clara who’s waiting tables as we talk.
Rose has been in town for almost a year. She said she just wanted a change of pace. She works online and usually has her face in her phone. Due to her beta status, she doesn't have a detectable scent. She has thick curly brown hair framing a round face. Clara's been working at the Café for a few years since her cousins opened it. Her omega scent is apple pie, dough, sugar, and caramelized apples.
Clara walks up to to join the conversation in-between waiting on her other tables. She's dressed in a flowing yellow dress and her hair's dyed a soft pink this month.
"Electronic communication can be very deceiving about a person's true nature," Rose says, never looking up from her screen. "I've known really nice people who come across as very cold and calculating in their emails and texts, and I've known absolute shitheads who come across like daisies." She would know. She's the social media manager for several small businesses on the Peninsula. "They called me an ignorant hillbilly who wouldn't know a good deal if it jammed itself up my ass," I deadpan.
Everyone cringes.
"But that was when they thought you were another alpha man, right?" Clara asks as she tops off my coffee.
I sigh. “Yes, but I don't think that should matter. People who are nice to you but not nice to others based on appearances or gender or designation aren't really nice."
"Ok, fair, but—" Winnie drags the last word out, "a person trying to land a business deal probably isn't considering feelings. I'm just saying, don't judge them too harshly for how they behave regarding business matters. It can't hurt to get to know them, and then make a decision with all the facts." As a small business owner herself, it was not surprising to hear Winnie defend business as just business either.
"You scent matched?" Cali asks. She’s the newest member of our little group. She moved up here after a bad breakup to fill the open librarian position in town. Her omega scent is the rain, lightning, and earth.
"I definitely scent matched." Although I haven't told them that it was more than that. That it's scent-sensitivity. I want my friends' opinion on handling this without bringing fate into themix. Cali is also scent-sensitive with her pack. The same pack who owns this Café. Where I'd met Luca.
And what about Luca? I'd really liked him. I'd definitely caught his scent during our time here despite the neutralizers. That's one of the reasons businesses are okay with them. Even thought they cover basic scent matches, they don't cover scent-sensitive matched. If they did cover scent-sensitive matches, people would have a shit fit.
"Well, only you can decide,” Cali says, “but I say there's nothing wrong with giving them a chance to at least try. Scent matches are special."
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Cali is the first of us to find a pack, and she's over the moon about it, as anyone would be.
She's also scent-sensitive,my omega reminds me again.She could help me here with her firsthand experience.
But I'm not willing to admit that's what it is yet. Maybe I was just really hungry when I met them, and that's why their scents smelledthatgood… and why I got flustered and dizzy and wanted to ravage them. I just needed an energy bar. Totally normal.
