Page 62 of The Omega's Alpha
“Hey, Holland, glad you guys could make it. This is Martin Boari. Martin, this is the fellow whose pictures I showed you.”
“Stand up,” Martin said impatiently, staring at me.
I glanced at Mac, who stood up in my place. “You’re addressing the Alpha’s Mate of Mercy Hills. Some respect would be appropriate.”
Martin stared at him in what looked to me like puzzlement, then turned his gaze back to me. “I need to see your shape. I like a very specific shape on my models. There’s no point in wasting anyone’s time if you’re not the right shape.”
I reached up and gently eased Mac down into his chair. “I think he’s like Freddy, only more Freddy,” I murmured in his ear, then stood up while he digested that. Now that Martin had spoken, now that I could see him and smell him, my nerves disappeared and I had no trouble stepping away from the little table and letting the human look me over. After all, it was certainly less invasive than my first mate’s pack had been when they were trying to decide between me and another omega at Buffalo Gap. Edmond started getting agitated, particularly when Martin asked me to take my jacket off and reached out to pull my t-shirt against my upper body. Without thinking, I did to him what I sometimes did to Quin, redirected the energy, changed its pattern so it was less angry. Edmond eased off, but Mac was looking at me strangely and that was when I realized that I’d done it to someone other than Quin. Shit. There’d be some sort of reckoning for sure after this. Just, not in front of the humans, but I figured I could expect a very uncomfortable night tonight.
Martin finally stood back and stared at me, one hand supporting his opposite elbow, the fingers of that hand tapping away at his cheek as if he wasn’t aware of it. After long enough that only my omega training kept me from indulging in the urge to fidget, he let his arms fall to his sides and turned to Freddy. “I see what you mean. Good height, no extra weight. Face has character. Love the hair. A little too masculine maybe, but that can be fixed with the right make-up and hair. And it might work for us anyway—he’s got that wild feel about him. No one would ever mistake him for human.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended. I glanced at the alphas to see what they thought—Edmond looked offended, Mac amused.A lot of help you two are.I decided to be gracious. “Would you like to join us for a quick drink? It will have to be quick, though, because we only have—” I checked my phone “—forty minutes before we have to be back in our room.”
Martin looked startled by that, but after a quick, assessing glance at the alphas, to which Freddy responded, “They’re very civilized, you know. I’ve been there,” he sat down across from me. Mac leaned over to pull the other table next to ours and Freddy sat down at the other end of our newly enlarged space.
“Tell me,” Martin began. “Do you have a sister?”
Not the question I’d been expecting, but he was human, so he was bound to be a bit weird. “Yes. Three.”
“Really? Do they all look like you?”
“I, uh, yes? We have the same hair, the same eyes.” I hadn’t thought about my sisters in a couple of years. Two of them were mated, one was still in her early teens. “I have mostly brothers.”
“Shame. Women earn much higher in our industry. You’ll do all right, I think. You photograph very well.”
“Thank you.”
“I’d like to see your sisters, if I can.”
I got the feeling that we were becoming part of some sort of campaign on his part, confirmed by Freddy.
“You can’t expect to find two breakout models at one time, Mar,” he said. “Be happy with one.”
“I’m never happy. It’s my method.” Martin cast an assessing glance over Mac and Edmond, then very obviously dismissed them. “Who was the gentleman in the pictures with you?”
“My mate.”
“Ah, well, not surprising that you’re gay, I suppose.”
Gay? Oh. It took me a second to make the connection. I glanced at Mac—did I correct him? Mac shrugged, leaving it up to me.
Fuck it. “It’s a little more complicated, and a little less, than that,” I said after thinking about it a moment. “Like you said, we aren’t human. Related, yes, but not the same.” I wished for Quin, with his long experience of dealing with humans. I didn’t know how much I should tell, whether it was safe to reveal my omega status and what that meant. How much did the average human understand about us anyway? “It probably doesn’t matter.”
“No, probably not. Are you saying you’re bisexual?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say no, because that wasn’t how we looked at it in shifter society, but it occurred to me that this might be something he would understand. “In a sense,” I said, hedging my truth. I’d figure out something else to tell him later. Or tell him the truth. Whatever. But it would be after I had a chance to discuss it with Quin.
“That could be good, handled the right way,” he mused, staring at me like I’d taken on an entirely different, more interesting appearance. “Yes, I think I’d like you to come to my studio tomorrow, say around one? I have a couple of outfits that I wasn’t going to bother showing, too primitive, too savage for fashion.” He waved his hands around as he said this and I hid a smile behind one hand. “I think they might suit you and I can come up with a woman’s version of them to complement yours.” He nodded again, his eyes fixed on me but not really seeing me, like I was just a portrait, or a mannequin, something he could hang clothes on but had no existence outside his use for me. It reminded me a little too strongly of what life had been like before Quin and I had found each other, and I almost blew the whole thing, except Mac put a hand on my arm before the humans noticed anything. He didn’t say a word, but that hand on my wrist, his energy thrumming through it to beat warningly against mine, was enough to settle me down.
Martin nodded abruptly. “Yes, I can see it now, the devolution from civilized to savage.”
I cast a glance at Mac out of the corner of my eye, then at Freddy when Mac seemed just as baffled as I was. Freddy shrugged and rolled his eyes, then leaned back out of sight of Martin and mouthed,Artists.
Okaaay.Probably best to let that drop until I understood more about humans. “One o’clock? Sure. I can be there earlier if you want. I don’t sleep in much.”
“Oh, I don’t do mornings. Artists are at their best after midnight.” He glanced at his phone and tched. “I’m off to a party.” He gazed at me measuringly, the seemed to come to a decision. “Would you like to come?”
Mac shook his head. “We can’t. Curfew.” Which, when I checked my own phone, was in about fifteen minutes.
