Page 53 of Feeling the Heat: Part Two
I hate it. I love the way these men make me feel, but I hate it.
Their overwhelming charm battering against my crumbling defenses is why I get called out for looking really happy during our end of the week “rest and chat” meeting that Lauren has put in place for everyone on our small team to decompress and get to know each other a little better. It’s not mandatory fun like some places force on their employees, but everyone is in attendance because she’s creating an environment we’d actually enjoy. Especially because we’re omegas and there are a bunch of puppies to snuggle in the cozy break area.
Yes, puppies. One of our new clients runs a non-profit in her spare time that trains therapy dogs for omegas that are touch-averse or otherwise dealing with trauma where they might need a dependable, snuggly canine companion.
It’s a good thing I found out about this after I started seeing the pack again, because I would’ve ended up with one of my own. I still might, because the little chocolate labcurrently snoring in my lap is stealing my heart. I wonder if Dolly likes other dogs…
“So how are things going with that pack of yours?” Lauren asks, waggling her eyebrows at me as she scoops up the teeny chihuahua that’s currently trying to gnaw on her bright blue pump, and cradles it in her arms.
I flush, and the smile that’s been on my lips since reading Ambrose’s most recent message right before joining the hangout grows even bigger. “Pretty good so far.”
It would be even better if I accept their invitation to have lunch together tomorrow. Not that it’s much of a decision to make. As soon as they brought it up, telling me that it’s absolutely okay if I’m not ready for that, I knew I’d say yes. I just had to pretend to consider it so I wouldn’t beat myself up for jumping to agree because my omega is craving them.
“Oh, you’re being courted?” Maya, the ultra-stylish, twenty-something omega Lauren hired as our head social media manager, asks, perking up, lifting her head from where she’s had her cheek buried against the basset hound puppy’s chunky belly. “That’s exciting. How did you meet? Is it new?”
“Oh, uh, well, we met in a few different places. And it’s newish. We tried once before and things kinda got in the way, so we took a break, but we’ve decided to give it another go.” I’m not about to tell all my coworkers the sordid details of my drama-filled dating life and unconventional heat clinic meeting, and I’m definitely not telling them that one of the alphas is my old boss.
Maya nods sagely. “Things can get so complicated. The pack I was seeing a few months back was so sexy, but as things progressed, they kept talking about how I’d need to stop working when we bonded. So I broke things off, and now they won’t stop sending me ridiculously expensive jewelry and offering to fly me on their pack jet wherever Iwant to go.” She sighs heavily, ignoring how I’m gawking at her casual mention of dating what sounds like a pack of billionaires.
“Are you nuts?” Kaiden, an omega in his early thirties with icy blond hair who is in charge of IT, scoffs, shaking his head at her. “Why do you care about working if they can fly you around on a private jet? Where did you even meet a pack like that?”
Maya’s golden brown cheeks burnish. “On a dating site…”
Kaiden’s eyes widen. “You mean the sugar omega one, don’t you?”
The young omega hides her face against the puppy and groans. “Don’t judge me! It’s better than going out to bars or using the regular apps. At least these packs don’t expect me to put out and bond with them after buying me a shitty chain-restaurant dinner.”
Lauren snorts. “See, this is why I’m glad I’m already bonded.”
I’m not bonded, but I silently agree. I’m more fortunate than I realized, if that’s what the dating landscape for an intelligent, gorgeous young omega looks like.
Amina, Lauren’s quiet and ruthlessly efficient assistant, frowns, but it’s directed at me, not Maya or Kaiden as they continue to chatter about dating escapades. “Is Holden Dobbs a member of the pack you’re dating?”
My eyes almost pop out of my head at her question. She asked it tentatively, with a hint of distaste that’s far more restrained than I’d have in saying that dick’s name aloud. “What? No!” I squeak.
The concern on Amina’s face fades. “Oh, good. I thought he was lying.”
My stomach clenches, alarm bells going off. “What do you mean?”
Amina shrugs slightly. “I was at a party with the alpha I’mdating last weekend, and this Holden guy was there. When he heard I was working here, he started bragging about how he was sleeping with you. That you were his omega. Which seemed wrong, given how cool you are and unpleasant he seemed, but attraction is weird, so…”
Bile rises in my throat. What the fuck? “No, we have never, nor will we ever, sleep together.”
Lauren scowls at the thought. “Holden is an entitled nepo baby who can’t get laid despite his money and appearance. Not surprising at all that he’s resorted to lying. He’s such a fucking creep.”
The conversation moves on as everyone focuses back on the story Maya is telling about a different pack of uber-wealthy alphas who she dated, but I can’t focus on anything but the roiling nausea threatening to make me lose my lunch.
I can’t believe that disgusting alpha is saying things like that. And apparently being convincing enough that someone intelligent like Amina would even consider for a moment it might be true. Fuck, who else has he told that lie to? I thought I was done with his bullshit when I left Pulse.
Discomfort lingers in my mind as I leave the office once the puppy snuggle party ends, distracting me as I silently construct scathing insults and speeches that I’d give to cut Holden down if I ever have the misfortune of seeing him again. That distraction is why I don’t notice until I’m a few blocks away from my apartment building that a man who walked out of the office building at the same time I did is still behind me.
The rage at Holden evaporates, replaced by a trickle of fear down my spine. He’s not following me, is he? I try to keep my pace steady, but when I make a turn at the next intersection instead of heading straight toward my home, I catch his reflection in a shop window. I take another random turn, looping back in the direction I came from. He follows.
Oh god.
He’s following me.
What do I do?
