Page 9 of Gigi and the Gym Rats

But then he says, “I’ll take my suppressants and stay out of your way if you let me stay. It’s really close to where I’ve found work and it’s the only affordable place I’ve found. Sawyer is a savior. I was starting to panic until he told me about this chance.”

Oh, crap…The hook is still firmly embedded in my feels.

“I’m going to go get those suppressants for you,” I say. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“I’m not going anywhere near the alphas.” He lifts his hands. “Don’t worry.”

“I just meant…” I shake my head. “Know what? Never mind. I’ll be right back.”

* * *

A complication,I think as I trot two blocks down to a new drugstore that opened recently.You don’t need complications. What you need is what you told Ronin. Make a new plan. Stick to that plan. Straighten out any crimps and steer away from any temptation.

Wear yourself out with exercise and discipline until no crack in your armor remains.

I can do this.

But I can’t kick Casey out on the street without giving him a chance. Imagine being an omega and having to stop your heats and cover up your scent at all times. Imagine having to be on pills to make sure the alphas around you don’t go apeshit and try to rape you. Imagine having to tread carefully wherever you go because you’re a walking snack for any alpha in the vicinity, and maybe for some betas, too. Smelling like vanilla frost and caramel syrup and all the sugary things, hooking the alphas, drawing them in by the nose.

Who knew alphas had a sweet tooth?

I grin at the thought as I grab a package of suppressants—making sure it’s another brand for him to try and not the ineffective ones he’s currently using—and head back home.

And then my grin falls as I recall that I’m very much in lust with one such sweet-craving alpha, not to forget another at the gym who got into my pants once already long ago, but I’m so not visiting that memory—and now I seem to be hot for a certain pretty omega camping out in Bee’s old room.

Lesigh.

I’m not going to imagine having sex with them. No way. Not going to imagine even kissing them, tasting them, hearing that groan a man produces when he’s being pleasured and the sound rumbles out of him like the purring of a big cat.

Nope.

Just going to give these pills to Casey, set him up for the night, and go on living my beta life to the full, as I’m meant to be.

Somewhere out there is a great, handsome beta waiting for me. A soulmate. A life mate. I’m sure my mom will set me up with yet another son of a friend of a friend. I have to keep an open mind to possibilities. So what if until now all the betas she set me up with were cringey? Doesn’t mean anything. You have to keep trying.

Nobody ever won the lottery without buying some tickets and scratching out some numbers. So…

Keep buying those tickets, Gigi, keep scratching. Don’t fall off the wagon for two alphas’ big muscles and an omega’s sweet smile.

Find a beta. Be good.

You’re such a good girl, after all.

4

RONIN

“Whose idea was this again?” I’m pacing inside our kitchen like a caged lion, morning light spilling through the long window and the glass door leading to the balcony. The apartment doesn’t have a sitting area because that room was converted into my bedroom, apparently. The kitchen is big, though, and we often sit here.

Or pace here, as I am now.

Because today, right now, we’re waiting to redo our meeting with this omega guy, this Casey, see if we can live with him.

This is fucking nuts.

“Sawyer’s,” Gigi says quietly, watching me pace from her perch on the counter. “It’s an old friend of his.”

“Fuck.”

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