Page 26 of Blizzards and Brews

“Ollie, is that you? I swear to all things holy, I will hide your snacks for the next week.”

The deep chuckle told me that it was Spencer, not Ollie. Though, I didn’t think the omega was off the hook either.

“Spencer, let us out now,” Adam said. He moved up behind me and checked the door, but he wasn’t willing to push too hard. It was our bar, after all, and the last thing we needed was a broken storage room door.

After the first time someone had stumbled in here in a drunken stupor and ruined far too much merchandise, we knew better than to leave it unlocked during business hours.

“No can do, I’m sorry. We have been in here for four days and you guys are refusing to listen or talk things out,” Spencer argued. He sounded amused and exasperated, and I couldn’t blame him. I felt the same way half the time.

But right now, I was ready to throat punch him.

“Dustin put you up to this, didn’t he?” Adam growled.

“He may have mentioned that this was one of the ways that you guys used to work out your problems. He even mentioned the time that your dad locked all three of you in here to talk because fighting between you had gotten so bad.”

Adam cursed under his breath and knocked his forehead against the door in defeat.

“We were thirteen then, we’re adults now. This is insane.”

“Sorry, I can’t open the door. I’m working on something out here. This old generator needs fixing up. We never want this to happen again, right?” I could hear the clink of tools as he got to work, and I almost started laughing at how crazy this was.

Almost. It was all too clear that I was currently locked in a closet with Adam.

I may not have known Spencer for long, but I knew he was stubborn as hell. This was a losing battle and I chose to go back to my spot instead of wasting energy on fighting him.

Adam looked back at me and shook his head, trying the door one more time before joining me.

“Well, we’re stuck here. Maybe we should really talk.”

“I listened before and didn’t argue when you told me you all wanted a shot,” I said, but we both knew that was a cop-out.

“Lindsay, this is not you giving it a shot. This is you appeasing us, wanting it but still holding yourself back. I don’t want only a part of you, I wantallof you.”

I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat. Fuck, he always knew just what to say. My resolve was crumbling and I was holding onto the final shreds of it, refusing to let go.

“You can’t want me. I’m not an omega.”

Spencer let out a frustrated growl that reverberated in the room.

“I don’t give a fuck that you’re a beta. I care aboutyou, not your designation,” Adam insisted.

“You do now,” I agreed, “and I don’t doubt that. But what happens when you find an omega that matches with you? Do you think I would really be able to stick around while you, Dustin, and Ollie all fell for another woman? That would break me.”

My voice broke and I fought off tears. I wasn’t usually the emotional type but I was far too vulnerable right now to keep my composure. I could count on one hand the number of times they’d seen me cry. Between my house, and the whirlwind of meeting Spencer, and now this, it was all too much.

“Look at me,” Adam demanded. His voice bordered on angry. I was rejecting him all over again, and I had promised to not shut him down right away, but I couldn’t take anymore.

“Have you ever seen me with another omega? Have you ever even seen me touch another woman in general?”

My eyes widened, and the silence settled between us, heavy and intense. Was he serious?

“Are you saying...?” I trailed off, my mind not able to put the words together. There was no way this man was saying he was a virgin and had held himself back for me.

Me. A beta.

Their best friend and who they’ve wanted for years, I argued with myself.

If I thought I was conflicted before it was nothing on how messed up my head was now.