Page 49 of Talk About… Dramay
Until footsteps headed my way. I braced myself before looking up at Damon. He was an alpha who lost his pack years ago. He’d been here more than once when I had come for my week long camping trips.
They were my way to check out and regroup. The pack had always supported it.
Until now.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Damon asked as he dropped down in the seat next to me. He handed over a cold beer before cracking his open and settling back. HIs tattooed fingers peeled at the label while he waited for me to speak.
He wasn’t pushy, but he was trying to be a good friend. It had been a long time since I’d let anyone fill that role outside my pack.
I didn't trust people anymore. Par for the course after growing up with rich packs who had more money than humanity. They’d sell their kids for connections and hide away the embarrassment before it could bring them down.
I guess I was a little of both. I’d been sold to their business partner then an embarrassment when she made up lies to be with her own pack.
The fucked up part was that I didn’t really blame her. Deep down, I knew damn well she did what she had to do. Even if it screwed over my life in the process.
Yet, I didn’t trust omegas now. One wrong word and the world would come crashing around you.
I wouldn’t let myself be in that position again.
“My pack found a scent match.”
He let out a long whistle. “Damn, Tate. I know how you feel about omegas. But if she’s a scent match, she’s different, right?”
“They’re all the same,” I sighed. “She wasn’t the only omega to come into our lives and cause drama. I’m too old for that shit. Not to mention, she has her own baggage.”
Baggage that Hudson promised was similar to mine. He’d told me she was in a similar situation with a bonded alpha who rejected her.
The last thing I needed was more anger in my soul.
“They’re not,” he said, voice distant and sad. “Mine was nothing like those omegas you talk of. She was selfless and amazing. Spoiled us as much as we spoiled her. And man… when she was mad, she was glorious. She’d defend us to the death.”
“I’m sorry, man,” I said, tapping my bottle to his. The pain in his voice was humbling. Even if I knew damn well that the omega he found was a treasure, a unicorn, one of a kind.
“Me, too,” he said. “But if you have a match, a chance to have that… why the hell are you still here?”
“I’ve got three more days on my reservation,” I said stubbornly. He snorted and shook his head.
“You better text me when you get there to admit that you were wrong. That she’s everything you could have wanted.”
“I’ll text you to tell you she’s like the rest,” I chuckled. It held little humor and I knew damn well I was being stubborn.
“Tell me you at least loved the omega who fucked you up like this?”
I laughed then, the thought so absurd I couldn’t hide it. “No, not even a little. It was another obligation. She told me that first date that if we went through with this I’d be nothing more than a paper husband. She’d have her real relationships on the side.”
“Wow,” he said, the disgust in his tone evident. It was one of those situations people not raised in the type of world I was couldn’t make sense of.
I’d been out of those circles for years and yet they still didn’t stop haunting me. They shaped me as a person and I couldn’t seem to escape them.
“That omega waiting for you is nothing like that. I would bet my truck on it,” he said in a voice that was full of confidence. “She’s going to be like every fantasy you’ve ever had. Her personality will complement yours to the point you won’t understand how you ever lived without her.”
“I’m scared,” I admitted.
“Good. That means you care,” he said. “That your heart isn’t as broken and shriveled up as you think.”
This was the most un-alpha conversation I’d had with another alpha. I guess omegas did change us in strange ways. When it came to them alphas turned into softies like Damon.
He’d give everything to have his omega back and here I was hiding from mine.