Chapter 6: Mason

Chapter

Six

MASON

I lean against the counter, arms crossed, trying to keep my expression neutral as Jayce paces back and forth, his agitation palpable in the small breakroom.

"Great, just great," he mutters, running a hand through his hair. "We're trapped in a cheap community center in Carter's hometown, and our omega has barricaded herself in the bathroom. Any other brilliant ideas?" He turns to Adder and Carter, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Since doing it your way has turned out fucking fantastic so far."

I clench my jaw, feeling the tension in the room ratchet up another notch. "Lay off, Jayce," I growl. "We're all doing our best here. It's not like a manual exists for this kind of thing."

Jayce whirls on me, eyes flashing. "Oh, no? I'm pretty sure there's literally an entire fucking section of manuals at the library about how to woo and court and care for omegas, and her locking herself in a public bathroom is in none of them."

I blink, momentarily thrown off guard.

Did he just admit to...?

Adder's lips twitch, and I can see the same thought crossing his mind. "Wait a second," he says, a hint of amusement creeping into his voice. "Are you saying you've actually read those guides, Jayce?"

Jayce's face flushes, and he sputters, "What? No, I... I mean, I've seen them. In passing. It's not like I..."

I can't help but join in, grateful for the momentary distraction from our predicament. "Holy shit. Mr. Smooth here has been studying up on his omega care techniques."

"Shut up," Jayce mutters, his usual cockiness replaced by flustered defensiveness. "Like you've never?—"

"Guys," Carter's low voice cuts through our banter. "Shut up."

There's something in his tone that makes us all fall silent. I look up, following his gaze, and my breath catches in my throat.

Ember stands in the doorway, looking small and unsure but still very guarded. She won't meet our eyes, but there's no doubt in my mind now that she knows.

She knows we're her scent matches.

And she isn't happy about it.

A pang of... something... twists in my chest. Disappointment? Hurt? I never really put a ton of thought into the idea of a scent match, rare as they are, but I didn't imagine it was something our match would be devastated by.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

I just know I want to protect her, and when she's standing there looking like that, I'm ready to turn the world upside down to do it.

Adder steps forward, his voice gentle. "Hey," he says softly. He starts to ask if she's okay, but Ember holds up her hand, silencing him.

We all watch, transfixed, as she slowly steps into the room. She stops in front of Carter first, and I can see the usually calm and collected alpha tense up as she leans in close and… smells him. Her straight, perfect, freckled nose twitches slightly as she stands up on the balls of her shoes and sniffs near his neck, and I've never been more envious of anyone in my life than I am of Carter in this moment. She's not touching him, but it's close enough.

"Dark chocolate," she mutters, more to herself than to us.

My heart pounds as she moves on to me next. Her scent floods my senses. Sweet and intoxicating, like cotton candy at a fairground. It takes every ounce of self-control I possess not to reach out and pull her into my arms. She's so close, I can count the freckles across her nose—twenty-seven—and the flecks of gold in her brown eyes.

She steps close to me, so close I can feel the warmth radiating off her, inhales deeply, and I hold my breath, waiting. I also pick up the shift in her scent. It's there, but unmistakable. A bit muskier than it was earlier, a sultry note added to the light and airy sweetness that has my mouth watering, but I have barely any time to process it.

"Woodsmoke," she declares, and I feel a rush of... pride? Relief? I've always wondered what I would smell like to my omega, if we were lucky enough to find one who could put up with all of us. Jury’s still out on that.

Woodsmoke. I like it.

But there's no time to respond before she's moving on to Adder. He stands tall and perfectly still as she approaches, like a buck afraid to spook a fawn in the forest. She leans up, meeting his gaze without hesitation for a few seconds before her eyes flutter shut under dark, heavy lashes and she breathes in audibly.

"Mint," she announces on the exhale, her eyes opening again as she stares up at him, cocking her head slightly. "And snow."

"Huh," Adder says, a slow grin of approval spreading across his face. "Wouldn't have guessed that."

Last, she approaches Jayce. For all his cocky bluster and flirtatiousness, he actually backs up a little, looking utterly flustered by our omega's proximity. Ember grabs his scarf, pulling him closer like he's not easily three times her size, and sniffs.

"Salted caramel," she says, her voice a mix of confusion and something else I can't quite place.

The tension in the room breaks as Carter, Adder, and I burst out laughing. "Salty and sweet," Carter quips. "Sounds about right."

"Shut the fuck up," Jayce grumbles, but there's no real heat behind it.

For a moment, we all just stand there, the air thick with unspoken questions and simmering tension.

I can't take my eyes off Ember. She looks... lost. Overwhelmed. I want to wrap her in my arms, to tell her everything will be okay.

But I know that's not what she needs right now.

And there's a strength behind the hesitation. A hardness in her gaze that has me wanting to tear the world apart until I find the bastard who put it there. Who gave her reason to be as wary of alphas—of her own pack—as much as she clearly is.

"So," Ember says, finally breaking the silence as she folds her arms and stands there in the middle of the room, a wisp of an omega who has all four of us revolving around her like satellites, hanging on her every word and afraid to move a muscle or even blink the wrong way. "What do I smell like to you?"

We all exchange a look as the unspoken answer passes between us. The answer that hit us all at once the moment we walked into the rink.

"Cotton candy," Adder says, speaking for the pack.

A look of confusion crosses her face, quickly replaced by realization as her gaze flicks over to Jayce. "Of course," she mutters. "You knew yesterday."

It's not a question, just a statement of fact.

"We knew from the moment we saw you," Jayce says in a matter-of-fact tone, nodding at me. "And some of us voted for telling you right away. For the record."

Adder gives him a stern look. Carter just rolls his eyes.

What does it matter either way? She clearly doesn't want us. I'm not sure any way we handled it could have changed that.

"Why didn't you?" she asks, an edge of wariness to her voice that makes me wonder if it was the wrong move.

"Isn't it obvious?" I ask. "We didn't want to spook you. You're clearly not interested in us."

The others fall silent, but it's nothing more than the truth. I've never seen the point in beating around it, one way or another.

Ember's gaze flicks over to me and her full lips curve into a frown my caveman brain imagines smoothing off that beautiful face with a kiss.

Down, boy.

"I'm not interested in any alphas," she says pointedly, arms still folded, a physical barrier between us.

There's something else in her scent, beneath the building pheromones that signal an impending heat. A natural consequence of an omega being trapped in a confined space with four alphas. Four alphas who just so happen to be biologically engineered to want to fuck her brains out and lay the world at her feet.

But it's the very presence of that something else that keeps my hunger in check.

It's fear.

Of course she's afraid.

It's only logical.

She doesn't know us. Any of us. For all she knows, we could be a bunch of psychos she's now biochemically tethered to, and stuck with for the night at the very least.

For an alpha, the only real risk of giving in to the biological chaos their kind unleashes on us is the possibility of getting saddled with a responsibility he's not ready for, but for an omega?

The stakes are a hell of a lot higher.

That's why Adder and Carter were against telling her right away. That's why I was for it. But either way, it looks like we ended up in the same position.

"Why?" Jayce asks, like the bonehead he is. Always cutting right through the fat to get straight to the heart of the matter.

I admire it, in a way.

"What do you have against alphas?" he tacks on.

Ember gives a short, indignant laugh. "Are you kidding me? We'd have to be snowed in all winter before I could get through that list."

"We've got time," he says, taking a step toward her, his usual swagger back in place. "And FYI, there are at least as many pros as cons. Wanna find out what they are?"

"Take another step and you're gonna find out just how fast an ice skate can remove a few of those 'pros' from your body," she says flatly, gesturing to the gear bag on her hip.

"Jayce, enough," Adder barks, glowering at our youngest packmate.

"It was just a friendly offer," Jayce says, holding up his hands and backing off.

"Keep your fucking 'offers' to yourself, numbskull," I mutter, shoulder checking him on my way past. "I'm gonna go grab us all some coffee and see what I can find in the vending machine. Gonna be a long night."

Judging from the fact that our omega's scent is already blooming, and she definitely has no interest in us doing anything to help her through her impending heat, it just might be the longest night of our lives.