32. Hazel

HAZEL

"We need to get the ball rolling. Take a deep dive and really drill down."

"I agree. All hands on deck."

"Absolutely, the more parties we get involved, the better."

"Thoughts on the entry-level position?"

"Whip up a description. I want you on my desk by 5. I mean, I want it on my desk by 5. That's a hard deadline, got it?"

The man in front of us completed his coffee order, turned and gave us a look that said I know what you're doing, asshats.

Maybe Remy and I shouldn't have passed the time waiting in line at our coffee shop pretending to be corporate office minions. We were in activewear so there was really no effort put into this illusion.

Remy stepped forward and started to place our order. I got distracted by the display of baked goods and drifted over to take a look.

The muffin of the day was covered in a drizzle of chocolate and my mouth started watering. I rushed to let Remy know I wanted it but was jostled roughly as a solid form bumped into my hip. Ow.

"Oh, sorry about that, sweet thing. Are you ok?"

The man towered over me and I bit back my retort that he should've been watching where he was going.

"It's fine," I said, resisting the urge to rub my side. I tried to brush past him and he did a double take.

"Wait, do I know you?"

I finally placed why that block-faced jaw was familiar. It was the alpha who had asked me out, what was it, a month ago now? I sighed internally, already exhausted by the false politeness I would have to put on.

"Hazel, right?"

Had I told him my name? I must have.

"It's Damien, remember?" He mimed a window being wiped with his ginormous hand. What? Oh…the graffiti at the gym, I guess.

"Ah, of course. Hello again," I said neutrally. "Excuse me, my alpha is waiting for me."

I emphasised my alpha meaningfully, hoping he would get the very large, very obvious point.

"Lucky guy," Damien said with an easy smile. For some reason his casual acceptance irked me more. Mentioning my alpha wasn't supposed to be an elaborate coded signal telling him to keep flirting with me.

"Hope he treats you the way a beautiful woman like yourself deserves," he continued.

I wasn't sure how much clearer I could be without scrawling no means no on his forehead with lipstick.

It was probably rude but I didn't respond. Instead, I pressed my lips together and stepped past him.

Remy missed the entire encounter. Probably for the best as I did not feel like dealing with alpha posturing and chest-beating right now. I could handle men like Damien just fine on my own.

I watched Remy tap his phone to pay and realised Damien had done something so much worse than hit on me. He'd kept me from getting a muffin!

As if he could sense my distress, Remy looked over. I frantically pointed at the display and put on my most forlorn, pathetic face. He looked absolutely stricken.

"Which one?" he asked. It was difficult to hear him over the din of the tiny, crowded cafe.

I shimmied past a table trying not to knock over their salt and pepper shakers. "Chocolate muffin," I called urgently.

I left a very happy omega, licking melted chocolate off my fingers. Remy watched me polish it off as we walked, eyeing me like he wanted to lick me off his fingers.

He threw his arm around my shoulder while we were stopped at a pedestrian light. Smiled down at me before pressing the lightest, sweetest kiss on my lips that left tingles sparkling over my skin.

"By the way, I have some additional ideas for that entry position," he purred in my ear.

"Entry-level."

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"It absolutely was not." I gave his nipple a pinch through his shirt and he made a frightened yet weirdly erotic noise.

I mimicked it and he shut me up with a longer kiss this time.

The light turned green but Remy stumbled as we began to cross. "Ugh, my shoelace." He bent down and began to tie it. I kept going. He had long legs, I figured, he could catch up.

It really did feel like the car appeared from out of nowhere. A streak of silver out of the corner of my eye and one blink later—

"Hazel, watch out!"

I froze at Remy's panicked scream.

It was the only reason the only part of the car to make contact with me was the side mirror. Whether it was shock or physics, it was enough to send me tumbling backwards.

"Oh Jesus fuck, Hazel!!"

The ground came rushing up so much faster than I expected. Pain burst from my hip. My arms curled around my head — reflex — and asphalt tore into my exposed skin. The sensation of a million little pebbles digging and jabbing into me before it all came to a harsh stop.

I blinked once. Sky. Twice. Remy?

"It was green, wasn't it? The light?" His face grew hazy above me as my words muddled together. "I was so sure it was green."

Darkness crept into the edges of my vision before taking over in a rush.

I was still in the same spot when I came to.

"I thought when you faint you end up waking up in hospital or something." I wasn't sure if I was meant to move or not so I settled for widening my eyes pointedly at Remy. "Are you just really slow at dialling triple 0?"

Remy's arms slid beneath me and suddenly I was airborne. I hope I'm not too heavy for him, I mused, because even a minor car accident could not stop my brain from having insecure thoughts.

"Fucking hell, Hazel. How can you joke at a time like this?" He set me down safely on the footpath, gently supporting my head as he seated me leaning against the nearby building.

"Don't though," I said softly.

"Don't what?"

"Call an ambulance. No hospitals."

Remy shook his head vehemently. "I need to know you're ok."

"Ben. And Aleks," I said simply.

He called Aleks first, eyeing me as if he was still ready to change his mind at any time if I so much as hiccuped wrong. "It's Remy. Hazel's been hurt," he said curtly. "She doesn't want to go to the hospital. A car clipped her. I know, Aleks. Jesus, if I thought if there was even a chance that it was any worse I wouldn't have listened to her and called an ambulance, stop yelling at me." He huffed exasperatedly. I let my bottom lip stick out a little and gave him a tiny shake of my head. Remy groaned, his eyes going to the back of his head. "She really doesn't want to go to the hospital and she's doing the sad face thing. I'll drop a pin to you so you can meet us."

"I can move, I'll be ok," I piped up. "It's just some scrapes."

"You also fainted briefly."

"Briefly. It was only for a second, wasn't it?"

"I am not moving you," Remy snapped before turning back to his phone. "I know. I told her, Aleks, don't worry. You know what, fuck you. You come resist that pouty lip thing she's doing and then you can talk shit." He hung up with an agitated tap of his screen.

I fished my phone from my pocket. "Ben will be closer." I started trying to unlock it, wincing as even the weight of my phone made my arm ache. Remy immediately took it from me, kissing the back of my hand and enfolding it in his.

"Ben. It's Remy." He relayed what happened and I swore he was talking with a deeper voice. Alphas. Unlike Aleks, Ben was much more focused on whether I'd hit my head or not and exactly how long I'd been out for.

Eventually, another location pin was promised and Remy turned to me when the call was over. "First Aleks with his dad and now this. Maybe we should all just share our locations with each other if this sort of shit is going to keep happening," he grumbled.

Why did I not hate the thought of that? "You wanna stalk me, Remy?" I fluttered my lashes at him.

"Always, buttercup." He grinned.

"Noooooo," I moaned.

Remy looked amused by how much I hated his latest nickname. "Not even after some light head trauma, huh?"

Unlike Aleks, Ben wasn't working and was only a couple of blocks away. My whole body suffused with warmth when I caught sight of him. Safe.

A low whine escaped me when he knelt down and immediately cradled my head into the curve of his neck. The first cosy sip of hot peppermint tea, hugged between palms and inhaling the soft aroma from the rising steam. All my trapped tension slowly ebbed out of me.

"You're going to be ok," Ben promised me and I believed him. His fingers found my pulse, some of the tightness in his jaw loosening when he found it strong and steady.

Then he turned to Remy and the two alphas made eye contact for the first time. The dominant energies between them clashed, sword against sword, no one gaining the upper hand.

"It was a freak accident. Unpreventable. Would've been worse if I didn't warn her," Remy said firmly, answering Ben's unspoken question. "Happened in a split second and she didn't hit her head on the way down. We called you straight away."

I resisted the urge to correct him to say that we had called Aleks first. Don't anger the touchy alphas.

"As interesting as this is…" I began when it was clear there was no winner of their contest. "...I would like to get home if I get the healthy tick of approval, doctor."

Ben's mouth flattened, giving him a strange expression.

"Did I…turn you on by calling you ‘doctor'?" I asked him as realisation sank in. Did I turn myself on? I dreaded the hospital and never thought I'd have a thing for doctors. But I think I had a thing for Ben the doctor.

Ben swallowed audibly, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Yes," he admitted after a long pause, followed by a self-conscious cough as he laid a hand on my forehead. I definitely felt something when he did that.

"Noted, doctor."

"Stop it," Ben grunted.

He continued to check my vitals. I blinked furiously after he shone a torch into my pupils. "Do I need a private exam, doctor?" I asked, sultrily.

"Hazel, we are in broad daylight," Remy scolded me as the pink in Ben's cheeks deepened.

I turned to him excitedly. "Ooh, we should do some roleplay with our content! That could be fun."

"Jesus Christ." Ben put away his things with agitated movements. "You're fine physically but mentally is a whole other ball game."

"Business as usual then."

Ben carefully helped me stand, watching me like a hawk for any sign of dizziness. I sucked in a sharp breath as the shock leached out of me and the aches began to settle in. "Lean on me," he ordered. "We'll get you home and clean up your scrapes."

Remy was typing away furiously on his phone. "I'm telling Aleks to just go back to Hazel's," he explained without looking up. Once he was done, he turned to Ben. "Thoughts on sharing our locations?"

Ben didn't miss a beat. "I think that's a good idea," he agreed easily.

My head swivelled between them incredulously. "Weren't you two just…" I bared my teeth in a mock-growl and made a claw with my hand. "...like a second ago?"

Remy licked his bottom lip. Slowly. "We have reasons to play nice."

"Singular," Ben corrected, his voice rough. "One reason."

"True."

The heat of both their stares on me overwhelmed me and to my utter mortification, I perfumed in a great, sweet bloom of lush needy omega pheromones.

Remy grinned at Ben. "Told you she was fine."