16. Jade

sixteen

Ihum as I open the box. My eyes widen when I find a pretty purple-handled knife.

"Is this for the carrots?" I ask innocently.

Sven clenches his jaw and takes the knife out of the box. "I'm going to teach you how to kill someone."

My eyes widen. "Well, that went a little fast. Slow down, spitfire, we're just getting to know each other."

Sven steps back and does this complicated waving of his arms and stabs the knife into the air. It's all very impressive. The way he moves, and the flexing of his arms is hypnotic. I dab at my chin to make sure I haven't drooled, that would just give him a big head.

"Did you see that? I can teach you that," Sven says confidently.

"Oh, can you?" I say, my eyes glued to where his singlet is stretching across his chest.

"I feel so objectified," Sven whines.

"That's because you're pretty," I chirp at him. "Stop being so yummy, and I won't objectify you."

"Focus, I'm trying to save you."

"All right, but I might need you to give me a hands-on demonstration."

I almost keep my face straight, but at the last minute, I catch sight of Kandi silently laughing just outside the kitchen, and I lose it.

I brush tears from my eyes and sidle up to Sven. "All right, hot shot, pass it here. Let me look at it."

Sven scowls. "No."

"What?" I demand, outraged. "You can't do that. It's my present."

"You aren't taking this seriously."

"I am," I say and give him my big, innocent puppy look.

"No. You aren't."

"I am!" I say and stomp my foot. "Pass it here."

"We'll train first. When you show me you can handle it responsibly, I'll give it to you."

I narrow my eyes and unbutton my shirt.

Sven looks between my eyes and my hands, panic racing across his face.

"What are you doing?" Oh, the frantic terror of an alpha backed into a corner. It is music to my ears.

I peel my top open, showing him my braless titties. Now, they aren't huge, but they are definitely not small enough that you'd mistake me for anything but a woman. "Have a good long look, Sven. Not a child. Now, every time you think to yourself, ‘I'm going to treat this cute pint-sized omega like a kid,' I want you to picture these in your mind."

Sven swallows. Hard.

I pull my shirt closed and do up the buttons really slowly, but that doesn't do anything to return Sven to working order.

"I broke him, Kandi."

"You flashed your breasts at him. His brain melted. He needs to reboot." She leans against my back, puts her face in my hair and inhales. "You smell good."

I laugh. "You smell good."

Adrian comes into the kitchen, carefully stepping around Sven and opening a cupboard right beside the still frozen alpha.

"We should have a discussion. Set some boundaries," Sven suddenly spits out.

I give him a flat stare. "I mean, we could, but it would be pointless."

"Why?" Sven sounds like he might start shouting at any second. It's so cute. "Boundaries are never pointless," Sven snaps. "I've seen breasts before. My brain didn't melt." His disjointed sentences make me snicker.

Snarky, snappy alpha. I thread my fingers through Kandi's and wrap our arms around my stomach.

"Ah, but you've never seen my titties, and mine have magic juju in them."

"I'm sorry, what?" Adrian asks sharply. "If there is anything leaking out of them, I insist we go for a medical exam right this instant."

"Juju!" I whine loudly. "Magic, Adrian. My tits are magic."

His eyes drop to my chest. "Yes," he clears his throat, and his cheeks tinge pink, "well. Agreed."

I throw my free hand at Adrian. "See, Sven. Adrian thinks my tits are magic."

"They are just breasts. All women have them. Some men, too. Nothing special."

This man. I'm going to kill him.

"Fine. Deny it all you like, but these are yours. Anytime you want to touch or nuzzle, suck or kiss, just let me know so we can arrange some personal time because these are your omega's breasts, and alphas who behave get to play with them." My voice has dropped to a husky whisper, and Kandi hisses against my temple.

Sven just stares at me like his brain just took a lunch break.

"I need to go for a walk," he says too loudly and stalks to the backdoor.

"Hey, Sven? That sure looks a lot like retreat," Kandi shouts through her laughter.

He mutters something and slams the backdoor.

"Well, that was fun," Kandi says.

"He took my knife," I whine.

Kandi lets me go, and I float towards Adrian, touching his arm to get his attention.

He looks down. "Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Contemplating how depressing my pantry is." He chews on his bottom lip, his eyes far away. "Do you want to go shopping?"

"YES!" I shriek and throw myself into his arms. "Yes. Let"s shop. You, me, Svenny, and Kandi-cane."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there will be no Kandi-cane!" Kandi grouches. She snatches up Adrian's keys and tosses them to him. He snags them out of the air. I don't let them see how impressive I found that move.

"Are the candles out?" Adrian asks. "Go get shoes on and a jacket, Jade. It's cold, and I don't want to see you getting sick this soon after you're recovery."

"You always take care of me, Alpha."

He grunts. "Go."

I laugh and race through the house, checking all the candles and finding my shoes.

I come back to the kitchen but hesitate just outside the door. Kandi and Adrian are talking.

"We're good, right?" Kandi asks.

"Yeah. Yes. We always have been."

"I've always known about you. I never had a problem with it, I was just waiting for someone to say something," Kandi says evenly. "It wouldn't have been cheating."

"It felt like it to him," Adrian says softly. "He loves you."

"He loves you, too."

"He's falling for her," Adrian says with a sigh.

"He's going to break all our hearts."

Damn, my pack is morose sometimes. Enough of this.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," I say cheerfully. I flounce past the two of them and go out onto the porch. "SVENNY! SVENNY, MY LOVE!"

"Oh, god, he's going to murder her. What's it going to be, your alpha or your omega?" Kandi hisses behind me to Adrian.

I stifle a laugh as Sven charges towards me. He's big and intimidating. I clutch my hands behind my back and rock on my heels. Completely and thoroughly enjoying the view.

"Do not call me Svenny."

"We're going to the shops. Sven, I'd like you to escort us to make sure we're safe," I say calmly, pretending not to have heard him or the tone he just used.

"No."

I pout. "But Kandi is distracted by my boob juju."

I cast her a quick look, and then cut my stare back to the stunned and uncertain alpha in front of me.

Kandi nods. "This is true. I'm agog and completely flummoxed. I can't possibly undertake this security detail alone."

Sven glares at Adrian like it"s his fault.

"Don"t look at me like that. I'm a doctor, damnit."

Sven growls. The three of us ignore him. I take up his arm and give it a gentle pat.

"Calm down, Alpha. We just want to be with you and be safe. It"s food for the house, nothing elaborate. I won't even mention boobs or juju for the rest of the night, I promise."

Sven grumbles and runs a hand over his scalp. "Damnit!"

"Thank you, Alpha," I say in my meekest voice.

"You are nothing but trouble," Sven hisses.

"But you like it," I say happily. "So, it's okay."

He makes another frustrated sound as he leads me to the garage. I climb into the backseat with Adrian and slide into the middle so I can lean against him.

"Adrian?"

"Yes?"

"Do you like being a doctor?"

He pauses. "Uh, I, yes. I think so."

"You think so?" I ask with a frown. I was not expecting that answer.

"I enjoy finding things that confuse me or don't make sense and solving those puzzles. I enjoy learning and helping people. I just dislike the part when people are people."

"Those dratted people," I tease.

I burst into giggles. It takes me a minute to calm down and wipe the tears from my eyes.

"I see," I say, trying valiantly to pull myself together. "So, you should have been a veterinarian?"

"No. I contemplated it, but animals come with even more emotional and irrational humans."

I burst into laughter that shakes my whole body. "That's very true. People do love their," I cast a look at the driver"s seat, "kitties." Sven chokes, giving away just how closely he's been listening, and I snicker again, pleased with his reaction. I draw patterns on his arm. "So, why do you work at the Omega Refuge?"

"I work there because someone needs to. The women I treat are often afraid and don't speak much."

I stare up at him. I can't tell exactly what it is, but something inside is saying no. "You're lying," I accuse softly.

He grunts, he's not offended by my insight. "Fine, how are you so perceptive? When I was a teenager, I remember seeing a woman sitting on a building step. She was beaten up and sick. My brother, Simon, and I called and tried to get her help, but the police just came and moved her on. I felt helpless and full of rage that something like this could happen, and people could see it but not care. There aren't many places that will help runaway omegas. When the refuge opened, I figured the least I could do was help people escape horrible situations. So, I put my name down."

"Who was the woman?" I ask, following my instincts. Adrian is too calm, too still in the way he's speaking. There is something he's trying to hide.

Adrian gets really tense. I think he might withdraw from me, pull away and keep his secrets, but instead, he reaches out and covers my hand with his.

"My mother," he says at last. "When I was sixteen, she left a note, and she ran. She needed to run, we'd told her to. He was going to kill her one day soon. I was so happy that she was away from my father. I took Simon, and we left two days later. We managed to find her four years after that, by chance. My father was dead by then, a cardiac arrest. He deserved worse. We were able to resume our relationship with her, now that it was safe for her to do so. She's an enormous part of my life, we go and meet up with her often. I think you'll like her."

Kandi and Sven and listening intently. So am I. My poor alpha.

"That was so brave, Adrian," I whisper. "I think what you do in the Omega Refuge is amazing. And I can't wait to meet your mother."

He softens and gradually relaxes entirely. I stroke his arm, telling him without words how I feel about him. Neither of us mentions the three weeks or our uncertain future.

"You love Simon a lot, don't you?"

"He's my family," Adrian says simply. "I'm very proud of him."

"I'd like to meet him one day."

"I'll arrange it," Adrian says thickly.

Before I leaveis left unsaid. But I ignore that. I'm not thinking about any of that today.

The car ride continues in silence, but it's comfortable. We get to the shopping center, and I look out the windows. My nerves have ramped up.

"Nothing is going to hurt you," Sven says and narrows his intimidating glare through the windshield to a kid who stares too long at us. The child lets out a squeak and turns away. Sven doesn't turn and look at me, he just clenches his fingers around the steering wheel. "Nothing is going to happen."

"Okay. I trust you," I say to Sven and reach for the door handle, sliding out of the car. "I haven't done this before," I admit as we walk towards the white concrete building.

People are going in and out, absent-mindedly going about their business.

"Done what?" Kandi asks.

"Shopped like this, at a supermarket. It's going to be so exciting!"

Kandi whistles and goes to touch me, only to hesitate and pull back.

I stop dead. Irate and offended. "What was that?"

"What?"

"Why did you do that?" I snap.

"Do what?"

I narrow my eyes. "Why did you go to touch me and stop? Are you ashamed of me?"

Kandi's eyes blow wide open. "Fuck no. I just, we're, and I…." She looks around, and then swears and steps close to me, and puts her hand in the back pocket of my jeans.

It's intimate, and she's close, and I absolutely love it. I almost preen under the beta's casual affection.

"I'm good now. We can go," Kandi says.

I look away from where I"ve been staring blankly at the wall and focus on her face. Her lashes are really long. She's so sexy.

"Stop thinking about those things," Sven grumbles.

"I'm not thinking about anything," I protest hotly. Lies, naturally.

"Your scent says otherwise."

I roll my eyes and catch Kandi doing the same. We burst into laughter.

"Come along," Adrian says. He grabs a trolley and walks inside. It's different from what I expected, for one thing, it's cold. Freezing, even. The lights are brighter, the smells of fresh produce and cleaning products are intense.

We walk in and get shot with a spray that immediately deadens my scent.

"What was that?" I squeak.

"Scent neutralisers, don't worry, they wear off after an hour. It's just to help people shop without having crazy hormones causing scenes."

"What kind of scenes?"

"Well, about ten years ago, there was this pack. They went into a supermarket, and their omega got too close to a heat. Legend says they fucked on a pile of lettuces. It took twenty cops with dart guns, five hours to tranq the entire pack, and when they did clear them out, they found they needed to burn everything. It cost the franchise millions of dollars. And thus the scent neutralisers were born."

"Wow!" I whisper.

Kandi grins. "Of course, that's the fun version. The not so fun one is that some scientists in a lab discovered that if you remove the need to mate and fight, people will spend more money."

"I like the first version better."

Kandi's fingers flex in my pocket, and I turn my face towards her. She's smirking, but she's not looking at me. My sly beta.

She's a tease. I love it.

"What do you want to look at first?" Kandi asks. There is a wealth of compassion and understanding in her voice. She doesn't tell me I have to figure it out, or know what to do, or like it, or hate it.

I glance up at her, a little overwhelmed. Her expression softens.

"How about we just follow the guys around and shove things in the trolley that we want?"

"Okay," I whisper. "Let"s do that."