The rational side of me that knows I’m being selfish is basically turned off as I look at the woman I’ve loved, but kept my distance from for far too long.
“I’ll meet up with you guys in a little bit, okay?”
The Alpha crosses his arms, looking at me and then back at Claire, like he can’t trust me. I’ve known Claire her entire life, protecting her from a distance for a long time.
I take a deep breath. Be good, I remind myself.
“Message us where you want to meet, sweetheart,” the Beta says with a smile, kissing her cheek.
The Alpha isn’t so subtle, grabbing her cheeks and pressing an ostentatious kiss against her lips. He even goes so far to rub his nose against her hair.
This motherfucker is scent marking on her before she spends time with me.
Claire swallows thickly, her cheeks pink as she clears her throat.
“Maybe this time we go to my suite, it’s a little less stifling,” she says, and leads the way to the elevator.
Her cinnamon apple cake scent is on full display. Maybe it’s because I’m done fighting myself or because there’s a hint of the other Alphas scent on her, but all I want to do is cover her in my scent, claim her. I want this incessant conflict inside me to shut the fuck up.
Claire is quiet as she uses her wristband to call the elevator to us and we head down to her floor. Security checks us both in, and despite how badly I don’t want to be on this cruise, I can appreciate the level of care that’s been taken to keep everyone safe.
When she opens the door, the room is a far cry from the one I’m sleeping in.
The room smells so thick of her fucking that Alpha and I think I’m about to lose my goddamn mind.
“Can we go out on the balcony?” I grate out.
If I have to sit in this room and smell that other Alpha’s scent the whole time, I’m likely to go crazy.
Claire looks over at a crumpled blanket in the corner and gives me a nod.
She opens the door and we both head out. She’s on the side of the ship facing away from the pier and I’m grateful we have some semblance of privacy for this conversation.
The Omega I’ve pined over silently, tormenting myself, watching from afar, crosses her arms and leans against the balcony.
She’s not going to make this easy on me, and it kind of makes my cock hard. She raises a dark eyebrow at me, waiting for me to start.
I take a seat on the lounge chair, and steeple my fingers as I rest my elbows on my knees.
“I don’t know if I’m capable of being in a pack,” I tell her, and her brows furrow. “It’s why I’ve kept my distance, why I never let you know I felt the same as you have. You’ve wanted a pack since the moment you designated. Don’t be mad, but me and Axel saw your vision board when you were sixteen.”
She gasps and I smirk. She had a photo of me on that vision board, along with an entire k-pop group, two major actors, and three Alphas who were definitely too fucking old to be considered for her vision board. It had clippings of the nest of her dreams, the pets she wanted, and a house in the mountains.
“You’re an Omega, you deserve a pack and everything that comes along with it.”
“But you don’t think you’re capable?”
“I’m still not sure, but I also can’t fight this anymore, Claire,” I say, standing to my full height and looking into her light blue eyes. “I’ve watched you flirt with other Alphas, smelled them on you, and every time it ate away at me. You’ve always been the thing I couldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching, longing.”
I push a hair off her shoulder and her eyes close softly as she takes a deep breath, inhaling my scent.
“Why did you really come on the ship?”
“I did really hope that I could bring you home, that we could go back to how things were. You giving me just enough attention that I didn’t crack. Me watching from the sidelines as you usedother Alphas to feel better. But you never wanted any of them to bond you. It was nothing but a physical need. It’s what’s always kept me in check.”
“What changed?” Her voice trembles. We’re so fucking close that I can nearly taste her scent on my tongue.
“When I saw you with him, I knew it was more than just lust. I knew I was going to lose you and it made me rethink everything,” I admit.