Lily hooks her arm through mine and steers me toward the market. “Come on. I need your opinion on whether we should get the good cheese or the cheap cheese.”
“There’s a difference?”
“Oh, Blue. You poor, cheese-deprived child. We have so much to teach you.”
The market is busy for a town of this size. The market smells like a collision of everything from fresh bread from the bakery stall to grilled meat from the food trucks, to the sweet rot of overripe peaches, to car exhaust from the parking lot. It’s overwhelming after three years of nothing but pine and earth. The noise and motion set my wolf on edge at first, her hackles raised, scanning for threats. But Lily chatters on beside me, and nobody stares too long, so after a few minutes the tension in my shoulders begins to ease.
I’m comparing two bags of dried pasta, one of which costs twice as much for no reason I can figure out, when Lily pulls me toward a stall selling winter scarves. She holds one up to my face and declares it “perfect for your colouring,” which I’m pretty sure is something she heard her grandmother say.
I’m about to tell her I don’t need a scarf when I see him.
My entire body locks up.
He’s standing twenty feet away, near the diner entrance, talking to another male. Leaning against the wall with that same lazy posture I remember. That same tilt of his head, that same easy, careless way of standing, like the world exists for his entertainment and he’s just deciding which part to play with next.
Stuart.
I haven’t said that name, even to myself, in years. But my body remembers him, and my hands go numb. The market noise drops away until all I can hear is my own blood rushing in my head. My scent turns, I can smell it going sharp and sour. Fear leaks out of me.
He’s older now. Broader. Filled out into the kind of alpha that turns heads. His dark hair is shorter than I remember. But it’s him. I’d know that face anywhere, even in a crowd, even after a hundred years. The face of the boy who told me I was special,who said he loved me. Who held my hand and made me believe, for one stupid, naïve month, that not all alphas were the same.
Sophie and I had been the only two omegas in the pack. Well, us and old Martha, but she was past childbearing age and barely counted in the alphas’ eyes. I was to “service” the new generation. What I hadn’t known at the time was that Sophie had negotiated with the head alpha; I was off-limits until I turned eighteen. But what if they could get the off-limits omega into bed before then? What if they could make her break the rules herself? That was the wager, and Stuart won.
Stuart’s head snaps in my direction. His eyes meet mine across the market. He holds my eye for a beat. Then he smiles.
The ground tilts beneath my feet. My wolf whimpers and retreats somewhere deep inside me.
I need to get out of here. Need to turn around and walk away before he looks in this direction. My brain knows this. My legs don’t cooperate.
“Blue?” Lily’s voice comes from somewhere beside me. “Blue, what’s wrong? You’re completely white.”
“Nothing.” The word comes out thin. I force my eyes away from him and look at Lily. My face must be bad because her expression goes from curious to alarmed in a second.
“I need to go,” I say. “I’ve got to get out of here. Now.”
“Okay,” Lily says, not arguing, not asking why, just taking my arm and turning me around. “Okay, let me take you to the truck.”
We walk. I keep my head down, resisting the urge to bolt. One foot in front of the other. I concentrate on breathing, on moving, on not looking back. Lily stays close, her hand on my elbow, steering me through the crowd.
I’m almost to the edge of the market when I make the mistake of glancing up.
Pam is watching me.
She’s standing near another stall with Maren, staring right at me. Our eyes meet, and for one long second, neither of us blinks. Then Pam looks at her phone, her head turning back towards it as if nothing had happened.
But she was watching. I know she saw my reaction.
I turn to run and slam into someone solid. Hands catch my shoulders to steady me.
“Whoa there, Blue. What’s the rush?” I hear Elias say.
I look up at him, and for a terrifying second, I see Stuart’s face superimposed over his. Another handsome alpha with an easy smile. Another liar waiting to happen.
“Don’t touch me,” I snarl, jerking away from his grip.
His hands fall away immediately. “Hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“Nothing,” I say. “I just want to go to the truck.”