Odessa

“I can’t believe I’m here,” I sighed, smoothing my red hand-me-down dress.

I held the chocolate cake in my free hand. I made it earlier, before I was invited to my Mother’s boyfriend’s house for a party.

I did not want to attend because Barnette’s children weren’t fond of me. They were high-class and sophisticated, while I lived in a one-bedroom rat hole for my life. However, I couldn’t disappoint my Mother. She was convinced he was the love of her life.

“Here we go.”

I rang the doorbell at Barnette’s million-dollar mansion. I’d been to Barnette’s house three times, and each time was a different scenario. I just hoped I made it out of there alive. Barnette’s son, Storm, was the running back on the football team and part of a deadly trio of players, best friends with the quarterback and Alpha Heir, Maverick.

The front door finally opened, and I plastered on a smile. Loud music and laughter streamed out of the house. Anxiety clawed at me. I could imagine all the important people at this party.

Sienna scowled at me. “You. What the hell do you want? Charity?”

“Sienna… nice to see you—”

“Save it. No one invited the omega reject. This party is for elites only, not the girl who cleans the stadium grass.”

Her words sliced my heart even though I’d heard them before. Sienna was the captain of the cheerleading team for the Daciana Wildcats and the Pack’s golden girl.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “M-my Mom told me to come over.”

“That slut of a Mother? This isn’t her house.” Sienna screamed in my face.

I balled my hands into fists and pulled the cake to my chest. Sienna would never like me. To her, I was encroaching on her sacred relationship with her Father, even though I tried to avoid her family like the plague.

“Look, I didn’t want to—”

“Who’s at the door, babe?”

A hand appeared on Sienna’s shoulder before a six-foot-one man appeared in the doorframe.

My tongue swelled, and my palms sweated. My pupils dilated, and every hair on my skin stood. It was Gage Ravens, the second member of the Wildcats Fab Three. How did I forget he was dating his best friend Storm’s twin sister? It was all anyone could talk about for a month!

The tabloids thought it would ruin their connection on the field, but it didn’t. Storm and Gage have known each other since they were in diapers, the same as Maverick. Their chemistry on the field was something that had been refined over the years to create the perfect deadly blow.

I looked away. I hoped they wouldn’t notice my laboured breathing. I stepped back as the air thickened with his scent.

“Who’s this?” Gage nodded at me.

I’d only seen him and his teammates at a distance, but up close, he was intimidating and more... However, when our eyes met, I couldn’t deny the fireworks. I was drawn to him like a sailor enchanted by a siren’s death song. I knew he’d lead me to disaster, but I wanted to fall into him anyway.

I had a problem.

“No one,” Sienna snapped. “If you’re waiting for your Mother, you’ll have to wait outside. No one wants the stench of dead rats in the house.”

“Sienna,” Storm scolded. “Let her in.”

“She doesn’t belong here, Storm. We’ve been over this,” Sienna placed a hand on her waist, rolling her eyes at her twin.

“Dad wants her here. Let her in,” Storm said firmly.

Storm leaned against the wall behind the couple. Unlike his twin sister, Storm had vibrant blue eyes that could compete with the enchantment of the sky.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t important to my Mother.”

Sienna scowled, “Whatever.” She marched off, and her brother didn’t wait to exchange pleasantries either.

Gage towered over me. My fingers ached to reach out and trace the defined muscles under his shirt and his solid arms that were begging for my attention.

I broke eye contact and walked into the living room. A football flew across the room, over the heads of nearly fifty people and landed in the arms of Maverick Campbell.

Could this night get any worse?

Unlike Gage and Storm, I had known Maverick Campbell a long time ago.

He was too busy with a group of women to notice someone from his past. Maverick wasn’t just the captain slash quarterback. He was the Alpha of the Pack. Well, he would become the Alpha when his Uncle steps down soon.

I looked around for a place to sit and possibly disappear. I felt like a fish out of water.

Where was my Mom anyway?

“If you’re going to stay take your ass to the kitchen and make yourself useful. That cake better not make anyone sick either,” Sienna hissed.

Despite my banishment to the kitchen, I was glad to escape.

As I walked to the kitchen, I noticed Sienna wrap her arms around her man, Gage. She rested her head on his chest while he placed his chin on her head and lazily wrapped an arm around her, placing a hand on her hip.

My wolf whimpered, and I pushed her far away before she made me say something that got us both killed!

“How much longer do we have to wait?” Maverick asked.

I paused.

“I don’t know. My old man should be here by now,” Storm replied.

“Who knows what that slut’s making him do?” Sienna commented.

I bit my tongue. I wanted to yell at her for talking about my Mom that way, but I kept my cool. Once again, Gage and I locked eyes, and I had to break contact.

Where were they? I was drowning here!

The front door burst open, and the house filled with laughter. The music stopped when the couple arrived. My Mother and her boyfriend, Barnette, stumbled into the room in a loving embrace.

“Great, you’re all here!” Barnette beamed.

Mom rested her head on his chest.

“Just like you asked, old man, what’s this about?” Storm asked calmly.

“Tell them, Kitten,” Barnette said.

Mom beamed almost as bright as the sun. She raised her right hand to showcase a huge rock! “Barnette and I got married!”

My jaw dropped. “What?”

Sienna jumped to her feet. “Are you insane?”

“It’s sudden, but we couldn’t wait to be together. Arline and Odessa are moving in! Isn’t that great, Sienna? You’ve got a new sister.”

All eyes turned on me.

Oh crap.

Odessa POV

“You’ve been gone for a week because you were getting married!” I hissed at my Mom in the safety of the kitchen.

“He took me on a spa getaway. I knew you would be fine,” she said, filling her glass with champagne.

“I’m always fine,” my voice cracked.

I cleared my throat so she wouldn’t notice how her abandonments over the years hurt me. It had always been the two of us for as long as I could remember. Boyfriends came and went, but at the end of the day, it was just us. I understood Sienna’s resentment towards me because my Mom and I were encroaching on her sacred space. Change was never easy, but I didn’t plan to be part of their big, happy family.

“I know that. Odessa, you’re the only reason I’m still alive. You’ve taken care of me your whole life.”

“Yeah,” I sighed.

She put her glass down and smiled at me. My Mom Arline had chestnut-coloured hair with honey-brown eyes, while I had deep red wavy hair and hazel eyes. She gave birth to me young and often referred to me as her best friend more than her daughter.

“Odessa, our lives won’t be the same. I gave up our apartment this morning.”

“You did what? Without telling me?”

She nodded. “Of course. I hope you packed that bag because we’re not going back.”

“What about our belongings?”

“Hello! Have you seen this house? I’ve lived in that apartment for over twenty years. I’m never going back, and neither are you as long as you’re my daughter, understand?”

I blinked a few times. That was one of the rare times she used an authoritative tone with me. It was terrifying when she pointed her finger and narrowed her eyes.

“Okay…”

She sighed and wrapped her arms around me. “You’re the best friend a girl could ever have. We’ll be fine. It’s still you and me against the world, honey.”

Tears threatened to cloud my eyes, but I pushed them away.

“Yeah. Go enjoy your party.”

She squealed, grabbed her glass and pranced out of the kitchen. The kitchen felt like the only safe place in this house. I heard the music and the laughter, but I couldn’t bring myself to join them.

I settled on a bar stool and buried my hands in my hair.

“Mate…”

I snapped my head up, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

“No, no, don’t say that!”

I rushed to stop Gage from speaking further. He planted his hand on the kitchen island and curled his fingers inside his fist. Veins bulged on his arms and neck. His gaze rendered me helpless and fearful.

“Don’t say that? It’s already done!” he snapped.

Why did it have to be him? He was Sienna’s boyfriend. Before my Mom started dating Barnette Sienna, all her friends didn’t know we breathed the same air, but the second I set foot in this house, everything changed. Sienna didn’t want me around, nor did she like how nice her Father was to me.

“Who the hell are you?” Gage asked. “Why did you have to show up now?”

I swallowed. “Odessa.”

“And you’re an omega. Shit.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Omegas weren’t common in the Daciana Pack. There was a population of fewer than fifty of us. We were the lowest rank in the Pack. Omegas weren’t allowed in the army or the Pack council. The highest honour an omega could get in the Pack was to work in the Pack House. The only reason I wouldn’t work there is that Mom worked there when I was eight, and Maverick made my life miserable. Besides, I was in the third year of my physiotherapy degree. Working at the Pack House would be too time-consuming.

Gage rubbed his face. “Sienna is furious about her Dad’s marriage and now this!”

“Please don’t tell her. We’ll figure this out.”

“How?” he barked.

“Look, I know you don’t want an omega for a mate…”

“I’m not superficial, but I’m not stupid either. I’m not going to date someone because of the mate bond, especially when her Mother’s a gold digger.”

I crossed my arms. “Neither would I, especially if he’s an airhead.”

Gage ground his teeth. Despite the rage rolling off him, his scent was intense. I smelled his desire and his primal instinct to mate. It was intoxicating, but we couldn’t.

Not here.

Not now.

“We don’t have to do anything,” I whispered.

“Easier said than done, don’t you think? I’m going back to my girlfriend, and I don’t want to see your face tonight. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.”

Gage tore his heated gaze from me. I didn’t want to see him either. They didn’t know me or my Mom. What do I do now? I promised not to return to the apartment. If Sienna has her way, I’ll be sleeping in the garden tonight. For now, the dimly lit kitchen was my only refuge.

My stomach rumbled, and the only place with food in this house was the living room, where the party was. Luckily, I carried my homemade cake.

“No one wants it anyway.”

Their loss, I make really good cakes. I almost have enough money to start my own business.

“Isn’t it little Odessa Sloane?”

I shut my eyes and exhaled.

“She finally did it, didn’t she? Married a rich sucker.”

Alpha Maverick leaned on the wall a foot away from the island. I backed into the sink. When Maverick was younger, he had a habit of luring me into the storage room and kicking me into the bags of flour. He graduated from flour to trapping me in his Mother’s garden and turning on the sprinklers. He was a bored little boy with an ugly sense of humour.

“You know nothing about her.”

He chuckled. “I don’t? I was old enough to remember how she threw herself at every Beta in the Pack House. Did she have to choose my best friend’s Dad?”

He’s one to talk. His Mother married his Uncle so she could keep the title of Luna, and she had a child with him, but I wouldn’t say that. Maverick has a difficult relationship with his Uncle since his Father was… murdered. Besides, he was an Alpha. He could kill me, and no one would question him.

“You don’t care, Maverick.”

He took a step, and his cologne hit me in the face. I could only imagine the scent of that cologne mingling with sweat and blood after every football game. Despite being the Alpha, he was the star quarterback and the town’s pride and joy.

Maverick Campbell could do no wrong, even when he changed women as often as he changed his underwear. He picked fights with rivals off the football field and opposed the Pack council’s every move, but as long as he scored a touchdown every game, he was as good as a saint.

“I care if it affects my friends. Storm’s worried his Dad will lose everything he’s worked hard for. I’m worried you’ll get too comfortable.”

I scowled. “Leave me out of this. I don’t plan on staying.”

He chuckled and took another step until our bodies were inches apart.

Every fibre in my body told me to run, but my mind knew not to show an Alpha fear.

“Don’t try to be innocent, Odessa. I know you’re just as bad as your Mother. Watch your back. No one messes with my team and gets away with it. Got it?”

My limbs trembled, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me defeated.

Maverick didn’t wait for my response. He made his threat and left.

That’s how I became tangled with the Daciana Wildcat’s Fab Three.

Odessa POV

“So I can’t come over?” Evyn asked.

I pinned my phone against my ear and shoulder as I pulled out a freshly baked sponge cake from the oven. I carried the cake to the dining room, where I could decorate it. Baking was my stress reliever.

“I didn’t say that, I’m just worried about the welcome you’ll receive. I’ve been here for three days, and I’m lucky to be alive. This house has stairs!”

“Don’t be dramatic, Odessa, no one’s going to kill you.”

“That’s what you think. This is Sienna’s castle, and she has no plans of moving out soon.”

“If it’s a castle, I wouldn’t want to move out either! So tell me what it’s like seeing the Fab Three every day?”

“They don’t come around as often… Storm’s barely here.”

“I’d be dreaming about the time they finally show up.”

Mom and Barnette were planning to go away on their honeymoon. I’d be toast then. Honestly, I couldn’t find an apartment on my own yet, and I had one more year left in college. My cleaning job could barely pay my tuition, much less rent.

I struggled to find an internship related to my degree. I applied a hundred times to be an unpaid physiotherapist intern for Daciana Wildcats, but they didn’t bother to respond to me.

I couldn’t get in with the Daciana Devils even if I tried because I worked for the Wildcats.

I couldn’t take money from Barnette without being called a gold digger, slut and opportunist by the entire town. Maverick promised to keep his eyes on me, and Sienna’s tongue was always ready with an accusation.

The front door slammed shut, followed by loud masculine voices.

My wolf raised her head in excitement before she fell into bitter disappointment. Gage wasn’t here. Storm and Maverick appeared instead, dumping their sweaty hoodies and duffel bags all over the place.

“Here I thought Sienna actually set foot in the kitchen. It actually smells good,” Maverick said, landing heavily on the dining room chair.

“Little Odessa made herself right at home,” Storm commented.

“Little?” I scowled.

Storm laughed. “If you don’t mind, we have an important meeting to discuss. So if you could make yourself scared.”

I brought a lot of stuff to the table, and I hadn’t finished plastering the cream on the cake. Storm marched off after making his request. I wondered what was so important and if Gage was coming.

As I gathered my tools, Maverick slithered behind me and sliced cream off the top of the cake.

“What are you? A six-year-old!”

Maverick chuckled. “I have a sweet tooth, but I know somewhere it’ll taste better.”

“Huh?”

He smeared the cream on my cheek. I gasped. His right hand cupped my face and dragged his tongue on my face, cleaning the cream right off. My limbs froze, and my heart jumped into my throat. Maverick wiped my cheek clean! I think I was paralysed, I couldn’t even blink.

“Leave the house and don’t come back until it’s dark. I mean it, Odessa.”

I couldn’t look at him. I remained frozen.

“Why?”

“Don’t ask me why, just leave.”

Ugh, he’s such a jackass! I slapped his right hand away and scooped up the rest of my stuff. I abandoned the cake because all I wanted was to create an abyss between me and Alpha Maverick.

I left the house without a bra and in flip-flops.

“I can’t believe he did that. He’s so entitled and infuriating! I should have poisoned that cake just in case he tries to eat it!”

I didn’t know where I was going. I looked like a mad person talking to myself on the street.

“Do you often scream angrily at the sky?”

I froze, heat rushing to my cheeks.

I noticed the red SUV in front of me. Gage raised his brow, waiting for a response.

“Uh… only when provoked,” I said sheepishly.

“Hop in. We need to talk.”

“Excuse me? What if Sienna finds out?” I looked around as if expecting to see one of her spies in the bushes.

Gage clenched his jaw. “If anything happens, I’ll handle her.”

Boys could be so naïve that they couldn’t handle Sienna at all. She did whatever she wanted. However, my wolf was suffering because of the mate bond. She was smaller than his wolf, so she carried the load of the pain. Just being this close to him was difficult.

How would I manage being in a car without turning into a puddle?

“Where are we going?” I asked.

He exhaled. “I don’t know.”

“I know where we can go.”

***

“My Mom gave up the apartment, but our landlord lives out of town. So we’ll be fine.”

“Odessa, this is illegal,” Gage commented.

“Only if you get caught. Come in, before someone sees us.”

Gage scurried inside as if we were actually being watched. It was cute; he was a pampered prince. Our apartment must come as a shock. He stared at the peeling leather couch that served as my bed for years, and then at our square, box-like TV set. He turned his head again and looked into the kitchen.

“So… you lived here?” he questioned.

“Yes, and the years I spent here were amazing. I wouldn’t trade my couch for a room in Sienna’s castle.”

“You slept on the couch? What the hell?” his eyes popped out of his head.

“It wasn’t that bad. I… don’t care about money. I’ve made my cash for as long as I can remember.”

Gage sat on the couch and ran a hand down his face.

Please don’t break, I thought.

“That’s not what everyone says. Barnette is a good guy, and no one wants him to lose everything he worked for.”

“If you’re going to call my Mom a gold digger, you might as well leave.” I turned towards the door.

“Wait, Odessa.” His hand wrapped around my arm. A jolt went through me.

“I shouldn’t have touched you,” Gage whispered.

He pulled me until our bodies touched. His arms wrapped around me, holding me firmly in place. His hands travelled up my torso, carving my curves, brushing over my breasts before capturing my face.

“I don’t want to leave,” he whispered.

He inched closer. His body, his scent, everything about him made my knees weak. Here I was in my mate’s arms, but it felt wrong. He turned me around, guiding me to the couch. Once my legs hit the furniture, I buckled and fell backwards.

His wolf flashed in his eyes, and my wolf reflected in mine.

He growled and climbed on top of me. He grabbed my legs and wrapped them around his waist.

“I can’t sleep, I can’t train, all I think about is you!” he growled. “I need to have you.”

“No, I can’t. I’ve never done this before.” I shoved his chest.

“What? How’s that possible? You’re gorgeous!”

I blinked at him, unable to offer a response.

“Okay, we’ll go slow.”

He tugged at my pants until he had them down. He wasted no time in kissing my thighs.

“You smell so fucking good,” Gage growled.

He fondled my underwear and hooked his fingers under it until he made contact with my sensitive spot. I arched my back and moaned. I raked my fingers through his satin-like hair. I stopped overthinking and just enjoyed Gage’s mouth on my skin.

My spine tingled as his mouth inched closer to my bud. When his mouth made contact with clit I cupped my mouth to hold in the scream. He sucked rigorously while he dug into my hips. He was sure to leave marks on me after this.

“Gage!” I cried out as I climaxed.

Gage ate me out until I was limp. He finally emerged from between my legs.

“Come here,” he said.

No one had ever touched me like this before. He caressed my back and stroked my hair.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Better than okay. Are you?”

“I don’t know. You should take a shower before we leave.”

“What?”

“So you don’t smell like me.”

“And what about you?”

He smirked. “I’m an Alpha. My natural scent should cover yours in minutes.”

I nodded. He didn’t want his girlfriend to find out either. Honestly, I didn’t want her to learn about this. How was I going to endure this mate bond after what we’d just done?

***

The house was bouncing when Gage and I pulled up to the driveway.

“Listen, we didn’t exactly talk back there. We have to talk about what’s going on between us.”

“Maybe not in front of your girlfriend’s house.”

I marched to the front door, and Gage grabbed my arm and dragged me to his chest. His wolf reflected in his eyes. The moment was gone too quickly, and the front door opened. Gage quickly released me.

We were met with Maverick’s intense eyes.

“What do we have here?” he said with a wicked smirk.

Oh crap.