by Layla Heart
I check my calendar on my phone as I sort through the strips of medication. It’s nearing the end of October. That means that I’ve got three or four weeks before mating season starts... Three or four weeks before I’ll go into heat, unless I can get my hands on heat suppressants.
I also need to stock up on meds that help me suppress the pheromones that all Omegas emit all the time, and the meds that help suppress my shifting ability, that make me ‘human’ for a lack of better description. And a handful of other meds, either to counter specific shifter physiology or to counter the side effects of the medications I’m taking.
Fuck.
How am I going to pay for all of that when my car needs repairs too? The repairs will probably cost me the same as a month of pheromone suppressants, if not more, and I’m already stretching my budget as much as I can.
Eating at the cafe when I can, snacking on the things we can’t sell that day, and always shopping for the best deals in stores. But with my crappy car... I don’t have any savings, none at all.
I probably won’t even be able to pay for whatever needs to be fixed on the car, unless I can pay it in instalments, and then only if I somehow manage to stretch my suppressants so I can save costs on that. But with my life right now, the sudden attention from Alphas, I’m not sure that’s a risk I can take.
At the same time, I also can’t afford to not fix the car and instead pay for the bus to the cafe and back for weeks, until the boss can reimburse me for them at the end of the month. I don’t have money to cover a month of bus tickets in advance.
I check my bank account and my wallet. I’ve got money to pay maybe a week of bus trips to the cafe and only if I manage to spend under a buck a day on food, which is going to be rough, since my kitchen and fridge are empty at the moment.
Hell... Fucking hell. I want to cry, scream, but that’s not going to help anything, it would probably just scare the people living next door. And scaring the people living next door is bad when you’re trying to keep a low profile.
I look around the apartment. Maybe there’s something I can sell off that’ll cover at least some of the costs this week? But even as I glance around, I know that it won’t work.
My couch and table and chairs and everything are all second hand and won’t be worth enough to cover food or meds for a day, let alone a week. My laptop is ancient, it runs browsers and lets me watch Netflix, but that’s about it. I don’t have anything of value left.
Anything that could bring in any money, I already sold off last winter, to cover for my heat suppressants during the last mating season. I’d hoped to save up a little this year, but my car is breaking down more and more and I can’t pay for a new one.
I could...
No. I’m not going there.
I’m not going to do an ‘adult’ princess party, or whatever Liam was trying to insinuate. That’s... That’s below me. And how would I even be safe? Shit like that is dangerous, one wrong client and I’d lose everything. One client who figures out I’m a shifter, an Omega shifter, and nobody would ever hear from me again. I’m not going there, I can’t. I really can’t.
If I’m going to stoop that low, I could just go back to my parents. At least that way it’ll be a rich Alpha who takes me, at least then I wouldn’t have to worry about money ever again. But I’d lose everything else, everything I’ve worked for so hard.
It’s not like my parents wouldn’t be ecstatic if I’d go back to them, if I’d ever go back to them and follow their plans.
No. I’m not throwing away my dignity, my freedom, just to have money. I’m not.
I’ll figure something out, I always do. If I really need to, I can probably sell my car and hopefully cover at least some of the bus tickets with that and then just hope that I’ll have enough left to cover my medication in a week or two.
Yes. Selling the car is a good option, even though it’s crap and falls apart, there are enough good parts left on it to at least make me some money...
But even as I come up with the plans, I already know that it won’t be able to keep covering the costs for the whole mating season, and I’ll just have the same problems in another month. I need to make money, more of it, not redistribute the little I already have.
I look for the email address for the princess agency, sending them a quick message asking them to look out for more parties for me to do. The money isn’t consistent, but at least the hourly rate is better than at the cafe.
Then I sigh as I hover my finger over the number for my boss at the cafe. I’ll have to, even if I’ll fall over from exhaustion, I need more money, and it’s only for a couple of weeks. I can manage. I send my boss a message asking for more shifts, the more hours I spend at the cafe, the less I have to spend on my own food, so that’s a bonus too.
Now I just need to hope that they’ll have work for me, or I’ll really have to take more desperate measures.
I’m smart and good at what I do. I should be able to make ends meet. Hell, I went to college and got a degree. But because my parents won’t sign a fucking full-time work licence, I can’t work a normal full-time job and I’ll have to scrape by on part-time jobs and flakey contracts.
I know that they did it on purpose. It’s a very common tactic that a lot of Omegas have to deal with. Parents won’t sign full-time work licences, only part-time ones, which even have hour limits to them, to make sure that the lure of not having to live paycheck to paycheck will wear an Omega out and might make them go back to their parents, or makes them go out and find themselves a rich Alpha. But I won’t give in. I won’t.
I’ll never give in to their threats.
8
Zack
Dad glares at me from over his folded hands as he lets out a low growl. I fight against it, I fight against his Alpha powers. I’m an adult Alpha, he can’t control me like that anymore, he won’t control me like that anymore. Although, he’s not acting as my dad right now, he’s acting as my boss, but I still won’t bow my head to him. I might be just a rank under him, but I’m not lesser or worse at my job than him, and he knows it. Though, that last thing might be in question right now...
“The client indicated that you made inappropriate comments during last week’s meeting. They now want someone else to negotiate with them or they will drop us. We can’t lose them.” His eyes darken and I straighten my shoulders, ready to face whatever comes next.
“They were openly eyeing the two Omegas who were serving our table. I simply reminded them that their own Omegas were sitting right next to them.” I hate people who cheat, even if it’s just in their head. I might like playing around, but cheating is a no-go for me. If you’re in a relationship, you’re in a relationship, you don’t openly drool over some Omega half your age. I felt sick just sitting there with them, like I was endorsing the assholes’ behaviour or something.
Dad sighs. “We can’t lose these clients. They’re harmless, it’s all just talk, they won’t do anything. You should have laughed it off and ignored it. Or joined in, I don’t know. It seems you’re happy enough to do that when you’re with your friends.”
“What I do when I’m with Spence, or anyone, else doesn’t have anything to do with my work. They’re two different situations.” Of course, he’d bring this up now.
What double standard? These gross guys can oggle Omegas all they want when they’re married and have their fucking Omegas with them, who are by the way too scared to even make a peep when their Alpha does something that hurts them. But I can’t have some fun with human girls when I want, even though we’re all single and nobody gets hurt.
“Just because it’s not at work doesn’t mean that your actions don’t affect what happens at work. It always influences your reputation. Always. Everything you do is a reflection of us as a family, and by extension of us as a company. You’re no longer a teenager, no longer a kid. You have to keep these things in mind when you’re playing ‘hide the dick’ with these human girls. It all reflects on you, on us.”
I want to say something, but he holds up his hand, stopping me, looking bored already.
Then he stands up, going over to the window overlooking the city. “I think your mum is right when she talks about finding you an Omega mate, or at least a steady partner who you can take to events and meetings. That way the clients and partners will finally start to take you seriously. And maybe you’ll finally start to take this job seriously too.” He waves in my direction. “You can go. I’m giving you one last chance with this client, but you’re going to have to do the apologies yourself. You’re going to have to convince them that you’re the best there is in this company. Because, if you do take this seriously, you very well are. You just need to take this seriously all the time, not just when it suits you. You can go.”
“Thanks,” I grind out, my jaws set as I stalk out of the office.
I make sure not to bang the doors, because that will definitely cause him to put me on the cheap and really annoying clients again and I just worked my way up to the good clients. The mostly-good clients anyway...
Fucking hell. I don’t want to find an Omega, and I’m perfectly happy with my life right now. But Dad is also right, if I don’t find someone to play the ‘happy couple’ with, like my parents do, then the bigger clients and the partners won’t take me seriously. They only take me seriously when I can pretend to be a ‘real family Alpha’, no matter how fake it is.
I shudder. It’s too often fake, way too often.
Knocking on the door of my office makes me look up and Spence sticks his head around the corner, his eyes guarded as he carefully closes the door behind him.
His office is one floor above mine, which is where his family has a couple of offices. While my family is into big commercial buildings and big deals and things like that, his family is into the ‘smaller’ businesses. Though, you’d be surprised by how big they can actually be.
The companies just pretend to be small, like the cafe we’ve been going to for the last week. It pretends to be some cute small cafe, but in reality, the owner has a deal with a much bigger company who takes care of all the big-picture things. It’s not really a franchise, since they don’t run under a single brand or something. They all have their own names, but they’re all small cafes with only a handful of staff and a look like they’re run from someone’s kitchen.
And why am I thinking of that place again? Oh, of course, because of Cyra. The girl who’s been popping into my head all weekend.
Spence sits down on the leather couch and reaches behind it, pulling out a bottle of whisky, looking at it before glancing my way. “The chat with your dad didn’t go that poorly, then? If you’ve not downed this yet.”
I sigh, getting up and sitting down on the other side of the couch. “He’s giving me another chance. But I have to do it myself, I have to convince those creeps to give me another chance...”
I look at the bottle in his hand longingly but then jerk my head to the back of the couch. “Not today. Though, maybe after I’ve managed to convince the client to have another meeting.” I shudder. “Can’t you go in my stead? You’re much better at this.”
I’m way too impulsive sometimes, especially when people get on my nerves. Spence is much better at pretending things are normal when he’s dealing with people who annoy him to death.
“Sorry. This is your dad’s deal, and it would look really good on you if you get them to sign. What was it that you said last week? If you manage to get this deal, then the big bucks will ‘finally’ be coming your way?” He grins.
I might have said something like that before the meeting, when I still thought this would be easy... “Yeah. Not sure if this client is worth that.”
We’re sitting in silence for a while, both with our own thoughts, until there’s knocking on the door again and I frown at Spence before I stand up. I open the door, not really wanting to be disturbed and wondering why my assistant let someone walk past him, but then find a gangly kid in the hallway. Interesting.
He quickly dips his head, holding out two letters. “I’ve got two invitations. One for Zachary Tempest and one for Spencer Raiden. It’s for the Night Gala, this coming weekend.”
I accept the letters, but before I can ask him anything, he darts off. What the hell? The guy’s not an Alpha, or a Beta. I think he might be an Omega. Why would they ask Omegas to bring these letters around? That’s... It almost seems irresponsible this close to the mating season starting.
Spence appears behind me and plucks one of the letters from my hand, opening it. His eyes going over the invitation as he chuckles. “Oh, fun. I guess that they either forgot that they kicked us out of last year’s party, or they really think it’s a good idea for us to show up again.”
“Just last year?” I don’t even open the envelope, I already know what’s going to be in it. “We’ve been invited five or six times now and we made it to the end of the party... twice?”
“True. Though, to be fair, those other times we snuck out ourselves, we weren’t kicked out. That was just last year.”
“Very true.” I lean against my desk.
The Night Gala is an exclusive shifter event. The invitations only go out in the week before it happens, to keep the location and the theme a secret for as long as possible. It’s mostly a party to show off your wealth and pretend that you’ve got your life together.
They invite Alphas, Betas and Omegas, since it does double-duty as a place for single people to meet right before the mating season starts. But Spence and I usually manage to get some actual fun out of it, even at the expense of the organisers and other people at the party.
“I think we might need to show up one last time.”
“One last time?” Spence raises an eyebrow. “What are you up to now?”
I grin. “We should let them know, once and for all, that inviting us really isn’t in their best interest... That it’s better for them to leave us out of these things...”
We only still get invited to these things after all the crap we’ve already pulled, because we’re from some of the most important clans in the city, in the whole area. So not inviting us is out of the question. that would get the event in even more trouble than we can make for them.
“How...” He shakes his head. “No, don’t tell me. You know that I’ll go along with it anyway, and it’s no use for me to get stressed about it before it happens.”
“Hey! We can still play within their rules, just... you know... our version of them.” I pick the invitation up again, opening it. It doesn’t have many specifics, just where the party will be and what time it starts, plus a couple of guidelines on what type of clothes are acceptable to wear.
If my family wants me to show up with a ‘respectable’ date, then I can give them that, even if it’s not exactly what they’d expect. I don’t need an Omega, I really don’t need one. I’m fine by myself. I don’t need anyone else.
Now I’ve just got to show the rest of the world that, so that they’ll finally leave me alone.
If this works, then maybe I’ll even have some fun at the party. Because there’s nothing more fun than shocking a whole room full of conservative hypocritical assholes.
9
Spence
“This is the worst plan you’ve had yet.” I glare at Zack as we walk to the cafe where Cyra works. “How is anyone going to take you seriously after we do that? Or me, for that matter? Do you really think this is funny?”
“It’s not like we’ve not done worse.” He smirks. “And it’s not like people don’t already think it anyway. I think that’s why our parents are getting more and more annoying about this whole ‘Omega mate’ thing. They’re starting to worry about the rumours about us actually being together potentially being true.”
“So, instead of letting them know that, no, we’re not in a relationship, you want to go the other way and actually make them believe that we are?” What has the guy been watching now? Did he fall and hit his head in the shower this morning or somethi
ng? “And this is going to help us, how?”
“It’ll show that our family’s companies are very ‘modern’ and ‘accepting’ because they let their employees date same-gender people? Especially two of their highest ranking Alphas?” He opens the door of the cafe and his eyes immediately dart around, until they land on Cyra.
I laugh. “And anyone is going to believe that, after everything you’ve pulled for years?” I sigh, because he’s no longer listening to me, he’s already walked off to Cyra, leaving me to find us a place to sit.
Really, how anyone could believe that we’d be a couple... He’s way too into girls and Omegas for that, has always been. His going after girls is usually what gets us in trouble, which I then have to get us out of.
I sit down at the same table we sat at on Friday and Zack comes sauntering over, smirking evilly. “What now?” This can’t be good.
“Nothing...” He flops down in a chair. “I was just checking that her skirt was long enough today, wanted to prevent another accident. But she was wearing jeans...” He pretends-pouts at that.
I groan, wanting to strangle the guy for a moment, before I get myself back under control. “You can’t harass the girls. Especially not the girls you like. That will make them hate you.” I put on my best smile as the other waitress, Audrey, comes over. Because, of course, Cyra won’t, after what Zack just pulled... And this is why I never get a fun date, because I’m stupid enough to stick around this guy...
“Black coffee?” Audrey looks from me to Zack and back, her eyes on him disapproving. I’d let her hit him, if she wanted to... She looks about ready to do it. I’d even make sure she wouldn’t get in trouble with her boss over it...
