by Layla Heart
But thinking of the party is too early, there are things we’ll have to take care of before then. “What are we going to do about the dress? It’s not really like I know where to get a dress that fancy or one that will fit her...”
“Leave that to me,” Liam smirks. “I’ve already thought of the perfect plan. After this, we’re going to the little boutique that your cousin got her dress from for the midsummer party. I already messaged them and they’re still open. Cyra and your cousin are similar enough in size that we should get a good fit easily enough.”
“That’s... That place is expensive...” Hella expensive. As in, a single dress is easily four or five times the cost of the repairs on Cyra’s car...
He shrugs. “She doesn’t need to know that. As long as she can look pretty, that will make her feel better and it’s not like she’ll stand out. All the women will be wearing crazy expensive dresses. Not getting a dress from there would probably make her stand out more.”
He’s right, but that doesn’t make me happier. “That’s a lot of money just to impress some human girl, you know...” I level a look at him. “I do hope you don’t have any less respectable intentions, do you?”
His smirk grows as he looks back at me. “Wanting to spend time with a pretty girl is now considered a bad thing?”
I sigh. “It’s fine, as long as you don’t get her hopes up. Don’t break her heart or ruin her life, just because you’re bored and want a plaything and she’s conveniently within reach.”
“Yes, yes, big protector.” His eyes change as he looks at me, more serious. “I’m not planning on anything. I just want to give her a fun evening and...”
“And?”
“And maybe see her a few times after that. She seems like good company.”
“Liam...” I growl.
He holds up his hands. “If you want to spend time with her instead, if she’s yours, I’ll keep my hands off, I promise. Say the word and I’ll step back right now.”
Shaking my head, I take another bite of the steak but I don’t really feel it anymore. I really wanted steak, but now I don’t anymore. It’s too... too something. A strange sensation has settled in me and I don’t know how to make it go away.
I clench my jaw, my eyes settling on a point on the table between us. “No. Go ahead. Just don’t hurt her.”
“Yes, sir.” He lets out a quick laugh. “Well, now we’ve got that figured out, time to move onto the next problem. Do you even have a suit to wear?”
“One of the ones I’ve got is fine.” I don’t like shopping, I really don’t, and I don’t want to have to buy a new suit just for this one party.
These things are always so much more troublesome than I want to deal with. But between my parents and Liam, I generally don’t seem to be able to avoid these types of events. Why do I have to go to these parties? It’s not like I’ll ever meet new people, just the ones I’ve gone to school or college with, and I already know that I’m not interested in those people. So what’s the use?
“This one?” Liam points to a green dress, it’s really long, but the bodice is... Ehhh...
“No.” I shake my head definitively. “Remember what she said, not too revealing?”
“This has fabric all the way from her throat to her feet.” He pokes at it, showing what he means. “She’ll be totally covered.”
“And most of it is see-through. I don’t think that’s what she had in mind with that request.” I look around and find a low chair to sit on as Liam walks around the store, looking at the dresses.
“This, then?” He comes over with a red dress. It’s almost the opposite of the green one he just showed. The skirt on it is short, very short, and while the bodice isn’t see-through, it’s got a very sexy, very deep, cleavage.
“Liam...” He’s just winding me up now. “Something between those two would be good. Although...” I look at the dress he’s holding. “I think that colour would look good on her.” The dark red of the fabric would look stunning with her blond hair and her fiery gaze.
One of the store’s assistants comes over. “Do you need any help?”
Before Liam can do something stupid, I turn around to the assistant. “Do you have a dress in that type of red, but longer, and not as revealing at the top? Something a little more modest?”
She thinks for a moment. “I think we can manage that. Follow me, if you’d please.” She walks to the back of the store to a small room that’s almost separate from the rest of the store. “We just got these in and have been keeping them back for people attending the Night Gala. You’re lucky because not many people have been here yet, so you’ll have a choice of some stunning dresses.”
I look around. I wanted better choices, not suddenly twenty times as many choices, if not a hundred times more...
“Are you looking for full-length, knee-length or shorter?” The assistant walks past the racks and I realise they’ve been sorted by colour, it makes a beautiful rainbow all along the walls of the room.
I eye Liam, and we both speak at the same time. “Full length.” Cyra looked great in the princess dress she’d worn before, even though the quality of the dress was obviously pretty bad. But it did look good on her.
Liam steps forward. “Maybe something princess-y? Tight but not too revealing bodice, wide full skirt.”
“Size?” The assistant looks between us.
Liam eyes me.
Crap. “Do you remember my cousin, Julie, cerberus shifter? She sometimes buys dresses here.”
The assistant nods. “Yeah, I know who you speak of. She has a great sense of style.”
“This is for someone of a similar size.” That’s the best I can come up with and it will have to do.
“I can work with that.” The assistant starts walking around the place, looking at dresses here and there and then picks four dresses, which she hangs onto hooks on one side of the room. “I think these should fit your specifications. I can also provide shoes that would suit the different dresses, just let me know.”
“Thanks.” Liam nods as he eyes the dresses. Do I catch a moment of uncertainty in him?
The small bell at the front of the store rings and the assistant inclines her head our way. “Please have a look. Take your time. I’ll be back as soon as possible.” And then she walks out, leaving Liam and me alone.
I go over to the dresses. They’re all beautiful, all in slightly different shades of red, but they’re all just as beautiful. “I have no idea. How do you choose a dress? She’d look beautiful in every one of them.” Then I level a look his way. “And no, we’re not going to buy all four of them. She might be human, but she will kill us if we do that.”
Liam nods, giving me a quick grin. “She’ll definitely try.”
I take out my phone and snap pictures of every dress, before sending them to Cyra. I guess we’ll just have to go straight to the source. She’ll be the one wearing the dress, so she gets the final say over which one we’re getting her.
‘Where the hell are you?’ Her reply is fast, but not one I expected.
‘In a boutique, picking up your dress?’ What else am I supposed to say?
‘That doesn’t look like just any place.’ Well, no, duh.
Liam picks the phone from my hands and types out a message before he gives it back to me, grinning way too much. “There.”
I almost want to strangle when I see his message. ‘Liam here. Max thinks they’re all stunning and he’s lost for words. Help him out, will you, which one do you like best?’ Ugh. That guy.
‘The one on the right is too cumbersome, those layers will be hell for getting into and out of cars, and definitely when I need to use the bathroom. The others all seem fine.’
I smile as I read the message. Well, what else should I expect from her? She has experience with the floofy dresses and she’s a very practical person. So, of course, beauty also has to go with comfort. ‘So, they’re all a go, apart from that one?’
‘Yes. As long as you keep
it to ONE. ONE DRESS! Not more than that.’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ I reply to her and put my phone away. “Seems we’re down to a choice of three. The far one on the right one is out, rest are a go.”
Which still leaves us with way too many choices...
Fuck. I should have told Liam to go by himself, but I can’t let him just do whatever. Someone needs to call him back when he wanders off too far, as he has a habit of doing. And that person seems to be me, again...
12
Liam
It was fun to watch Max so awkward and uncomfortable when he helped pick out a dress for Cyra. It’s obvious that when he tells me I’m not allowed to do anything to get her hopes up, he means himself, him getting his hopes up, or him getting her hopes up. I’ve never seen him this protective of a simple human girl. His family? Sure? Some Omegas he knows? Sure. But never for a simple human girl who he barely knows.
He’s always kept to himself, he’s never been much of a socialiser, unlike me. So I always try to get him to come along with me when I go to parties and events. Get him out of his cave once in a while. And it’s always been fun.
But now? Now, I don’t know. I like seeing how he becomes around Cyra, awkward but also the best he can be, but at the same time, I don’t want him to claim her. I want her for myself. It’s strange. I’m happy for him, to watch him fall for someone, even if it’s a human girl, but at the same time, I want her too.
Fuck.
With Max around, I don’t stand a chance with Cyra. I might smile easier, make people laugh, but he’s protective, strong, always there, and nobody can compare to that. Who’d want anyone else when they can get an Alpha cerberus? That’s not a fight I’m going to win. But I’m not giving up either. I’m definitely not giving up. As long as he’s still trying to run from his feelings and she’s not really set her eyes on him, then I’ve still got a chance, no matter how slim.
Hell. Why am I feeling this competitive over a human girl? That makes no sense.
I’ve obviously been stuck inside for way too long. I’ve obviously not been around enough Omegas lately, or I wouldn’t even think things like this. This is so unlike me. I don’t get all worked up over people, I don’t.
I jerk at my tie, nearly choking myself before I loosen it a little. My head has been spinning all week, going in all different directions and it all makes so little sense to me. Why is this all so strange? Why am I reacting to Cyra this way? Why am I getting jealous of Max? It’s not, this is not me.
Max and I dropped Cyra’s dress and shoes off at her place last night, right as she returned from work, and at least she didn’t look upset to see us this time. She looked tired though, and like she’d given up on the world.
But that might have had to do with her work, or something, I don’t know, she mumbled something along those lines. She did try to look happy when she saw us. I decided that if I can get a day with her for myself, I’m going to take her to a spa or some other relaxing thing, give her a real day off.
Every time I’ve seen her, she’s looked exhausted. And with how upset she got when we spoke about money, the repairs and the dress and all, I guess I can see why she’s tired all the time.
Maybe I can get another deal like this with her, but just a ‘date’ where we hang out and she can really relax for a day. A spa. A day at the beach. Something like that. Something that will get her to relax.
Yes. If tonight doesn’t end in total destruction, I’m going to ask her that. She might be human, but she’s a good person and she deserves some time off from her stressful life too.
I meet my own eyes in the mirror. Yes. That’s what I’m going to do. It’s innocent enough, and it’s not like it’s just me trying to give her more money or something. I like the times I’ve talked to her, she’s good company, so it’s also a little bit of selfishness from my side.
That sounds like a, very tentative, plan.
It does mean having to survive tonight first, though...
Max and I are standing awkwardly in front of the building where Cyra lives, all dressed up, the limo waiting in the street behind us. Now I’m actually paying a little more attention to what’s going on around us, I can scent that this area doesn’t just have humans living in it, but it’s a mix of humans and shifters.
I guess that in areas like this, poorer neighbourhoods, it’s more common for everyone to live side by side, unlike in the more expensive neighbourhoods, where each shifter clan tends to have their own area where they live, usually their own street, or even a whole set of streets.
I live close to my family and clan. Max lives near his parents and his cousin, and a whole host of other family members, all on the same two streets. Most shifters live in clan ‘clusters’, and we usually don’t get any humans in the neighbourhood, unless they’re cleaners or nannies or whatever, but never as neighbours.
The door opens and Cyra steps through it. Her hair is in slight curls around her head, carefully framing her already delicate features, making her look even prettier.
We thought that the dress we’d chosen would look good on her, but to see her wear it... It’s even better.
As she requested, it’s not very revealing, skin-wise anyway. The neckline doesn’t dip very low, not even showing much of a cleavage, which is a miracle almost, and with the high up sleeves, it all covers her skin pretty well. But nothing can hide how well her curves fill out the dress, how perfectly it highlights every beautiful part of her. The design accentuates her plentiful chest, her slim waist and her broad hips. Okay, sure, the dress might not be ‘revealing’, but it’s plenty sexy, plenty, plenty sexy.
“Hey...” She carefully walks over, her footing not very steady on the uneven pavement and I quickly make my way over to her, holding my arm out to her so she can hold onto me. We don’t want her to fall before we even make it to the party.
The moment I get close to her, something animalistic shoots through me. This scent... The scent of a well-burning campfire. Hot, clean, intimate. It’s... It’s... I want to break from my skin, let my centaur out, get hold of whoever this scent belongs to. I need this person. This person is mine and I have to have them.
“Liam?” Cyra eyes me, her gaze uncertain, a little scared.
“Sorry.” I shake my head, clearing the fog out, though some of it keeps lingering. What the fuck just happened? “Sorry. I thought I...” I shrug, holding my arm out to her again. I thought I scented my Omega mate. But that would be crazy and very creepy to tell her, especially since we’re off to a gala and everything... Yeah. Too awkward.
She might not understand the real implications, but I don’t think any girl would want to go on a ‘date’ with someone who’s thinking of someone else all night. Yep. Nope. The scent is already gone, nothing of it lingering in the air anymore, so I’ll figure it out after the party is over.
“You gonna dawdle much longer?” Max calls out to us and that finally brings me back to the here and now.
This area is full of all sorts of humans and shifters alike, so while the minute chance exists that my Omega mate lives here, the scent is gone and I’ve got other things to do. Since it was just a wisp and nothing really substantial, it could even be that my Omega mate crossed the street on the other end of the block and that just that small fragment of their scent floated all the way over here, like the effects of a too heavy perfume.
I smile at Cyra, trying not to scare the poor girl even more. “Are you ready to party?”
She nods carefully, then looks over to the limo. “You really do go all-out when you can, don’t you?”
“Hey.” I grin, glad that her playfulness has returned some. “If you can, why not do it?”
She lets out a short sigh, but then straightens her back, like she’s bracing herself for what’s to come. “I guess it’s time to go, then?”
By now, we’ve reached the limo and Max is holding the door open for her. He smiles, his eyes sparkling with joy when he looks at her. “Well, we could just go somewhere els
e... Just have a fun night without all the fanfare and everything.”
“Hey! Both of you.” I pretend-glare at them. “We’re going to the party first, show our faces. If we’ve been there for an hour and everything is still boring, we’ll leave and find something more fun to do.”
“Deal. One hour.” Max grins and Cyra smiles too.
“I guess that sounds like a plan. Try the drinks and food and then sneak back out.” She lets Max help her into the car, even with this dress, which doesn’t have twenty layers on the skirt, it’s still not easy to get into the limo.
When she’s close to him, he stills, his eyes darkening over, his skin flashing with the colour of his cerberus’ fur, his shoulders starting to bulge under the suit, before he pulls himself together. Luckily Cyra doesn’t see it, as she’s trying to get comfortable with her dress all around her. It would probably have scared the crap out of her if she’d seen it.
What happened there? I’m about to ask Max, already reaching out, but after shaking his head a moment, like he’s clearing it, he climbs in after Cyra and I follow them. I’ll have to ask him later, when Cyra can’t overhear us.
She might be aware of shifters, and willing to be a ‘date’ for a party, but she doesn’t need to hear us talk about the parts that most humans find a bit more... uncomfortable, when it comes to shifters. Like mates and being able to scent people and things like that... It makes a lot of humans very uncomfortable.
As we drive off, I know one thing for sure. Cyra will be one of the most stunning women at the whole gala. She might not be a shifter, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t have the eyes of the whole room on her. It’s not just the dress, or her hair or her makeup, it’s also in the way she carries herself, her strength, the way she knows what she wants. That surety, that confidence, there’s nothing as sexy as that.
