The door was still cracked, presumably left open from when some excitable gremlin burst through it. I smiled, catching a candle’s waft of Fin’s scent coming through the gap. Moments later, however, I had much more than his scent to go on — even if what I heard was a voice so angry and intense that I barely recognized it as his.
“Back off.”
Instinct drove me through the door. I didn’t like to be overprotective. Fin was an adult and a wolf like any of us. He could probably take care of himself. Still, it didn’t make me any more inclined to abandon him to fight this battle by himself, whatever was going on.
As the door swung open under my hand, a flash of violent energy washed over me. A strange wolf had Fin pinned up against the whiteboard. My omega’s eyes were practically glowing red.
“He just told you to leave him alone.”
The strange alpha turned to face me, already pulling away from Fin. Though I knew he must have sensed me, Finley’s focus was still on the man who had intruded into his personal space. As soft and sweet as he’d always been around me, I could see the truth staring me in the face now. By doing as Fin asked and backing off, this asshole had saved himself from one hell of a fight.
“And who exactly are you?” the alpha said with a sneer, blond hair parted in flawless, obedient neatness. He was squaring himself up to his full height, but my wolf didn’t detect a threat.
“Irrelevant.” I shook my head. “Go learn what personal space is.”
He glowered, but he had already lost my attention. Now that he was moving across the classroom and there was enough distance between them, Fin’s eyes had skated over to me, and his expression was worlds different. He still looked pissed as anyone could imagine him, but when I bent my head to kiss him, I felt the bad mood melt away.
Yeah. No matter what kind of commitment-phobic nonsense was going on in my head, coming back to Blackwater had been exactly the right move.
10
Finley
It was true that shyness and poor self-esteem plagued me more often than not — but being shy didn’t make me a pushover. In the past couple of minutes, I hoped that my asshole ‘colleague’ had learned that.
Of course, detecting Vaughn’s scent in the doorway made it much easier to move on, but I could still feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins when we broke apart from our kiss. I looked over his shoulder, ready to turn on the glare all over again, but it seemed that my would-be assailant had already gone.
“Seeing you is a lovely surprise,” I said, smoothing my hands over his shoulders. “But I think I could have done without the surprise right before it.”
“I’ll bet,” said Vaughn. He kissed me once again on the forehead. “Forgive me for not ripping his limbs out of their sockets, but… seemed like you had it under control, and I figured you might not enjoy that kind of reaction in your elementary school.”
“Yeah. Maybe not.” I sighed, smile widening as I took in the sight of him. “But… Wow. You’re here.”
“In the flesh,” he agreed. “D’you have any idea how much I missed you?”
Heat settled in my shoulders, and I let his open affection wash over me. “I think I just might. Even just your scent…”
Vaughn grinned, and pulled me in for a tight hug. I buried my face in his shoulder, grateful for the calm and the happiness he brought me. However many times I’d fantasized about finding my mate, I had never imagined it would feel like this. How could I?
“So,” he said, pulling away. “You want to tell me what I walked in on?”
“Ugh.” I rubbed my forehead. “Honestly, I’m still making sense of it myself.”
“But you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” I promised, and squeezed his hand. Honest. “It was just crossed wires, I guess. Crossed wires and a really, really bad attitude. Um… you want to go grab a table in the cafeteria while I tell you about it? It’s my lunch break right now.”
“It is?” he said, playful and mock-innocent. I followed his gaze to his left hand, where he shook a white carrier bag at me. “That’s real lucky. I wasn’t sure what to do with this container of Chinese food I just bought…”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yup.”
“You’re… Wow.” My hand fastened around his coat collar, and I leaned up to press another quick, delighted kiss on his lips. When I pulled back, I saw a smile on his face as big as mine, and it filled my chest with sunlight. “Okay. Let’s go.”
I led him through the school, less interested in the now-familiar walls of my workplace than I was in the wicked, warm smile on his face every time I turned around. As happy as he was to see me, I felt a similar fizz of excitement all the way through me. I didn’t want to hide it, and couldn’t have if I tried.
“I’m so thrilled you’re here,” I said as we reached a free table in the staff area. The announcement may have been a little redundant, but his smile still ticked up in the corners of his lips as he heard it. “You didn’t have to bring me anything, you know.”
“You work hard enough. I figured you deserved it,” he said, starting to serve the containers out of the bag. “Anyway. What’s up with your best friend in the classroom back there?”
I grimaced and folded my arms, suddenly cold in the relative warmth of the room. “In case you hadn’t guessed, that’s Lukas’s sub.”
Vaughn’s eyebrows raised. “That guy? Teaching kids?”
“He’s not normally so aggressive,” I pointed out. Granted, this wasn’t saying much. “He’s fine with the students. Usually he just treats me like some kind of glorified errand boy.”
Vaughn’s jaw twitched. My wolf wasn’t immune to the potential sexual interpretation of that statement, so maybe his wasn’t either — but if he was jealous, then it’d be a deep-set animal instinct that guided him and not a logical one. I didn’t even like this asshole, let alone playing the innocent omega to his domineering alpha.
This was… an odd train of thought. Apparently, having a mate really tied my head in knots, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“He asked me if I wanted to grab some drinks earlier,” I explained. “I mean… you know I’m not his biggest fan, but he seemed like he’d been trying to treat me a little better this week. I thought we might be turning a corner, so I agreed. Figured it couldn’t hurt to encourage that, so I agreed. That’s a few hours ago now. Then the kids walk out for lunch break, and he starts talking about coming back to his place after, and…” I wrinkled my nose. “That’s not at all what I had in mind, obviously.”
“Well, I’m just glad he seemed to get the message,” Vaughn said, picking up a set of chopsticks as I started on my half of our shared meal. The unspoken intimacy of sharing was, in itself, a particular treat for me. “I hope you kick his ass into next week if he tries anything with you again.”
“I’m still considering it,” I admitted, a little sheepish. “I mean. I know Lukas is busy being an amazing daddy, and I’m excited for him, but… Wow, I wish he’d just come back from paternity leave already. I miss looking forward to work every day.”
“You don’t still enjoy the kids?”
“Of course,” I said. “I love them to pieces, but… some people just spoil things. You know what I mean.”
“You know what I know?”
I blinked, shaking my head.
Vaughn’s smile was golden, and playfully perky. “I know that this is among the most you’ve ever said to me all at once. Even now.”
I flushed, pink gathering across the bridge of my nose. “Don’t make me shy all over again!”
“I like you just as much when you’re shy,” he teased. “I don’t know. It’s just… nice. You were fun when I met you at the baby shower, but I felt a little bad intimidating you so much.”
“You still intimidate me,” I said, eyes wide.
You want to tease me, alpha? I’ll tease you right back.
“I-”
He was about to apologize and try to f
ix it. I almost had him — but it seemed I couldn’t hide the playful twinkle in my eye. His smile creased, and he pointed at me with his chopsticks. “See? There you are.”
My smile split wide, disobeying any attempt I made to try and stop it. Out here in the middle of my workplace, I didn’t think it’d be right to kiss him, but the urge was strong as the tide. The world could have been in monochrome or running in slow motion around us for all the attention I paid to it.
Lukas’s insistence that I be brave and talk to Vaughn no matter how much it terrified me made so much more sense now. Whatever pit I’d landed myself in after so many years of feeling invisible and waiting to fit in, Vaughn really was a rope to climb out of it.
“What?” I said, pressed through that irrevocable smile. “You’re staring at me.”
“Just glad I came to see you,” he said, plain and simple.
I wasn’t in his mind. I didn't know whether it was really the truth. Still, with the way my heart seemed to soar towards him from the center of my chest, I figured I had no choice but to believe him. Fear and uncertainty be damned. We both deserved to enjoy this.
11
Vaughn
I walked Fin back to my place as soon as the school day ended, waiting outside of the school gate for him like some kind of lovesick bodyguard. If I could have marched into his classroom and waited there, I would have — but something told me that it wouldn’t be the best move to perch on a desk at the back of the room and alternate between beaming at the TA and glowering at the sub.
At the very least, a couple of parents might have complaints to make about that.
Taking hold of his hand as soon as he left the premises was the next best thing. We didn’t even have to talk much about his day when he emerged. Just being in the beachy-warm glow of his presence was enough, and we passed the time remarking on things that didn’t matter around the town of Blackwater — things that would never normally catch my eye. Misspelled graffiti. Sweet-smelling patches of flowers that belonged to green-thumbed amateurs, and particularly courageous wild birds stealing snacks from unsuspecting members of the public.
What used to be mundane had turned into something I wanted to share with Fin. Whether I could show him something sweet or make him laugh, I found myself pointing out things that I’d have raised my eyebrows at mere months ago.
Omegas were a hell of a drug.
Well. Maybe just this one.
As we made the familiar walk towards my place, I felt his hand shifting in mine — his fingers curling up against my palm, and his smile widening as he caught me looking his way. I didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but I could make a guess. With privacy only a couple more steps away, I’d soon find out for sure.
“I hope you didn’t miss out on work for me,” he said, shoulder bumping into mine as we reached my front door. “I don’t want you getting into trouble.”
“Eh,” I said, fiddling with the lock. “I’ll probably get fired. It’s fine. Know anybody who’s hiring around here?”
“There might be a vacancy for a substitute elementary teacher within the next couple of days if the current one doesn’t figure out what’s good for him.”
I laughed, pushing the door open and sweeping a hand to let him inside first — half out of chivalrous politeness, and half to sneak a look at the delectable shape of his ass underneath those slacks. It was lucky that none of my teachers had looked like that. If they had, I was pretty sure I’d never have made it to middle school.
“I think I’d be a shitty teacher.”
“Really?” He hung his coat up on the peg, looking back at me over one coy shoulder. “I disagree. I think you’d be good at it. You’d be a cool kind of a teacher. Make them think they’re getting away with all sorts of trouble while they’re really just learning. Lots of fun in the classroom.”
“You sound like you’ve thought about this.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Some people mentally sort the people they know into Hogwarts houses. I sort mine into types of teacher.”
I snorted, kicking off my shoes. “People do that?”
“I don’t expect you to understand nerd culture.”
“Try me,” I shot back. “I’m obviously a Gryffindor.”
“You think you’re a Gryffindor,” said Fin, untying his shoes and neatly setting them down side-by-side. He needn’t have bothered; I kicked mine off without a care in the world. “You’re actually a Hufflepuff.”
“That’s the shitty one. I am not.”
“Loyal,” said Fin. “To the point of taking care of other people even when it’s to your own detriment. Does that sound familiar?”
“No self-respecting alpha would allow this kind of slander.”
He laughed, leaning against the wall. “Slander? I don’t know about that. I’m a Hufflepuff too, you know.”
“You think you are,” I said, turning his own move back on him. “I think you’re… uh. What’s-it. The smart one.”
“Oh!” He lifted a hand to his chest, gray eyes suddenly wide. “You’re very sweet, but — I forgot to tell you. I got my graduation date.”
“You did? You’re all done?” I swept him up, twirling him through to the living room while he laughed his protests. “See? The fucking smart one. I said.”
Fin fastened his arms around my neck, gripping tight for dear life as I dropped us down into the couch’s soft folds. He beamed up at me, his face tantalizingly close to mine. “You’re sweet.”
“When is it? Do I get to come along?”
He pressed his smile into my shoulder, and all I could see was the smooth, pale skin at the nape of his neck. I kissed it, enjoying the wobble it caused in his answer. “May — mm — 15th. Of course you can come. I’d love that.”
I trailed a couple more kisses down the back of his neck, and felt him begin to arch up against me. “Good,” I said. “I want to support you.”
“You do support me, anyway.”
We lay there in the comfort of each other’s bodies for a few moments. The warmth was pleasant after the coolness of the world outside. When I spoke, it wasn’t to fill the silence like I might have felt compelled to do in any other company. I just really wanted to know.
“What is it you want to do with yourself, once you’re finished?” I asked. “I’m guessing you’ll be staying on as a TA for a while, but… over the summer? You think you’re going to look for a full-time teaching position?”
“I’m not quite sure,” he admitted. “I like working with Lukas. Part of me thinks I’d feel more confident running my own classroom with a few more years’ experience under my belt. But before any of that, I think… I want a little adventure.”
“Sounds promising.”
He hummed. “Probably not the kind of physically taxing adventure you’re used to. I’m delicate, you know. But I’d like to… I don’t know. Of course I can’t afford it, but… best-case-scenario? In my dreams?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’d like to travel a little, before I’m tied down anywhere. See the world.”
“Yeah?” I tipped my head back, closing my eyes to join in on the fantasy. “Where would you want to go?”
“Anywhere.” He spent a few moments lost on hypothetical journeys, and then came back to the present, and to me. “I guess Europe would be beautiful. Barcelona, maybe. Rome. London. Amsterdam.”
“Mm.” I slipped a hand underneath the back of his shirt to rub massaging circles into his back, not so much sexual as fond and intimate. “You like all the old buildings? All the art?”
“Yeah, I think so.” After a beat, he sat up a little, chin propped up on hands that rested on my chest. “But the closest I’m gonna get to Paris is probably the Eiffel Tower they have in Vegas, so I probably shouldn’t torture myself thinking about it.”
“You never know,” I told him. Protecting his dreams suddenly felt as important as protecting his physical body. “Life’s full of twists and turns, and… teachers get really long summe
rs.”
“Uh huh. And famously extravagant salaries?”
“Travel doesn’t have to be expensive,” I said, but my brain was already ticking over with ideas. Elementary school teachers might be underpaid, but good architects weren’t. I shelved this thought for now, preferring to focus my attention on having him here in the moment. “Anyway, I guess after such a long day of edifying the youth, you’ll be exhausted now.”
“The youth aren’t the issue,” he said. “It’s the colleagues you’ve got to watch out for, apparently.”
“He treat you okay for the rest of the day?”
Fin wrinkled his nose. “He more or less ignored me, so… no? But I’d rather avoid him entirely than have him treat me well today, I think.”
“Uh huh. He really killed your mood?”
“He might’ve, but Lukas is back from paternity leave soon, so… I can relish that thought. Besides, something else managed to save it.”
“They were some pretty great spring rolls.”
Fin hummed, nestling down into my chest all over again. “Yeah. The spring rolls. That’s the part I liked.”
He shifted on me, face turning up to meet mine from the plane of my chest. He rose and fell with my breath, and I could see how content he was just to be in the room with me — let alone pressed up against me. Even now, I could see the shyness pinning him in place, battling hard against the raw need for affection in his eyes.
“Hey,” I said. “C’mere.”
As soon as he had that permission, he shuffled closer to claim his kiss. His lips were warm, and he tasted like some sweet boiled candy one of the kids might have given to him — but far more than that, I liked the soft velvet of his lips, and the way he arched up into my hands as I smoothed them down over his ass. He hummed, eager and content, and when I opened my eyes to enjoy the view, I saw that his eyes were still closed in bliss.
Claiming My Omega: Blackwater Pack: Book 2 Page 10
