Alpha Meets Beta (Alpha Meets Omega Book 4)

by Sky Winters

  It seemed foreign to her, but as she looked through the site a bit more, she found that it wasn’t so far off the mark, after all. There were plenty of men looking exactly for that type. She could understand it if it were still the eighteen hundreds when there were loads of shifter wars and it was important to keep up numbers, but this was 2020. Why did so many still subscribe to such an antiquated mindset?

  Of course, her article would be more well-rounded if she did go out with a few of these types, but she just couldn’t wrap her head around it just yet. For now, she’d stick with someone she might have some common interest with. It couldn’t hurt to have a bit of fun while she was stuck in this nothing-burger of an assignment.

  She swiped right on several choices she deemed possibilities. She’d chat with them a bit more if they responded in kind. One of them seemed particularly appealing. He was in shape, but not like the Dave Batista wannabes she had passed by. He said he owned a construction business and liked to work with his hands in his shop. There was something about his dark hair and eyes that drew her in, a mix of sex appeal and earthiness. She swiped right and called it a day, making a note of the half dozen men she’d shown interest in so far.

  As the week unfolded, she began getting responses. Chats with two of them revealed that they were nothing like the men they tried to portray themselves as on the app. One was obviously a Catfish. She put a star by his name, interested in that facet of online dating for the article. She swiped right on a few more as the days passed, eventually making dates with several. By Saturday, she had her first date with one of them, a man who said he was a small business owner.

  “Adriana?” he said as she stepped into the restaurant where they had agreed to meet for dinner.

  She looked toward the man who stood up from the waiting area and smiled. “Carlos?”

  “Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “You as well. Should we get to our table then?” she asked.

  “Of course,” he said, seeming a bit surprised that she had taken the lead right out of the gate.

  She made a quick mental note to tone down her borderline Alpha behavior while posing as an Omega. Carlos was already a no go. He looked at least a decade older than his photo. She was guessing it was from when he was actually twenty-eight, the age he had listed on his bio. Carlos was definitely pushing forty.

  He wasted no time in getting right down to things once they were seated and had ordered their drinks, his chatter all leaning toward her intentions for starting a family. She lied, played along.

  “Yes, I’m very interested in starting a family. I think that being a wife and mother is exactly why Omegas were created in our world.”

  “I’m surprised you are still single at your age,” he replied.

  “What do you mean? I’m only twenty-five. Just a few years younger than you,” she said, making every effort to keep the sarcasm from dripping off her words.

  “You know, most Omegas get married the moment they come of age. You’re practically an old maid,” he joked.

  Adriana bit the inside of her jaw to remind herself she was here for a story. She’d not gain much insight if she ran him off right off the bat, though she was already wondering why any woman would endure this shit for the sake of mating.

  “I suppose so,” she laughed. “And how about you? You’ve never been married?”

  “No. I’ve just not met the right woman. I’m a bit too much for most women,” he said, running his finger around the rim of his water glass suggestively as he looked her up and down.

  “How’s that?” she asked, certain she didn’t want to hear the answer but knowing she should for the sake of her article.

  “I’m a bit randier than most. I like to spend a lot of time in the sheets doing what God intended rather than sitting around discussing feelings. I’m just a physical kind of guy,” he sneered, somehow seeming to think this would be a turn on for her.

  “I see.”

  “And how about you? I mean, yeah, you’re a little old to just be mating properly. Are you a virgin?” he asked, looking at her chest instead of her face.

  Wow, this had escalated quickly. She’d not expected him to be such a perv. Nor had she expected him to be so open about it. At least any woman dating him could see what she was getting into right away.

  “I am not a virgin, and I like sex just fine, but not with someone who looks like my dad,” she blurted out.

  “Excuse me?” he said, his gaze upon her chest shifting now to her face, a mask of surprise looking at her now.

  “You’re not twenty-eight. You’re more like thirty-eight, perhaps even forty. You smell of desperation and hormones. Basically, you’re a pig.”

  “What the fuck kind of way is that to talk to a man buying you dinner?”

  “I’ll pay for my own dinner. Feel free to leave me here to eat in peace,” she shot back.

  He sat looking at her, his face red with anger, for an uncomfortable amount of time. Finally, he pushed back his chair and stood up.

  “Enjoy paying for the steak and lobster I ordered on a clerk’s salary,” he snarled, stomping off.

  Adriana chuckled to herself. She had almost forgotten that she’d listed herself as an administrative assistant in her bio. The waiter trotted over immediately to check on her.

  “Are you alright, miss?”

  “Yes. I’m fine. Can you cancel the gentleman’s meal? If not, just bag it to go.”

  “Yes, of course. Is he ill? Do I need to bag both meals for you to take with you?”

  “No. I’ll be enjoying mine alone,” she said, receiving a look of confusion in return. “Bad date,” she added.

  The waiter immediately relaxed, apparently having thought he might have done something wrong. “I’ll see what I can do about his food. Would you like to see our drink menu?”

  “You’re a man after my own heart,” she replied. “Yes, please.”

  Adriana pulled her notebook from her purse and made notes about the date, pausing briefly to order a bottle of Royo Malbec when he returned and then finishing while she waited for it to arrive. A few minutes later, she was enjoying a crisp glass of the red wine with the tapas they had ordered as a starter. She opened her phone to find he had already blocked her from his contacts on the app. It only made her laugh again.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Dane

  The house was musty. Because it sat empty for so much of the year, it wasn’t unusual for it to grow stale between visits. He should have called Beatrice, a local cleaning lady he sometimes used, ahead of time and asked her to freshen it up for him before he arrived, but he just hadn’t thought about it. Instead, he fished out some cleaning stuff from beneath the sink and did it himself. It was something he’d done a thousand times, but rarely as an adult.

  This was home. He grew up here with his parents, and they had left it to him when they had passed away a little over ten years ago. His dad had suffered through a disease their dragon clan called gray scales, a sort of deterioration of the skin, and thus, the scales of their dragon that was just as unpleasant as it sounds. His mother had followed shortly after, seemingly unwilling to continue her life without her mate. She had lived for him and chose not to live without him.

  All of it had broken Dane’s heart, but it was part of life, and he’d gotten on with things. Though he wasn’t an only child, he hadn’t seen his brother in years and suspected that he had met his end well before their parents. He’d always run with the wrong sorts, and when their parents died, no trace of him could be found. After seven years, Dane had him declared legally dead to free up certain funds left behind by their parents. It wasn’t greed but a matter of practicality that had driven him to do so. The government loved to take money that lingered unclaimed, and he had already taken their father’s company to new heights. If his brother turned up, he’d happily make him whole.

  Done with cleaning, he made his way out to the workshop his father had built. It was separate but joined to the house
by a breezeway. The roses his mother had planted along the trellises on one side were in full bloom, filling the air with their velvet scent. It took him back to better times. Those roses had been her pride and joy. She’d toiled with them for hours, enjoying the dirt between her fingers and the way they looked and smelled when they finally flowered each spring.

  The workshop was dark, but the dampness hit him in the face the moment he opened the door. He flipped on a light and looked around in disgust. The back corner was damaged and had been an entry point for water for who knew how long. There was mold and mildew and rust apparent on the tools hanging on that wall.

  “Fuck me,” he muttered.

  He had intended to get started on a new project but it looked like the shop itself was going to be his new endeavor instead. He grumbled and turned the light off, closing the door. He’d get an early start on it tomorrow. It wasn’t as if there could be much more damage overnight.

  Returning to the house, he pulled out one of the steaks he had brought up with him and turned on the indoor grill. He mostly grilled on the patio and it was usually something he’d stalked and killed in the woods rather than a specialty cut from the butcher on the edge of town. He’d been planning on doing some work to the place this trip, not so much hunting, so he’d stocked up on groceries. Still, he hadn’t planned on just how much the place had declined in his absence. He’d have to hire a caretaker to keep it up between visits if he was going to stay away for months.

  He threw the steak on the hot grill and tossed some peppers and onions in a skillet on the stove. He finished up with some pre-packaged mushroom flavored rice in the microwave. It wasn’t fancy, but it would do the trick. Cracking open a beer from the fridge, he leaned back against the countertop and opened his phone. He had some notifications from the Alpha Meets Omega app but hadn’t contacted anyone recently. Glancing through it earlier must have put him back on some sort of active profile list or something.

  Dane Jenson, the billionaire real estate developer, had been very popular on the app, but DJ, the small construction business owner, wasn’t quite as alluring. It was an unfortunate fact that he’d learned early on: a lot of Omegas out there were just looking for a man to take care of them. He wasn’t opposed to taking care of a woman—in fact, he couldn’t imagine not doing so—but he didn’t want someone in his life who was only there as a matter of their own comfort.

  It might be old fashioned, but he wanted someone to love him for who he was, not for what he could give them. Perhaps the love that his parents shared was unobtainable to him. Maybe it only came along once in a lifetime. Whatever the case, he wasn’t worried about it. He had time. He was only twenty-eight and content to just enjoy his life for now. It got lonely sometimes, but better lonely than with the wrong person.

  He opened the notification and saw a petite redhead with a brilliant smile looking back at him. She was an Omega, but an attractive one with dark eyes that contrasted greatly with her pale complexion. He’d describe them as smoldering, which sounded a bit exaggerated but was an apt description. He contemplated sending her a message but decided to wait until after dinner to make contact. For now, he enjoyed his beer and ate the simple plate of food he had prepared.

  Afterward, he stood out on the patio and looked up at the full moon. Stripping off his clothes, he stepped out into the middle of the back yard and shifted. The feeling of shifting was something that you’d think he’d be used to after all these years, but the truth was that he didn’t do it that often. In the city, there was very little safety in doing so. It was reserved for dark, moonless nights when the fog settled in and prevented any sighting of his dragon soaring above the metropolis below.

  Out here, things were different. The house was located in a remote area surrounded by thousands of acres that belonged to his family or his clan. No one thought twice about seeing a dragon overhead nor blinked when it dove down and plucked up a bit of prey from the river below or out of a field, as long as it was wild game and not any of their valuable livestock. He took to the skies and enjoyed the freedom that came from flight, leaving the busy world below behind.

  The night was clear. He could see for miles around him, including the large hole in the top of his workshop, though he still wasn’t sure what had caused it. There was no sign of fallen trees or any objects that might have hit the roof. Perhaps it had merely been pulled open by the wind during a storm, but even that seemed unlikely, as there were no branches strewn about the property.

  Moving away from the house, he flew along the river, taking in the lights and sounds from other members of his clan. He was flying low as he scoured the water below. He was on the edge of where he could safely fly now and preparing to turn back when a movement caught his eye as he approached a row of cabins reserved for area tourists. At first, it seemed like someone out for a midnight swim, but as his keen night vision focused, he saw that they were floundering.

  Not seeing anyone else about, he swept downward for a better look. They were gone, their form barely visible beneath the dark current. Sweeping downward, he dove in and carefully lifted them with his claws, rising again into the air to place them on a nearby dock. A quick look around confirmed that there was no one about, so he shifted back into human form and began to do CPR.

  At first, he thought he was too late. An irresponsible teen lost to a drunken midnight swim, another casualty of bad decisions, but then the boy started coughing, spitting up water. He pulled himself up, looking confused

  “Are you okay?” Dane asked.

  He nodded, still unable to find his voice it seemed. Voices grew closer from behind and Dane realized some of them were teenage girls. He was naked.

  “Over here,” he yelled back at them before leaning back down to the boy and speaking quietly. “Sober up and stay out of the water. I was never here. Okay?”

  The kid nodded, and Dane took off into the darkness to one side of him, moving through the woods alongside the river until he was far enough away to shift again and fly home.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Adriana

  Adriana wasn’t looking forward to her next date. Already, she was finding this whole assignment to be a pain in the ass, but she was a professional. She’d get it done. Tonight, she was meeting a guy named Tom at a little cocktail bar on top of the Metro Hotel, a popular spot with both locals and tourists. She arrived early and had a martini while she waited. If nothing else, it might make whatever fresh hell awaited her a little easier to swallow.

  An hour and two more martinis later, she was still waiting. Had she been stood up? She was about to leave when her phone jingled. It was a notification from Alpha Meets Omega, so she assumed it was him, but when she opened it, she found it was someone else. The dark-haired brooding guy who had attracted her attention was sending her a message.

  Would you like to meet?

  She pondered it for a moment. He didn’t waste any time with banter. That could be a good sign or a bad one. Either he preferred to get to know her in person rather than spending a nauseating amount of time on messaging and phone calls or he was one of those who didn’t care to know anything about her. They were the type of guys that showed up, looked you up and down long enough to decide if you were fuckable, and then either made an excuse to leave or tried to get you into bed.

  Adriana wasn’t a virgin, but she wasn’t a whore either. She was picky about who she slept with, and that sort of thing didn’t go down well with her. Of course, there was nothing wrong with a one-night stand if you both were really into one another sexually right off the bat. She just didn’t cotton to having that be the only thing on someone’s mind even before they arrived. Despite any reservations she might have, she found herself responding.

  I’d love to meet. What are you doing right now?

  She waited for an answer, but it didn’t take long.

  Nothing at the moment. What did you have in mind?

  Much to her surprise, he agreed to come to the bar to meet with her but was also q
uick to tell her he couldn’t stay long. She knew how that went too. It was a way out if he needed it. If things went well, he’d just say he could blow off whatever it was that he’d said would keep him from hanging about. Whatever the case, he must live close by, as he said he’d been there in ten minutes. She wasn’t sure if she should be flattered or concerned.

  She paid for her drinks and stepped down from the bar, making her way toward a cozy little table where they’d be able to sit and talk. Once she was seated, she ordered a ginger ale from the server. On the off chance that he wasn’t a frog, she didn’t want to be smashed when he arrived, and the martinis had already begun to go to her head. She considered her thinking. Why did it matter? This was just for an article. It wasn’t like she was out to meet her lifemate on Alpha Meets Omega.

  Ten minutes later, he showed up right on time, walking toward her with a large smile on his face. He wore jeans, a white button-down, and a pair of brown leather walking boots. His dark hair was cropped short, but with a slight bit of curl to the ends. He was something she rarely thought of a man being—absolutely beautiful. In fact, she felt his effect take hold deep in her core before he even spoke a word.

  “Adriana?” he said in a deep, husky voice—a man’s voice, she thought.

  “Yes. DJ?”

  “Sure,” he replied, slipping into the booth beside her but keeping a polite distance between them.

  “I was surprised you were able to make it so quickly,” she told him.

  “Well, you said you were supposed to meet someone here and they didn’t show. I couldn’t leave a woman just hanging out alone in a bar.”

  It sounded both sexist and thoughtful. Adriana was left feeling confused about how she should take it, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.