Knot Your Damn Omega (Slate City Omegaverse)

The man in the suit across from me smelled like burnt popcorn. And not the good kind, when movie theater butter caramelized and gave you that weird but delicious bitter smell. No, this guy smelled like when you left the popcorn bag in the microwave too long, and when you opened it, half the bag was blackened and charred, and you were lucky the whole thing wasn’t on fire.

It was an effort not to wrinkle my nose.

The other three Alphas were similar. Honestly, if I didn’t look too closely at them they could be carbon copies of each other. Dark suits, neat hair, and smiles that looked as expensive as their watches.

All of their scents were off. Not all of them were outright bad, and I knew well enough some lucky Omega out there was going to get a whiff of burnt popcorn and scream fuck yeah take me now.

That Omega just wasn’t me.

Even if their scents were sending me into a state of orgasmic bliss, I wouldn’t choose this pack. Because they weren’t actually interested in me. If they were, maybe I’d get closer to examine their scents in detail and see if I could make it work. But they weren’t.

I tuned back in to what Katarina was saying. She was wearing a perfectly tailored pink suit, hair tied up in a shiny updo, and was holding her clipboard with manicured hands I would never be able to function with. Even my mother was dressed up where she sat on the other end of the couch. I was the one out of place in jeans in a t-shirt, but I wasn’t about to pretend I was something I wasn’t.

And there wasn’t a chance in hell any pack who wanted me would expect to see me in a suit.

“And Thomas,” Katarina gestured to the man on the end whose scent reminded me vaguely of hot copier paper, “is one of the Vice Presidents of Slate City Bank.” She looked at me. “Do you have any questions?”

I stared down popcorn guy. “Katarina sent you my file, correct?”

My mother paid Katarina an absurd amount of money in an attempt to match me with a pack. Because apparently being a single Omega in our family was unacceptable. It wasn’t that I didn’t want a pack—I did want one, more than I would ever admit to anyone who wasn’t Eva—it was that everyone who came to meet me actually wanted my sister and didn’t have the balls to admit it.

“She did, yes.”

I thought his name was Gary. Or maybe Grayden? Probably should have listened closer. Smiling, I made sure I didn’t break eye contact. “What’s my middle name?”

“May.”

Thomas and one of the other guys—there were four in total—closed their eyes and I heard a distinctive fuck under someone’s breath. My mother let out a long sigh, and Katarina’s smile was so frozen on her face I thought it might crack.

“Nope,” I said. “That’s my sister’s middle name. Try again.”

He went pale, realizing what he’d done. And deep down, I knew I shouldn’t do what I was about to do, but the anger coiling in my gut was the only thing holding me back from sadness I didn’t want to face. So fuck it. “You could probably get my birthday right, given it’s the same as hers. And you’ll probably be able to name all of her movies in alphabetical order. But you do realize you’re here for me and not her, right?”

“Of course,” the man sputtered, flicking his eyes toward Katarina and my mother as if they could save him from a drowning of his own making. “I’m sorry, I got mixed up. Of course, I know your middle name. I know everything in the file. We all do.”

“If you know it, then what’s my middle name?”

“Elyse,” Thomas blurted out from his spot, looking sick to his stomach. “It’s Elyse.”

“Very good. Now, what do I do for a living?”

All four of them stared back at me blankly. All four of them, like I’d just zapped them and turned them into clothing store mannequins with the magical, sultry tones of my voice.

“No one? That’s too bad. I thought you knew everything about me.”

“I think we’re done here,” Katarina said, her voice a full octave higher than normal. “Gentlemen, thank you so much for coming. The agency will be in touch.”

“Toodaloo,” I waved as the four men stood and made their way out of the room. Katarina closed the door behind them as my mother’s butler Arnold saw them to the front door. “That didn’t even take half as long as normal.”

My mother sighed again, rubbing her forehead. “Esme.” I’d probably given her another headache she’d have to sleep off.

I stood, pushing off the couch, unable to sit still anymore.

“Don’t walk away. Let’s talk about this.”

“What is there to talk about?” I threw my hands out, gesturing to the big, stuffy living room where I’d had probably thirty meetings with packs from all over the country in the last three years. “They don’t want me, Mom.”

I quickly swallowed back the emotion in those words. There was no way in hell I was going to cry in front of Katarina, and I certainly wasn’t going to cry in front of my mother.

“You could have given them a chance.”

“For what? To illustrate how thoroughly they expect me to be a clone of Eva?”

She floundered, looking for something which could combat the obvious. “Your sister’s details are very well known, and he was nervous. He probably just needed some more time without you treating him like a hostile enemy.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sure that’s it.”

That wasn’t it. It wasn’t even fucking close. Because being the twin sister to the biggest Omega movie star on the planet came with certain drawbacks, like everyone expecting you to be exactly alike.

I loved my sister, and she wanted me to be happy, too. But now that she’d found her pack and was happily bonded, every Alpha who missed his ‘chance’ with Eva now thought I would be a good replacement. And for once in my life, I wanted someone to want me for me and not because of who I looked like.

Walking over to my mother, I leaned down and kissed her cheek. Even when she frustrated me, I loved her. “Since I’m here I’ll go for a run on the grounds, but I’ll see you for lunch next week, okay?”

She managed to pull me into an awkward hug. “Of course, sweetie. Call me.”

“I will.” I turned away before she could see the tears starting to mist my eyes. That was the thing about my mom. She genuinely did want me to be happily bonded, but she had no clue how to make it happen. I wasn’t Eva, and I couldn’t ever be. Which probably meant I was going to be alone forever.

My twin sister was pushing in the front door when I’d changed into my running clothes. “Wait, where are you going? I know I’m late, but I wanted to watch some of the action.”

I smiled, but it wasn’t a good one. “No action. They’re already gone. I’m going for a run, but Mom’s probably still in there.”

Eva blinked, and I was out the door, but I didn’t quite leave. It was a shitty thing to do, and I knew it, but I went back inside after she made it all the way into the living room, and stepped close enough to the door to hear.

“I just passed Esme and could barely get her to stop for three words in a row. What happened?”

“What do you think?” Katarina snapped. “What always happens. Your sister is so resistant to finding a pack she looks for reasons to turn them down.”

“That was uncalled for,” my mother said. “And not your place. If you can’t discuss this civilly, you’re free to leave.”

I didn’t hear footsteps, so she must have decided the commission she was getting was worth the frustration I was putting her through.

“The men seemed…” Mom paused, and I could almost picture her face trying to find a way to make it more palatable. Finally, she just sighed. “There’s no point in sugarcoating it. It was the same as always. Esme quickly and brutally exposed that they weren’t really here for her. They were here for you. Or a version of you.”

Eva let out a string of curses so long and so loud I wondered if Katarina had passed out from shock, but I smiled. One of the many reasons I loved my sister as much as I hated living in her shadow.

“I’m glad then. These assholes need to realize I am off the market. It’s not fair to her.”

“She doesn’t exactly make it easy, Eva. It could be these men are nervous, and you’re more well known so they fall back on what they know. Esme at least could be a little nicer to them. No man, let alone an Alpha, wants an Omega who’s going to pick him apart like that.”

“I doubt that’s true.”

“Oh, it is true,” Katarina said. “And I’m running out of options for her to meet. If Esme actually wants a pack, she’s going to have to settle for one who might not know her middle name after reading a file once. She’s getting a reputation. My staff and I are keeping on top of the rumors, but they’re still slipping out. That, on top of the footage of her from your bonding ceremony? Esme is practically unmatchable.”

Her statement shouldn’t have hit me in the chest the way it did. It wasn’t like I didn’t already know, and it wasn’t like I hadn’t had the exact same thoughts not even twenty minutes ago. But to hear it laid out like that by the person who—theoretically—was supposed to be helping me find a pack, still stung.

“Esme is smart, beautiful, and talented,” Eva said, frustration coloring her tone. “And Jack knew almost everything about me the night after we met. Not because he had a fucking file, but because he cared enough to ask. They all did. They didn’t need an incentive to get to know me because when we met, they felt like they already did. It was that natural and that fast. Esme deserves that, too.”

“Of course she does, sweetheart. But you know it’s not that simple.” I peeked through the door just in time to see mom pat Eva’s knee. “You got lucky. Not only did you click with them right away, but there weren’t any… problems to be avoided.”

Meaning the band my sister bonded with, Mindless Delirium, was famous too, and therefore had already been vetted for things which would make our family look bad. I didn’t give two shits about that kind of appearance, but when you came from my world, everyone else did.

“All I can say is if Esme ever wants to find a suitable pack, she needs to really think about what life will be like as an Omega alone instead of a pack who might not be perfect, but will treat her well.” I couldn’t stay longer to hear more of Katarina’s opinion of me.

I was sassy and prickly and definitely not my sunshine twin, who was the sweetheart of the world. Outside the gates to this estate there was no doubt a crowd of paparazzi trying to catch a glimpse of her through the walls and the security. They were far enough away they wouldn’t see me, and I was glad that pack left before the paps got here. Even if I didn’t care about appearance, the last thing I needed was another story about me and how I chased away another batch of eligible men.

Pushing off the stairs, I followed the brick path around the house which led to the main grounds. On the outskirts of the city, this estate was massive, and it was easy to get lost in the woods and fields when I needed to run away from… everything for a while.

When I was running, or painting, or mixing a new color, for a little while I could pretend I wasn’t me, and this wasn’t my life, and every fucking second wasn’t lonely.

Katarina was right. It wasn’t my choice to be Esme Williams, Eva Williams’s less shiny twin. But this is who I was, and it wasn’t going to change. I just needed to accept it and find a way to be okay being lonely, even if it felt like my heart was ripping to shreds.

Blinking the beginnings of tears out of my eyes, I turned my music on shuffle, and ran.