It Started With a Scent

Six Guests

If it wasn't for the fact that she had formed a one-sided bond with him, she could have acted like nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. It was best that she didn't arouse suspicion, make people wonder why she was so jumpy and strange around him. As far as everyone else was concerned, she was just a regular omega who did not have a strange attachment to the freckled alpha.

Being so close to him was making her head swim so she stuck out her hand before she lost her nerve. "Nice to meet you." 

The urge to face-palm spiked.

He looked at her and then her outstretched hand, his scent shifting to something smokey; a few too many seconds passing before she realised he wasn't going to take it. 

Instead, he nodded at her and shuffled backwards, body angling as if he was about to walk away.

She tried to force down the flood of mortification that overtook her, hand still outstretched and heart thumping. She felt like an idiot. 

She was so embarrassed. 

It wasn't like people even shook hands anymore.

She thought it'd be the perfect time for her throbbing heart to finally give up the fight.

Suddenly he let out a curse of frustration and fully faced her again, closing the distance between them and clasping her hand in his before she could drop it.

Fire flooded her fingertips and spread up her arm at the contact. 

"I'm sorry," he rumbled, voice sounding raw. "That was rude of me."

Then he did something that caused Rachael's heart to kick into overdrive.

He smiled.

A real genuine smile, all straight white teeth and gum and the flicker of a tongue and bonfire and marshmallow and warmth and heat and- oh no.

"I'm Jason," and then he was pulling his hand away as though he had other places to be and walking out of the room, Silver in tow.

Rachael turned around and gave a questioning look to Tina, still reeling from the contact, the younger girl shaking her head as if Jason's actions were too inconsequential to bother explaining.

---

As the evening progressed, it became apparent to Rachael that she was slightly scent drunk. 

Sitting in a seat that she knew Jason had been in at one point, judging by how strong his scent was against the medium grey settee, the emptiness in her chest had given way to a soft, plushness that made her overly giggly and easily impressed. As she threw her head back, laughing at another joke Graham had told, she couldn't find it in her to mind. It was the best she had felt in weeks.

She glanced over at Jason every once in a while, a light smile dancing on her lips, as he sat over on the other side of the room with tattoo-man, Leon. 

Every time she looked over he was eating something, moving to grab more food every time his hands were empty. She couldn't criticise him for that. There was a seemingly endless bowl of food in front of her too, one she didn't remember picking up in the first place, or refilling, but she couldn't stop eating from it. All she knew was that the more she ate, the more that feeling in her chest grew.

She stuck another chip in her mouth and tuned back into what Graham was saying, only to find that he was looking at her expectantly along with the other four people sitting around the coffee table.

"Sorry?" She asked after chewing the chip and swallowing.

Graham raised an eyebrow, "I was asking what you're doing for Christmas."