I blinked once. Twice. Three times. I never heard of an alpha just shutting a place down. Under what grounds would they have the place shut down? "Being mean to omegas" wouldn't be enough. They'd be laughed at.
"You can't do that," the beta almost yelled. "You can't just wave your alpha dick around and expect people to do what you want!"
That was a new one. I'd have to use that saying sometime or another.
"We know the owner of this store personally," Cayson said, never once letting me go. "I know for a fact that he wouldn't stand for this type of treatment towards anyone - omega or otherwise."
"Let's not forget the fact that you asked our mate to suck you off." Keon sneered. "I'm sure he'll be incredibly happy to know that."
The beta paled and looked at me, like I was going to step in and stop any of this. While closing the store down was a little over the top, I did agree that the owner needed to know. Especially if he was someone the brothers knew personally.
I came to the realization that they didn't associate themselves with just anyone. Every person they knew shared a little bit of their beliefs, it seemed.
When I didn't say anything, or make a move to stop Keon and Cayson's interrogation, the beta looked as if he wanted to spit at me. His face turned red and he bore his teeth at me - not smart, but to each his own.
I raised my head slightly. "How about you don't close the store, but you do have the owner switch out these ignorant betas for people more in tune with the owner's beliefs?"
Keon glanced back at me from over his shoulder. "Sounds like a plan, sweetheart. I'll be sure to let the owner know. Oh, and you." He looked back down at the beta. "Good luck finding a job after this, yeah?"
Cayson turned me away before I could see the beta's reaction, but I figured it wasn't good. A beta's livelihood relied heavily on their job performances. One bad review could mean they worked alongside omegas. Which I guessed would be good for him. Then he'd figure out that omegas aren't what he thought.
Keon stepped up beside me and eyed the bags in Cayson's hand. Then he veered off, pulling me with him into an electronics store. He pursed his lips at a line of cell phones, looked at me, back at the cell phones, and back at me.
"What," I finally asked.
"She needs a cell phone," Keon's eyes moved up to his brother, "just in case she needs to contact us when we're at work."
Cayson hummed and looked at the line of cell phones, like choosing one was difficult. They all did the same thing, didn't they? I never had a cell phone but I knew they texted, made calls, and you can download whatever the hell an app is.
I pointed to the cheapest one - still over one hundred dollars. "That's fine."
Keon looked disgusted. "That has terrible performance reviews."
I pointed to the one next to it, about two hundred dollars more expensive. I didn't know anything about performance reviews or any of that. I was just trying to lower the amount they were planning on spending on me. The articles of clothing that they bought me cost over two hundred dollars. I didn't want them spending one thousand plus on a freaking cell phone.
Cayson shook his head. "Not enough gigabytes."
The absolute hell was a gigabyte?
I pointed to the next one and Keon laughed. "No. How about you go take her to the laptops, Cayson? I'll find a phone for her."
Laptops?
I glanced over at the machines. I did not need a laptop.
"I see the apprehension, Kitten," Cayson said, steering me away from the cell phones. "Don't look at the price tags. We've always wanted to do this sort of thing for our mate."
An alpha couple turned and looked at Cayson, then at me. The woman's lips curled into a sneer while the man tried to get her to walk away. I'd had enough altercations that day.
I pulled my lips away from my teeth.
Cayson glanced at the woman, then at the man who was growing increasingly uneasy. He sighed, turned to me, and pressed his lips against mine.
I stilled, my eyes wide. He hummed into my mouth and his eyes opened into slits. Glowing green met silver and my breath hitched. I didn't even care about the woman anymore. Cayson was doing something to me and all of my attention was directed solely on him and the man across the store.
The sounds and smells all fell away except for the scent and feel of my mates.
I ripped myself away and stared up at him in horror.
My mates? I groaned and turned away from Cayson.
The couple was gone, but there were plenty of people around gawking.
"What is it," Cayson murmured into my ear.
Oh, nothing. My body and mind are joining together to try and make me believe that I want to be mated to you.
I shook my head and looked at the most expensive laptop. It was thin and black and the keys lit up red. It was also two thousand dollars.
Even before I could look away, he had an attendant pull out a box and bring it up to hold until we checked out.
"Dude," I shook my head, "too expensive."
Keon looked at me from across the store. "My car is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Two thousand dollars is nothing."
I blanched and looked to Cayson for help, but he only raised an eyebrow like he wanted me to challenge his decision.
Fine. If he wished.
"You can spoil me all you want if I decide to mate with you," I said. "Until then, respect my decision. No, even then, respect my decision. You can't just go around buying things if I don't agree."
His eyebrows raised even further.
"Give a little get a little," I said. "If you absolutely need to buy me a laptop, get a cheaper one. If you absolutely need to buy me a cell phone, don't get the most expensive."
Keon slid a phone back to its spot.
I guessed it was the most expensive.
The fact that they listened spoke volumes to me. No alpha ever listened to me and my wishes. Not my parents, not any other alpha. But them?
Cayson told the attendant to put the laptop back and grab the one I pointed at - which was about one thousand three hundred dollars cheaper. Keon went with one of the more expensive cell phones, but he didn't go with the most expensive, like he was originally planning on.
They got my phone up and running and handed it to me, telling me to go pick out a case for it. I grabbed the first one I could find that wasn't ridiculously priced, and handed it to the attendant.
The brothers shared a look when the beta attendant smiled at me. He rung up the remaining items and didn't speak the total, which I assumed was Keon and Cayson's doing.
They grabbed the bags and turned.
"Have a great day, Phoenix."
I froze for a moment before turning back to the attendant. He didn't look familiar, and the brothers hadn't said my name.
"Sorry." He bowed his head. "I saw you at the alpha function. You helped my little brother."
I thought back. Did he mean Jay? It felt like so long ago, when it had only been a little over a week and a half since.
"Jay," I said. The attendant raised his head and grinned. I forced a small smile back. "How is he doing?"
"Fine," he said. "Thank you, Phoenix. You have no idea what that means to me."
I looked down to his nametag for the first time since I entered the store. His name was Jasper.
"If you ever need anything," he continued, "please don't ever hesitate to find or contact me. I owe you one."
I nodded and turned to leave again, seeing Keon and Cayson watching me with a small smile on their faces. I couldn't tell what they were thinking. The look in their eyes was so foreign.
They each reached out a hand to me, beckoning me closer to them. Beckoning me closer to their warmth. And I took it. My right hand grabbed Cayson's extended fingers, and my left grabbed Keon's. They enclosed their fingers around mine - which completely enveloped my hand.
I'd never felt so small and fragile until I met them. Then again, I also felt like I was larger than life.
They pulled me out of the store.
"I love that about you," Keon said, looking down at me with a smile. "You never forget, and your love and care for the omega race is outstanding."
"I couldn't ask for a better mate," Cayson said under his breath.
Keon grinned, hearing him.
I heard too. My heart constricted at the words and I warmed from the inside out.
I took my hand out of Keon's and felt my forehead.
I was warm.
Maybe I was getting sick.
°°°°°
A/N:
You all astound me. Last chapter I was at a little over 2k reads. Now I'm over 3k. I don't even know how to thank you guys enough? I'd post faster but now that I'm getting into her finally "falling" for them, I need to put a little more thought into the chapters so it's not just me rambling. I'll continue with the sporadic updates though instead of switching over to weekly posting.
Have a good night, everyone. And if it's daytime for you, have a good day ( ˘ ³˘)♥