Chapter One
I grunted, glaring over at my favorite cousin who had just punched me in the thigh. "You think I won't hit you because you're a woman, but since you can bench press more than me, I'm pretty sure everyone will look the other way."
She smirked, raising an eyebrow. "If you hit me, I'll knock you the fuck out."
And she'd definitely get away with it.
I scrunched up my face, rolling my eyes. I'll knock you the fuck out, I mouthed, mocking her.
The pencil she'd been using to doodle pictures of ugly ass elephants came flying by my head, bouncing off the incredibly uncomfortable porch glider I'd commandeered––it was either that or the one wicker chair that looked seconds away from exploding if a butterfly landed on it, after my asshole of a cousin had taken up the entire porch swing, not letting me join her––and I gasped, looking at her with wide eyes.
"Ronni! You could've poked my eyeball out!"
"What a pity," said a deep voice I tended to associate with annoyance… but, regrettably, straight fucking sex appeal, but the annoying thing was what I was going with, and how I was going to further conduct myself. "They're such pretty eyes."
Evan came the rest of the way up the lodge porch, and I didn't sigh when I saw him, because I had control of myself. Leaning down, he kissed Ronni on the head, his eyes never leaving me.
I was pretty sure I was a ridiculously sexy sight to see. I'd ridden to the lodge with my mom and dad, and in true Misty Walden fashion, we had to come a day early. I'd been awake for nearly an hour, but I was still in the pajama pants Ronni had gotten me for Christmas with pictures of her face all over them, and a T-shirt that said, If you don't got it, you're just not flaunting it hard enough, with silhouettes of several different sized and shaped cats. I was stretched out on the glider with one leg draped over the arm on one end, and the other planted on the porch to aid in the gliding, and my unruly, curly brown hair… well, I could only imagine what was happening with that. I hadn't bothered to look in the mirror while I was brushing my teeth, so it was probably really something.
Had he been being sarcastic with the eyes comment? He must have been. I did have pretty eyes. Fucking gorgeous eyes. But I was pretty sure Evan had never noticed.
Evan Felton was my cousin's, cousin, and when we'd all been younger, Ronni, Evan, his brother Archer—who was only ten months younger than him—and I had been inseparable. In fact, Evan and I had been so close, I had been the first person he'd told when he'd actually ejaculated for the first time.
What? I said we were close. He was fourteen and the hormones had already started to change the shape of his face and voice. His scent had started to change too. Thankfully, he was good with the hygiene, but when an alpha or omega started to present with puberty, their scent changed too. It was fairly subtle, but it was the first definitive sign that they were going to present as something more.
Out of my entire family… and the family of my family, we'd had quite a few people present in the last few years. Something like twenty or so. Evan had been the only one to present as alpha, but having that many people in such close proximity, was actually pretty remarkable. Granted, the fam and extended fam seemed to be popping kids out right and left. Maybe that had something to do with our elevated numbers.
All I knew was, Evan started presenting, and not long after that, I did too, and our easy friendship started growing stilted and awkward. We had different interests, and it was uncomfortable to sit too close, so our usual habit of flopping all over each other… Well, the one and only time we tried that after my scent changed, we both ended up embarrassed, and couldn't really look at each other after that for a while.
Unfortunately, when your family and extended family had giant family reunions multiple times a year, avoiding each other was harder than one might like. So, we'd taken up the habit of bickering… which, due to my unfortunate attraction to the man, had a tendency to make me a bit horny. A problem when you were lying practically spread-eagled in thin pajama pants.
He looked me over, clearly not properly appreciating the glory that was me in the morning before bending and smacking at my leg, so I'd put it down and make room for him.
"Oh God, he made it," I said dryly, smacking back at him, but moving my leg anyway. "I was really worried you were gonna drive off a cliff or something on the way over here."
As usual, he sat entirely too close, the heat from his hard, thick thigh was nice… No! Not nice. It was not nice at all. It was horrible. I was overheating in this… sixty-three-degree weather with him sitting so close.
He smirked, wagging an eyebrow at me while stretching his arm across the back of the glider, letting his fingers rest on my other shoulder and leaning close to look me right in the eyes. "How relieved are you? Blow job? Hand job?"
I smiled sweetly, batting my eyes. "Hit job."
Ronni sighed audibly, melting back against the porch swing, her horrible-ass drawings falling to the planked porch and scattering. "You guys never let me down. Family functions would be so boring without you."
***
How the hell I managed to get stuck in the kitchen, I'd never know. I might be in omega, but I wasn't a cook. Not that I was cooking. I was really just moving stuff around the kitchen to look busy. Either my aunt felt sorry for me and my horrible cooking skills, or she was too busy to pay attention to the fact that I was more in the way than anything.
Surprise of the day, Evan was right there with me. Of course, he was actually proficient in the kitchen, a fact that nearly shocked the shit right out of me. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that most of my time was spent watching him wiggle his way from station to station. For a dickhead, he had a great ass.
"Who's that?"
I started, blinking up at his profile, glad he wasn't looking in my direction. I'd a hundred percent been staring at his ass. Like, I was pretty sure I could sculpt it out of clay or possibly the mashed potatoes that I was uselessly stirring with how hard I'd been trying to memorize it.
Of course, I could be more accurate if he'd just take his fucking pants off.
I followed his gaze, nearly falling over when I saw the man my cousin Ronni was talking to. Okay, not really talking to, so much as glaring and snarling at.
"Oh shit," I said, chuckling. "That's Ronni's boyfriend. She told him not to come."
"Oh." Evan nodded, squinting his eyes. "That's Tanner? Wait, why didn't she want him to come?" He turned to look at me, and I made a face, hoping to hide the fact that I been watching his mouth the entire time. "I thought they were getting serious."
I smirked, nodding. "She's afraid we're all gonna scare him off."
I didn't much appreciate the look I got from him. It was very much an up-and-down that said something snarky. I wasn't sure what it said, but it was definitely snarky, bordering on just plain rude. "Does he know you?"
Ah, there it was.
"No," I snapped, stabbing the mashed potatoes with the spoon hard enough to send some flying out of the bowl and onto the counter. "I just saw him by accident one day when I was at the grocery store. She freaked out and begged me not to go meet him." I frowned, pursing my lips. "If I hadn't been waiting in line for the deli, I might've ignored her." I pointed the mashed potatoes spoon at him, slinging a little of its contents on his shirt. "I'm not embarrassing! I mean, the rest of ya'll are a fucking mess, but I'm super cool."