Chapter 3
You hadn’t realised quite how much you’d needed to be alone until you entered your room and shut the door behind you. It was as if a weight had been lifted from your shoulders. You took a moment to lean back against the door, taking a few deep breaths. Finally, it felt quiet enough for you to think properly. Your time on the streets had gotten you used to being alone, in a human sense, anyway. Animals were a different type of company, you suppose. People were complicated, messy, always having some ulterior motive, always expecting something in return, thinking they’re better than others… animals didn’t have those problems. They were simple- they lived in the moment and didn’t worry about the things they couldn’t control. They were company without making you feel crowded. You never had to think about what you said to them before you said it, never had to anticipate the consequences, never had to fear their reactions.
You put your hand in your pocket, fishing around for a moment before pulling out your bottle of suppressants. You were actually rather surprised that they hadn’t fallen out or gotten lost or anything considering the eventful day you’d had. You popped the cap off and swallowed the little pill dry. You couldn’t risk missing a dose. Not now. This bottle ought to last you… just over three months? Yes, one pill every day… one hundred pills… about three and a quarter months. That was good. That was manageable. You supposed it was a relief that you didn’t have to worry about settling in here without suppressants – that would have been messy.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, you explored your new surroundings. It was definitely a huge step up from the warehouse, but it didn’t quite feel right. It just didn’t feel like ‘your space’, if that made sense. Kind of like a hotel room the first night you stay there. Regardless, you looked through the wardrobe to find some plain – but most importantly, clean – clothes. You picked out a large hoodie and a pair of sweatpants that could serve as pyjamas and headed into the bathroom that was connected to your bedroom.
Even the bathroom was luxurious. The lights were adjustable, and there was both a bath and shower adjacent to each other. The bath itself was like a shallow hot tub, and you decided you’d have a bath. You hid the bottle of pills in your hand under the sink, behind the pipes that lead up to the faucet. You were almost certain that your new pack wouldn’t support you taking suppressants – very few alphas did. They were, after all, well known to have negative side effects. But you’d never had any side effects. Maybe it was thanks to the experiments you’d gone through as a child, maybe you were just lucky. But even if you did start getting side effects, you doubted you’d stop taking them. They made it bearable for you to live normally, to not have to rely on alphas. Or, they used to, at least. Things felt so much more intense since meeting your soulmates. You’d have to relearn how to stave off drops.
You turned on the taps, and steaming water ran into the bath. You added some soap, staring as bubbles amounted and a sweet flowery scent filled the room. When the tub was filled, you stripped and slipped in, hissing slightly at the heat of the water. Your body adjusted, and you submerged yourself completely. You’d found out long ago – in fact, way back when you were in the Red Room – that you could hold your breath underwater.
“Go!”
You started running at your instructor’s command. Today’s training exercise was one of the hardest you’d have to go through at the Red Room, commonly referred to by the older girls as the Bullring. It was a series of short tests that you had to go through. There was no set time limit, but being nearly winter in Russia, it was a danger to stay out too long in shorts, a t-shirt and no footwear.
You’d been the last to start, having been held back by Instructor Yakov. He seemed like the sort of man that if you saw on the street you ought to cross to the other side, if the metal arm and constant glowering were anything to go by. But you’d seen a softer side of the man. An almost kind side of him. This, of course, had been changed when he’d left the Red Room, only to come back days later with the light in his eyes diminished.
Still, you could remember the first time you’d gone into a stress-drop, curling into a ball at the feet of the alphas who’d jeered at and taunted you. The moment he’d seen what was happening to you, he’d gripped your hair and jerked you unceremoniously to your feet, earning a yelp of pain and surprise from your sobbing form. You’d been terrified at that moment, as he dragged you out of the room, slamming the door behind you. You could remember how you’d cowered, shrinking away from the waves of fury that rolled off him steadily. You’d had no idea what was happening, you’d been so confused. He’d led you into another room, only just able to shut the door before your legs gave out and you were curling in on yourself, desperate to hide from him, from this feeling, from the world.
Then you’d felt his anger dissipate, and he’d knelt down beside you, hushing you softly, albeit hesitantly, as if he didn’t quite know what to do. Then he seemed to wrap his head around what was happening and brought you into his arms. He’d comforted you for hours, until your sobs turned into hiccups, and your breathing steadied, and the agony from where the alpha girls had beaten you turned from unbearable pain to a dull throbbing.
You’d never forget that day, but today Yakov was a different man. He was like that on the days he first arrived. But you knew there was a better man in there, so he didn’t scare you quite as much as he used to.
When he told you to start running, you did so immediately, eager to get out of the cold. You ran along the marked path, bare feet burning from the cold as the landed softly on crisp grass covered in a thin layer of frost.
You made it to the first activity. You could see the alphas who’d gone ahead of you swimming through the giant lake towards the island that sat in the centre of it, though they had to be at least a hundred and fifty metres ahead of you by now. Steeling yourself, you jumped in.
It felt as if your body was being speared by icicles, and you struggled to breathe, to think for a moment. It somehow burns, like you were being lit on fire, but it was so cold. You forced yourself to start swimming. You couldn’t waste time. You swam efficiently, but you soon realised that the need to breathe under the water just wasn’t necessary. Your lungs didn’t ache, and suddenly, the water around you felt warm. For a moment, you thought you were dying or something, but no, the water actually felt warm. Maybe that’s why you’d been given the injections you’d been getting for weeks, though part of you wondered why the other girls hadn’t talked about it.
With the water now feeling – dare you say it, comfortable, in temperature – you were able to think, and for the strangest reason, you had this gut feeling of sorts. There was no other way to say why you dove under the surface of the water completely, and then it was as if the water was moving around you, you simply thought about moving forwards and you did so.
This memory graced you as you let the air out of your lungs, sinking to the bottom of the deeper-than-normal bathtub and closing your eyes. It was peaceful down here. No intense sounds, no overwhelming scents, just peace. From the tests, you’d found that you could in fact hold your breath for up to fourteen minutes. The scientists think that your ability to control the elements made your subconscious mind be able to better control the alveoli, or tiny air sacs, in your lungs in a way similar to a dolphin. It was cool, you supposed, but you simply enjoyed the ability of being able to escape the world.
It was an hour later when you’d finally finished soaking and washing your body and hair. It had taken you about half a bottle of conditioner to work through the countless amount of knots in your hair, given you only had your fingers to tease them out with. The time by yourself had ultimately allowed you to clear your head, and for that you were grateful. You stepped out of the bath, your gaze immediately falling on your reflection. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d seen yourself in a mirror. Your body was littered with a spider’s web of scars. Some were surgical ones, from experiments done years ago. Others you’d gotten from fights. A rather messy looking one ran down your left side, curving around your ribs as it did so. That one, you remembered, had been given to you by a rather blunt dagger that your opponent had wielded, causing the untidy edges of the wound. There was an old bullet wound on your right shoulder, another one on the left side of your upper back – you had to note that that one had been your absolute least favourite of the two, due to the bullet piercing your lung through your fourth intercostal space and making it incredibly agonising to breathe. You had a collection of gashes that had been sutured up, and the rest of your scars were old battle wounds, some from training, others simply too unmonumental for you to remember how you’d received them.
Your scars were much more noticeable now that your skin wasn’t coated in a thin layer of dirt and grime, but you felt cleaner than you had in years. Public showers could only do so much, you supposed.
You looked away and got dressed. You wrapped a towel around your hair and exited the bathroom. You stared at the bed for a moment before grabbing a pillow and blanked off of it and settling on the floor. You knew already that the bed would be too soft, so instead you made yourself comfortable in the corner, with the ability to see both the doors and windows. Slowly, tentatively, you fell asleep in a home that wasn’t your own.
You awoke before dawn with your stomach growling incessantly. Groaning and stretching, you got up and padded into the bathroom to grab your daily suppressant dose. You pocketed the pill before making your way to the kitchen. It wasn’t good to take a suppressant on an empty stomach. Your feet were quiet on the carpeted floor, matching perfectly with the silence of the house. The quietness and serenity of the early hour gave you a moment to scope the place out properly. You moved through the room carefully – you knew that logically, no one would get mad at you for looking around the place, but you still found yourself alert for any signs of movement within the Tower.
Upon glancing through the collections of DVD’s they had stored next to the TV (though you weren’t sure why they wouldn’t just watch TV in the damn cinema room on one of their what-felt-like-a-hundred streaming services), you found that more than half of them were sitcoms, and most of the others were action or horror flicks. A couple documentaries were scattered here and there, but no romances, you noticed. You found the idea of the team watching romances more amusing than anything. Big bad Captain America watching romance films in his free time. You chuckled quietly to yourself before meandering over to the bookshelf. There were quite a few science books with titles containing words that you’d never heard of or couldn’t even pronounce – Tony’s and Bruce’s, you presumed – and there were a couple classics. You wondered who read those. They didn’t exactly seem to be Steve or Bucky’s cup of tea. You could probably see Wanda and Natasha enjoying them, though in truth, you didn’t know them well enough to be sure.
You wandered over to the window to watch the city below for a moment. Few cars were on the street at this hour, leaving you to believe that it couldn’t be much later than five-thirty in the morning. As you entered the kitchen and caught sight of the time on the oven, you found you were right. 5:26, it read. Good to know at least your sleep cycle stayed consistent.
You lit a small flame in the palm of your hand as you opened the pantry door. Using the light of the small fire, you looked through the food options. You raised your hand with the flame up in the air before leaving the fire there to float and light your path. It was a little trickier to keep the flame in control when you weren’t directly giving it fuel, but you’d overcome the challenge long ago, and now it was almost second nature.
Deciding on making a peanut butter and jelly, you grabbed the appropriate ingredients and backed out of the pantry, silently egging the flame to follow you. You placed your things on the bench-top and made your sandwich, chewing on it as you put the knives in the dishwasher and cleaned up. You put your sandwich down – now half-eaten – to swallow the suppressant and put the peanut butter, bread and jelly away. As you exited the pantry for a final time, light flooded the room.
You jumped and spun around, the flame that had been hovering patiently jumping to your hands and flaring up defensively as you startled. The moment you recognised Steve however, the fire extinguished, leaving the supersoldier stunned.
“I’d forgotten you could do that,” he said after a moment of silence.
You weren’t about to apologise. He’d been the one doing the sneaking up, not you. You took in his appearance. He wore athletic gear, encouraging you to say, “Don’t tell me there’s a gym here too.”
He chuckled, “There is, but I’m going out for a run. You can take me out of the military, but you can’t take the military out of me.” That was interesting to know. You hadn’t known he’d been in the military. You added the fact to the slowly growing list of notes you had on the alpha. “Do you want to join me?” he offered.
You tilted your head, considering. You could use a bit of fresh air, and you were fairly sure you could keep up with the man, given your heightened speed and stamina ‘gifted’ to you from HYDRA. Besides, it would be good to get your bearings. Eventually, you nodded.
“I’ll go get changed,” you said, picking up your sandwich and passing him as you left the room.
You met Steve back in the kitchen five minutes later, wearing an outfit similar to his. He led the way downstairs and out of the Tower.
“You ready?” he asked as your feet hit the pavement.
“Lead the way, Captain,” you said wryly with a mocking salute. He rolled his eyes but took off in a brisk jog.
The air was crisp that morning, but you quickly warmed up. Steve set what would be a rather demanding pace, were you a normal person, but considering that both you and Steve were enhanced, it was an easy speed to muster up.
“You know,” he said as the two of you were jogging towards the park (you assumed that’s where you were headed, at least). “You’re welcome to join me on my runs every day. No one else really wants to wake up this early.”
“I like the quietness of the world at this time,” you reflected. For some reason, you’d always found it easier to talk to people whilst moving. Maybe it was because they weren’t analysing your facial features as you spoke, so you didn’t have to worry too much about hiding your emotions, or maybe it was because it was a way to expel any nervous energy, but regardless, you found it easier. “New York’s so… busy. It’s nice to be able to see it when it’s quiet.”
“What was it like? Living on the streets, I mean.”
You turn your head to look at the alpha, trying to find evidence of an ulterior motive on his features. When your search came up blank, you figured it would do you no harm to tell him. “The winters are hard. Summers are better. Tourists are stupid and easy to pickpocket.”
“Unless you accidentally pickpocket an assassin and supersoldier instead,” Cap said with a small grin.
You rolled your eyes. “In my defence, I didn’t get a chance to look at either of your faces. I just saw a redhead and her boyfriend distracted in a crowd. If it was any other couple, my attempt would have been a success. Hell, if I’d tried to pickpocket you instead of her, it would’ve been a success.”
“Probably,” Steve acquiesced, “Where did you learn to pickpocket anyway?”
You hesitated before answering. The truth? The Red Room. But he couldn’t know that. “I was taught when I was a kid. Six or so, I think.”
“So you’ve been living on the streets your whole life?”
“Only since I was seventeen.” The alpha was beginning to probe into sensitive territory now, and he knew it too. He could practically feel the tension in your shoulders.
“Then how come you’ve been pickpocketing so long?”
You were a little surprised by the lack of judgement in his tone. He seemed like one of the most moral people out there. Truth, Justice and the American Way and all that shit. Though you supposed going through a war put things in perspective a little. Maybe he had a history with it or something.
“It was deemed… a life skill by the people who raised me,” you answered carefully. It was true. Often, you’d pickpocket targets on missions to confirm their identities or find out who they’ve been in contact with.
“So you weren’t raised by your parents then?” he pressed. Steve could tell the moment the words were out of his mouth that he’d hit a nerve. Y/n’s eyes darkened, and her expression, previously rather content (and dare he say, almost relaxed), became guarded. With that one question, he instantly knew he was back to square one with the omega.
“My family’s dead,” you said bluntly, emotionlessly. “Have been for two dozen years.” At least, that’s what they told you, you thought. You were, after all, raised by people who made a living by lying.
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
You weren’t listening. Instead, you ignored him, increasing your pace to pull ahead of him.
Steve watched as you withdrew again and cursed himself internally. Every time he thought he was getting somewhere with you, he’d do something, say something, and you’d close off again. He let out an aggravated sigh and sped up to catch up. He didn’t try to talk again, knowing that the attempts would be fruitless.
The two of you had made it half-way around the perimeter of the park, and by now, the sun was beginning to light the sky with the tell-tale grey of the coming day. You were beginning to get a little warm, and a glance to your left told you that Steve was also beginning to feel the effects of the exercise.
The sight of a few familiar figures had your steps – previously as rhythmic as could be – faltering before you changed direction to head over to the group. Steve, surprised by the sudden change of direction, hurried to catch up.
“Y/n, where are you going?” You continued to ignore him. Steve bristled. He hated being ignored. It was one of his biggest pet peeves. He grabbed your elbow in an iron grip, digging his heels into the ground simultaneously and causing you to yelp in surprise as you lost your balance momentarily.
When regained your balance, you twisted to glare at him. “Don’t touch me,” you hissed, anger lighting a fire behind your eyes.
“Don’t ignore me then,” the alpha retorted, straightening to his full height and staring you down. You suppressed the urge to cower and bare your neck. You weren’t that type of omega.
“Phoenix?” the street name caught your attention and you looked over to the person who’d spoken. It was one of your old street pals. You began to turn your body towards her, but Steve had grabbed your arm again, forcing you to face him.
“What the hell, Y/n? That’s not even your name. You don’t just go up to random alphas in the street.”
In a different life, his over-protectiveness may have been endearing. In this one it was just irritating. You could feel his tight grip on your arm, hard enough to leave a bruise. Part of you knew it was a mixture of his hormones going into overdrive and him not realising how strong the super-soldier serum made him, but you couldn’t hide your wince.
“Steve.” You hated the slight tone of desperation you identified in your voice, but it got the Captain’s attention.
He seemed to realise how tightly he was gripping your arm, because his hand loosened and moved away from the now-sore area to gently grasp your bicep.
“Hey, back off,” you heard Nightshade’s recognisable voice ring out as she moved closer. Looking over your shoulder, you saw that she was accompanied by Bullet and Jake. The whole pack was there.
Steve dropped his hand from your arm and squared up to the other head alpha, eyeing her and sizing her up. You grabbed his shoulder in a weak attempt to pull him back, but he easily shrugged you off and pushed him behind you. As if you needed protection.
“Steve,” you said, voice firm. “They’re friends.”
He didn’t move, but you shouldered past him to hug Nightshade. Her touch felt different now. You’d always been aware of her alpha pheromones before meeting your pack, but now the scent hit differently. You couldn’t quite find the words to explain it. It just wasn’t the same. The scent wasn't as... comforting as it had been before. Your body wanted Nat and Wanda now. Still, she pulled back too soon for your liking.
“I haven’t seen you in yonks,” she said with an easy grin.
“I’ve missed you too.”
“And who might you be?” you heard Steve ask. You didn’t need to look over your shoulder to know he’d stepped closer.
You saw Nightshade’s body stiffen, almost imperceptibly. “I could ask you the same thing,” she growled. Her eyes drifted down to the pink spot on your elbow where Steve had gripped you. Her fingers ghosted over your skin, a scowl forming on her features. Her eyes snapped up to Steve, and she took a threatening step towards him, leaving your side.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded.
“I’m her alpha,” Steve snarled back at her. You scoffed, giving him a look. He barely knew you, and he had the audacity to call himself ‘your alpha’?
“The mighty Captain America- an alpha who abuses omegas. God, the press will love that one.”
“Nightshade-“ you tried to interrupt, not wanting things to escalate, but Steve cut you off.
“Call me an abusive alpha again. I dare you.”
“Guys!” you yelled this time, grabbing both alpha’s attention. “That’s enough. Steve, Nightshade’s a close friend of mine from the streets, and Nightshade, Steve’s the alpha of the pack, two members of which are my soulmates. So can the two of you stop acting like children and learn to get along, for fuck’s sake.”
“Language,” Steve bit out. Nightshade growled, and but seeing the confrontation coming, you pinched her arm none-too-gently, and when she glared at you, you stared blankly back at her.
“I should go,” you said quietly, hugging the alpha. Her body was stiff and unresponsive at first, her arms not moving to hug you, but then she seemed to relent and hugged you back.
“Look after yourself,” she murmured quietly as she hugged you. “If Mr. Macho over there gives you trouble, find me.”
Her gaze was serious as she stared you down. You only rolled your eyes as you chuckled. “I promise.” You pulled away from her and spoke to the whole group. “It was good to see you guys again. I’ll have to come visit once you’re settled in your new place.”
“You’d better,” Bullet said, moving forwards to also give you a hug.
Jake only nodded politely at you. You were on good terms with the omega, but you’d lived with Nightshade and Bullet on the streets. You’d spent day after day watching their backs with them watching yours, and that… it created a sort of bond that couldn’t be created in any other way, really. When you trusted people with your life, it meant a lot, but out on the streets – when there’s no one else willing to protect you, when those who do so have nothing to gain from it – it’s a whole different story.
“Uh… bye guys. I’ll see you around.”
It hurt to walk away if you were being completely honest. You felt as if you were somehow abandoning them. It was stupid, really. You were just bad at letting go of people, you supposed. You reached the path and resumed your jog. Steve, now jogging beside you, opened his mouth to talk, but you cut him off. “No, Steve. Not a word. I don’t want an interrogation of how I know them, I don’t want to hear you rant about how much you despise Nightshade or how I shouldn’t swear. I don’t care about what you have to say, and maybe you should get that tattooed on your eyelids, just so you don’t forget.” You knew you were lashing out. You knew that that was your automatic response to feeling a lack of control over a situation. But you didn’t quite care about Steve’s feelings enough yet to try to restrain yourself. Besides, it shut him up.
You hated how vulnerable a lack of control made you feel. Hated it with a burning passion, in fact. And yeah, you knew it made you lash out, and a part of you felt bad for snapping at Steve, but he was a grown-up, and he could deal with it. Everything was just changing so quickly, and it felt like you were back at the Red Room, balancing books on your head as Madam B. added more and more until they inevitably tipped. You could just feel everything piling up. Bullet and his pack moving away, being more-or-less forced into living with Steve’s pack, losing whatever freedom you’d gained by escaping the Red Room, having to adapt to what was effectively a whole new world… there was just so much. It was just book after book after book.
You picked up the pace as you finished your lap of the park and began to make your way home. Steve followed along beside you, lips pressed tightly together. You could practically hear his brain whirring, and if you cared enough, you may have asked what he was thinking about so hard. Thing is, you didn’t. Hence, you weren’t privy to Steve’s thoughts as the two of you followed the path of the sun back to the tower.
Steve had a dozen questions he wanted to ask Y/n. But god, she was confusing. He never knew when she’d go from being – well, normal – to spinning around and biting his head off. He had to admit, he was a little frustrated with the omega that acted unlike any other omega he’d ever met. Then again, he supposed that the only omegas he’d ever been around long enough to really know are Tony and a few of his now-dead friends from the barbershop.
Not only that, but he still had no idea about anything about her. She was a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, shoved in a locked cage; and there didn’t seem to be a key. And he hated that he couldn’t read her. He supposed it was understandable. From what little he’d picked up, she hadn’t exactly had a good life, per say. Not that he’d know any better because she simply refused to share anything about her, let alone her past, with him. It was just like some unending cycle. He was irritated that he didn’t know about her because she doesn’t tell him about her, because she didn’t trust him because he didn’t know her, because she didn’t tell him anything about her because she doesn’t tell him anything about her… etcetera. It was just a never-ending loop of not knowing her and her not telling him anything because of that, but then he can never learn about her and they’ll forever be little more than strangers.
Maybe he was overthinking this. After all, it had only been a day. Not even. He supposed that maybe he did worry a little too much when it came to his pack. It had been the same when he’d met Nat. She’d been so closed off and it had irked him so much. Well, although they argued quite a bit, they still loved each other, and they both knew that about the other. Albeit, it had taken them months to get to the point where Nat was actually comfortable enough to talk to him about her issues, but still… they’d gotten there. He’d hated the wait though. And it was even worse because she was an omega. He felt like he had to protect her, but she wouldn’t let him. At least Nat was an alpha. He hadn’t felt as strongly about protecting her as he did about protecting Y/n.
He was just being impatient, he told himself. He just needed to wait and be patient.
The two of you made it back to the Tower in silence, and you immediately left to go get changed. You’d decided on the way back that you were going to the warehouse. You wouldn’t tell the others – it’s not like they owned you; you could still do what you wanted, right? As Steve had said, freedom didn’t disappear when you entered a pack. You just had to be careful not to stay away too long, a) so they didn’t realise you were gone, and b) so you didn’t stress-drop.
You wouldn’t go immediately. No, you’d wait until the afternoon. You’d stick around for a bit to let them all see you, and then you’d slip away for an hour or so, maybe slip a bit of food from the cupboards for the strays. Yes, that’s what you’d do.
You showered and changed into a t-shirt and pair of jeans, only kept up thanks to a belt you’d found in the closet. You headed out to the kitchen, knowing that since it was almost eight o’clock now, that’s where most of the pack would be. As you’d thought, you entered the room to see everyone sitting around the table.
“Y/n,” Natalia said, patting the seat beside her. Your eyes narrowed slightly as you made the comparison between Nat egging you to come over and an owner calling their dog. You walked past her to grab an apple from the plentiful fruit bowl, if only to make a point, before moving to sit down beside her.
It felt kind of strange – being able to just grab food whenever you wanted. Your steps faltered as you almost walked into Tony, who was kneeling on a pillow on the floor by Bruce’s side. You looked away hurriedly, uncomfortable, and shot a wide-eyed look at Nat. It was one of the few times you allowed your mask to slip. Would they expect you to kneel too? As if to answer your unspoken question, Nat pulled the chair out and patted it.
You released a tense breath and took a seat, nibbling on the apple as you did so, wrapping your other arm around your body in a subconsciously protective manner.
“You never have to do anything you don’t want to do here, Y/N,” Natalia said softly to you, trying not to let your conversation be overheard. “Ever. If you want to kneel, that’s fine. If you don’t, it’s just as fine, okay?”
You nodded, biting the apple to avoid having to fully reply. There were a lot of parts to that statement that confused you, but you decided to try your best to ignore it. You weren’t even hungry, really. The apple had been more for show. So now you sat at the table, snacking at it half-heartedly as you tuned in and out of the separate conversations going on around you. The conversation was rather mundane – Tony was nerding it out with Bruce about one of his new projects as he rested his head on the beta’s leg, looking up at him adoringly; Natalia playfully bickered with Steve over his poor fighting skills, soon joined by Wanda, who agreed with Nat. In fact, the only one not with a conversation was Bucky. You felt his eyes on you from across the table for a while, and you tried to ignore him, but it became increasingly obvious that he wasn’t looking away.
Eventually, you snapped. “Do you want to say something to me or are you just going to stare at me?” You met his gaze unflinchingly. At least the ex-HYDRA operative had the decency to look slightly embarrassed.
“Sorry,” he said. “You just… I feel like I’ve met you somewhere before.”
You stiffened. Your mouth felt bone dry, but you forced yourself to speak. “I think I’d remember you.” You glance pointedly at his arm and forced a chuckle.
“I suppose.” The alpha looked unconvinced.
“I’m gonna go,” you said after a brief, but awkward silence.