Avery cleared his throat. “We know it can be jarring, having something like this happen so quickly. But we’re all in agreement—we’d like to court you, Esme. What you’re feeling from our scents? It’s just as powerful on our end. And I’m pretty sure Luke, Kade, and I are all feeling the jealousy of you sitting with Ben right now.”

I nodded once.

Courting an Omega varied. There were different customs and different ways of going about it, but they all involved the same things—getting to know each other and spoiling the Omega absolutely rotten. I had no problem doing either of those things. There were no official rules, but given who she was, there might be more steps.

That being said, speed wasn’t uncommon in situations like this. When you knew, you knew. We would court Esme as long as she needed, but I knew on scent alone she could say yes to being our Omega tomorrow and I’d be happier than I’d ever been in my life.

But that wasn’t what struck me. It was her reaction. Her face was shocked and open, eyes glassy. “Really?” It didn’t sound like she quite believed anyone would want to court her, and I suppressed the growl building in my chest from wanting to know who’d made her think she wasn’t worthy of it.

“Yes,” Avery said. “Absolutely.”

“I’ve always wanted a pack,” she said so softly we almost couldn’t hear it. “After everything, I never really thought I’d have a chance.”

We looked at each other in alarm. “Why?” I asked, the question coming out too roughly. Shifting my chair closer to her and Ben, I leaned in. Fuck, that floral scent was so good. It was layered with her sharper tea scent, which I could already tell was the note which shifted with her mood. Consciously, I gentled my voice. “What made you think you’d never have a pack?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said too quickly. “Not right now, anyway.”

It obviously did matter, but I couldn’t push her today. Not during this first meeting, even if my instincts were screaming at me to dig into why, so I could help her release the line of thought. I didn’t care who the Omega was, male or female, no one deserved to truly believe they wouldn’t have a pack.

“You mentioned your family,” Luke said. “Do we need to approach them to make our courting you official?”