An Omega for the Sheriff (Sugar Beach Book 3) Read online

  “I’m not saying you didn’t do the right thing. I’m just saying it’s time to shake things up a little. Make your move and let him know you’re still there and you’re interested.”

  “Of course, I’m interested. There hasn’t been anyone else for me since that night. I would never cheat on my omega.” I turned from the window and took a sip of the hot coffee in my hands. It was strong, but Jace had cut it with just the right amount of cream. Something I knew he hated. Jace drank his coffee strong and black, saying the bitter brew built character. I shook my head, knowing my friend hated fixing my coffee because it was more cream than coffee. He did it because he loved me. I didn’t know what I’d have done without his friendship all these years. Jace always had my back, even if that meant getting on my case about chasing down my omega.

  “Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s time to force the issue and let my omega know I’m still here and I’m still his alpha. It’s better than being in limbo waiting for him to come to his senses and come to me.”

  I just hoped it was the right move to make. I didn’t want to push the issue only to have him decide that was it and he never wanted to see me again. Standing on the edges of his life, helping him when I could, even if he didn’t know I was there, was better than never seeing him again.

  It was time I flat-out told him he needed to stop pushing me away and see where we could go. We needed to see just how good our relationship could be if we were both willing to try. I was getting older, and I was tired of being alone. I had an omega who I adored already even if he didn’t know it. He was strong in so many ways that even he didn’t realize. I just hoped I didn’t push him right out of my life.

  3

  REBEL

  The shopping cart I steered down the aisle had a squeaky wheel and it felt like a metaphor for my life. I had survived one more heat, and it was worse than the last one. I was a squeaky wheel and Trygg was the oil I needed to smooth out my life. God, wasn’t that the corniest thing in the world to be thinking. Life sucked, and I hated what my life had become.

  I hated being that omega, the one who needed an alpha to survive. I didn’t want to rely on anyone else but myself. It was stupid considering I knew better. I needed other people. I wouldn’t be anywhere without my friends. I knew it wasn’t realistic to keep Trygg at arm’s length. He hadn’t done anything wrong except be the one to tell me about my parents. It was his job. Yet, I was punishing him for it.

  I felt like crap but didn’t know how to change the way I’d been living my life for the last few years. The truth was, he turned me on, and I wanted to know what it felt like to be in his arms. I knew he kept tabs on me. He was my alpha and he couldn’t let it rest. He would always be there, trying to protect me, even from myself. I just couldn’t seem to find the words to tell him how much I needed him.

  I had caught glimpses of him over the last few years. I would turn a corner and his scent clued me in that he had been there, wherever it was I had stepped into, not long before me. His scent was enough to make me hard and wish for his knot.

  I shook my head and headed for the meat section. I was quickly running out of staples. I loved meat, and I ate a lot of it. I wasn’t much for sides unless it was potatoes and carrots. My food tastes were simple. It cut down on the grocery bill. I bypassed all the prepackaged stuff and headed directly to the back of the store. Chicken was on sale so in the cart it went. Pork chops landed on top of the chicken. I skipped over the liver in the beef section because… well, seriously, who even ate that stuff willingly?

  I stopped by the large freezer case full of turkeys. It was a good price, but I couldn’t see fixing a turkey. I wasn’t sure if Todd even knew what to do with one. That was something that required major cooking skills none of us had. It was times like this when I wished I’d paid more attention to the meals my mom had fixed for the holidays. My mom had fixed turkey for Thanksgiving and it was incredibly good, moist and delicious.

  The one time Todd and I had tried cooking a turkey, we had all ended up in the emergency room with food poisoning or salmonella or some such thing. No, I wasn’t revisiting that event again this year. I moved on and put two family sized packages of ground beef in the cart. Maybe I could pick up hot dogs and we’d grill outside this year. That sounded like a major plan so I headed to the hot dog section and picked out my favorite dogs, one hundred percent all beef with no fillers. They were expensive but so worth the price.

  I headed to the deli and picked up packages of macaroni salad and potato salad, both perfect for a cookout. Chips were next on the list because a cookout wasn’t the same without a variety of potato chips. One brand was buy one, get one free, so I went a little overboard. I was weak when it came to the salty indulgence. I walked to the register with no less than eight bags of the crispy treats.

  It wasn’t until I had loaded everything in the back seat of my truck that I smelled the sweet smell of my alpha. His scent wrapped around me and I struggled to not turn around and snuggle up to him. There were times when life wasn’t fair. Having your alpha so close but so far away was one of them.

  I thought he’d move on and pretend he didn’t see me. No such luck.

  “We need to talk, Rebel.” His voice washed over me, deep and dark.

  “Why?” I couldn’t even talk in sentences. My voice stuck in my throat. I gripped the door to my truck so I didn’t reach out and grab hold of Trygg. I was afraid if I did, I’d never let go.

  “Rebel, we can’t go on like this. Please, I need you in my life, not on the outer fringes of it as if we don’t belong together.” I heard the pain in his voice and it cut through me. I hated hurting Trygg. I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to be the omega he needed me to be.

  Don’t look, don’t look…

  I turned and looked at the big black man who always took my breath away, and that was my first mistake. Looking into his warm brown eyes and seeing the pain there was the second. Knowing it was pain I had put there did something to me, cut me down in the center until I didn’t know if I would ever be the same again.

  How did I tell this man, who I wanted with my every breath, that I didn’t think I could be the omega for him? I wasn’t a typical omega in more ways than one, and forcing that on this alpha wasn’t something he deserved. I so wanted to be what he needed though.

  “I, uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Trygg. I don’t think I can be what you need.”

  4

  TRYGG

  Walking up to Rebel was one of the hardest things I’d done in a while. I didn’t want to pressure the omega, but we needed to settle this thing between us. Life was always going to be complicated, and Jace was right. We needed to figure this shit out.

  When I saw Rebel putting his groceries in his truck, my feet walked closer without me having any say in the matter. One minute I was next to my patrol car, and the next, I was talking to Rebel, begging him to talk to me.

  “… I don’t think I can be what you need.” Hearing those words come from my omega’s mouth did something to me. Staring into his eyes, I couldn’t hide the pain I felt from staying away all these years. I was ready to lay bare my soul if that got me even one minute in Rebel’s arms.

  “Don’t say that. You don’t even know what I need. Go on a date with me. Let me show you how good we could be together. Please.”

  He looked like he wanted to say no. I don’t know who was more surprised when ‘yes’ came out of his mouth, me or him. My hand came up and lifted his chin until he looked me in the eyes. His were full of panic, though he tried to hide it.

  “I’ll come by the house and pick you up around seven.” Pressing my luck, I leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Don’t back out on me. No matter what you think I want, I promise you are it.”

  With that, I stepped back and let Rebel climb into his truck. I watched him drive away, a smile on my lips. I couldn’t help it. Rebel made me happy, and I wanted this chance to prove to him we could make this soulmates thing work.


  I STILL HAD a few hours left on my shift, not that I ever really went off duty. I was one of three deputy sheriff officers assigned to the Sugar Beach area. The town was too small to have its own police force and too far away from other major cities who had municipal police. The county assigned semi-permanent officers to the town for a small fee to act as the local police. I still had regular duties as a deputy sheriff I performed when I wasn’t on active duty in Sugar Beach. The town wasn’t big enough for a full-time officer so I still patrolled county roads and highways. Traffic tickets and aiding people on the side of the road was still a part of my job, and I took pride in it.

  Back in my patrol car, I radioed in and headed over to the south part of town where State Road 7 clipped a small portion of Sugar Beach. It was a long stretch of highway that usually saw motorists pushing the boundaries of what was an acceptable speed limit. In some ways, I could see their point. Most roads in Florida were a straight shot and you could see for miles. State Road 7 was three lanes for much of the way as it got closer to the larger cities. However, I enforced the law, and that included handing out tickets to motorists who insisted on driving seventy-five in a fifty mile an hour speed zone.

  Most traffic stops were routine, but I stopped at least one or two cars a month that ended with arrests for transporting illegal substances. Those were the stops I hated the most, the stops where anything could happen and more than one officer had been taken out of commission because they were taken by surprise. Unfortunately, it came with the job and you never knew what would happen until you were in the middle of it.

  One soccer mom who had pulled over to yell at her kids, two speeders, and one minor accident later, my shift was over and I went home to change for my date with Rebel. There weren’t many food options in Sugar Beach. There was the Hillbilly Diner, owned by my friend, Jace. The food was great, but there was no way I was taking a date there under Jace’s watchful eyes. I’d never live down the embarrassment. The other choice was an Italian place that did great pizzas but was low on romantic ambiance. Thinking I would take my date over to Boynton Beach to a slightly fancier restaurant, I hopped into the shower.

  I’d been sporting a semi since seeing Rebel earlier. It would go down as I worked with each encounter with the public. No one needed to interact with the sheriff department’s finest while he was sporting an erection. Each time I was back in my squad car and thinking about Rebel and our date tonight, that semi came back, making the drive uncomfortable.

  Thinking of Rebel now as the warm water sluiced over me, I grabbed my growing erection. Maybe jacking off now would save embarrassment later. I wanted Rebel with everything I had, but no way did I want to scare him off now that he’d finally agreed to go out with me.

  The water beat down on me and I gripped my cock and ran my fist up and down, squeezing and releasing the way that always felt good. As my hand neared the tip, I ran my thumb over the head, smearing the drop of precum oozing from the slit. A moan escaped my lips as I imagined Rebel’s soft lips wrapping around the head and maybe tasting me with his tongue.

  Faster and faster I moved my hand, imagining what it would feel like to finally be plunging into Rebel’s dark, tight hole. The thought of finally knotting my omega after almost five years of waiting set me off. Cum exploded from me as I reached orgasm, hitting the wall of the shower. A full body shudder hit me with the strength of my release.

  It took me a minute before I had the strength to clean up both me and the shower. Drying off quickly, I dressed and left my house. It was a rental in Sugar Beach. Not only was it close enough to make driving in to work easier, it was on the edge of town near Rebel’s nursery. In an emergency, I could be at my omega’s place in under ten minutes, five if I used sirens and put my pedal to the metal.

  Hopping into my jeep, I pulled out of the driveway and headed to Rebel’s place. It was time to pick up my omega and finally make him mine.

  5

  REBEL

  Agliolio’s Italian Bistro & Bar was one of those places the locals raved about and the tourists never forgot. It looked like the typical bar, with long booths and counter seating where friends could gather and enjoy good food. We opted for the outdoor seating for more privacy.

  I’d only been to the restaurant one other time, and I remembered the food as the best I’d ever eaten. They made their pasta fresh daily and customization of both the pizza and the pasta was a fun option with their “pasta-bility”. A person could dine there every day of the week and not eat the same pasta dish twice. I chose the angel hair pasta with the agliolio sauce, a simple olive oil sauce made with both chopped garlic and roasted garlic that gave it tons of flavor. Date or not, I wasn’t passing up the chance to eat it, considering every dish on the menu had garlic. It wasn’t like I was planning to kiss my alpha when the date was over. No, not even.

  When the waitress took our order, I noticed Trygg ordered his pasta with the bruschetta sauce, another garlic heavy offering. As we sat back and waited for our food, I suddenly didn’t know what to say. This man had been on the fringes of my life for almost five years, and yet in all that time, we’d only spoken a handful of times. There were so many things I wanted to say, and yet they all got stuck in my throat as the image of Trygg that night popped into my head and all I could think about was him saying my parents were dead.

  The memories flooded over me and I didn’t even know how I ended up in his arms with tears flowing down my face. I swore I wasn’t going to cry anymore. So much for resolutions.

  “I’m sorry, Trygg. I thought I could do this. It’s hard not remembering how we met. I don’t mean to lay that all on you. Not really. It’s just all jumbled up in my head and I don’t know how to separate you from that night.” I was a mess, and I didn’t know how my alpha could still want me after all the trouble I’d put him through over the last few years.

  “I wished we could have met some other way, but we didn’t. You mean everything to me, Rebel, but we can’t going on ignoring each other anymore. I want you in my life as my omega.” Trygg wiped the tears from my face as I straightened up and tried to pull myself together. I was a hot mess, and it sucked that the only time Trygg always saw me was when I was at my low points.

  “I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try letting you in.” I looked out over the parking lot, not willing to look at the man by my side. “I’m not sure why you still want me, considering everything I’ve put you through. Even soulmates must have limits.”

  “Maybe, but I haven’t found mine yet. Life without you in it is too miserable to think about so I do what I can to be a part of your life, even when you don’t know I’m there.” Trygg laughed a little, self-deprecatingly. “That sounds a little stalkerish and I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I just like making sure you’re safe.”

  “I know. It’s weird. I’ve known you were always around. It was actually comforting to know you had my back, even though I was treating you like crap. And that makes me sound like a moronic idiot.”

  “No, just someone trying to protect their heart. Here’s the thing, Rebel. I’m not going anywhere. It doesn’t matter if it’s today or next year. One of these days, you’ll accept me as your alpha and we’ll have a fantastic life together. I believe that with everything I have. One of these days, you’ll believe it too.”

  It was a nice sentiment, but I wasn’t so sure I believed it. I wanted to. Very much.

  When it came time to order dessert, I ordered the chocolate lasagna. Layers of fresh chocolate pasta, whipped chocolate mascarpone, and a chocolate ganache according to the menu’s description. I wondered why Trygg didn’t order dessert until I saw the massive portion that was set in front of me. It was more than I could eat so I shared my dessert with Trygg. It was heaven on the taste buds.

  Dinner had actually been a pleasant experience and I learned more about my alpha, the man, instead of my alpha, the deputy sheriff. It turned out we had a lot more in common than I thought. I guess the fates worked miracles enough to maybe
be good at it.

  I’d never believed in all that soulmate stuff growing up. My parents were your typical male/female pairing. While my dad was definitely an alpha, my mom was more of a conundrum, being a beta who shouldn’t have been able to have children. At least, that’s what was the norm. There were plenty of betas who managed to have children. It was just not as common and took more work than happenstance allowed. I was forever grateful for the time I’d had with them.

  Growing up, I’d been regaled with stories about fated mates and love at first sight. Despite how much my parents had loved each other, I wasn’t so sure I believed in the old stories. It was a nice story, but there was a dark time in our history where omegas had been treated like second-class citizens. While things were better, I wasn’t sure I would have had as good a life if I hadn’t been left the nursery and enough money to keep it going because I was an omega, and omegas owning a business still wasn’t the norm.

  I think a part of me was afraid that when I found my alpha, he’d not show me the respect I deserved as his omega. I had not only managed to keep the nursery afloat after my parents died while I was just barely out of high school, but I had managed to make it grow until it was one of the finest nurseries in Palm Beach County.

  I should have given the fates more credit because I had an alpha that was willing to give me the time I needed to grieve for the losses I had suffered. I realized now that he would have been willing to step up and help me without taking over if I had only asked.

  Standing on my porch with my alpha, I didn’t want to say goodbye, but I didn’t know how to tell this man who had my cock hard the whole time we’d been at dinner that I needed him. I just wasn’t sure if I was ready for something permanent. All I could give him right now was right now.