Talk About… Rivalry (Rockwood Valley Omegaverse #2)

13. Taylor

Taylor

G ossip in this town was never just a two person conversation. I knew more about the people of Rockwood Valley than I ever wanted to.

Today, though, my interest was piqued the moment Sidney’s name was mentioned.

I recognized one of the women in front of me as Avery, Sidney’s very pregnant best friend. The other, I didn’t know.

Clearly, she didn’t notice me as her full focus was on the other omega who was talking. The dark haired, petite omega regaled her of last night’s events while I hung on every word.

“Apparently, some omega asked Maverick out on a date,” the omega hissed. It wasn’t just gossip this time, they were also upset on their friend’s behalf.

“What? No, Grace, that can’t be right,” Avery gasped before sounding downright sad. “I really thought he and Sidney…” She trailed off as Grace took over.

“We all know, both of them are terrible at hiding it. She’s pined after that man for years and I damn well know that he did the same, but she didn’t protest, in fact, she left with someone else. Another alpha.”

It was like the whole world came to a screeching halt as she finished that statement.

Sidney left with someone.

My stomach turned and any hope that I had just came crashing down around me. I no longer wanted to snag a pastry for breakfast, instead I just turned and walked out of the door, leaving them and their gossip behind.

When I walked into the storefront that Leo had bought, he looked at me expectantly, his eyebrows furrowing at the sight of my empty hands.

“I thought you were stopping for breakfast.”

I opened my mouth to say something but no words came out, instead my lip quivered.

To his credit, my best friend dropped everything he was doing and rushed over, his hands going to my shoulders as he leaned in to study my face.

“What happened? Whose ass do I need to kick?”

Fuck, I wasn’t anywhere near my heat, I had no clue why I was so emotional.

Yes, I did, it was stupid to pretend anything otherwise. I was fucking heartbroken.

Sidney hadn’t exactly led me on, but she also didn’t fully turn me down. I thought we were working towards a date and she left with some guy?

It felt like a slap in the face.

Everything came bursting out of me in a huge rush of words. Leo was well versed in my rambles and was able to keep up, his eyes widening as he listened. It wasn’t until I finished talking that he finally spoke.

“Wait, Maverick? As in Whitaker? The one who owns the bar?”

I don’t know why I entered all the random details that he didn’t need but that was how my mind worked when I was rambling and upset.

I nodded in answer, words failing me.

“And Sidney, as in Sidney Vance?”

“Yes,” I confirmed, flopping down onto the stack of wood flooring and letting out a long breath. It felt like all the color was sucked out of the world. I was being dramatic but I truly had my heart set on winning over Sidney and I thought I was making progress.

Apparently not.

This also explained why there was no text back this morning or last night.

She was too busy in some other man’s arms.

I wasn’t an alpha and couldn’t offer a knot. Was that the reason?

Maybe I wasn’t her type and she just didn’t want to hurt my feelings…

“Fuck,” I groaned, gripping my hair.

“You know… I used to hate her.” Leo’s words had my head snapping up to look at him.

“How do you even know her?”

“You and I were in different grades, but Sidney was in my class. She and I had this ongoing rivalry. First it was teasing, then it turned into an all out war. It was a constant battle of besting each other and rubbing that in the other’s face.”

I frowned because that didn’t sound like the Sidney I knew at all.

“She’s not like that,” I defended. God, I sounded pathetic, especially for a girl that apparently wasn’t looking at me the same way at all.

“It got worse by the time we moved away. I couldn’t stand her,” Leo admitted. He was starting to pace now, his hands fisting at his side as if he remembered it all vividly. “Her mom and my mom were friends. I just remember this one night where she called Mom. They were on the phone. I could just hear her crying, breaking down. She left Sidney’s dad and her, then called every day for weeks on end before they stopped.”

She left her child behind?

“How could she leave Sidney behind?” My heart broke for Sidney’s past self and I couldn't help but wonder if this explained some of the sadness I witnessed.

“Apparently, Sidney was all about her dad. She didn’t care about her mom and was awful to her. I believed it, too. After she left Sidney was awful. She’d act out at school, be rude to everyone, get into fights. She was even more vicious with me until I just completely disengaged. The only ones saved from it all were the Whitakers. It’s like they were immune to everything.”

“Maverick,” I said bitterly, hating myself just a little for thinking this way when I only had half a story to go on.

“She was best friends with that Whitaker girl, their sister. The brothers were just protective and always making sure people left them alone. I bet she would have had her ass kicked a few times if not for them.”

“Avery,” I supplied. I didn’t blame him for not remembering their names. It wasn’t like he’d been in town since middle school. This was a long time ago… yet, his feelings about Sidney were still strong.

“It seems like they’re still buddy-buddy. I ran into Sidney and Maverick at the grocery store and they were still as cocky as ever.” He huffed and turned to me. “Honestly, not to be a dick Taylor, but you’re way better off without her.”

“You don’t even know her,” I defended again, my argument weak. He had his own reasons but I couldn’t make sense of his version of Sidney, and mine. Yet, as I started talking, my own convictions grew stronger. Sidney was mine. “I’m not just some stupid omega who can’t figure out what he wants out of life. I genuinely really like this girl and I didn’t say that I was just going to give up on her because of this. She has no ties to me. I’ve made it obvious what I want. There’s a difference between going home with someone and starting a relationship with someone, and I want more than one night with her.”

Leo held up his hands in defense and shook his head. The look of pity on his face made me clench my jaw and glare.

“Fuck you, Leo. I don’t need your approval.”

“We’re pack,” Leo shot back in a frustrated growl. “Are you really going to throw that all away for a girl that you’re not even scent matched to?”

“She’s not a scent match to anyone and scents don’t mean that fucking much. Just because she doesn’t have one, doesn’t mean I can’t be with her.”

“Wait, wait,” he said, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose like this was giving him a headache. I couldn’t blame him there. We’ve been arguing back and forth, both of us on completely different wavelengths.

This was a first for us.

Of course, now we chose one of the biggest things a pack could fight about. The cold, hard truth was that if we weren’t compatible with our omega, then we weren’t a pack.

“So, when you’ve been telling me about the girl with no scent and the scent blocker issue, it was her all along?”

I nodded, feeling miserable and ready to just go home and curl up into a ball in my nest.

“Is that even possible?”

“For people to have scent issues? Of course, it is,” I said. “It’s only an omega issue, so you probably haven’t heard of it.”

He ran a hand over his stubble and nodded once as if that made sense.

“So, what now? We just part ways?”

“What else can we do? I’m not giving up on Sidney,” I said, feeling a mix of renewed determination and dismay. How could I possibly choose between my best friend and my omega?

I would take today and let myself be in my feelings.

Tomorrow, everything would change.

I was going to double down my efforts to be there for Sidney and show her that I was the kind of man she wanted in her pack.

Hell, I’d take scent blockers myself if she wanted me to.

This was not where our story ended. I was not going to just roll over and let it happen and be miserable without her.

I understood that there was a fine line here. If she didn’t feel the same, I would have to let her go.

But I saw the way she flirted with me, how she looked at me and her eyes would soften.

She fought it, but she wanted me, too. I was sure of it.

Not wanting me was never the issue.

We were both quiet as we processed everything. Leo wasn’t arguing and I wasn’t really sure how we could go from here.

At least packwise. He’d always be my best friend regardless. It felt so surreal after seeing the house I thought would be my pack house yesterday, the two omega nests seemed perfect and I could almost picture Sidney on the other end of the hall.

Now it was all crumbling down.

“Look I’m not trying to be a stubborn asshole here, but I’m also not willing to just pretend that we’re not pack. We have a pack connection whether we want to admit it or not and it’s not going to just go away because of this.”

“You just said you hate her. How is that going to work?”

“I hated her,” he clarified. “And that I thought Maverick was an asshole. But if she means this much to you, then I can at least make the effort to give her a chance, right?”

His words had a spark of hope filling me.

“She always comes to The Landing for lunch. I work the lunch shift just because I know she’ll be there. You should come sit outside on the patio.”

I narrowed my eyes on him because I knew damn well how stubborn this beta could be.

“If you want this to work, you have to give her a real chance. Get to know who Sidney actually is. Maybe think about the fact that her mom left her daughter behind as a child. As far as I know, she has never contacted her since. It would have come up. That’d do a number on anyone.”

Leo looked at me, his frown deepening as he thought it over.

“Fine, I’ll come with you. I’ll give her a shot, but I’m making no promises.”

“Neither, am I,” I clarified, making it known that I wasn’t going to back down from this.

Sidney was end game for me and there was nothing that was going to change that.

“Fine but you have to promise to help me here and buy me lunch. Especially since we don’t have breakfast.”

“You have me for…” I glanced down at my watch. “One more hour before I need to go.”

“Fine,” he said, reaching into the toolbox and handing me a hammer. “We have a wall to tear down, grab a hard hat.”

Honestly, physical labor was exactly what I needed. Destroying a wall was the perfect form of therapy.

By the time my alarm went off to let me know that I had to leave, we had torn down the whole wall and loaded the debris into the dumpster out back. I was covered in a sheen of sweat and I could honestly use a shower, but I felt a lot lighter.

“Let’s go, Leo,! I yelled out as I tossed down the hammer and wiped the sweat from my brow. “It’s time for me to introduce you to my omega.”

He rolled his eyes but dropped his own tools in the box. I waited while he locked up and followed me out. I climbed into his SUV and didn’t bother to hide my own grin.

“I just have a quick stop,” he warned me, stopping a few doors down from Whitaker Brews. My eyebrows raised but I didn’t question it, watching as he had a conversation with the man walking out of the bar.

Then Maverick joined. I would back up Leo, but I knew he had this… not to mention I didn’t want to see Maverick right now.

A few minutes later he was climbing back in, muttering about obnoxious alphas. I really hoped this didn’t affect his opinion of Sidney.

As we drove through town towards The Landing all I could think about was this was it. This was the turning point and I couldn’t fuck up my chances.

Scent or no scent… she was mine.