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‘Look, I know I said have fun and all, but there’s one thing you have to avoid doing at all costs, okay?’ Sarina’s friend Aysha told her the night before the new Asim head’s inauguration party.
Sarina frowned at her, in the middle of the process of braiding her hair.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
Aysha took a deep breath.
‘No matter what you do, don’t hit on Mr. Al-Asim’s mate. Trust me, that man may be hot, but he is not worth it.’
Sarina had met Aysha last summer during a training course in the Queendom of Roses. They’d hit it off right away and at the end of the course Aysha had invited her to spend next summer at her place. The omega girl had eagerly accepted the invitation and was surprised to find when she arrived that Aysha was, well, ridiculously rich. Her friend had taken her to all kinds of places that she would never have gotten the chance to visit otherwise, including the party they would go to tomorrow.
‘Of course I won’t,’ Sarina promised dismissively, ‘I’m not stupid you know.’
‘Okay,’ Aysha said, relieved. ‘Good.’
Aysha was worrying over nothing. The new Asim head and his alpha mate would obviously be super old, right? Sarina had no interest in that, thank you very much, and she was hardly a gold digger.
(By this time tomorrow night, Sarina would be cursing herself for not thinking to ask Aysha what the pair actually looked like.)
‘Why do rich people have to have such huge houses?’ Sarina complained bitterly, plopping herself down onto the nearest chair and observing her surroundings hopelessly.
After a quick emergency trip to the bathroom, she found herself split up from her friend. Though the sensible thing to do would probably have been to wait for her right there, Sarina had been confident she’d find her quickly enough… aaand promptly gotten herself hopelessly in the tangled maze that were the mansion’s corridors.
‘I often ask that question myself.’
The omega whipped her head around at the sound of the man’s voice, startled. The person who’d addressed her was an alpha, she assumed about her age, and stunningly attractive. Sarina found herself smiling at him automatically.
Tonight might just be the best night of her life.
Kalim Al-Asim’s night was not going well. He had just spent the past hour or so dealing with some of the most unpleasant people he’d ever had the displeasure of meeting, wasted half the evening trying to mediate the petty disputes they started over everything and now he couldn’t find his mate anywhere.
Biting his lip, the omega looked around the crowded room one more time to check Jamil wasn’t there and set off back down the corridor.
‘He wouldn’t just leave without telling me, right?’ Kalim muttered to himself.
They had both spent far too long planning this and making sure nothing would go wrong for Jamil to back out halfway through. Though he’d certainly done that before, making his excuses to leave whenever his patience got worn down too much or somebody managed to piss him off to the point not leaving would end in some kind of scandal before the night was over. But Jamil had never left without telling Kalim anything before, so he had to still be around somewhere.
It was just.. a little harder to find him than usual.
After leaving behind the rooms packed with people, the omega came to the less crowded part of the mansion, with more guests scattered around.
Kalim sighed and looked around slowly.
He froze completely when his gaze stopped on his alpha. His alpha with an omega girl, who was clearly making eyes at him.
‘Come on, you-’ she was saying.
Jamil held his hand up and said something that Kalim couldn’t quite make out in an annoyed tone.
After a few moments standing utterly still, Kalim moved towards the two, keeping a deliberately friendly smile on his face.
‘Look, I told you to stop already. I’m not interested in little girls.’
Sarina drew back in shock, eyes wide. She stared at the alpha, first confused, then indignant.
‘Little girl?’ she spluttered.
Before she could say anything else, someone else approached them. An omega with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes came to stand between the two. Sarina turned her glare on him for interrupting.
To her surprise, the omega ignored her entirely and turned his attention to the man she’d been trying her hardest to flirt with for the past ten or so minutes.
‘Jamil! I finally found you! Where have you been?’ he said, first throwing both his arms around the dark haired alpha, then pulling back a little.
‘I should be the one saying that, Kalim,’ the other answered, annoyance quickly fading away into fondness with a faint hint of exasperation. ‘You’re the one who disappeared halfway through a conversation.’
‘I know, I’m sorry! I kind of got pulled away and then couldn’t find you again. Oh, but who’s this you were talking to?’
Still smiling, the omega turned to Sarina.
‘Hi, I don’t think know you? I’m Kalim Al-Asim and this is my mate, Jamil. It’s nice to meet you.’
Suddenly struck with a mortifying realisation, Sarina lost all colour in her face. She remembered her friend’s words from the night before.
‘No matter what you do, don’t hit on Mr. Al-Asim’s mate. Trust me, that man may be hot, but he is not worth it.’
‘Nice,’ she swallowed, trying not to stumble over her words. ‘Nice to meet you too.’
Kalim slipped his hand into Jamil’s and began to lead him away. Jamil rolled his eyes, but didn’t protest the intent pulling.
‘I hope you have fun tonight!’ Kalim said, warm smile never fading.
(Somehow, it didn’t feel very friendly to Sarina at all.)
‘Y-yeah, of course.’
As soon as the pair were out sight, Sarina’s knees buckled and she found herself sitting right there on the floor.
She had made such a fool of herself.
‘You didn’t have to scare that girl like that, you know.’
‘I didn’t do anything to her!’
‘Sure you didn’t. Just intimidated her to the point she began to look like she’d pass out.’
‘Well, it’s not like she didn’t deserve it, flirting with you like that. She was making you uncomfortable. And anyway, she shouldn’t have hit on someone who’s already mated! Jamil is mine!’
‘Yeah, yeah. I know.’
‘Besides… I only scared her a little. Jamil does much worse when he gets jealous.’
‘I suppose that’s fair. At least she wasn’t stupid enough to keep going after she found out.’
‘Hmm.. remember last time this happened?’
‘Don’t remind me about that, Kalim. I’m getting mad just thinking about it.’
‘What did he call you again? A bad alpha?’
‘…I know what you’re trying to do here Kalim, but you’ll just have to wait until later.’
‘So you don’t want to ditch the party?’
‘Later, Kalim. Your guests are still waiting for you.’
‘Aww, okay…’
Just as they stopped before a closed door, Kalim leaned in to whisper in his alpha’s ear:
‘You didn’t need to be so worried then, you know. I’m yours too. I don’t want anyone else.’
And Jamil smiled back at him.
‘I know, Kalim.’