Understudy [ABO] [MxF] [18+]

T W E L V E

Elias tried to concentrate on what the young woman in front of him was saying, but kept finding anything else in the room more interesting. She hardly took a breath between sentences and seemed quite content to keep the conversation going with no input on his end, so after a few more attempts to remain engaged, he gave up and decided to simply observe the people around him instead.

He had known coming to one of these mate candidate meetings was pointless. He had to at least give his mother some credit; the girl was pretty, and an omega apparently too. Her hair fell down her shoulders in perfect, smooth curls, and her face had a beautiful structure to it, resulting in the kind of beauty that made most men fall over in admiration. Even sitting in the restaurant, he noted that almost every other set of eyes was on her, male and female.

Yet he felt nothing.

Worse, he found himself looking for glimpses of her in the woman in front of him.

The way her cheek dimpled a little as she smiled, certain ways she pronounced words, the littlest of things brought Ally's face into his thoughts against his better judgement. 

"Are you bored?"

Elias snapped his eyes back to the woman in front of him, and suddenly realised she hadn't been speaking for a while. She was clearly unimpressed at his lack of attention, though he was fairly confident it was only because she was accustomed to a lot of it.

"A little," he confessed with a tight smile as he stood up. "I'm sorry I wasted your time tonight, but I don't think this will work out."

"Wait!" She called out and grabbed onto his arm, looking up at him with those doe-like eyes. He could feel all the eyes in the room watching them and forced himself not to immediately shake her off. "Are you not into the classy type? I thought since you were a doctor this would be your style. Do you prefer sexy? Or---"

"I don't have a type," Elias said as politely as he could. "I'm just not really interested in finding a mate right now. I made a deal that involved me coming here tonight, and I think I've been here long enough to fulfil that. Again, I apologise for wasting your time."

He pulled away smoothly as her grip on his arm loosened and made a beeline towards the door, only slowing as he passed their waiter to tell them to put the bill on his father's account.

As he drove home, Elias couldn't get the thoughts of Ally out of his head. Since his rut had ended, he had been doing better at not thinking about her. But since he had gone off the suppressants entirely, it was as though part of him was missing without her next to him. He felt stupid and dramatic and insane, but there was no denying that ache in his chest whenever he recalled her scent; that sweet, intoxicating honey-like aroma with a tingle of cinnamon. 

His phone rang the moment he pulled up at his house.

"You couldn't even pretend to consider it?" Poppy Conte sounded more amused than angry, but he still stiffened a little. She hadn't even bothered to greet him. Fairly typical.

"I prefer not to beat around the bush with these kinds of things," Elias replied, recalling his equally swift rejection of Allegra with a twinge of pain.

His mother scoffed, "You're just like your stubborn father. Seriously, I made sure to choose the prettiest girl on his shortlist for you, and you couldn't even spend a night with her."

"She wasn't that pretty," Elias grumbled.

Poppy gasped dramatically, "I told your father that letting you take those ridiculous suppressants was a bad idea. It's ruined your eyesight!"

"It wasn't the drugs that made me think that," Elias sighed, "now can you please just leave it? I'm tired and want to shower."

"I'll be arranging another match up for you for next weekend, just so you know."

"Please, don't."

"You're too handsome and too old to be by yourself anymore," Poppy said firmly. "I won't hear another no out of you. Atti can wait a few years at least, but you? You're nearly thirty! By the time I was your age, I already---"

"Enough, I get it! I'll go to another one if you really want, but the result will be the same as this one, I can promise you. I'm not interested in a mate, and it's not just because of the suppressants."

Poppy made a disappointed sound, "I promise, the next girl I pick will be perfect. I'll admit, that girl you saw tonight was a little too pretty for my taste anyway. Don't you worry about a thing, mother will pick the perfect girl for you this time."

Just as abruptly as she had started the call, his mother ended the conversation there. Elias took a deep breath and got out of the car, now even more exhausted and his thoughts even more filled with Ally than before.