Chapter 3
Karson looks around the ballroom barely able to conceal his disdain. The place is crammed with wealthy Elites and their spouses and children. The scents permeating the room were muted, everyone seems to either wear champagne, vanilla or soft wood scent patches, as the unspoken rule of superficially polite society dictates..
In an act of rebellion he has refused to cover his chocolate scent. Let the others deal with it, they think he is an uncultured upstart anyway. His eyes narrow as he observes the moneyed elite of the City.
They are, one and all, insufferable and stuck up but especially the omegas are something he just cannot deal with.
He has never met one who wouldn’t look at him with absolute contempt simply because he has spent the last ten years working and studying day and night to make it to where he is.
He might be worth a fortune now but that did not impress these people with their wealth going back generations. On the contrary, they seem to take pride in the fact that all they ever do is spend the money the ones before them accumulated and act as if working for a living was beneath them.
He and Kirk have spent a decade on too little sleep, too much cheap ramen and cold coffee to get where they are now.
He will not have his achievements invalidated by high society oxygen thieves. Even now, as two of the richest and most successful men in the country, they were viewed as inferior, as if working to earn money is a source of shame.
He spots one or two omegas, to him they look weak and insipid, like a mere breeze would blow them over. They are dripping in diamonds and pearls, fawning over some old alphas who cannot keep their hands to themselves. So far he has only heard stories about Zara Storme, he hasn’t seen her before.
Rumour has it that she is a spoiled diva who would ignore anyone trying to speak to her, not even returning a cordial nod.
Karson glances across the ballroom, trying to spot his girlfriend at the bar. He hopes she will not get drunk too early into the evening, she becomes quite a handful when too much alcohol is involved.
She is a good looking omega, belonging to one of the oldest families in the City, her mother once having been crowned Miss USA in her youth.
Most days he doesn't mind her vacuous ramblings about the latest fashion or what celebrity she has seen at the country club, but tonight he is not in the right frame of mind for it.
Work has been all consuming of late and every time she drags him off to one of these gala events, supposedly so he can network, he loses a little more of his patience with her. Just when he sees her walking back towards him, a brightly coloured drink in one hand and a glass of whisky he is sure will be the wrong brand in the other, a woman comes out from behind the potted plant he is standing in front of.
Karson gets a whiff of some generic champagne scent, much like what he is used to smelling at these events where everyone wears scent patches. But the woman walking past him is anything but generic, somehow her beauty and her scent seem to be completely mismatched.
They are about the same height but that’s where the similarities end. The stranger has caramel coloured hair, golden skin and moves with a fluid grace that makes it seem as if she is gliding over the marble floor. Black tailored dress skirt hugged an impossibly small waist and a dark blue silk top flowed over her torso like a waterfall.
Karson nods a silent greeting that is not returned. The woman merely moves past him without any acknowledgment and walks across the ballroom towards a small fat older man who looks at her with a disapproving expression.
“That’s her, arrogant bitch,” mumbles a woman.
“What do you mean?” Karson still stares at the woman, who is now having a somewhat heated conversation with the bald man.
“That’s Zara Storme, the one we were talking about earlier.” He replies with disdain in his voice.
“She had a good offer from an alpha to mate her and led him around by the nose for months. Gave him hope that they would be together for the rest of their lives just to snatch it away in the end and renege on her promise. She’s completely soulless, if you ever look into her eyes there’s nothing but emptiness there. She’s not worth breathing the same air as us.”
The alpha takes another swig of his drink and shakes his head. “Anyway, enough about that useless waste of space. How’s business going?”
Karson gives one last glance at the omega who is now leaving the room through the north entrance. What a shame that all these omegas were so arrogant and entitled, but it is probably the moon goddess way to even out the odds - great beauty offset by a rotten personality.