Hearts of Deceit (ManxMan)

Ch 3: Too Perfect

I thought it had to be some kind of weird fever dream, something unique to my experience coming across a random well-off alpha in the middle of nowhere Oregon in the parking lot of a questionable gas station. Even more-so an alpha who was actually interested in me. As it so happened, Joe did this kind of thing often. Picked up pretty little omegas after long evening drives out into quiet corners of the state. I did mention that I was in fact, not an omega.

"It doesn't hurt to try something different," he had told me over a glass of expensive looking wine at an expensive looking Italian restaurant while I self-consciously fiddled with the cuffs of the expensive looking tailored suit he had bought me. "I've had plenty of omegas. Why not try something new?"

It hurt, if I'm being honest. It hurt a lot. 

I was some dumb kid from some obscure neighborhood in New York. Barely a man, as Vinnie so often liked to point out. This was something way out of my league. He was way out of my league. I had never dated. I had always imaged it would be with another delta, I'd be the one buying them little roses and chocolates with the little honest money I would make from my mechanic shop. We'd spend the Friday nights listening to Eagles records and a little bit of Billy Joel. This obviously wasn't the relationship in my head. 

Joseph Darling. Third son of Clarissa and Robert Darling. They owned some fancy Newspaper under the title of Satfon News and a geopolitics forecasting firm. His oldest brother, Benjamin Darling (I was told saying his full first name was important; not that it mattered since I never got to meet him) worked as a senior member at the firm. His other brother, Gavin Darling, was some big-shot lawyer in Houston. Clarissa was a beautiful omega from a long line of pure omegas. Robert was your standard old-money, alpha patriarch. Suffice to say, they were an important family in Oregon and in the western United States. 

"You've really never heard of us?" Joe would smirk and gave an annoyingly charming laugh. 

"I guess it hurts your little bougie soul, huh?" I shot back. We were driving down a long stretch of highway. Joe had refused to tell me where we were going.

"Bougie, huh?" he scoffed. "And what are you? The oppressed proletariat? Should I be worried about whether or not you own a guillotine?" 

The corner of my lip quirked up as I gave him an eye-role. "Maybe."

He chuckled, and I could feel his eyes on me but I was looking out through the window. We had been seeing each other for two months up to that point. I didn't know what exactly it was that we had. He kept a relationship going for at least a few months before breaking it off. The sudden thought twisted up something inside of me. An uncomfortable silence settled. I watched with a sense of morbidness as endless fields passed by us, part of me wishing that this could last for a little bit longer. 

A two hour nap in a car ride later, we were hiking through a trail of Mount Saint Helens National Park. 

"What an idea for a date, Darling," I muttered out with the hope that my sarcasm was dripping through each word. I pushed away a branch as I pressed on after him. "You tryin' to tell me something about my weight? Looked in the mirror lately?"

That was a lie of course. The psychopath jogged every morning. 

"Shut it, Fitzroy," he shot back but I could hear the laughter in his voice. Bastard thought this was hilarious. 

I, of course, refused to shut it. For the next half hour as we made a grueling trek up a slope, I let him know exactly how I felt about him waking me up at 5 am in the morning and taking me up a mountain. 

"Christ have mercy. You're worse than an omega." 

"Casual sexism, huh? You're really earning yourself all the dick-wad points today."