The next day, when Payton and I stepped into the laundry room to start our shift, Sabine was already there, shoving towels into one of the large machines.

“Good morning guys!” she chirped in her loud, cheery manner. “Did you sleep well?”

“Like a log,” I said with a smile. “But why are you here?”

“I had nothing else to do, and I wanted to get to know you guys a little better,” she said and slammed the hatch shut, causing Payton to jump next to me. “Oh, shoot. Sorry, dear.”

Payton gave her a timid smile and waved his hand dismissively. I patted his back, then went to get a large bag full of laundry from the already large pile we had.

“So? How’s your first few days here been?” Sabine asked as we got to work.

I did most of the talking in the next hour or so. At first, I was a little nervous about talking to her, but she was actually quite fun to talk to. She made a lot of jokes and asked easy, light questions like did we like the food, did we have everything we needed, if we’d met her other employees and had they treated us well. She did throw in a few more personal questions, like how old we were, and had we always lived in this city.

I did expect her to ask about our clan and stuff like that, but she seemed to stay away from mentioning that part of our life. We appreciated that. Payton and I hadn’t really talked about our clan even with each other, and I had the feeling we were both actively avoiding that topic. I guess we both needed some time to recover from what happened first.

The cheery conversation ended when we were trying to load up the next batch of laundry, but realized we’d used up our last bottle of laundry detergent.

“Payton, dear, could you go check if there’s more detergent in the storage?” Sabine asked him.

“Oh, sure,” he said, and gave me a timid glance, but I smiled at him soothingly.

“You remember where it is? It’s just down the hallway,” I told him.

“Yeah, yeah… Sure,” he said, and straightened his posture like he was going to war. “I’ll find it.”

“Good boy,” I told him with a chuckle, and watched him leave the laundry room. Once he was gone, I turned back to Sabine. “I guess you want to talk to me in private?”

Sabine looked confused. “No?”

“Oh. I thought… Since you sent Payton away…” I said, watching her carefully, but she just laughed and waved her hand at me.

“I don’t think that boy is ready to be left alone with me just yet,” she said, chuckling. “He’ll get there, but not yet.”

“Oh. Right,” I said. “I think you’re right…”

“I’m pretty good at reading people,” she said with a smug smile, tapping the side of her nose. “Anyway. Did you guys have fun last night?”

“Yeah, we did,” I told her with a smile.

“You found Lucas?”

“Yeah…” I said, smiling at the sound of that name, and grabbed another pillowcase from the pile. “He asked if you’re treating us right.”

Sabine laughed loudly. “That darn kid knows I’ll take good care of you two!”

I chuckled as well. “He’s very kind… He’s done so much for us already… But he still promised to try to find our friend who’s been looking for us…”

“He did, huh…?” Sabine said slowly, and I could feel her sharp eyes studying me.

I glanced at her, and she gave me a knowing smile.

“He’s not your type,” she said.

“W-what?” I asked in shock. “Oh! No, no, no, no… It’s… It’s nothing like that.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, and grabbed a pillowcase as well. “But that’s good then. Because he would never be able to make you happy.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with a frown. “He seems like a great guy.”

“It’s nothing like that, huh?” she asked, again giving me a knowing smirk.

I felt a blush rising on my cheeks and turned to stare at the pillowcase in my hands. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think he’s interested in me, anyway.”

“Honey…” she said, and waited until I looked at her. “Don’t worry about him. He’s not your true mate. He’s a good man, but you would never be happy with him. Content maybe, but happy? No.”

“What do you mean?” I asked again.

“I’ve only known you for a few days, but I can already tell some things about you. What I’ve seen so far makes me think you have a protector omega, maybe even aggressive omega, but those two types share a lot of traits so it’s hard for me to tell just yet,” she said and took a pause before she continued. “Lucas… He’s a caretaker. He has a heart of gold. He always wants to help everyone. He wants to take care of everyone. You and Lucas don’t really match. I believe he’d be a better mate for Payton. He’d take good care of him.”

“But I want to be taken care of, too,” I noted, but she shook her head. 

“He would do everything for you. You wouldn’t have to lift a finger to get what you want. You’d have a lazy life of luxury and leisure if you were his mate,” she said.

“And why would that not make me happy?” I asked.

“Because there is fire in you,” she said, poking me in my chest. “You don’t want your mate to do everything for you. You’d get bored! No, no, no, no… You need a special kind of alpha who can give you a special kind of life.”

“And what is that?” I asked with a chuckle. 

“Who knows,” she said with a grin. “But it will be special.”

“Can’t wait to see it,” I said, but sighed. “Alphas don’t really care about me… I’m too tall…”

“That’s not it,” she said sternly. “There is too much spirit in you for those little boys to handle. Their alphas can tell this is one hell of an omega, and they don’t have the balls to try their luck. But there will be an alpha for you, too.”

“I don’t feel too fiery or spirited,” I noted and laughed lightly. “I’m just… me. And I’m…”

I let my smile fade away…

“What?” she asked.

“I’m scared, too,” I whispered. “I’m constantly scared, but I try to pretend I’m not. For Payton.”

“It’s not about how scared we are,” Sabine said quietly. “It’s about how well we can control our fear. It’s about getting shit done even if you’re shitting your pants.”

I had to laugh again. “That’s only because I have to take care of Payton.”

“And that makes you strong,” she said in a warm manner. “But you don’t have to be afraid anymore. We’re here to take care of you guys.”

I smiled at her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said gently. “But trust me, your alpha will come. You just have to stay patient because there will be a special alpha just for you. Someone who won’t smother your fire. Someone who won’t treat you as a simple little mate he needs to take care of. You need an alpha who nurtures that fire and lets it burn bright.”

I nodded slowly and turned back to my pile of laundry deep in my thoughts. What did I want from my alpha…? That question had never even crossed my mind. I’d always just assumed I’d accept the first decent alpha there was, no matter his type. But… Should I be looking for a certain type? But what could it be?

“You think I’m a protector omega?” I asked Sabine.

“I saw you last night yelling at those drunk idiots,” Sabine said, and laughed loudly. “Boy, you have balls! You weren’t even afraid of ME when I barged into your home!”

I chuckled at her. “It did take me a minute to get used to your loud mouth, though.”

“That was way less time than people normally need,” she said with a grin. “But I do think you have a protector omega. It’s usually an alpha type, but I’ve known plenty of omegas who are that type as well, and you remind me of them.”

“Huh… I’ve never thought about what type I am,” I admitted.

“You’re still young and still looking for yourself, but I know I’m not far off,” she said gently, and patted my shoulder.

“Sure,” I said with a chuckle. “But you may be wrong about Lucas and Payton. There’s this guy, Atticus, who has set his eyes on Payton.”

“Atticus?” Sabine said with a frown, but after a moment of thinking, she nodded a few times. “I guess I can see that, but only if he won’t scare Payton away. He is brash and hot-headed, but he’s a good kid. For a mafioso.”

“So… It may not work out between them?”

She sneered a little. “Their types match really well, but they are at the opposite ends of that line. The difference may be too much for Payton.”

“Right. He did say he’s scared of him,” I said.

“We’ll see, I suppose,” she said, then chuckled a little, shaking her head. “Atticus… It’s so good to have the kids back home… Good and absolutely disastrous… We won’t get bored anytime soon…”

“Well, if you say it like that, I’d definitely want to meet more of them,” I said with a grin.

“See? That’s what I’m talking about! You’d get bored with guys like Lucas! You need excitement and fire and sparks!” Sabine said with a bigger grin. 

I chuckled. “Yeah, yeah…”

“You’ll see,” she said knowingly, and winked at me. “But now we should go find Payton.”

“Yeah, it’s taking way too long,” I said and tossed my pillowcase back on top of the pile.

I marched to the door, pushed it open, and nearly ran poor Payton over. We both got spooked and jumped back, then started laughing at the same time.

“Why are you eavesdropping here?” I asked.

“I wasn’t! I just… I didn’t want to interrupt…” he mumbled.

He was hugging three big bottles of laundry detergent against his chest. I assumed he’d heard a lot of our conversation, but it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have told him later, anyway.

“Come on in,” I told him, and pulled him inside the laundry room.

We got back to work like nothing happened, but when Sabine had to go help someone else almost an hour later, Payton finally brought up what he’d heard while eavesdropping.

“So… Sabine thinks Atticus and I… would be a good match…?” he spoke carefully.

“Yeah, it seemed like that. She thinks he’s a good kid,” I said encouragingly.

“But it won’t happen if I’m scared of him,” he said quietly.

“You two may be too different, yeah,” I repeated what Sabine said.

He nodded slowly, lowering his gaze to a towel he was folding. “Do you think… I could learn to be brave? Like you?”

I had to hug him. He was such an adorable little thing…

“I think you can be whatever you want to be,” I murmured while holding him tightly against my chest.

“I want to be brave. I feel like I’m still just a little kid… But I’m older than you, for crying out loud!”

I chuckled at his annoyance. “Well, to be fair, it has a lot to do with your omega. It’s always scared of everything…”

“Well I want it to stop being so afraid all the time as well,” he grunted.

“I know you can learn to be brave, yeah. You are stronger than you think. I know you are,” I told him. “But you know I will always protect you, right?”

He nodded and hugged me tightly. “I just… I don’t want to be so afraid all the time… And… I kind of… maybe… would like to get to know Atticus a little better…”

I smiled wider at his words. “He does seem like a good guy. And he’s cute.”

“I know, right…?” he mumbled, sighed, then pulled back to look at me. “It’s not just because of him. I want to protect you, like you’re always protecting me.”

Now I wondered if he’d heard what I said about me being scared, too…

“You are the sweetest, you know that?” I asked.

He wrinkled his nose at me. “I want to be the bravest.”

I laughed lightly at his words and hugged him one more time. “You will be the bravest person in the entire world!”

He laughed as well and let me hold him a little bit longer before we went back to work.

And honestly… I suddenly didn’t feel so afraid anymore. I’d been scared ever since we had to leave our clan, but now, for the first time since we ended up on our own, I had faith in us. We’d be just fine without our clan as long as we stayed together.