Footsteps approached, and Demi pushed in front of Marge with a grin plastered on her lips.
“You’ll have Alphas salivating,” Demi commented, stopping in front of me, reaching toward my waist. She smoothed the folded waistband of the sheer skirt. I tensed, studying her smile. She patted my hip and met my eyes.
“Just don’t mess with mine.” Her lips quirked.
The warning was clear in her eyes. Instead of answering, I smiled. It seemed to bother her more than anything I could have said. Her nose slightly wrinkled.
“Are you close to your heat?” My smile melted away like butter. “You’re going to drive those guys wild out there with your pheromones.” A vise fixed itself around my throat. “Marge, would you do me a fav and ask one of the guards to get her water?” Demi smiled politely.
Marge’s teeth audibly clicked, and she sniffed, flouncing away toward the exit. The other two Betas that had been in the room were gone.
“I have some Repressitol.” My eyes flew to Demi’s. I sniffed her, and her sweet Omega smell burned my nose. “I don’t take it. I just have it for emergencies.” She huffed as if I offended her. “Come.”
She strutted back to her vanity with me trailing behind her. If she had the hard shit, it would push back my looming heat. The only way I could garner a bit more time to hide. Repressitol was addictive and potentially deadly . . . but I’d risk it.
Demi opened her drawer with tons of makeup and reached inside, flipping her hand upside down. She pulled away with a clear tube with the pure, extracted suppressant. The crystallized granules inside seemed to glitter.
She handed it to me with a small smile. I rolled the little vial between my fingers, mesmerized by the pinks and pearly shimmers. My stomach squeezed with anxiety, but I exhaled sharply and popped the top. Unlike suppressants, which took a bit of time to hit the system, this was immediate. Demi continued chattering about how she used to go out on the platform to auction off her heat before she went steady with the Greymont Pack.
I tuned her out. I’d heard of all sorts of ways to take it, but one of the quickest ways for it to hit the system was through a needle to a vein. Since I didn’t have it, I tipped half the contents over on the back of my hand.
“If I’m close to my heat and working a shift at The Bordello, I take a pinky nail amount to shove it back—What the fuck! That’s way too much,” she hissed.
I sniffed up the rest of the contents on my skin. It left a shimmery residue.
She snatched the vial from my hand and lifted it with a scoff. “You took half of it—are you crazy?” She spat.
Her voice floated away from me, as if the noise was suctioned out of my ears. A pulse throbbed in my temple, once, twice . . . then it left.
“They’re waiting on her,” Marge’s voice interjected as if from far away. It was a floating voice, like a rubber band snapping.
I blinked repeatedly and saw Demi roll her eyes, her curly hair bouncing around her apple cheekbones.
“I’ll show you to the entrance.” Marge’s voice was so close, then she appeared next to me.
“Are you magic?” I breathed. Marge took my arm, and I was a limp noodle, so all I could do was stagger after her.
“What?” She shook her head. “Never mind, hurry. Alphas don’t like to be kept waiting.”
I scoffed. Fuck Alphas and their big ass egos.Pendejos.
“My Scent Matches you mean,” I groused, wobbling on my heels, gripping onto Marge’s arm harder.
“Scent Matches?”
I pressed my finger against her lips. “Shhh.” She sputtered, and her spit got on my finger. I wrinkled my nose and swiped it off on my brassier.
“Are you okay?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed.
“Do you think they’ll think my scars are ugly?” I twirled to show her my back.
She sucked in a breath. “What happened to you? Did they do that?—”
“Shhh,” I said, getting close to her face.
I grinned, and the black walls blended and blurred into each other. Everything looked the same.
“Maybe you shouldn’t go in there?—”
