The bear huffed and grunted excitedly, swinging his head back and forth until his brown eyes caught sight of me. He lumbered in my direction like an over-excited puppy, knocking me off my feet and rubbing his smaller body all over me, blending our scents together.
I should have knocked him off, pushed to my feet and taken a step back but I didn’t. Instead, I allowed Dex to take his fill, only nudging him off me when he straddled my side and began nuzzling my neck. When the gentle nudge I gave him didn’t dislodge him, I shoved my body weight up, realizing my error at once when my bear chuffed his delight at the intimate pressure of the Omega’s bulk against our quickly engorging member. I’d be the last to claim I’d remained celibate during my time in prison, but you can be damned sure they separated the Alphas from everyone else inside. It had been over seven years since I’d been exposed to Omega pheromones and they were creeping up my nostrils, flooding me with urges I wasn’t sure I could fight.
And Dex wasn’t holding back. He was purring and rubbing his plush red-gold fur against me. The contact stimulated his scent glands to release more of his intoxicating pheromones, triggering the urge to claim that I’d been fighting since he first presented as Omega at sixteen. Then, when Dex nipped at my neck, I lost my tenuous grip on my bear, unable to do anything but surrender to my nature and pin the Omega to the forest floor.
I slid deep inside his presented channel, barely even registering the slick that eased the way, hunching over and humping into Dex until my climax pounded through my veins. I roared out in satisfaction when Dex’s slick heat clamped down on my burgeoning knot and began to throb, milking another climax from me as he whimpered, his tight hole pulsing greedily as we collapsed in a heap of sticky fur on the leaf-littered ground.
The cool night air was loud with the sound of our panting when I finally forced myself to roll off Dex, prodding him to be sure I didn'thurt him and rolling my eyes when he inched one eye open and then slammed it shut when he saw me watching him.
Rising to my feet, I chuffed at him, calling him to follow me back to the house. If I couldn’t avoid Dex, my next solution would be to try and make him see why he shouldn’t be seen with me. To explain that he needed to forget this had happened so we could go our separate ways.
Chapter One
Five weeks later
Dex
When the knocking started, I groaned into the pillow over my head. “Go away!”
The racket stopped only to be replaced by the vibration of my phone ringing in silent mode on the nightstand. At leastthatI could deal with from the comfort of my bed.
“What?” I snarled in the general direction of the phone after swiping to answer it in speaker mode.
“What do you meanwhat?” my best friend, Taylor, snapped back. “You were supposed to meet me at the park hours ago, dickhead!”
I was? Screwing one eye open, I groaned when I saw the time on my alarm clock. Four in the afternoon. Where the fuck had my entire day gone?
“Sorry, Tay,” I said with a sigh. “I’m fighting a bug, and I must have silenced my alarm when it rang.”
There was a long silence before my friend spoke again, sounding a little concerned. “You’re still in bed? Have you eaten anything?”
“No. This is the first time I’ve even been aware of waking up.” I yawned, struggling to sit up. “Give me a minute and I’ll open the door.”
There was another long pause before Taylor responded. “You do that, boo. Then, while you shower, I’ll order us some food, mkay?”
My stomach growled. “You’re the best, Tay. I really am sorry I stood you up.”
This time there was a little sigh through the speaker. “I know, boo. Hop on up and let’s get this dinner started.”
By the time I showered and dressed in a snuggly plush lounge set, Taylor was done sifting through the bags of food and dished me up a large bowl of hot and sour soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant. For the first time that I could remember, my go-to under-the-weather cure failed me. My butt barely even hit the wooden chair seat before my stomach revolted and I bolted for the bathroom.
I wiped my mouth and flushed the toilet before dropping to rest my cheek on the toilet seat.
“Well, that’s gross,” Taylor said with a little snort.
“Is puking ever not gross?”
“I was talking about you putting your face on the toilet seat.”
I was too wrung out to do more than shrug. “It’s clean.”
I heard my friend moving around behind me, then water trickling into the sink. A cool, wet cloth blotted against my neck and wiped gently over my cheeks.
“Feels good. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Taylor continued to wipe my neck and face with the cool cloth for several minutes before he spoke again. “Dex, how long has this been going on?”
“I dunno. A couple of weeks, maybe?”
