It takes her a moment to work out the right grip, but soon she manages to get some meat on her fork and take a bite without stabbing herself in the face.
“Mm!” Her eyes sparkle as she chews. “It tastes like you smell!” she chirps, taking another bite.
That’s … interesting. “How do I smell?”
Auryn smacks her lips and taps the fork against her temple in thought. “Like … spice. This spice.” She lifts her plate, gesturing to the food before stuffing another large bite in her mouth. Her eyes roll back in her head, and she moans. “And like Gage. You smell like spice and Gage. Like … mate, but not mate.”
“I smell like chili powder and Gage … Like …” The blood drains from my face as I realize that, even after I’ve showered, Auryn can smell Gage on me.
And she can smell that we’ve been together.
“Why do you smell like him?” she asks around another mouthful of food. Her tone is more one of idle curiosity than nosiness, like she truly doesn’t understand the concept of males having sex with each other.
Oh, no. How do I explain this?
“Uh, well, you see … Gage and I, well, the whole pack actually, we don’t have an omega of our own. A mate. Er, yet, anyway. But sometimes … Sometimes alphas need to, um … We need to relieve the tension. And since Gage and I get along, and we like each other, we help each other in … that way.”
The whole time I’m stammering, she’s eating. She gorges herself like she’s been starved–which I know she hasn’t, at least not since she got here–but somehow it’s the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a while. My brow starts to sweat, and I get a strong whiff of lemongrass and clean air, so strong it overpowers the chili powder in the tamales.
Auryn’s perfuming. At dinner. Barely an hour after receiving a second suppressant injection.
“Auryn, do you know what you’re doing right now?”
So much of what she’s said about alphas and omegas is just wrong, and I wonder if she’s even conscious of her actions. Does she know when she’s perfuming, when she’s signaling a potential mate? Does she even know that’s what perfuming is for?
Does she know what her aroma is doing to me?
Rather than answer me, Auryn busies herself with licking her husk clean of every last ounce of chili powder. I swallow hard and clear my throat.
“You, uh, liked it, then?”
She tosses the plate on the rug and nods, licking her soft, pink lips. “Mm-hm. I like … What did you call it? Chili powder?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes.” Her expression changes, morphing from the satisfaction of a full tummy to something else. Somethinghungry. “I like chili powder. I think it might be my new favorite food.”
I don’t want to take advantage of Auryn. Ireallydon’t. She’s sweet and damaged, fractured in a way that I’m only just beginning to understand. At the same time, though, I’m starting to suspect that she’s about to take advantage of me. The way her lids have hooded her eyes, the way she’s exuding pheromones, the dilated pupils, the drape of her t-shirt over her stiff nipples …
Oh, fuck. Gage is definitely going to murder me.
While I stand there like a horny idiot, Auryn advances. She pulls up the hem of her shirt, exposing her toned belly, which is lined with precise surgical scars. Exposing the curve of her breasts.
“Auryn–”
The plate I’d forgotten I was holding crashes against the wall as Auryn rips it from my hands and tosses it.
“You’re not like other alphas,” she says, pressing her bare chest into me. “You’re … good. Kind. I like you.”
“I like you, too, Auryn, but–”
Her hand on my mouth cuts off my response. She traces my lips with her fingertips, her own lips parting as her tongue darts out to lick them. A soft whine emits from her throat, and she presses even closer. “I want to taste you.”
“Auryn, we shouldn’t.”
She shoves her other hand between us, cupping my cock in her palm. “Why not? You said you don’t have a mate. That you have needs. I have needs, too. I don’t–I don’t have a mate.” Darkness flashes across her eyes, replaced almost instantly with an unbridled lust. “I want to mate. To mate you.”
Shit.
