1
Mal
Mal nudged the door of the storage closet closed with his heel, careful not to make a sound, and fumbled in his inner suit jacket pocket for the heat blockers he’d secured in plastic wrap. He found a vibrator instead. It was discreet—shaped like a USB stick, and indistinguishable from one upon first glance. Mal didn’t need to look at it to know what he’d found. Over the last few months, his fingers had become accustomed to the touch of its silicone and the intensity of its vibrations.
The stimulation phase may have several side effects, Mr. Collins, especially the third time around,Dr. Kanna, his IVF specialist, had told him as she handed him his prescription.Short, unpredictable, and frequent bouts of heat are to be anticipated. You’ll want to make sure you carry your blockers with you at all times. If you so much as suspect that you are coming into season, I’d advise you take them. There are no risks to your general health should you over-medicate as long as you’ve already started your fertility treatment.
No risks, sure, but a heat was still a heat. Blockers would prevent an omega from losing his mind to lust during his fertile period, but they did nothing to prevent that lust from manifesting in other ways.
Trembling and horny beyond belief, Mal was more aware than ever of what those ways were. It had never been so bad before.
Why now?
Mal squeezed his eyes shut, trying to do away with the aching need inside, but it would not be ignored. Playing dumb wouldn’t help his case—he knew why this time was different than it had been before. Dr. Kanna had warned him against stacking treatments so closely together, but time was running out. The unpredictable waves of heat were worth it if he could have just one more shot…
Would the vibrator be enough to tide him over until his blockers took effect and his whirlwind heat subsided?
He couldn’t tell.
A steady breath in, a steady breath out. Mal opened his eyes and shook out his shoulders, doing his best to calm himself down.
Whether the vibrator was enough or not didn’t matter. It wouldhaveto be.
His fingers curled around the silicone in his palm, clutching it tight, before his fingers explored deeper into his pocket. An audible breath rushed from his nose, labored and desperate. Below the vibrator was the ball of plastic he’d wrapped his pills in. He snagged it, removing it alongside the vibrator. Hands trembling, he tore the plastic film apart and plucked the pills from inside.
One.
Two.
Swallow.
They left a bitter, chemical taste on his tongue. He had no water to wash it down. In the banquet hall beyond the doors of the storage closet, waiters in black tuxedos circled with silver trays on which were placed crystal flutes of champagne… but to get to those flutes, Mal would have to make his way through the crowds. Hundreds of people he didn’t know, and even worse, a few he did.
Omegas. Betas. Alphas.
He couldn’t risk it.
When his blockers took effect and dampened his heat, he’d think about coming out of hiding. Until then, he would keep to himself and do his best to calm himself down. As much as he wanted to be present at the reception, he didn’t want every guest in attendance to know that he was ready to be bred.
There was no garbage can in the storage room, so Mal dropped the torn ball of plastic wrap into a yellow mop bucket near his foot. Then, panicked over his situation, he slumped against the wall and closed his eyes. Even that small amount of movement was too much—his cock twitched, titillated by the way his boxer-briefs brushed against his skin.
“I’m screwed,” Mal whispered to the room. He ran his trembling hand through his hair, pushing back his curls. Despite his best efforts to straighten them, they were coming back in full force, leaving him with a mess of wavy, rebellious locks. “So totally screwed…”
Calm down.
Mal opened his eyes and focused on a point across the room—a shelf on which cleaning products were stored. He read the labels and scrutinized their designs in an attempt to redirect his thoughts. Paranoia often accompanied the early stages of heat, and, logically, he knew that it was what was blowing his situation out of proportion—but convincing his mind and heart of the same was a difficult, if not impossible, task.
There was one way out of this mess.
Mal’s fingers tightened.
The vibrator.
Arousal drifted through him like sand across the ocean floor—silent, spanning, and at the whims of his body’s currents. His thumb traced along the base of the vibrator until it found one of its tiny switches. There were two on the device—one side slid the USB stick from its protective barrier inside the silicone, and the other activated the vibrations.
Mal slid the switch nearest his thumb to the opposite side. The vibrator hummed to life.
In such a small room, the buzz of the tiny motor was startlingly loud. Mal squeezed his eyes closed, hoping he wouldn’t be heard, and tugged his belt open. His arousal stirred, then broadened itself, sweeping through him to make its demands known.
