CHAPTER 2
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The sheets around mewere thick with the smell of pumpkin and cinnamon, like a warm pumpkin pie or pumpkin spice latte. I rubbed my nose into them, trying to chase the scent until I felt awake enough to finally get out of bed. I was alone as I always was after waking up from having my heat serviced. This wasn’t anything new. Omegas who lived at the academy always woke up alone after their heats were serviced. But, for some reason, I couldn’t shake the sense of loneliness that was clinging to my insides this morning. Sitting up I let the sheets that smelled like an alpha pool around my hips as I took in my surroundings.
The rooms that were provided for omegas who lived at the academy to use during their heat were small and nest-like. The room was windowless and only contained one piece of furniture: a massive bed that took up most of the room. There were two doors, one that led into the hallway and the other to a tiny bathroom. Normally the room was kept pitch black until after the alpha signed out downstairs and left the premises. The identities of the omegas and alphas who used these rooms were kept completely anonymous by the academy. Once the alpha left a dim overhead light turned on and illuminated the room in a soft flow.
The sheets on the bed were white and were bleached after each use by the cleaning services that would come in after I left to sanitize the room and prepare it for the next omega who would be using the room. I’d been in this room, and rooms like it, ever since my first real heat at eighteen—when the toys had stopped being enough to help me ride through my heats (pun one hundred percent intended).
At that point, I asked Carolyn Smith, the academy guidance counselor, to sign me up for the heat services. In my most humble opinion, heat services were beneficial for all parties involved. I got to scratch my itch and the faceless alphas got to scratch theirs. I never knew exactly who was helping me through my heats and, frankly, I didn’t usually care all that much. The room was kept pitch black to preserve our anonymity, and the only hint at their identity that I would get from the hard bodies writhing against mine was their scents which—despite scrubbing with de-scenter before entering the room—always lingered at least a little bit at the end.
This time, however, I knew who my alpha was—because I had requested him for a second time. It didn’t happen often, but I think that Carolyn was hoping I’d get attached, and if my sadness over Pumpkin’s absence was any indication...I definitely was. He hadn’t said much to me either time that he had been with me, at least not that I can remember, except the occasional ‘good girl’ that still made my insides twist even though my heat had completely faded by now.
With one final deep inhale of the sheets, I rolled out of the bed and stumbled on wobbly legs into the bathroom. Pressing a hand over my eyes—because this wasn’t my first rodeo, and I refused to be blinded by the fluorescents today—and flicked the bright light on. I then took thirty seconds to lift the fingers away from my eyes one by one until I was only semi-blinded and blinking in the long mirror above the bathroom counter.
“Damn Tibby, you look rough,” I told my reflection in the mirror as I stared at my wild, red curls, which would be an absolute bitch to untangle after my shower. Tiny red scratches from Pumpkin’s beard were evident across my neck and breasts, and I could see little bruises on my sides where his fingers had dug in while he... I shuddered with pleasure at the memory but forced myself to get it together, “Get your shit together Tibby. You have too much shit to do today to sit around and reminisce.”
I had a nasty habit of talking to myself. My therapist liked to say that I did it so that I didn’t feel so ‘alone.’ But I think I just liked to talk through everything going on in my head so that the crazy didn’t rattle around too much with no outlet. Either way, it worked and I managed to get myself under the near-boiling stream of water in the shower and begin to lather myself up with the de-scenting body wash, shampoo, and conditioner that the academy provided.
I was, as always, a little bit sad to be washing Pumpkin off of my skin and out of my hair. Was it strange to be so attached to an alpha who was faceless? No, I told myself resolutely, any man that could make me orgasm like that was worth getting attached to. Stepping out of the shower I wrapped a towel around my head to soak up most of the water from my curls and pulled on the clean clothes that I had brought in with me three days ago at the start of my heat.
Stepping into the long hallway that made up the nesting wing of the academy, I was struck by how quiet it was. Usually, there were at least one or two other omegas making an ungodly racket with their own heat partners, but right now it was unnervingly quiet. Even the click of my locker opening echoed through the hall like a gunshot and startled me. I hurried to retrieve my phone and my bag from the locker and shut it as quietly as I could before hurrying to the elevator and back into civilization. Well, as much civilization that an omega could get while being restricted to the academy’s premises.
As the elevator ascended from the basement, I checked my phone for any messages that I had missed during the three days of my heat. Several pictures of cats from Madeline and a belly pic from Eloise who was in her eighth month of pregnancy at this point and looked like she was about to pop any day. I flicked over to the group text and rolled my eyes at the plethora of eggplant and water droplet emojis that they’d left me over the past 72 hours.
I tapped on the message box and typed:Guess who’s alive, bitches.
along with a gif of Dr. Frankenstein shouting: ‘IT’S ALIVE’ as his monster sat up.
ELOISE:Three days, damn girl that was a long cycle.
MADELINE:I take it that it was pumpkin spice season again?
TIBBY:You know it. Twice in a row. Can one get attached to the penis of a man whose face they’ve never seen?
ELOISE:Uhh, I wouldn’t know.
TIBBY:I don’t know if I should be jealous of you or you should be jealous of me because I got railed last night.
MADELINE:I would say TMI, but that was actually pretty tame for you.
TIBBY:Thank you for noticing my restraint. K, gotta go. Late to therapy and you know how Gary gets. XX
