Brooks, who’d been walking in front of her, whirled on his feet and hurried to block us from view.
“I don’t know…” Lennon said to me dazedly, her fingers tightening on the cuff of my sleeve as she let out a groan. “It feels like the room is spinning and I’m sohot.”
As she spoke, the enclosed space of the hallway filled with the unmistakably heady scent of cherry wine and pieces started to click into place.
In the ballroom, amongst all of the guests who hadn’t bothered with suppressants, my nose had been all but useless amongst the chaos. But here in this secluded hallway? It was hitting me full force that Lennon was about to go into heat.
“Shit,” I hissed, pressing my hands to her feverish forehead.
I just didn’t understand how it had come on so fast. She’d been fine this morning and most of my alpha classes had taught me that there would be signs in the weeks leading up to an omega’s heat.
Then as quickly as that thought came, my mind rushed in to answer. Omegas often sought out extra sexual encounters with their alphas, made risky decisions, were twitchy with their emotions, and started seeking out textures that soothed their skin.
Everything that had happened over the past few weeks, the sudden bond with Maverick that his instincts had basically takenover for, the risk of walking down a floor filled with other agents in a nightgown, her yo-yoing mood all day today… and then there was the dress.
Lisa and Landon had picked out a different dress for her, a sparkly blue number that had been approved by the powers that be (i.e. her mother and McDaniels), but Lennon had insisted on wearing a different, completely satin blue dress instead.
Initially, I’d assumed it was because this dress covered more of her shoulders, but now that I thought about it more I’d seen her fingers fiddling and rubbing the fabric together all night as we rode in the car together and as she spoke with people during the cocktail hour.
All of it pointed to an encroaching heat, we had just never dealt with it before because we’d never had an omega before.
“Lennon, honey, when was your last heat?” I asked, putting one hand under her knees and another behind her back before lifting her into my arms.
She was quiet for a moment before she quietly answered. “Last year.”
“Last year?” Brooks, who had been facing away from us and watching the entrance of the hallway, gasped. “How?”
“Heat suppressants. For the election. My doctor told me it should be okay as long as I flush them out of my system after it’s over… I don’t know why they stopped working.”
I frowned at that. “You’re still taking them?”
She nodded. “I took them this morning, the same as always. But I guess those also don’t seem to work around you guys like a lot of things.”
That made sense, I guessed, though it didn’t really help me right now.
Looking at Brooks, we exchanged a grim look.
“Go up and get Mav and Dallas. We need to get a room immediately for at least the night. Then I need you to findLennon’s grandmother,” I told him, thinking of the look that the older woman had sent me. Had she known this was about to happen?
“No,” Lennon said weakly. “Don’t tell anyone.”
But she was in no condition to protest, her body starting to writhe with pain in my arms as the first sign of heat cramps seemed to be taking effect.
“Shh,” I told her soothingly. “I’m going to take care of you in just a second.”
“What are you going to do?” Brooks asked, his eyes on Lennon and his pupils looking blown. He looked about two seconds from losing control himself.
“I’m going to calm her down enough to get her upstairs without the entire hotel noticing,” I said, taking a step back away from him. “Now go, Brooks.”
That seemed to snap him out of his trance. The alpha turned on his heel and hurried down the hallway.
There were three options for the restroom, the women’s, the men’s, and the family restroom. I chose the third, hoping for a lock.
The restroom was ritzy with a long, low marble countertop, recessed lighting and what looked like a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling. But I didn’t care about any of that.
Flipping the lock over, I pulled on the door, testing to make sure we didn’t have any uninvited visitors, and then put Lennon down on the counter.
“I don’t feel good, Zeke,” Lennon moaned, her arms slung around my shoulder as she rested her forehead on my chest.
