When it happened, I almost threw up. The heat and the buzz was there, the reaching and crescendo. And then I hit the wall, the blank spot. I hit it so hard I couldn’t breathe for a second. It was like running full-force into a glass wall that was so clean I hadn’t had a clue it was there.
And I kept running into it, over and over, bashing my head and my heart and my soul against it.
I screamed as I hit the void where that broken part of me that I could never get back had once been, that stump of the bond Chester had demanded we sever.
I think I passed out. The next thing I was aware of was Jack’s body wrapped around me as we lay panting in the middle of the bed. I was still under him and his weight was almost unbearable, but I clung to him like he was the only thing stopping me from flying off into space.
“Wow,” Jack panted, flopping to his side, though we were still knotted and I had no intention of letting go. “That was really intense. Was that a breeding orgasm?”
I swallowed hard, fighting as hard as I could not to sob. At least I had the excuse of catching my breath not to answer right away.
“I don’t know,” I lied.
That absolutely would have been a breeding orgasm, if the ability to have them hadn’t been surgically sliced out of me.
“I’ve never had one before, so I wouldn’t know,” Jack said, shifting a little more so he could cradle me more comfortably and stroke my side and thigh, like he was trying to give me all the aftershock orgasms he could.
“Me neither,” I lied.
I closed my eyes and turned my face into his shoulder to hide. I wanted to hide from everything, from what had almosthappened and what would never happen again. The whole point of participating in the omega auction was to drown out the awful truth, not to shine a spotlight on it that only made it worse.
“Do you want to sleep for a bit?” Jack asked, so, so kindly. “I could use a nap.”
“Yeah, that would be nice,” I sighed.
“Or maybe a shower first,” Jack said, rambling a little. “Or a bath. I think the suite has a really nice bathtub. We could run a hot bath, maybe put some bubbles in there….”
He trailed off with a happy sigh.
He was going to kill me. My inner omega was going nuts, reaching and stretching for what it wanted on a visceral level. Only, its arms had been cut off, and it would never be able to reach for anything again.
“Yeah, a bubble bath would be nice,” Jack said, stroking his fingers through my hair. “Maybe room service, too. I hear they do great?—”
His sweet words and my descent into madness were cut off abruptly by a knock at the door.
“Junior?” a deep voice said from the other side.
Jack tensed so hard and fast I thought he might pull a muscle. His knot had gone down, and the sharp movement caused him to slip out of me.
“What the fuck does he want?” Jack wondered to himself, then scrambled to get out of bed.
There was another knock as Jack searched for something to cover himself with, found a robe, then headed for the door. I crawled around until I was able to slip between the covers, which we hadn’t even pulled back yet. By the time Jack opened the door to reveal a grey-haired, somehow familiar-looking alpha, I was covered up enough for modesty.
“Just checking on you,” the alpha said, stepping into the room.
My skin crawled as he came closer to the bed, and not just because I was technically in heat that another alpha was taking. Although I could already feel the induced heat leaving me. The grey-haired alpha sniffed the air, frowning, and glanced around.
“Dad, what are you doing here?” Jack asked, hugging his robe tighter.
The intrusive alpha was Jack’s father? Gross.
Jack’s dad scanned the room a bit more, then noticed the crop on the floor. The bedcovers weren’t exactly freshly laundered either. He humphed, then smiled the nastiest smile I’d ever seen.
“Good,” he said, turning back to Jack. “I was worried you’d let me down.”
Let him the fuck down? What was wrong with this asshole?
“No, I haven’t let you down,” Jack answered, standing almost at attention, his red face lowered.
