Then I could claim “heat insanity” and hopefully get off with a slap on the wrist.
Never mind my earlier doubts, Hecara, you’re a genius!
But I couldn’t spend my heat with the Premier. One, he was, well, thePremier. Two, he was a powerful vampire and I was a middling witch. He could easily lose control and drain me, fucking my corpse for hours until he snapped out of it.
Yeah, I’d read horror stories.
I needed to get to an Omega Center, find someone nice and safe to ride this out with. Someone who wouldn’t accidentally kill me. Or maybe they’d even let me call Kaleb. He was the elf beta who’d invited me onto his “crew” for the gameStarlight Dominion, and just recently we’d started dating.
The Premier grabbed my hair and tilted my face up into his, his pupils fully blown as his rut began to take over. “My car is outside,” he hissed. “You’re coming with me.”
Then his mouth slammed violently against mine, swallowing my shocked gasp. I felt him everywhere, his hands moving along my body as though he were studying every inch of me by touch alone. He forced his tongue through the seal of my lips, invading my mouth with the need to be inside me, however he could.
Slick pooled in my underwear, running down my thighs and preparing my body for an alpha’s intrusion.
I finally broke from his kiss, turning my head to the side so I could speak. “You… you don’t want to do this with me, think about it. Just drop me off at the center and…”
Hands slammed into the wall on either side of my head and he growled in warning. “You think I don’t want to fuck my mate? That I would drop you off at the center to be rutted by some other man?”
The lights in my lobby began to flicker in warning, the ground threatening to split open.
“M-mate?” I squeaked.
He’d called me… hismate?
No. No, no, no. There was no way we were mates. I… well, yes, I felt attracted to him. He was a beautiful, powerful alpha, and I was an omega. I’d always, on some level, appreciate men like him, even if my mind wasn’t interested.
But finding your mate wasn’t something you questioned. People said smelling your mate for the first time was like having your brain rewired. Like from that moment on, all you could think about was how to live your life around and for this one person, chosen by the gods themselves to be your perfect partner.
The only thing the Premier made me feel was terror and confusion.
And what about him? I wasn’t even his type! Maybe he’d confused my scent with Nellie’s?
“Yes,” he sighed, grinding against me harder. “Mate. Sage, you’re my mate. Listen to what your body is telling you. You’re mine.”
What was my body saying? It was saying it wanted to be bred,now. And I’d never spontaneously gone into a heat before. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that him thinking I was his mate and my biological need to make babies were happening right at the same time.
Oh no, what if hewasmy mate?
“Premier, please maybe we’re mistaken…”
“No!” he bellowed. The whole building began to shake, dust falling from the ceiling as a crack snaked up the wall. “Sage, I know you’re mine. I scented you years ago, and I’ve been looking for you ever since. I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
With that, he slid his hands down my sides to my upper thighs, lifting them as he pinned me against the wall and wrapped my legs around his hips. His lips met mine again, and without looking, he turned around, taking us out the door to the town car waiting outside.
I had no idea what to do. My body’s reaction made sense if what he was saying was true, that he was my mate, and I couldn’t help but respond to him in kind. I’d never been with anyone like him before, and his touch was intoxicating.
The Premier of Noctis… my mate.
No, no, it didn’t make sense!
As soon as the car door closed, he slipped my shirt off over my head and then paused. His rough panting quelled, and his eyes narrowed as he inspected the large, raised scar on my chest. Cool fingers traced lightly over the vertical line that started below my collarbone and went straight through the valley of my breasts.
“What’s this?” he whispered, his touch pebbling my skin and stealing my breath.
I swallowed nervously, frustrated and yet glad for the interruption. Maybe this was the bucket of cold water that would help him see straight. That would help him realize he was just an alpha responding to an omega in heat, so he could forget this “mate” nonsense and take me to the center like I’d asked.
“Surgery scar,” I replied. “I… I was born with a heart defect.”
