I stiffened. Fuck. They knew I was on suppressants.See, now they can blackmail you. Can’t trust them. I shifted back and forth and tried to keep my voice from shaking.
“What makes you think I’m on suppressants?”
The three of them exchanged a look before Ben answered me.
“We were curious because of your age, and then Amirah confirmed it,” he said before continuing quickly. “She was just trying to be helpful so we could know how to best support you. We’re not upset about it, gorgeous. Not at all. You deserve to make decisions about your own body.” He tentatively took my hand. I threaded my fingers through his, and his responding smile looked like I had just given him a gift.
The shaking in my legs became more pronounced as I struggled to keep myself upright.
“Will you sit back down, sweetheart?” Cam asked. As soon as I nodded, he reached out and pulled me back onto his lap. I softened, enveloped in his embrace.
“You might not recognize us as mates yet, but I wonder if you feel more comfortable around us than other alphas you’ve been around?” Theo asked.
I shifted so I could see his face, unconsciously leaning towards him so I could breathe in more of his coffee scent.
“Yeah, I do,” I responded hesitantly.
“Of course you do, baby girl. We would never hurt you,” Cam said, pulling me closer.
Ben picked up a cheese Danish and held it up to my mouth. I took a bite without thinking, and the guys’ scents intensified with pleasure. That was the best Danish I had ever tasted. I wiggled happily as I took another bite from Ben. Cam grunted, tightening his hold on me, his cock rubbing against my thigh.
“The fact that you feel more comfortable around us is probably your omega recognizing us as mates, at least to some extent,” Theo said, running his hand through my hair. “I couldn’t scent you at Trader Joe’s, but I was drawn to you from the moment I followed you into the store.”
I scrunched my nose. “Your scent was on me when I woke up at the hospital, but I don’t really remember anything that happened.”
“You collapsed in one of the aisles and I held you until the paramedics came. It destroyed me to let you go. If I had known you were our mate, I wouldn’t have been able to. I had no idea the omega we were meeting was you.”
Was the reason I had found his scent so comforting in the hospital because we were mates? Part of me recognized what they were saying made sense. I traced little patterns on Cam’s arm, thinking through everything as the quiet fell soothingly around us.
Suddenly, I jolted. If we were mates, they might expect us to bond right away.
“I’m not ready to be bonded yet,” I blurted out.
Cam pressed a tender kiss to my temple. “Of course. There’s no rush. We’re going to court you. Give you everything you deserve. You’ll learn that we’ll do anything to make you happy.”
I melted back into his embrace.Fuck, it was like Cam was an omega whisperer.
“You don’t have to get me anything,” I said.
My inner omega almost whined. She wanted all the courting gifts she could get her greedy hands on. Traditionally, alphas courted an omega for weeks before she joined their pack, and they would usually live together for a while before bonding. Once they marked me, we would be forever connected, able to sense each other’s emotions.
“Amirah said that your heat is coming on in the next day or two, and I know it’s fast. We need to know how to make you the most comfortable during this process,” Theo said.
Cam continued, “We’ll also need to make a list of all the things you want during your heat—your favorite snacks and drinks, anything else you need for your nest, safe words and preferences during sex.”
My chest tightened and my cheeks heated.Of course, they’re expecting to have sex with you during your heat, you idiot.I needed to tell them my plan… but what if it made them angry? Before I chickened out, I forced myself to just say it.
“I don’t want to have sex.”
ChapterThirteen
Josie
Well, I meant to deliver that with more tact, but there you go.I hid my face, expecting them to start yelling at me at any moment.
After Dave dropped me off at my apartment yesterday, I ran inside, piled up all the blankets I owned, and buried myself underneath. I’d just gotten settled when Sam called to let me know someone in his network could get me suppressants. Apparently, an Alliance doctor had been traveling but was returning to town and bringing suppressants with them. I’d burst into tears on the phone. I blamed my surging heat hormones, but the reality was I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have someone who cared for me like Sam did.
Suppressants wouldn’t stop my heat at this point, but taking them meant I wouldn’t be forced to choose between having sex with alphas to satisfy my heat or being in excruciating pain that could leave me with permanent damage. I knew the simplest way to avoid conflict was to go along with what Cam, Theo, and Ben expected and have sex with them during my heat. A part of me loved their hands on me and wondered what it would be like to have them see me through my heat. But the thought of having sex with three practical strangers, threealphastrangers, especially while I was most vulnerable… My stomach clenched with nausea. I couldn’t do it. But what if they rejected me because I didn’t want to have sex? What if they disregarded my wishes and did it anyway?
