“She is unmated. The mother is unmated. I don’t understand it. Why isn’t there a line outside the door? Why are they so, unprotected? Seems like there are males everywhere, but they all act like sterile pussies.”
“They have learned to live and thrive. I guess our Alpha’s brother is a good King.”
“I don’t know. Our Alpha scares the shit outta’ me, but when that young omega with the tight little tits shimmy-shammies on by, every brain cell in my head shrinks, and the five in my dick take over!”
“You will mind your manners and keep your eyes to yourself.” Alreck said from around his teeth.
“What?” Jordan didn’t have a clue.
Alreck stepped into Jordan, the stick suddenly in his hand and aimed to ram under the other male’s jaw. But Jordan, familiar with Alreck’s ways, stepped to the side defensively, instinct riding him. “What the—”
His evasion called up Alreck’s right hand as if they were sparring, his fist hitting the other male in the side above the hips and rocking him back to where Alreck wanted him.
Forced into the wall behind him, challenged, Jordan went for his knife.
Stick in his left hand, Alreck smacked Jordan’s wrist with a crack, once, twice in rapid succession, knocking the blade free and into Alreck’s waiting right. With the sharp pointed tip of Jordan’s own blade sticking the skin of his neck, Jordan stopped resisting.
“No comments about the omega. Keep your trap shut.” They were friends, both on duty during the assassination attempt, leaving Jordan with a wound still in the healing process. Jordan earned the camaraderie of equals. But not when it came to Phee.
“It’s like that?” Jordan asked. Alreck grunted.
It was what it was. He’d reacted without thinking and wasn’t going to stand there and admit out loud that he’d lost his control. The answer was obvious.
He stepped back, let Jordan take a breath, and slapped the dagger back in his hand. “Take a break. I’ll watch that floor.”
Jordan had a smart mouth at the best of times. He managed not to mouth off again, however, and Alreck was grateful.
Every muscle in Alreck’s body was tense. The moment he got into the vehicle with Darre and his mate, a winch began twisting at his self-control. Tighter and tighter it turned, with the omegas at the handle. His cock was so hard that his back hurt. Muscles jumped and knotted on his thighs up to his ass, and his vision colored everything in a red hue. He’d never been so close to breaking.
He’d been ready to sink that knife into his friend’s neck for that comment. For wanting what belonged to Alreck.
Taking up position on her floor, he had to stop himself from going right to her door. He wanted to sniff at every seam. He wanted to knock the bloody thing down and out of his fucking way.
When Darre came out of a room on the opposite end of the hallway, Alreck took a breath, trying to cover the crazy collecting like acid under his skin. Darre gave him a slow, head to toe look.
Fuck. He knew.
Darre said, “Go get me water and some of that cake they served after dinner for my mate. Then go see if the woman will have you.”
Alreck froze. It took him a second too long to decipher that last part.
Darre smirked at him. “Someone triggered her heat—probably your nasty-ass rut. I’m so fuckin’ tired of that smell in my nose. Do you want to see if she wants you, or will you politely submit a formal contract to her parents, tied in a sweet little bow, like they do here?”
#
Her heat. His rut. She would choose him. Shehadto choose him. The delicate little omega was in his mind and in his blood. After spending the day breathing in all the traces of her, Alreck had the woman memorized and imprinted into his being. But he hadn’t realized that smell was her mating cycle responding to his own driving need.
How could he? She was a rare and precious thing in the 12 Sectors. But there was only one omega in all of his sector–he had no experience with them other than that one. Alreck wasn’t going to let his lack of knowledge slow him down, though. He knew now what was happening to them both and that he didn’t have to wait another second. Phee was as ready for a knot as she was going to get.
A clean, refined, and self-contained creature, he was gonna make her beg, break her open, lick at her soft, passionate core, and give her his knot. She had to let him.
Outside her bedroom door after his task for Darre was completed, he decided not to knock. This girl had only one choice tonight. He didn’t have time to wait anymore. Someone else might get her first, smell her and suit her better than he did. He’d kill anyone who tried. But it would cause a mess and waste more time. He was fucking tired of wasting time.
Turning the handle to her door, he walked in, made sure it shut behind him, and locked it. The heaping fabric mound of her nest was on his left, but a gasp to his right made him turn.
Standing in front of the mirror, naked, holding her breasts, blushing and aroused, was his future mate. He inhaled the scent of her slick, the pheromone-rich, light golden dew trickling between her legs.
“What are you doing? Get out!” She shifted her arms to cover herself.
