Page 33 of The Omega’s Nest

I scoff. I’ll pay him back. We keep our earnings after we pay rent for the room, food, healthcare expenses, and whatever latest taxation William Whitman puts on us by order of his nephew, Troy Whitman. It’s not much, but if I work for like, ten years, I’ll probably save up enough.

But the thought of another alpha touching me now I’ve had Leo …

I blink rapidly, trying to get myself under control. Leo can smell that.

“Hey, hey,” he says, tightening his hand, the one rubbing my back turning firmer. “What’s wrong?”

He looks so troubled—guilty too. Smells it. Guilty?

“I’m fine,” I lie and push those thoughts to the background. At a minimum, I can return the cut I get of that twenty thousand.

He frowns. “Was it … okay?”

I look at him, trying to figure out what he’s asking. He smells unsure, and his frown is deepening.

My mouth drops open.

“The sex?!” Is he kidding?

But he nods, dropping his gaze. His hands loosen, his touch turning unsure.

“It was incredible! That’s not the issue!” He can’t be seriously asking me that. We’re still tied and even that feels amazing.

His smile, when he returns his gaze to mine, is achingly shy, but he’s getting some alpha bravado under it. “Yeah?”

I scoff. “I can’t believe you’re asking. Have you ever had sex like that?”

Oh, geez, why did I ask that? I don’t want to know about who else he’s slept with.

“Well, no,” he says, looking away from me. He smells … self-conscious?

“What?”

He takes a deep breath. He won’t meet my eyes. “I’ve never done it before.”

My mouth falls open—my jaw is going to land on his chest at this rate.

Those guys he came with that first night said something about him being a virgin. I dismissed it—it was impossible. Leo wasn’t sleeping with anyone when we were teenagers, though, he was always with me. And I know he handled his ruts alone because he told me he did. But it’s been three years, and Leo, well … he’s Leo.

So why in the hell was he coming to a brothel to lose his virginity?

“But … you were here …”

He’s blushing. More humiliation floods his scent. But there’s anger now too.

“My dad told me you’d bonded.” He meets my eyes with that anger, but his expression softens as he looks at me. “And I just … gave up. I’d been waiting, but then … Well, I was too late.”

I don’t know what to say.

Wait, yes I do.

“I was waiting for you too.”

I hope he knows I’d have waited forever if I’d known he’d come back for me. I’d have run before the state officials from the Department of Dynamics came to take me to the brothel. Hell, if my omega father could do it, so could I. I’d have stopped listening to those voices in my head that sounded a lot like the alphas back home who muttered their disgust about him, who talked as if an omega running away was worse than a murderer. I’d have run and hidden and texted Leo to come get me when he got home. But I didn’t know. I thought he didn’t want me.

“But … your heats?” he asks with a wince and looks away. “Sorry, sorry. I know it’s, like, necessary. Sorry, I shouldn’t bring those up, but—”

“My heats?” I cut him off and laughter bubbles up. I remember being a hot, sweaty mess in my nest back home. The sun from the triangular window burning my skin, stoking my heat as much as the smell of all of Leo’s clothes did. The moon rising in that same window as I shoved the toy as deep as I could get it, chanting Leo’s name, thinking I’d die if he didn’t hear me and climb that fucking ladder and take his fucking omega like he was supposed to.