Page 37 of The Omega’s Nest

Leo looks over at me, raising his eyebrows in question. Right, he can feel that I’m manic, but not the why. He’s buttoning his pants. A seriousness came over him when the last of my heat drifted out of my scent. I can picture it now, Leo in the Air Force—my playful, soft Leo shifting gears to all business.

“You ready?” he asks as he sits on the edge of the bed and gets his boots on.

I spread my arms at myself—jeans, T-shirt, Leo’s hoodie, sneakers, my back pocket stuffed with my cash purse—this is all I have. I can get more of Leo’s clothes for my nest because I’ll have Leo. I still can’t believe it.

Leo nods, his smile gruff. “Good.”

He gets up, stands in front of me. I know he can feel my panic. His hand slides behind my head and tilts my face up. All I can feel from him is certainty. Maybe there’s fear, but he’s burying it under courage. Everything about him says he’s not leaving here without me.

He can’t physically leave me now anyway, we’ve bonded. I need to be around him while it settles, and he needs that from me. No matter what happens, we can’t be separated.

When he leans down to kiss me, it’s with all the time in the world—a slow kiss, a thorough kiss, a kiss that says we’ll be doing this forever.

“Come on,” he murmurs against my lips, sliding his fingers between mine.

I grip his hand and follow as he leads us to the door. It’s quiet beyond the curtain. At six in the morning all the patrons are gone. A small crew of omegas are cleaning the bar and getting ready for breakfast.

We slip down the hall, Leo straight-backed and gait sure. I clasp his hand tighter, try to steady the pounding of my heart. Glancing over the railing I see the omegas laying out cutlery, napkins—Celia and June, women in their early forties, they rarely work the nights anymore but have stayed on to cook and clean.

Celia leaves most days to work in a gun shop a few blocks over, an arrangement she’d made with the alpha there and no one seemed to dispute. She had a son, but he disappeared—I think the alphas here took pity on her. Well, she had two sons, but the first one presented as an alpha at fourteen and was run off long before I got here. The second was an omega, which meant he would work here. He vanished when he went into his first heat, likely kidnapped by a trafficking network. He’d been a striking boy, startlingly so.

There’s a tiredness about both of them, Celia more so than June, but they’re always cheerful, ready with a hug or a head rub when one of us gets too morose.

Celia glances up as Leo and I make our way down the stairs. I flush as we make eye contact. She raises her eyebrows, hands suspended with a handful of forks. I move closer to Leo’s back. A knowing look crosses her features. June has her back to us as Leo and I move alongside the wall in the main area, and Celia doesn’t say a word. I know she won’t say anything if anyone ever asks. I try to smile. She returns it, an understanding thing followed by a wink. It makes me feel better. It makes me hope.

We make it down the hallway adjacent to the main entrance and head for the exit. My heart is beating so rapidly, I can feel it in my ears. My breathing is erratic and my palms are sweating.

Leo smells calm, so sure of this. He squeezes my hand before pushing the door open.

I brace myself for an alarm, for alphas to jump out at us, but nothing happens. We’re in the empty carpark on the far side of the brothel, the morning sunshine beautiful as it glimmers on the soft undulations of the water. The ocean flanks the back of the brothel and stretches to the horizon where the harbour gives way to the sea.

Leo looks over his shoulder at me and smiles, something giddy in it. We did it. We’re free. Leo pulls me beside him, throws an arm around my shoulders and tugs me along, across the carpark, over the street and towards the intersection.

Just as we’re about to turn down a little lane behind a diner, I’m accosted by a familiar scent.

“Leo, no,” I manage to hiss, but it’s too late.

Benji steps in front of us from the lane.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” he asks like he already knows. Like he’s been waiting, like he wanted us to believe we’d made it before crushing that exhilaration in a cruel display of dominance.

Leo tucks me behind him and his scent flares with fury.

“Walk away and I won’t kill you,” Leo seethes.

Benji laughs. I’ve never thought of Benji as an asshole—he’s too simple to be much of an asshole. But he is a typical alpha, and I’m his possession, not by a bond, but by law. And an alpha doesn’t let another alpha take something that belongs to them. There’s no way this doesn’t end in violence. My fear for Leo multiplies.

“Oh, Adrian,” Benji mocks. I can’t see his face since I’m against the wall of the diner and blocked from view by Leo’s back, but I can hear the taunt in his voice. “You weren’t subtle. You might as well have taken out an announcement with how much your scent broadcast your neediness when he bought you at auction. Twenty grand is twenty grand, though, isn’t it?

“Now, turn your little ass around, back to your room, and I won’t kill him. How about that? Very generous of me.”

I feel sick. I need to move, to run back to the brothel.

Leo’s fists clench and his rage vibrates down the bond.

“I’ve always wanted to fuck a bonded omega—”

Benji doesn’t finish the sentence—Leo swings, a solid punch that whips Benji’s face to the side, blood spraying the building.