Page 5 of The Omega’s Nest

“I have to pay a share for the room, from each client,” I explain. I try to drop my head, but he holds me in place. I look at his shoulder instead. His shirt has been ironed. His omega mother, Kate, would’ve done it. I wonder how long he’s been home.

“Client …” His voice seems to fail him as his gaze flicks back to the bedside table. His Adam’s apple bobs in my periphery as he swallows.

“I’ll pay for the night. For, for …”

I look up at him.

He meets my eyes and finishes. “For however long I’m allowed to pay for.”

“Most people just pay for an hour.” I can’t process him paying for me, if this means he’s going to fuck me. He’s the only person I’ve ever wanted to fuck me. Excitement leaps briefly and he scowls at me. Right, he can scent that, and he’s probably not paying to fuck me, but to stay and talk.

I don’t think I can handle talking. What is there to say?

“So, what have you been up to?”

“Oh, you know, getting fucked by alphas, hundreds of them by now. Good times.”

Yeah, no. He needs to leave.

That hand slips up into my hair, and he pulls gently until my head is forced back.

“I’m not most people,” he rumbles at me. And forget him being a boy, right now he’s the intimidating and self-possessed alpha I always knew he’d grow into.

But I can’t discern desire in his scent, it’s fond, warm, the swelling of the ocean that’s distinctly him. He smelled like that a lot when he looked at me in the years after we both presented, and it’s a scent I associate with how much we loved each other once. As friends.

“People don’t pay just to talk to me,” I manage.

He scowls down at me. “Everyone should pay just to talk to you. They should pay just to be around you. To breathe the same fucking air as you.”

I can’t help the laugh that escapes. He’s not laughing, though.

“I’ll pay for however long it takes until I can get you out of here. No one’s paying you for, for …” He clamps his mouth shut and his jaw works.

“Sex?” I supply.

His hand moves down, clasping me by the nape. His warm fingers wrap around my throat so my mating gland is covered. My whole body shudders as he shakes me. It’s not rough, it’s possessive.

It’s bloody confusing is what it is. I can accept he doesn’t want me to be here, to be doing this, but he shot me down. He could’ve been my alpha, but he didn’t want that. It’s a sobering thought.

And if he keeps manhandling me like he is my alpha, I might have a breakthrough heat. I’m on suppressants, but breakthrough heats aren’t unheard of if an alpha pulls shit like this. Especially an alpha my omega recognises—has always recognised—as mine. And fucked if I’m getting auctioned off to be used in heat again before I’m due.

“I think you better go,” I say to his pectoral muscle.

“I’m not going fucking anywhere,” he retorts, and his grip tightens.

I take a deep breath. “Leo,” I say, forcing my voice to the steady don’t fuck with me register I’ve learned to use on alphas who go too far. “Let me go.”

Leo drops his hands immediately, but stays close.

“Was I hurting you?” He sounds devastated.

“Or course not,” I reassure him, but I keep my voice even and my gaze on his chest. “You have to go.”

“There’s no fucking way I’m walking out this door without you, so stop saying that. Why are you even saying that? I’ve been looking for you for years, and now I find you, what? You think I’m just going to walk away?”

“Yo, flyboy!” someone yells from just outside the door. “Don’t try and pretend your virgin ass is more than a one-pump chump. Get your ass out here, we’re leavin’.”

I step away from him. I don’t want anyone to know he knows me—I don’t want to embarrass him.