Page 116 of Knot All that Glitters: Part 1

“What? No!” I gasp out the denial immediately, but then I realize my thighs are rubbing together and the air is thick with my perfume and my running pants are soaked with my slick. Panic. It’s the only thing I can think to do. “Fuck. Fuck, Ren! What do I do? How did this happen?”

She keeps her voice that same level of calm, and it bothers me she’s not at the same level of anxiety that I am. The more logical part of me knows she’s only doing it to help me. “Moments of intense emotions can trigger a heat, Haven. We know this.”

“Yeah, but usually it’s happy emotions, safety, love-” A humorless laugh falls from my lips. “Fucking Jude told me he wanted to bond me. I thought he meant it.” So apparently did my body because it was all too happy to provide the optimal scenario for a lasting bond. A heat.

Ren puffs out a breath. “We’re going to talk about what they did later, but right now we need to get you somewhere safe, okay? Can you tell me where you are? I’ll come get you. We can go to one of the omega clinics.”

The idea of that, of going to a clinic where unknown alphas will help me through my heat, makes me whine. “I don’t want that. I want my pack, Ren.”

“I know,” she soothes. “We’ll figure it out. Okay? But you need to tell me where you are. Anything, a street name, a store. Give me something to go off of.”

I force my mind to focus and glance around. It’s at this point that I realize I’m in a really fucking shady part of the city. Everything looks run down and dilapidated. Most of the storefronts have for lease signs hanging in their windows. But across the street and two doors down is a business that still looksoperational. “Sure Kleen Laundromat. Kleen spelled K-L-E-E-N.”

I hear her typing on the other side of the line, likely looking up. “Okay, I got it. Haven, I’m coming to you. But I need you to find somewhere safe to hide until I can get to you, okay? Don’t stay on the street.”

A painful cramp makes me groan, doubling over as a deluge of slick pours from inside me. “Fuck,” I gasp. “Oh, fuck.” This pain is worse than what my father did to me, making me stand in place motionless for a caning, doesn’t compare to heat cramps. How fucked up is that? “Florence,” I whimper. “It hurts.”

“I know,” she soothes. But she doesn’t. She’s never had a fucking heat. Same as me. “Haven, babe. I hate to tell you this, but you need to hang up. Find a secure place and flick your bean to take the edge off. You need to make yourself come to feel better, okay?”

I hear Ginny shout, “gross!” in the background and Ren hisses at her to shut up.

Panic at not having her voice in my ear, grounding me, has me clutching the receiver tighter. “Please, Ren. Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone.”

She mutters something about ripping off dicks and shoving it down throats before she comes back to me. “I’m not leaving you, babe. I’m coming to get you like your knight in shining armor. Or your knight in a rusted Ford Taurus. But right now, you need to save yourself. Okay. Safe space, hole up. Lots of orgasms. You can do this, Haven. I know you can.”

“Safe space. Hole up. Lots of orgasms,” I repeat, liking having clear directions. A path. Something to follow and accomplish.

“That’s right. Don’t go too far from the laundromat, though, okay?”

“Okay,” I agree in a whisper. “Ren?”

I hear her car rumble to life on the other side of the phone before she asks, “What, babe?”

“I’m scared.”

“I know,” she says quietly. “But you’re also really fucking brave. So you can do this.”

“I can do this,” I repeat as another lesser cramp hits.

“Fuck yeah, you can. Safe space. Hole up. Orgasms,” she reminds me.

I repeat them back to her before hanging up. Maybe in the future I’ll be embarrassed by the prospect of my friend finding me with my hands down my pants and making myself come, because that is undoubtedly going to happen. It’s not like I’ll be in any frame of mind to stop.

And beyond that… I might attack her when she gets here. Omegas are notoriously territorial during heats. Even if there are no alphas around, they’ve been known to go after each other viciously.

It’s why there are heat suites in the clinics, the hospitals, hell even at the omega academies. To keep them locked away and separate.

My scent hangs heavy in the air as I eye the surrounding area. Most of the storefronts are empty. A few windows boarded up. I leave the payphone and wander over to the nearest one, peering through a narrow gap.

The remains of a restaurant greet me, or at least, I think that’s what it was. Glancing over my shoulder, I hurry down the street and then into the alley that loops behind the block of buildings. I don’t know what I’m hoping to find, an unlocked door? A broken window?

My brain isn’t working, I’m not able to focus. My impending heat—doom, more like—is making my brain fuzzy. The only thing I can really focus on is the throbbing between my thighs and the growing ache in my low belly.

A cramp has me doubling over, my body assaulting me because I won’t give it what it needs. The Calloway pack. Their cocks and knots. Their empty promises and lies.

I whimper. Shit. I shouldn’t have thought about them.

Now that’s all I can think about. The way they felt inside me, the relief that would come if they would just give me what I need.

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