Page 10 of Dance Omega Dance

With one hand, he reached for a piece of broken scaffolding, wedging it beneath the beam to create a makeshift support. The beam settled onto it with a creak of protest but held. He exhaled hard, his breath stirring the dust between us as he turned his attention back to me.

"Who are you?" I asked. My voice sounded foreign to my own ears, thin and ragged.

"Blake Valensky," he answered without pausing his examination of the wreckage surrounding me. "I'm a doctor. I was walking by when the quake hit." His eyes met mine again, steady as stone. "What's your name?"

"Summer," I managed. "Summer Rayne."

Something flickered across his face. "The dancer. I was due to watch you perform tonight."

“Well, I’m kinda lacking a stage, so we may need to put that on hold.”

He smiled. “Ah, next time then.”

I groaned as debris shifted, falling on the beam that trapped my leg.

"I need to check your injuries before I move this," he said, voice steady. "May I touch your leg?"

The question, the request for permission, was so unexpected that I nodded before I could consider it. His hands were warm and certain as they gently probed around the beam, assessing the damage without causing additional pain.

He moved closer in the confined space. "You’re lucky,” he said. “It looks superficial.”

I scoffed. “It doesn’t feel superficial!”

He laughed and nodded.

Our proximity was unavoidable now. The pocket created by the fallen debris barely accommodated his body alongside mine, forcing a closeness that made my pulse quicken. He bent over my injured leg, and I could feel the heat radiating from him,cutting through the chill that shock had spread through my limbs.

His scent coiled around me, dancing with mine, soothing and protecting me. It reminded me of the forest back in Shaylan, when I was a child, walking with my mother and searching for wild flowers in the springtime. Those days lived amongst many beautiful memories I cherished with my mother.

"I need to stop the bleeding before I try to move you," he explained, searching the surrounding debris. His gaze settled on what looked like part of the stage curtain. "This will work."

As he gathered the materials, another small aftershock vibrated through the building. Instinctively, I reached out, my fingers catching the fabric of his shirt. He froze, his eyes meeting mine, something primal and protective flashing across his features.

"It's okay," he said, his voice dropping to a register that seemed to resonate directly within my bones. "I won't let anything happen to you."

The simple statement shouldn't have carried much weight, shouldn't have sent that warmth spreading through my chest and down between my legs. I bit my lower lip. I'd spent years learning not to trust such promises, especially from alphas. Yet in that moment, with dust still settling around us and the ground unsteady beneath, I believed him.

His face was inches from mine now as he leaned in, wrapping the bandage he had made around my leg and over the wound. I could see the individual flecks of darker blue in his irises, the way his jaw clenched when he concentrated.

"This will hurt," he warned, hands poised to tighten the bandage. "Try to stay still."

I nodded, bracing myself. When he tightened it, pain seared across my leg like lightning. I half gasped, half whimpered. Hispupils dilated in response, the scent of alpha protectiveness surging around us.

“Almost done,” he murmured, voice rougher now, low and warm like velvet dragged over gravel.

I shouldn’t have reacted. It was just words. Just bandages. But the way he said it... like I mattered, it sent a ripple through my stomach that had nothing to do with pain. I forced myself not to look at him and failed.

Our eyes caught, and held. While his fingers moved with practiced care, brushing bare skin as he finished wrapping the bandage. Gentle. Too gentle. It made something deep inside me tighten.

I didn’t breathe. Neither did he.

The space between us felt too still, too heavy. Like the moment was waiting for something. I felt it in my blood. In that ancient, thrumming part of me that had nothing to do with logic.

No. Don’t name it. Don’t eventhinkit.

But my body had already decided. That hum beneath my skin, that low ache of awareness... it knew him. My omega instincts stirred, greedy and alert.

And his scent! God, his scent! It wrapped around me before I could fight it. Earthy, clean, like forest rain. My nerves calmed and sparked all at once, soothed and set alight in the same breath.

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