Page 74 of Labor of Love

That set Ezra off, the omega’s hand tightening around Giovanni’s bicep as he devolved into incoherent bouts of laughter. Giovanni’s eyebrows rose to meet his hairline and he waited for the laughing to die down... but the moment that Ezra caught his expression, he went right back to laughing.

When Ezra had finally calmed down, he rubbed the tears from his eyes and cleared his throat. “S-sorry, sorry, it’s just… I’ve spent the last half decade surrounded by humans, and we’re doing things very backwards by their standards.”

“Huh,” a mischievous little smirk curled at the corner of his lips. “So that’s a no on dinner then?”

Ezra rolled his eyes.

“You’re buying me dinner for the rest of our natural lives. You accosted me in the airport terminal,” he joked. “It’s the least you can do.”

“Oh, I’ll be doing much more than that.” Giovanni’s hand stroked over the curve of his future mate’s stomach. “The moment this little arrives, I’m going to put a new pup in you.”

“Cub,” Ezra protested. “You’re a leopard and, given my grandmother’s cougar, it’s a solid fifty percent chance they’re a cub.”

“Pup,” Giovanni insisted leaning in to kiss him, hot and wet and full of tongue. “They’ll have your beautiful grey fur and those midnight eyes of yours. And when their mate comes around to claim them, you can sit in a sniper’s nest while I threaten them the old fashioned way.”

That earned him another eye roll. “That’s assuming they’re an omega, they might be an alpha, or a beta, this pup might be an alpha or beta. And I didn’t think you put any stock in gender stereotypes.”

“Doesn’t matter, they’ll still be yours.” A purr began to rumble in the base of Giovanni’s throat. “They’ll still be precious and I’ll protect them with my last breathe.”

Ezra heaved a weighty sigh before going limp on top of Giovanni’s chest. “Then I suppose I should let you take me to dinner, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Couplet is a twenty something ace woman who has had a lifelong love of fantasy and romance. She started writing picture books in elementary school and finished writing her first novel in her senior year of high school; rewrites of various stories conceived between those time frames are pending. She started publishing in 2022 and is currently living back home with her family's three fur babies, who have made it their life's mission to stop the writing process in its tracks.

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BLURB

When Allen’s heats become too much for him to take care of himself, he hires an alpha from an agency to be his heat partner.

Dario is tall, dark, handsome, and smells like everything good in the world. What starts as a simple job, quickly turns complicated as they both develop feelings during Allen’s heat.

Could these feelings just be the bond an alpha and omega form during a heat? Or will they last once his heat is over?

Alpha for Hire is an MM omegaverse short story featuring an omega hiring an alpha to help him through his heat. Inside you’ll find heat partners falling in love, nesting, hand feeding, a knotty heat, and of course, a happily ever after!

1

ALLEN

Ishift in my seat, trying to find a comfortable position despite the fact that it feels like there’s ants crawling under my skin. I always feel like this before my heat is due to hit. By my calculations, it should be here next week.

Which is why I’m sitting across the table from an incredibly attractive alpha with a clipboard.

My heats always come six months apart. The week before, I’m anxious and jittery. Then I get myself through my heat with the use of food delivery services, my favorite knotting toy, and lots and lots of towels. I’ve been getting through my heats alone since they started in my twenties without any issue. I work a lot and don’t have time to meet an alpha mate, so being able to get through them alone has been great.

The only problem? Lately, my heats have been getting more and more intense.

I can’t keep getting through them on my own. The last time I did, I woke up from a fever dream, down five pounds, dehydrated beyond belief because I forgot to drink or eat anything and so sore I couldn’t properly sit down. The heat overtook me in a way that scared me.

Hence the handsome alpha.

“So, we’ve got a few things to get through, Allen,” he says, giving me a charming smile.

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