Page 13 of His Bonded Omega Mate
“Here’s hoping. Hey Asher, you guys ’bout ready?” Nathan called to my mate, who was putting the finishing touches on the bedding.
“Yeah, looks like it.”
“Fuck, I’m really sorry about this.” Nathan said mournfully as he allowed a couple of shifters by him. He closed the door, and I heard his retreating footsteps as he left us behind.
“What’s this?” Asher asked.
“A warning.” A meathead alpha growled as he advanced on us. I didn’t know who these guys were. Didn’t recognize them from the pride.
“What kind of warning? We’ve never seen you guys before.”
Asher tried to pull me behind him as the tension ramped up in the room. There was a knock at the door and the meathead opened it. Several shifters entered the room.
A low rumble escaped me at the sight of Jared. His guards, Xander and Hunter, stood behind him. I couldn’t decipher their expressions.
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice a raven everywhere my mate went?” Jared drawled, looking smug. “Or him sneaking off to meet you two?” He spat. “It’s time you learned your place. You are both exiled from the pride. Dad will send your things.”
My heart lurched. I couldn’t be cast out again! I’d already gone through the agony from having my place in my birth pack stripped. There was no way I could cope with it again.
I looked to Asher for support. His expression was resigned. He clutched me to him as the shifters filled the room.
“I mean, if you survive, that is.” Jared smirked as he exited the room, his guards following. Leaving us in a room with six angry looking shifters and to our fate.
Dangerous Heat
Hiroshi
Timewasrunningoutfor me to get to the club in Sweetwater in time for the first wave of heat. I felt the faint prickle of heat already building. I’d been irritable all day, having to close the clinic early because I just wasn’t able to give my patients the proper care that they deserved.
Jared had been hounding me the previous week, but had gone strangely silent. It was another worry that I had to push to the back of my mind.
Logan had called me into his office and thanked me for ending things with my betas. Clearly, the sneaking that Tate, Asher and I had been doing was paying off. I wondered if we were truly fooling anyone, or if Logan was happy to pretend along with me.
I parked not too far from Heatwave, but in an out of the way street, hopeful that no-one would recognize my car and rat me out. I’d lied to Jared to get here. Thinking I was being followed, I’d changed routes, circled back on myself, anything to make it look like I had no fixed destination.
My fingers paused on the door handle and I second guessed my gut for all of a moment. My grandmother’s words came to me “always trust your intuition,” so I reached into the glove compartment and took out the bottle there.
After my last heat with Jared, I’d gone to see Poppy, the new High Witch of the area in her shop, and bought the strongest contraceptive potions I could get my hands on. I had them stashed everywhere. My home. My car. The clinic.
Shifters gossiped by nature. With being able to scent things, there was always speculation on who was sleeping with whom, or who had crushes and stuff. So we’d all heard and soon found out the reason for the last High Witch being removed from that position. The council had caught him selling controlled potions and overcharging for them.
The council liked to restrict the magic that shifters used to prevent abuse. They only granted fertility boosters to pairings that were having issues conceiving. Pack bond stripping potions were tightly monitored so that alphas couldn’t just capture and strip shifters from their pack bonds, leaving them vulnerable.
There were things that a shifter could take to end a pregnancy, and the council controlled them too. Abortions were allowed only after assessment and counseling. It was rumored that the council would do just about anything to encourage the omega to go through with having the child. There was no shortage of beta couples willing to adopt, but it wasn’t a situation I wanted to be in. Hence the contraceptives. I didn’t want to risk an alpha faking taking his, or getting trapped somewhere whilst in heat and being attacked.
My fertility was one of the few things I had control over. The council freely allowed contraceptives to be sold despite our low birth rate. So I swallowed down the potion and headed off to find my men and the alpha they had found for us to play with.
The club was in full swing. Lights flashing, music pounding and people, shifters, witches, and even humans, danced together on the floor. Gregor, the owner and manager, knew I was coming and had set up space for me and my betas to go, I’d been told.
When I approached the door, the bouncer ushered me through without a word. Inside, Nathan was waiting for me. He looked slightly unsure, but slung an arm around me.
“Are you being my alpha today?” I asked, looking up at him, detecting a fine sheen of sweat on his face. It beaded his upper lip with it and it turned my stomach slightly. I was hoping he wasn’t the one Tate and Asher had picked, regardless of my past with him.
“Not today. They asked me to take you to them.” Nathan guided me down and along to the back of the building. We left the main club and approached a couple of squat buildings. I picked up the faint scent of my men. Hours old and faint.
Nathan didn’t guide me into the place where their scent was strongest. He took me to the one next to it. He must have seen my puzzled glance. “Scent blockers to throw people off.”
“Ah.” I was growing uneasy about how he was acting. His tension rolled off him. Alarm bells rang in my mind.
