Page 13 of Hangman's Knot
It seemed like the majority of the things any of them had said to her was that promise. The promise that they would protect her.
Julius begins to purr softly, and she feels her knees finally give out to exhaustion. Before she can fall to the ground, he catches her, and she gets a face full of his dangerous floral scent.
It seems to go straight through her core, warming her fromwithin, like it takes up residence low in her pelvis and kindles something inside her there.
She can't recall ever finding an alpha's scent appealing before. She could not recall ever feeling safe at the mere scent of an alpha. It was usually the opposite, the musky dominant scents usually filled her with fear. And yet, with this pack, it was different. Julius' scent felt like crawling into her nest on a cold day with a cup of hot tea.
Warm. He was so warm. Or was it hot? Was he hot? Or was that her? Her body seemed to be on fire.
And then she catches a whiff of her own scent that is filling the air around them, and that perfume is undeniable, even though she hasn't smelled it in years. Pomegranates, luscious and sensual, tangy and mouthwatering, fill the air.
A heat spike. Oh god, oh god please no.
She feels his chest rumbling, feels him nosing around at her hair as his purr turns into a low growl before he shoves her back. She falls this time, and she hits the ground with a gasp, her bones rattling from the impact with the hard concrete floor.
"Fuck," he curses, his hands running through his cropped hair in agitation as he backs away from her. "Fuck, you can't smell like that. Fuck fuck fuck."
He looks to the door, apparently double checking it was closed.
"You can't smell like that," he says again, as if he expects her to do something about it.
She recalled reading about this response in a physiology textbook she had stolen years ago when she was in school. Fawning,it was called. It was a survival mechanism, like fight or flight. When an omega is placed under considerable duress, their body can respond to acute stress by triggering a heat cycle.
It was supposed to be protective, to make an alpha bond to them so they wouldn't hurt them, so they would protect them and keep them safe in a dangerous environment.
While an alpha's hormones caused them to respond to stress with aggression, an omega's hormones caused them to respond to stress by attaching themselves to the nearest protector, by becoming acquiescent and malleable. Breedable.
Fawning.What a stupid instinct. In this place, it was likely to get her torn apart. She whines from where she has crumpled on the floor, and the sight and sound seem to short circuit Julius' senses.
"Fuck," he curses again, his vocabulary apparently narrowing down considerably the more he breathed in her scent. His voice sounded strained, as if he was only barely holding onto his control. "What do I do? What do you want me to do?"
"Please, alpha..." She couldn't think right now, couldn't decide anything. All she knew was need.
She pulls herself onto her knees, crawling towards him. She needed him. This perfect alpha. He was so big, so strong. He would take care of her. Hadn't he promised he would take care of her?
Her pleading makes his eye twitch, and he crouches in front of her, putting the jutting outline of his hard cock right in front of her face. She breathes in his scent deeply, and it makes her shiver. He smelled like strong, virile alpha. Perfect alpha. She wanted him to be hers.
"Okay," he says, seeming to speak to himself. "Okay, I'll take care of this. I'll take care of you."
At his words of assurance, she feels herself relax with relief. She reaches for him, pleading still in her eyes. She needs to be closer, needs his touch. He said he would take care of her.
Her need for his knot and his seed has her body on fire, writhing with it. But he would take care of her, wouldn't he? Like he promised.
She had never had a heat spike before. She had started taking heat suppressants and scent blockers on the first day she had perfumed when she was fourteen years old. She worked her butt off keeping jobs that had insurance plans with drug coverage just to maintain her suppressant prescription.
But prison drug plans didn't cover heat suppressants or omega scent blockers, and within just two days without her pills, she was spiking. At least, she thought it was a spike. But if this was just what a heat spike felt like, she couldn't imagine what a full-blown heat would be like. This wasawful.Stifling and burning heat reduced her mind down to a pinprick that only had room for him and his cock.
She feels slick dripping out of her and panics. Oh god, if that potent substance got on the prison jumpsuit, there was no amount of scrubbing in the world that would get it out without industrial strength scent remover.
She scrambles to her feet. Much to Julius' stunned gaze, she begins tearing the clothing off of her without another thought until she is standing in front of him fully nude. She pants as the cool air hits her fevered skin and another wave of slick gushes out of her, a little trickle running down her leg.
His gaze immediately snaps to the droplet running down her leg, and with a whimper, she reaches to cover herself.
She had been stripped naked during her intake processing the day before. It was when the awful alpha guard had cut her beautiful hair—for sanitary reasons, he had said with a sneer. But before that, she could not recall the last time anyone had seen her bare body. She must have been a child, it had been so long.
"Don't—" his voice is husky as he reaches out to stop her, his pupils blown so wide his eyes look black. "Don't cover yourself."
Slowly, painfully slowly, she releases her arms. And he looks.
