Page 9 of Omega Island
Senta’s whole body was locked in a tense pose. His fists clenched. “I’m fine. Just—just an inconvenient quirk.” He spoke softly as if the words were being forced from his throat.
“Are you in pain? What can I do?”
Senta looked at me, blinking, swallowing. His body straightened. He took another gasp of air. “It’s nothing. Nothing major, at least.” His lips curved up, but it wasn’t a smile so much as a grimace.
I let my hand fall back to my lap. Nothing major? His whole body had convulsed in pain.
“I need to go.” He stood awkwardly, straightening, stretching his arms behind him.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call someone?”
“I’m sure.”
“I can walk with you.”
He turned back to look at me, dark eyes narrowed. “It’s fine. I didn’t mean to interrupt your moment in the sun.”
I frowned up at him. “You didn’t interrupt at all.”
A breeze blew at Senta’s red kimono, flapping the hem. That’s when I caught the scent of him. Like flowers. I couldn’t name them, but the fragrance was sweet as my papa’s garden when I was kid. I loved to play in the dirt while he sowed his herb seeds of lavender, rosemary, and sage. His flower garden held everything from bird of paradise to daffodils. The scents mixed on the air of my memory, no one bloom standing out but all mixed to offer me a whiff of a contented past.
That was how Senta smelled to me as he turned, and when I understood why he smelled so good. He was about to come into heat.
He nodded at me and walked away without another word.
When I got up to wander back to my cabin, I realized that for the first time in weeks, maybe longer, I was aroused. I was so hard, in fact, that even a cold shower did nothing to dissipate my bodily response.
The heat scent of Senta had affected me. Embarrassingly so. It shouldn’t have been such a concern for me. Most alphas became aroused around omegas in heat unless they were mate-bonded. It was simple biology. Pheromones caused a hormonal reaction. But it wasn’t like we couldn’t control ourselves.
For me, well, I wasn’t ready to feel these feelings. At least, that was what I told myself. My body had other ideas, though, and I kept seeing Senta bent over as if in pain, his mouth gasping, his eyes shut tight.
As I prepared to go to dinner, I kept seeing Senta walking toward me, hearing his voice tell me that everything the island had to offer was available to me. He had a gentle cadence to his tone as he spoke. Omega, alpha—it didn’t matter. Senta was my type. And I had responded.
This was so not my plan.
5
Senta
Our island infirmary was airy and white with lots of luscious green plants in the waiting room. The rooftop was framed glass showing the sky and the tops of trees. Light filtered in everywhere making the pale wood floors glow.
Maxim walked with me to a patio with hammocks and wicker chairs padded with bright green and pink cushions.
“You’re fine,” he told me for the third time.
“It’s nothing? My blood tests showed nothing?” I didn’t think he was lying, but my mind could not accept this anomaly in my body without thinking the worst.
“You have only slightly elevated hormonal levels which are what we see in any omega going into a heat. You have a day or two before it’s full-on.”
“Are there more tests you can do? Because this shouldn’t be happening, right?”
“If the blood tests warranted it, yes, I would order more invasive tests. But there is nothing to show any problem. In fact, you’re the picture of health.”
“But how? How can this happen?” I should have been relieved at Maxim’s words. Instead, the tension in my muscles remained.
“As you know from working here for so many years,” Maxim said, “the body can go through many odd tricks and changes. That’s why you run this place. To try to solve some of those mysteries.”
“So something has triggered my body to think I still have eggs?”
