Page 7 of Duke's Baby Deal
And I’d been warned over and over again that once an alpha or a beta or really anyone who wasn’t omega caught a whiff of my scent in heat, it was game over, because they wouldn’t be able to think of anything else but having me. If I did that, I’d never know if he really wanted me, or if it was just my hormones that threw us together. Besides, I’d also been told over and over that any omega who didn’t wait until they were mated was a loose omega that no decent shifter would touch with a ten foot pole.
And Duke was nothing if not decent.
I sighed and slammed the side of my fist into my pillow, then flopped over and stared at the ceiling. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to go wandering while I was like this, but I just needed to move. Or do something. But what?
I supposed I could toss a ball against the back of the house—technically, that wasn’t going anywhere.
Okay, it was splitting hairs, but it wasn’t like I was going to wander around the neighborhood, was it?
And it did help some, whipping the ball at the house and being incredibly careful not to hit the windows. I was still in trouble over the last one I broke, though it had been a complete accident. My parents had made me pay for the repairs out of the credits I earned from my one extra shift at the daycare. If I broke another one tonight, I wouldn’t have anything to spend for months.
I took some pot-shots at the posts that marked off the personal ‘territory’ allotted to each household too, but I was always a shitty shot and I got to do a lot of jogging after the ball when I missed. Still, I felt calmer while I was out there, less trapped by my biology. I think I read that line somewhere, or maybe it was something Jason had said, but it stuck because that’s just what it felt like. Like all my choices had been taken away because I’d been born with a stupid pink line across my stomach, advertising myspecialomega status to the world. And it wasn’t even that I didn’t want babies, or a home, or a mate to look after. It was all the other things, like tonight, that got taken away from me and made me angry. I just wanted to be like everyone else.
The ball went winging off into the dark, missing the post I’d aimed at by a mile. I jogged after it, like I had a couple dozen times already. Having something else to think about was way better than being stuck in the house with nothing to do but keep my hands off—or on—myself.
I was practicing bouncing the ball off the inside of my elbow and catching it again while I walked back and didn’t notice Justin standing just inside our territory until I almost ran into him.
“Oh, Justin! You shouldn’t be here.” I tried to edge around him, and he moved to block my path.
“I went looking for you,” he drawled. “You promised me a dance.” His nostrils flared and his upper lip curled away from his teeth. He sniffed, hard and through his mouth, scenting me. My heart began to pound—I could smell him too, and all I wanted to do was rub up against him until he cooled that fire inside me. All the stories I’d been told were true—an omega in heat would mate anything. But if I did that… I didn’t want him, not really. It had been fun lording it over the other omegas and the gammas and deltas that had set their sights on him, but he wasn’t the kind of guy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But if he touched me, whatIwanted would be drowned in the flood of hormones his skin against mine would cause. My body would beg for him, because my body had no sense at all, while my mind was taken along for the ride.
I needed to escape. “I can’t—” I babbled and dodged the other way.
He laughed and followed me. I bolted for the door, and then he was on me, and a raw, animal moan burst from my throat, frightening me with its intensity. He pulled me into a rough embrace and it felt so amazing that the little voice in the back of my brain was drowned out by all the rest of me shoutingYes, Yes, Yes!
Justin chuckled again as he ravaged my neck, making me whimper, while somewhere deep inside, I screamed. He whispered, “I knew you’d be a hot ride.” He jammed his hand down the back of my jeans and made the kind of noise a person makes when they’re about to have their favorite meal. “Yeah,” he said, and pulled my shirt off, then went after my jeans.
The next thing I knew, the grass was cold under my back, and that was the last coherent thought I had.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I woke up in a mess of sheets, the smell of sweat and—fuck, fuck, damn.
I’d had sex. Last night. With that asshole from Montana.
I’m so sorry Duke.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
I rolled over and buried my face in my pillow so Mom and Dad and couldn’t hear me crying. Brief thoughts of killing myself flitted through my head, which was stupid, because no one even knew yet.
They would in a few months though, and that made me sob even harder.
An omega doesn’t go out during their heat. Or something like this happens.
“Bram!” Mom called from downstairs. “Breakfast is ready. I made your favorite.”
She was trying to cheer me up because I’d missed Harvest Moon, but it only made me worse.
“I’m not hungry,” I yelled, and pulled the sheets over me. I heard her feet on the stairs and panicked. “Leave me alone!” I couldn’t have her come in here—evenIcould smell Justin and his…stuff…on me and I was probably halfway nose-blind after sleeping a whole night covered in his scent.
She paused outside my room. “I’m going over to the park to help with the clean-up. Do you want me to just leave it on the kitchen table?”
I sniffed and nodded, then realized she couldn’t see me. “Yes, please.”
“All right, honey. I’ll see you again in a bit.” She went back downstairs, and a few moments later I heard the door close behind her.
That sent me into a flurry of activity. Faster than I’d ever done in my life, I stripped the sheets off my bed and ran downstairs to throw them in a bag so I could go wash them before Mom found out.
