Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
The tiny room we’re in is saturated by the smell of two people getting off made better because of his unique scent. I seriously can’t get enough of the way he smells, it’s like a drug I need more of. I bury my nose against his throat, figuring out exactly what it reminds me of: lemon-meringue pie, achingly sweet with a tartness to make your mouth water.
“You smell good enough to eat.” I snuggle up under his chin, chasing even more. It’s everywhere, and so is his Alpha presence. It presses against all the places his scent doesn’t reach, honestly, I feel like I’m being wrapped up like a burrito.
“And you’re stealing my lines. Which reminds me.” His lemony breath blows across my face and it’s the only warning I get before he steals my breath as he slams his lips to mine. His tongue dances over mine, and I release the smallest of whimpers. The noise encourages him, and he growls before kissing me with even more determination. It’s like he’s trying to destroy me in a kiss.
I have to pull away so I don’t pass out on him because I get so caught up in his lemony lips, he makes me forget how to breathe. “Thank you for saving me. Out there and in here, I mean.”
“It wasn’t a hard ask. I guess though we need to talk,” he says, he takes his hand and moves my face back to where it was, kissing away the question we need to talk about.
I lose track of time and get lost in each yummy kiss as we make out like lovers who have been together for years. He makes each kiss different and more intense than the last. Our delicious make out session only gets interrupted when the lights blinker on.
“Oh,” is all I manage because words disappear. Beautiful is an inadequate descriptor when it comes to him. Unsurprisingly I’m as drawn to him physically as I am scent wise and I seriously can’t do anything but stare into his dark grey eyes for a while because they are so amazing. There’s flecks of blue in them but they’re definitely stormy grey. One look and he’s got me under his spell, but then my gaze drops to his lips, slightly puffy from our kissing, and I get side tracked by them instead.
He stays so still and doesn’t shy away as I check him out. And then seeing as I’m done, he smiles making his teeth flash, nearly blinding me in the process.
“Would you stop,” I laugh, not needing to refer to his preening or his happiness, it’s pretty obvious.
My hands brush his hair off his face because I can easily see it’s unnatural the way it currently is and once I’ve slicked it off his forehead and back in place I see him clearly, and properly. He’s absolutely nailed the rockabilly look. His hair is freaking soft to touch and so healthy I’m jealous. I run my fingers through the length, obsessing about how deep the black colour is.
The way he has it styled, mixing length on top and buzz cut sides, styled to military precision is divine. And hot damn it looks good on him.
I can’t stop ogling him like a creeper, but by God, he’s one of my ultimate fantasies in the flesh. He’s wearing, or was wearing, a crisp white shirt sleeves rolled up, unbuttoned at his throat. Right now, he looks calm even though it looks like he’s been running backwards through a tornado. Or making out with a desperate Omega.
A wide smile breaks across my lips and I can’t help but laugh at how freaking good he looks. I go to check my clothes, but my eyes catch on the side of his throat. Instead of shying away from the bite on his throat I reach out and touch his throat having a vague memory of my face there.
“Impossible,” I whisper as I touch the claim mark.
He shuffles slightly, and my gaze jumps from his throat to his eyes and I’m surprised his eyes are closed at such a critical moment.
“Improbable. Not impossible,” he says a line creasing his forehead. “God, you touching it feels incredible. Pretty sure I could come again if you keep doing that. Why do you smell stressed by the way?”
“You’re not stressed?” I sass back instantly and too loudly.
“About you biting me?”
“Jesus, I did it?” I croak, as I try to breathe past the implication of what he said. That I bit him? Again, impossible.
He interrupts the rambling happening in my thoughts, “You thought I’d ask to taste the slick coating your fingers if I was packed to someone else?”
“I didn’t know.” I’m still rendered nearly speechless by him suggesting I did it.
“You do now.”
I have to ask him again because it doesn’t make sense. “I bit you?”
“And claimed me.”
I throw my hands up. “I know nothing about you.”
“That should probably be me saying that I mean you’re that one that solidified our connection into something past a quick hook-up during an emergency.”
I screech in panic. “I think we’re facing our own emergency, mister.”
He rolls his eyes and sits up. He’s a lot taller than me; now that he’s sitting up, I have to crane my neck back to look up at him. A sense of safety wraps around me—it’s his Alpha presence and there’s no denying how comforting I find it, as much as I find his lemony scent soothing too.
“Hi, I’m Tyson, your new pack mate.” He holds his hand out for me to shake.
And my mouth falls open. “A handshake? No! No! No! No! We are hitting rewind. I can’t claim you pack!”
“Technically you can. And past that, we’re both looking at irrefutable evidence that you did.”
“But how?”
“How do I smell to you?”
“Oh, don’t you tell me we’re scent matches too!” I sass out, eyeing him. I’m clinging on to denial with every bone in my body.
“Okay.” He replies with a small confident shrug of his shoulders and smirk of his lips.
“Okay?” I ask slowly, my eyebrows pitching up as high as my voice.
Tyson shrugs again. “I think you should consider we’re scent compatible as fact too though. You wouldn’t have felt safe enough to let me help you in your spike if I wasn’t.”
“But?”
“No buts. When an Alpha”—he points at him before he points at me—“and an Omega share a compatibility and that connection is heightened because they smell right to each other and they’re both orgasming, a bite can be made by the weaker designation. That’s a general statement based on fact, not a comment on your personal strength so don’t you bust my ass.”
I scoff and roll my eyes.
“You’re fucking gorgeous when you do that you know. Actually, you’re fucking stunning period. I kind of feel like we’ve met though?”
“You don’t know who I am?” I ask, shocked. And my shock is not purely driven by my ego but at the same time my face is kind of everywhere.
He laughs softly as he shakes his head clearly in the dark about who I am and also what I’m referring to. “Besides being my scent match and new mate?”
“You’re taking this too lightly.”
He sits up taller in a blast of sudden movement, his whole face changes and the light drains from his eyes making them hard and dangerous. “Present for your Alpha,” he barks out, infusing four words with so much dominance and Alpha presence that I respond instinctively, losing all resistance.
Within a heartbeat I’m on all fours, my butt extended, waiting for him.
“Relax, Omega,” he coos softly. His hand on my lower back is as gentle as the voice he uses. He keeps it there until I relax and then he steers me back to facing him the way I was before he Alpha-wrangled me into submission. “I was proving a point you didn’t really need proving.”
“For the sake of clarification, what was that?” I ask, still thrown by how he can have such opposing sides to his personality.
He looks me in the eye, daring me to argue but also imploring me to listen. “All people have different sides to their personality; some are better at hiding them than others. And me barking at you, I think it’s pretty easy to see you’re more of a hands-on learner. Plus, it felt right. No, actually, it felt necessary that I let my Alpha out. He’s in there alive and kicking, eager to show you how he can treat his mate.”
“You’re talking about yourself in the third person?”
He smiles and it transforms his face. I like how unshaken he is, always seeing the good. “Come on, the security team should be coming through and I’d rather they didn’t scent how fucking delectable you are after you orgasm.”
“I can’t have bitten you! I’m still at school!”
“Technically so am I.” He laughs quickly before it shifts into a purr-laden chuckle as I blaze red like a tomato. God the very Alpha sound filling the space between us is full of innuendo and it brings a tingling rush of goosebumps dancing over my arms.
Which he watches while purposely making his purr continue.
I side eye him, trying to ignore the signals and sounds flying around us both so I can get a better understanding of the whole messed up situation. Plus, you know, another Alpha telling lies has my internal alarms going off. “You told me you were a doctor.”
“Technically the moment I graduated I became a doctor. I’m finishing my residency though. You can come see me get a prize for all my hard work if you like, I’m sure they’ll give me a plaque, though between me and you, I’m more interested in the check. It seriously sucks being a resident, we do four times the work and get paid bananas.”
And just like that all the pieces fall into place in no particular order, but at the same time they’re all equally poignant parts of the puzzle. He is my scent matched mate. I somehow claimed him. He’s a resident doctor. He was going to an award presentation. Our paths have been waiting to cross, which is exactly how fate works.
“All okay?” He asks, interrupting my epiphany.
I agree with a soft smile which he notices immediately. Despite only just meeting him, it’s pretty easy to see he’s got a natural born ability to calm and soothe. The fact he won Dean’s award is proof of his intelligence and dedication to his chosen career. His compassionate side is what I keep seeing, and it’s what is going to be what sets him apart from his peers.
“I’m going to help you freshen up, so I don’t lose my shit and they have to lock the hospital down again.”
I splutter a laugh at his suggestion he’d ever lose control. And without realising he reminds me of a multi-faceted personality, and I can’t say I don’t like the surly undertones of ownership in his words. He leads us to a tiny cubicle bathroom. It is barely big enough for him let alone the both of us, but he makes it work.
“Can you see my bag? I literally have no clue what happened to it.” He briefly ducks his head out of the bathroom.
“Stay there,” he says, disappearing and reappearing with my bag in the space of a few seconds confirming how small his living conditions are.
“Oh my god, thank you!” I mumble, digging through my oversized tote to start unloading into his hands the things I need: a fresh pair of padded panties, some of Heidi’s strongest scent blocking lotion, makeup, phone.
“Your bag is almost as big as you are,” he teases as he looks down at the pile in his hand and what I still have in my bag.
“Hey! A girl’s got needs. And this is actually one of my smaller bags,” I sass back though our banter falls away when I see the screen full of texts from Big Tom.
“Shit.” I hit redial the instant I unlock my screen, but the call keeps dropping out which feeds a growing sense of urgency.
Tyson taps my leg to get my attention. And it works but his touch is also like a balm on a burn, so soothing that it stops my meltdown. “It’s the service in my room, for some reason I never get calls or can make them in here. If you text, it should work.”
“Okay,” I nod, trying to slow down my increasing nerves. I feel awful for Big Tom, he’d be pissed off about being unable to do his job of protecting me. With a clearer head, I tap out a text letting him know I’m safe and waiting for security to let me out of a room. He responds in an instant.
While I’m on my phone, Tyson busies himself too. It’s insanely sweet the way he has everything lined up for me; a sink full of warm water, a clean face cloth waiting, my lotion, my clean undies.
“I’ll be out here. We’ve got a couple of minutes until the guards come past and let us out.” He steps out and leaves me to freshen up.
Lucky too, because my reflection in the mirror looks like I’ve been dragged through the bushes backwards. “Holy shit! You didn’t want to tell me I looked like this?”
“You look like you’ve just come on my fingers.”
I bark out a laugh. “Oh please.”
A chuckle is the only response I get as I complete the world fastest freshen up and change. It’s almost comical when it comes to figuring out where to put my slicked-up panties but I can’t really put them back in my bag or maybe I could but either way I decide the best course of action is to bury them under all his dirty clothes on the bottom of his laundry basket. It makes a lot of sense to me.
When I come out all fresh again, he’s sitting on the edge of his bed reading his phone, and he jumps to his feet. Something about the action has my alarms going off. What if I just bit an Alpha who has a girlfriend, another Omega he’s been courting.
“I’m an asshole,” bursts out of my mouth.
And I watch him recoil like I’ve slapped him. “Excuse me?”
My eyes lock on his throat where I know my bite sits hidden behind his collared shirt. “I bit you without asking.”
“You did.”
“I know. And that makes me an asshole. Like your whole life is ahead of you, and now I’ve mustered my way into it. What if we don’t get along?”
“What if we do? What if by you acting without thought was the best thing to ever happen to me? You’re being a bit presumptuous that it’s going to be a bad experience for the both of us.”
“So, you’re not concerned?”
“I didn’t say that but at the same time I already know it’s not the worst thing to happen in my life.”
“Really?”
“Without belittling the situation or condoning your actions, being bitten by you really is not the worst, besides we’re both adults. I’m sure we’ll be able to work through issues as they arise. Although I have to be straight up, if you’re a gold digger, I’m sorry… you bit the wrong Alpha. I’ve got nothing. Barely two bucks in the bank, and my pack is about the same. We’re down the bottom of the Pack ladder.”
“You really don’t know who I am, do you?” As soon as I finish speaking I realise how goddamn condescending I sound. “See, case in point, I am an asshole.”
“Look, I’m going to put it out there and say fate works in mysterious ways. What if I am exactly what you need and vice versa. It doesn’t really matter who you are as a name, it matters more who you are as a person.”
“Would you stop!” I throw my hands up, frustrated and also giddy with happiness; the conflicting emotions swirling around inside me are like a tornado.
“Pardon?” He stammers confused.
“You’re a little too perfect.” I explain, desperately trying to use my indoor voice despite my zig-zagging emotions. The Omega mothers would be so proud of me about now.
“I assure you I am far from perfect. So how about we say screw it all and see what happens?” He holds his hand out to me, like you see in romance movies. He wants me to throw caution to the wind and jump all in on us being together in a three second meeting but in truth that’s exactly what I did with King.
My hand slides into his, and just like that I’m on my way to having a pack. What a fucking weird day.