7. Ivy
7
IVY
I owed Logan pie.
He had surprised me. I expected him to silently tolerate me sitting at his table but he had been a wonderful dinner companion.
Also, how often did I get double the amount of pickles? I should try and eat with him at Rosie’s more often.
I’d only just made it inside my home when the few snowflakes that had begun to fall during my drive seemed to multiply a thousandfold in an instant. It clung to the evergreen trees outside my house as the sidewalk disappeared in a blink of white.
I changed into an old sleep tee, leggings and fluffy socks and began to collect all my blankets to wrap around myself on the couch in a makeshift nest.
Minimal clothes, lots of layers. Very omega of me.
I had my marshmallow-loaded hot chocolate and a riveting baking competition on my television. The newest episode of The Grand Sugar Rush Showdown had just dropped. Big Friday night for me, indeed.
I was a bit teary over Oscar the long haul truck driver talking about his dreams to be a baker and stay close to his family. Just as he was about to reveal if his caramel apple upside down cake was as perfect as it needed to be, he stuttered, warped and flickered off my screen.
My lights went out two seconds later.
I was devastated that I wouldn’t know if he’d made it to the next episode.
Then I panicked, because if my house lost power then the school might have too. I had no idea if Fish James was going to be alright when all the contraptions attached to the tank grinded to a halt.
“No,” I whispered.
I’d only gotten him and his fishy friends a few weeks ago. My class loved them. Loved them. I couldn’t have them return after winter break to an empty glass box and a whole lot of traumatizing questions about life and death.
I didn’t even think. I threw on a thermal long sleeve, a sweater, snow pants and my long puffer coat over it all. Hat, gloves and scarf went on while I was already halfway down my drive.
It was hard not to rush over to the school, but I kept my steps measured and sure. Only my familiarity with the route kept me going as visibility worsened into a white blur in front of me. I could feel my muscles straining as the wind picked up, threatening to throw me off balance.
God, what are you doing? This is stupid.
Still, I pressed on.
You just need to see they’re ok. Then you can turn back around and go home.
I reached the entrance, fumbling with the key in my gloved hands. The violently strong winds blew open the door and I only just managed to close it by leaning hard against it. Made it. My fingers scrambled around for the light switch.
“Please, please, please,” I whispered right before I flicked it on.
Nothing.
“Ok.” I turned my phone’s flashlight on. “It’ll be ok,” I told myself. “Maybe your classroom has its own generator you had no idea about and it’s magically kicked in.”
My classroom did not have a magical generator and was as devoid of power as the rest of the building. Luckily the building’s gas heating was unaffected, the soft whirr audible as I made my way to the tank. Fish James and his friends were completely oblivious to their impending doom, much like the dinosaurs before the meteor hit.
“No ice age for you,” I promised them firmly. Time to check if the next building had power. Maybe they were on different grids. Was that a thing? If there was power nearby all I would need was one, two maybe ten extension cords and?—
“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
I screamed. Screamed at a decibel so high I was surprised the windows did not shatter and swamp us in freshly powdered snow.
Us being myself and one extremely pissed off alpha.
“Rome, w-what are you?—”
“I should ask you the same thing.” He stormed up to me, eyes ablaze. There was still snow dusting his shoulders and it peppered the ground with each deliberate step. “I saw you through my window rushing across town. I thought, surely not. Surely Ivy would not wander off in the middle of a blizzard to the school to do god knows what .”
“I-I was,” I stuttered, eyes darting as I tried to explain. “The fish, you see, I didn’t want them to?—”
My ass hit my desk as he backed me up against it. A tiny gasp escaped as I inhaled sharply.
Big mistake. Huge, colossal, monumental mistake.
His mulled wine scent plumed hot and dizzying down my throat. Spilled into my lungs and the heat of it billowed through my entire body. The brandy was sharper, a delicious fire with a burn I chased. Demanding my attention while cloaking me in its protective warmth.
“I was…” I stammered as I tried to find my voice again. My scarf felt so restrictive. I ripped it from my neck with an agitated tug. “I wanted to check on my fish.”
My head felt too hot. Hands too. I let out a cross hmph as I pulled my hat and gloves off.
“Ivy, what are you doing?” Rome’s voice was low and barely controlled.
I was only half listening to him. Did I really need to put on so many layers when I left? Suddenly my thermals and two pairs of pants didn’t make any sense at all.
The sound of footsteps coming down the hall startled us both.
“Jesus, Rome, you could’ve waited for me to catch up,” James grumbled, his flashlight whirling as he tried to find the entrance to the classroom.
Rome and I flinched as the beam shone in our eyes. “Shit, sorry,” James said, hurriedly lowering it. His mouth turned down in a frown. “I’m glad you’re ok, Ivy. You really scared us.”
I felt stupid. I had been needlessly reckless. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “The power went out at home and I-I couldn’t have my kids come back in the new year to an empty tank.”
“They’ll be fine for a few hours,” James reassured me. “I’ll run back and grab Logan. I’m sure he’ll be able to figure something out to get everything back up before the fish even realize something is wrong.”
I sagged with relief. I really wanted to hug him close for some reason. “Thank you, James.”
His smile was back and made me feel like everything was going to work out.
After the fuss I had caused, I might as well make myself useful while we waited. There was a stash of battery-operated tealight candles in my storage cupboard. I’d bought them when we learnt about Diwali and I reused them just this week to make my classroom feel more festive. Rome took one of the boxes from me and we silently placed them in clusters around the classroom until we were bathed in a golden glow.
The candles were tiny. Incapable really of giving off any sort of warmth against the cold of the blizzard that seeped into the walls of the school. Yet the heated itch beneath my skin seemed to grow rather than diminish.
“You should put your scarf and hat back on, Ivy,” Rome said, picking them up from where they lay discarded on my desk. “I know we’re inside but it’s still cold.”
I couldn’t imagine anything worse. “I’m really hot actually,” I said, my voice sounding strained. My coat felt claustrophobic even after I unzipped it so I removed it entirely.
“Are you getting sick?” Rome swept his fingers across my forehead and cupped my cheek. “Ivy, you’re burning up. Shit, I knew I should’ve stopped you and brought you inside sooner.” His distress made the citrus of his scent stronger, sour with an edge of bitterness.
Before I realized what I was doing, my hand carded through his hair. The effect on him was instantaneous, a shudder running through that tall, alpha body of his.
“Have to keep you warm,” Rome muttered. His eyes were unfocused and glassy as he removed his coat. Yes . That made so much sense. In fact, it was probably better if he took even more clothes off.
Rome draped it around my shoulders and I pulled the thick fabric up to my nose and breathed it in. God, it smelled so much like him even though it hadn’t been directly on his skin. If his coat smelled this good, then what about his sweater? I eyed it greedily and caught hold of the hem in my fingers. I was rewarded with a glimpse of ink, black against his dusky brown skin.
He’s tattooed. I never knew.
I couldn’t help lifting his sweater higher, taking in the way the sleek tiger wound along the hard lines of muscle of his abdomen.
Was there more? How far up did it go?
“Ivy,” he groaned. His hands coasted down my waist and gripped me firmly on my hips.
I could count every eyelash framing his black eyes.
“Alpha.”
It was as if I had physically struck him. He reeled back, shaking his head like he was trying to clear it. I didn’t understand. I wanted him closer, I wanted his hands back on me.
“Shit. Oh fuck .”
I didn’t understand, I didn’t understand any of this.
A noise slipped out of me. High-pitched. Needy.
I’d never ever made a noise like that before in my life.
“Baby, listen to me, I think you’re in?—”
The scrape of my classroom door sliding open cut him off. James and Logan appeared. Their hands were full of…tools? A box of some kind? It was irrelevant and uninteresting to me. I wanted them closer, all the layers peeled off them so I could?—
Another one of those sounds left my throat. Rome’s coat fell off my shoulders and my sweater was unbearably warm. I tore it off and sighed with relief as the chill hit my bare skin.
“What the fuck is going on?” Logan snapped. His chest was heaving, taking in air in big lungfuls. “Her scent, it’s…”
James stared at Rome, then me. “Is she?—”
“I think so,” Rome gritted out.
The beta stepped decisively between me and the alphas. He tore his gloves off with his teeth and I sighed as he held my face between his hands.
He was so very pretty and smelled wonderful.
“Hi sweetheart.” James was smiling as usual but there was a tightness in his eyes this time.
“Hmm?” I blinked.
“Are you on suppressants?”
Why was he asking me this? Almost every omega was. “Mmhmm,” I answered anyway.
“Is there a chance you might have missed one?”
I made a disgruntled noise. I was very diligent with my suppressant use and resented the question.
“Not trying to upset you, gorgeous. But I think there’s a chance something has gone wrong. Rome told me you were sick today at lunch. When do you normally take them?”
My mouth suddenly went dry. “Right before lunch,” I croaked out.
Logan hissed. “How can one missed pill cause?—”
Rome was staring at his coat I had stolen so readily from him. “One missed pill and a fuckload of compatible alpha pheromones,” he cursed.
The realization collided with me in one dizzying rush.
I was going into heat for the first time in my life. Likely not a full-blown, days-long heat as I had only missed one dose of my suppressants. But clearly Rome’s scent had affected me enough to throw me into a spike. A short mini-heat that could last anywhere from a few minutes to hours and there would only be one thing I would want during that time.
I whined, torn between panic and need.
“Ivy, look at me,” James ordered me firmly.
I whined again, clawing at his arms. He was steady. I let myself sink a little deeper into the warmth of his gaze.
“I’m scared,” I whimpered. “I’ve never…”
James stroked my hair. “I know. You say the word and I get both these alphas out of here.”
“No!” I cried out.
My lower abdomen seized with pain. I doubled over and saw Logan and Rome visibly sway, needing to get closer to help me.
“I-it hurts, James,” I gasped. “I need?—”
I need to be rutted until I’m limp from coming so much. I need to be stretched with a thick alpha knot, right before I’m filled up with cum.
Not only was I having these thoughts for the first time in my life, but it all seemed like an incredibly good idea.
“You want to be helped through this heat spike?” James asked, caressing his thumbs across my cheeks.
“You don’t have to. You can just leave me.”
The alpha growls grew louder.
“Safe to say if you want them to stay, that’s not happening.” James searched my face. His bottom lip looked very inviting. Plump and slightly peachy and I wondered what sound he would make if I bit down lightly on it.
“ Ivy .”
Whatever look I gave him made him curse low under his breath.
“I need to hear you say it, Ivy. Do you want them to ease your heat?”
Them?
“I want you all,” I corrected him.
James was caught off guard that I’d included him but recovered quickly.
“Good girl.” His voice sank into that deep, velvety pitch that made my thighs clench in response. I could feel wetness soaking into my panties.
Slick.
Getting me ready to take an alpha knot.
I was caught up in the embrace of Rome’s strong, steadying arms. Forearms overlapped at my back, the fit of him filling every touch-starved inch of me.
“Baby, I have to?—”
His face turned towards mine, his stubbled jaw grazing the rounded apple of my cheek. Oh. He was scent-marking me.
I’d seen alphas do this to their omegas. I always thought it was the equivalent of a cheek kiss. A perfunctory goodbye gesture. At least that’s how it always felt with Sean.
I was wrong.
It was so much more than that.
There was an intimacy in sharing our scents that was hard to describe. Rome was leaving his mark on me but I was doing the same in return. Spice on spice, my earthy ginger with his brandy fire.
His eyes were black when we parted, his alpha rut creeping up as quickly as my heat. I wanted to build my nest, pull him down into it and find out exactly what his knot felt like.
“It’s probably best if I leave.”
What was this? There was tension in the room, a disagreement sparking in my periphery.
Logan was pacing in agitated circles. “Rome looks like he can handle it.”
James frowned. “If you don’t want her that way then?—”
“Jesus, that is absolutely not the problem.”
“Then what? She asked for all of us, Logan.”
Logan turned away, dragging his hand through his hair. “Because I don’t know the first thing about omegas. Except that you’re meant to court them before… shit .”
I needed him to stay with me. I disentangled myself from Rome and made my way over to the others.
Logan flinched when I reached up to touch his face.
“Ivy. I have no idea what the fuck I’m doing,” he confessed hoarsely.
“Me neither.”
He smelled so good. Like a quiet breath in a deep forest. I buried my nose in his neck and he shuddered.
“Please stay with me.”
My face was tilted back roughly and his mouth was on mine in an instant.
Logan kissed me like we had forever, sweet and careful. As if there wasn’t a reddening flush sprawling down my neck and chest. As if my head wasn’t growing woozy and lightweight as my hormones went haywire.
I didn’t realize how demanding they could be. My omega instincts. I fisted his neckline to bring him closer, needing more.
As soon as Logan and I broke apart, Rome was there. If Logan had kissed me like we had forever, then Rome kissed me like he was going to keep me forever. He was possessive and hot, bearing down and encompassing my whole body with his. The crush of his mouth to mine was desperate, and I rose up to meet his heat with my own.
I was disoriented when it was over. The need to taste and beg and fuck them was so confusing and foreign. Yet it was all I wanted, all I craved.
“Ivy.”
James. He was trying to ground me once again as I felt my lucidity waver like a mirage.
I tilted my face up to meet his lips. They were incredibly soft and gentle. He was tender but determined and the way his tongue stroked mine melted down my spine.
“I will look after you no matter what,” James promised in a whisper only for me.
I believed him.
I trusted him.
I sucked in a sharp breath and all their scents hit me. James first, of course, but the alpha scents were a tidal wave I stood no chance against.
And then I was gone.