Chapter 33
Ifollowed Fern down the bland, hospital-looking hall. She took a sharp turn, her sneakers squeaking on the rubber floor.
All designations bustled around me in preparation for the Matching Event. Since this was the first time I’d been to one of these, everything was a shock. I knew about them because of Roberto, but he never went into detail.
“Since it’s your first day on the field, I’ll start you off in inventory.”
“Okay,” I murmured.
Even to my ears, my voice sounded exhausted.
I had an itchy urge to collect blankets, something that I couldn’t afford, so I ended up using my single blanket, folding and refolding it.
The movement was the only thing that soothed the incessant itchy urges.
Two weeks had passed, and in the time I’d been with Fern, I learned a few more things I hadn’t known.
One of those was that now that I had met my Scent Matches, my heat would no longer be every three months. It’d be every fucking month.
Two weeks had passed since I’d seen them, and each day I felt more and more numb.
It didn’t help that I’d created a HeatLink account with the basic phone I’d purchased.
I would have to meet a Pack that way, and something felt wrong about using my Scent Match’s app to find a Pack to fuck for when my heat arrived.
After the drama the Ironwyld Pack caused at the speed-meet, Fern had quickly had me out of there, and she’d set me up in a studio apartment in a small town right outside of the city. And each night had been hell.
Their faces haunted me. Every night, they filled my dreams like demons.
“Here we are,” Fern chirped and led me into a room lit up with fluorescent lights. Potent Alpha scent battered against my senses.
Metal tables were lined up in rows and contained a line of plastic containers, about twenty to each.
That was all there was in the room aside from the sink where there were gloves, cleaning solutions, and paperwork. Fern grabbed the clipboard, and a pen dangled from a string attached to the hole in the metal clamp, then handed it to me.
“This is the list of samples. Each one contains one Pack scent. Make sure you mark all the Packs that submitted. That way I can cross-check and ensure they’re present.
I have to go and take inventory of the Omegas, but when you finish, meet me in the lobby where we have the sign-ins.
” She was already walking out. “And glove up.”
The door slammed shut, leaving me in silence. I exhaled, the sound explosive in the quiet room, and turned toward the sink.
All the training videos I’d been watching in the last week had described what to do. I set the clipboard aside and started rigorously washing my hands.
I plucked a sealed packet and ripped the paper open to grab the little disposable antiseptic towel from inside. I swiped my hands clean, then the clipboard, and disposed of it under the sink. My hands quickly air dried, and I slipped on the latex gloves.
Starting at one end of the room, I began the menial task of checking off the samples provided. Each of the black four by four plastic containers holding a Pack’s ‘sample’ had the Pack name scrawled along the top.
Some of the Pack scents made me want to recoil, while some just allowed me to be near the scent without too much hassle.
The bland ones, the unimpressive ones that I could be around .
. . those would be the Alphas I would choose to soothe my heat.
There would be no coffee scent, nothing to make me lose my mind.
I sighed and finished marking off the checklist of the submitted samples from the first row.
Hopefully, next time I’d be assigned to chronicling the Omega’s samples.
It would be less unsettling.
The door opened with a squeal.
“I only have the first row done,” I called. “I thought we were meeting—” The lights turned off, shadowing the paper I was looking at. I furrowed my eyebrows and turned.
Dorian clasped the back of my neck, the hold hard, unyielding, and somehow painless. I stumbled after his grip until he had my chest pressed against the closest wall. The clipboard clattered on the floor.
“Dorian!” I gasped. His length pressed against my ass and retreated, and the sound of a belt sliding free was unmistakable. “What are you—Oh!”
He slid a finger inside the waistband of my jeans, and bared me with too much ease. He shouldn’t be able to rip jeans so easily. Lifting me by the waist, he slid inside with a hard thrust. My channel clamped on his cock, taking him like she was welcoming him home.
I arched my back, pushing against him. He pumped hard until his knot shoved inside me. Dorian’s breath panted against my throat.
A smidgen of reason invaded.
“I’m working,” I moaned. He ground his hips against my ass and his balls slapping against my skin. My fingers clawed against the wall, bracing the upper half of my body.
“You smell of other Alphas,” he snarled. He lifted my hips higher and slammed inside me so hard my cheek bumped the wall. I couldn’t even feel if it hurt with all my attention focused on his claim. “You are mine, Eva, mine!”
His lips brushed against my throat, right over my Scent Gland, and Dorian bit. Hard.
I screamed, my hearing becoming a ringing in my ears. An orgasm shot through me with such intensity that I couldn’t breathe. Still, he sank his teeth deeper. My channel squeezed him hard, and I couldn’t stop grinding back.
Dorian moaned against my throat, and his knot flexed. Yes. Yes. Yes, Knot me, Alpha.
He growled against my throat and pulled his teeth out of my skin. “Not here, my Eva,” he rumbled. I’d begged aloud?!
Dorian pulled his hips back, and his knot popped out, allowing slick to drip down my thighs. He forced me to turn around.
I clasped the side of my wet neck. Blood trickled free. A pulse of pain wracked the wound. He’d claimed me. He’d fucking claimed me.
Mierda.
Dorian tugged his coat off with one smooth motion. He pressed it into my arms, and he crouched, bringing his face near my pelvis. Grabbing my ankle, he tugged, telling me he wanted my legs wider. I was so shocked that I obeyed.
He used his shirt to swipe the slick and precum dripping out of me, then he stood, tucking the soiled shirt under his arm.
I stared at him, gawking and breathless. The way he touched me, so carefully and commandingly, sent waves of pleasure through my veins. I liked the way it felt, and I wanted to run the other direction because of it.
He took the coat from me and held it open. I lifted my arm, and he didn’t waste time shoving the sleeves on. The coat reached my knees. With a yank, he tugged it closed at the front and bent to sweep me into his arms.
“Dorian, put me down.” I pressed my hand to his bare chest, and he groaned.
“How I love your touch, my Eva.”
Butterflies exploded in my stomach. “What are you doing?” I spat. “Dorian, I’m working.”
“Not anymore.” He stepped out of the room and into the bright halls, forcing me to squint against the glare.
“You can’t do this.”
“Watch me,” he grunted.
“Someone’s going to see you.”
The smile that spread across his lips made nerves erupt in my stomach. “No, they’ll be busy.” It sounded too smug.
“What did you do?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Cade gave them a distraction.”
I was scared to find out what that meant. Dorian strode in the opposite direction I’d come with Fern.
“Dorian, you have to let me go,” I finally articulated the words that stuck in my throat.
His arms flexed around me, and he squeezed me harder like I was going to disappear. Dorian’s eyes were wide, and pain was clear in them. He slowed and pressed his forehead against mine.
“No, Eva,” he breathed. “I know I hurt you. Many times over. I regret . . . everything.” He cleared his throat. “But I can’t live without you.” His eyes became glassy, and a knot formed in my throat. “I was wrong, and I am sorry.”
“You’re just settling for me because you found out what a manipulative bitch Susanna is.”
“Is that what you believe?” he whispered, stricken. My lip trembled.
“Eva!” Fern’s voice echoed off the walls. I sucked in a breath to call for her.
He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine, cutting off my shout and rendering me mute. I gawked up at him as he continued walking until he reached another door. He used his hip to push open the latch.
A shrill alarm went off, but he didn’t seem concerned as he strode into the bright morning day, directly toward an idling car. It was larger than the one they usually used. Upon opening it, the fancy new car smell wafted out.
He passed me over to Cade’s outstretched arms, and he curled me close to him. I tried to push away, but only ended up breathless and with his hard cock pushing against my ass. Dorian slammed the door shut and rounded to the passenger side. As soon as he was in, Rafe peeled away from the building.
Cade was petting the side of my head and squeezing me in a tight hug. He shuddered and sniffed me. “I missed you,” he mumbled against my ear. His fingertip grazed the other side of my neck, and I flinched, stiffening.
Cade gripped my chin and turned my head. He gasped, his fingertips grazing the claiming bite. It was raw and tender. “You claimed her,” Cade accused. Yes he had, but fortunately it would fade in a few weeks . . . as long as I didn’t claim him back. “Me next—”
“No,” I snapped, yanking my chin out of his grip. “I’m not claiming any of you, so it’s pointless.”
A fire engine zoomed past, the sirens blaring. Smoke plumed into the sky from the direction we’d left.
“What did you do?” I breathed.
“No one will be hurt,” Cade murmured and shrugged.
“I’ll make a donation to the ORD,” Dorian commented as if that solved everything. I watched the smoke get further and further away.
“I brought all your things,” Cade said, voice gentle. I blinked a few times to process what I was seeing. My tote strained at the seams, and under it was my single fluffy blanket I’d splurged on.
“You were at my house.”
“And your phone is inside too. Why did you leave it behind?”
I couldn’t form words. I left my phone so I wouldn’t be tempted to look them up and stalk them like I wanted to every time I had a moment alone.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, tucking me tighter against him. A purr vibrated his chest, and it was pure bliss.
Energy leaked out of my limbs. As much as I hated it, peace finally settled over me like a pile of soft blankets. I allowed my eyes to close, hating how blissful I was.