Chapter 9
Auryn
Two things happen every time Olly looks at me.
One, my entire body reacts to his presence like a lightning rod. In the absence of heat, it’s like a warm, soothing fire. Or what I imagine a warm, cozy fire feels like.
Safe.
The second thing is this unabridged desire to wrap my arms around him and never let him out of my fucking sight. Like he’s the one who needs to be protected.
I’ve never felt like this about anyone.
Then again, I haven’t really spent much time around betas, I suppose. Are all betas like this, or is this an Olly thing?
I’m not sure what to make of it, so I try my best to remain calm. But my insides are twisting, my heart racing as he takes a step towards me. His amber eyes gaze down at me, but he doesn’t make me feel small. Quite the opposite, actually.
When Olly looks at me, I feel ten feet tall.
“I know you detest needles, but …”
He sets his case on the small table next to the bed. I watch as he opens it, the motion drawing attention to his forearms that are jutting out from beneath his rolled up white sleeves of his lab coat.
My mind flashes with memories of another doctor, another lab coat. I try to quell the memories, but my body betrays me, and I let out a strangled whimper, digging the heels of my hands into my eyes.
I can hear Emmett’s growl, but Olly’s soft voice pulls my attention.
No, not just his voice…
Smooth hands wrap around my wrists. He pulls them gently away from my eyes, forcing me to look up at him.
A myriad of emotions and feelings surface. Things I don’t understand.
I’m used to this feeling of want. The omega in me always desires because that’s what I was made to do. Desire. Want. Fuck. Breed.
And those feelings are certainly there for the dark-haired, mysterious doctor.
But beneath that is something so much stronger.
Need.
“I promise it won’t hurt,”
he says, holding my wrists between us. His thumbs slide over the underside, reminding me of when he took my handcuffs off. His fingers absentmindedly stroke my skin.
His touch is gentle.
Because he’s a beta. Not an alpha.
In the distance, I hear Emmett’s growls. I lick my lips, nodding.
“Promise?”
I ask, feeling strangely vulnerable.
Olly smiles. “Promise.”
He guides me gently towards the bed, and I sit without a second thought. He lets go of my hand, and I hate that it feels cold without his warm palm. I watch with my heart in my throat as he opens his case and pulls out his tools. That’s when I notice Emmett. He’s standing just outside the cage, watching me.
His green eyes flick from Olly to me, and he twists his lips. The look in his eyes is possessive, and it pisses me off as much as it makes my stupid omega preen.
She’s such a fickle bitch.
“Can you make a fist for me?”
Olly asks, pulling my attention from Emmett.
He stands before me, stretching the rubber tourniquet band.
“I—”
My voice suddenly sounds faint. Emmett leans in the opening, his gaze capturing mine, and Olly stands straighter. He turns just the slightest towards Emmett, letting out a grunt before shaking his head.
“Or perhaps maybe you could just envision wanting to punch the alpha who can’t keep his fucking distance.”
I note Emmett’s surprise in his expression, but the surprise fades into anger.
“Fuck you, Olly!”
he says bitterly.
Olly rolls his eyes, and I swear I’ve never seen something more attractive.
“No, thank you,”
he says plainly, and I laugh.
I fucking laugh, because it’s funny.
That seems to cut the tension as I catch Emmett’s expression, making my fist and extending my arm for Olly.
“Sure,”
I say, flashing my gaze up at Olly. “Stick me.”
I blow out a breath. Olly turns six shades of red, and I have to stifle my grin.
He blinks a few times. “Uh…”
“Today, Olly,”
Emmett growls.
Olly blinks again, looking like he’s seen a ghost, but he recovers quickly.
“Right. Bloodwork. Yes.”
He leans into my space, wrapping the rubber band around my arm. The motion puts him close to me once more, and without thinking I breathe him in.
Fuck, he smells good. Like storms and rain and woods.
It makes me whine involuntarily.
Olly ties the band, glancing at me, and I realize he’s close enough to…
Kiss.
What the fuck is wrong with me? Kissing this man, this beta, is the last thing I should be thinking about, considering he’s one of the men who threw me in this cage.
I have every reason to despise him. To distrust him, but…
You are safe. His words reverberate in my head, and something tells me I can trust him.
“Are you all right, Auryn?”
he asks, his voice low, smooth. I don’t miss the way his gaze flashes to my mouth before he glances up at me.
“The fuck?”
Emmett growls, but he doesn’t move from his spot. The strange spell is broken as I nod.
“Yes,”
I say. “Just…get it over with. Please.”
Olly nods as he grabs his needle, and I tense.
“Eyes on me,”
he says. Emmett is right behind him now, catching my attention.
I defy his gaze and stare directly at Olly. That seems to piss him off, and pissing him off makes me feel good.
It shouldn’t, but I can’t help that it does.
“Tell me your favorite color,”
he says, that smooth, warm voice like velvet on my skin.
“Green,”
I say without thinking. “But like dark green. Green like the plants in the forest.”
Forest. I hadn’t spent much time there, not like I wished I could have. Freedom barely lasted, and the thought makes me frown.
“Blue,”
Olly says as I feel a prick. “Dark blue, like the ocean.”
I glance at Emmett who looks like he’s in pain, and stupidly I ask him.
“What about you, brute?”
The relief in his gaze is not lost on me when he says, “Orange.”
Olly scoffs. “All alphas love the colors of fire. Because all they can think about is—”
“Heat.”
I finish his sentence.
Emmett grunts. “It’s also the color of the fucking sun. You know, the thing that keeps us alive?”
“The sun is actually white, Emmett. It only appears yellow or orange due to atmospheric scattering that filters out blue and violet light.”
“Fucking nerd,”
Emmett scoffs, and then I feel the temporary relief as the pinching stops, but it’s replaced soon enough by another pinch. I swallow, keeping my eyes trained on them.
Olly and Emmett.
“Favorite food?”
Olly asks, that smooth voice making me feel more relaxed.
Suddenly, my stomach plummets.
“I don’t know,”
I say honestly.
“You have to know what you like to eat,”
Emmett says.
I shake my head.
“I love bacon,”
Emmett says gruffly. “Salty, crispy, greasy fucking bacon.”
“You would,”
Olly bites, and I laugh again. Olly smiles at me.
“Cinnamon rolls,”
he says with a smirk. “Sweet, sticky, warm cinnamon rolls straight from the oven.”
For some reason, my cheeks heat. I lick my lips as I get another whiff of his woodsy scent. I whine without thinking, my insides twisting as Emmett curses.
“Sweet lord,”
he says. “You are perfuming like crazy.”
I watch as Emmett brusquely adjusts himself, and all warmth leaves me as I tense.
I hiss at him, and he looks surprised.
“Out,”
I say as Olly removes my needle.
“What the hell, Auryn—”
“I said, out!”
I growl, just as Olly’s hands grip my arms. He works fast at removing my tourniquet, but I feel his hand pressing some soft cotton against my arm, and it’s enough to keep me in place.
I snarl at Emmett, but he backs away.
“Emmett, please leave,”
Olly says, his voice cold and calculating, devoid of its usual warmth.
“The fuck did I do?”
Emmett growls again.
“Out of the cage,”
Olly commands. The tension between us is thick. Heavy.
Emmett leaves with a vicious growl.
Olly presses the cotton against my arm, catching my gaze once more.
“Can you hold that for me, please?”
he asks, softer. I settle my fingertips over the cotton, brushing against his for only a second, but the touch sends a jolt through my body.
Olly’s jaw tenses as he turns from me to grab a bandage.
“See,”
he says, his voice smooth. “That didn’t hurt, now did it?”
His amber eyes catch mine, glistening with something dark and inviting. Flecks of gold glitter in his irises, making my heartbeat quicken again. I have the faintest desire to never look away.
“No,”
I say, my voice barely a whisper. He holds my attention for a moment before he packs up his case.
“I, uh…best get these to the lab,”
he says, clearing his throat.
He’s leaving.
Fuck, he’s leaving.
I grab his wrist without thinking, panic swelling inside of me. I don’t want him to leave.
My beta.
I blink, shoving the endearment down into the pit of my stomach. No. He is not mine. He is not…
This can’t happen. I can’t form an attachment to any of these men; they are the enemy.
Olly settles his free hand on mine where I grab him. His palm is warm against my skin.
“I’ll be back later,”
he says with a smile. “Promise.”
I let him go, and with that he moves away, clutching his case. I hate watching him leave, and I know I shouldn’t trust a word he says, but…
I don’t think he would lie to me. He hasn’t yet.
If anything, he’s been the only one to show me any sort of trust.
So, I let myself believe him. I let myself hope I’ll see him again.
When the door shuts, I see Emmett, sitting with his arms crossed in front of his chest, scowling in front of my cell.
“Don’t look so happy, Emmett,”
I bite out. He flips me off, and I scoff. “A bit sensitive for an alpha, aren’t you?”
I can’t seem to help myself around this alpha. The need to irk him, to piss him off is strong.
I want to rattle his fucking cage.
“Aren’t you a little bitchy for an omega?” he snaps.
I’ve hit a nerve.
“Maybe you just bring out the bitch in me, Em.”
“I’ll bring something else out in you, princess, if you don’t shut up right now.”
I lean against the bars of my cell, flashing my gaze at him.
“Go ahead. You wouldn’t be the first,”
I say. I mean the words as a threat, but that’s not how they come out, no.
They come out less strong and bold than I intend, and he sits up straighter, his entire expression shifting. He opens his mouth to speak, but before he can respond the door opens, and in walks Mr. Blue Eyes.
Everything around me stops. The air thins, and all there is is him.
“Gage, what the—”
“You are relieved of your duties, Emmett,”
he says carefully.
“The fuck?”
Emmett growls as Gage approaches him. I watch, gripping the bars with my hands as Gage places a hand on Emmett’s shoulder.
“See if Olly needs any help in the lab.”
“Fucking hell,”
Emmett growls, glancing back at me, but then he relents. “Whatever,”
he says as he shoves Gage off of him.
A strange sort of hurricane starts in my core, spreading through me like a wildfire as I catch Gage’s steely gaze.
“Auryn.”
He says my name, and it is…
Everything. The way he rolls his r’s. The inflection on the n. He breathes my name like a prayer.
“Gage, is it?”
I ask, chewing on my lip.
“It is,”
he says, carefully approaching my cell.
“You are the leader.”
It isn’t a question as much as it is a statement.
He smirks. “I am their commander, yes, but—”
He punches in the code into my cell, and the door opens. He stands there stoically, waiting for me to make my move. To run, I realize.
He’s calling my bluff.
I won’t give him the satisfaction. Instead I saunter over to my bed and sit in the middle, cross-legged, and I stare back at him.
“I am not your commander, now am I, Auryn?”
His question makes something inside of me twitch. The need to assert myself, to challenge him is…intense.
“No,”
I say solidly. “No one commands me.”
It’s the truth. No one can control me, no matter how hard they try.
And fuck, have they tried.
Gage smirks. “I see that.”
“What do you want?”
I ask, folding my hands in my lap.
Gage doesn’t move from the doorway. He leans against the frame, leaving the door wide open.
“I just want to talk.”
“Talk?”
I scoff. “The commanding alpha wants to talk?”
He nods.
I turn away from him. “Not in the mood, alpha,” I bite.
I expect him to push me, to rush my space and force me.
Maybe part of me wants that, though I hate to admit it. His thick bourbon scent hits me, and I have to stifle the groan that wants to escape me. My insides twist, and my pussy clenches at the scent. God, he smells so fucking good. My mouth waters.
The desire is there, like it usually is during my heat, but it’s…muted. Like it’s there, just beyond the gates holding it back.
Suppressant. Olly said it would suppress my desire, my heat.
It’s been mere hours since I’ve been suppressed, and I have to admit I feel…
Stable. There is no pain, no cramps, no aching need.
But there is desire.
The faintest desire to present my ass to this alpha and beg for his knot.
But I won’t. I can fight it, and that itself is a victory if anything.
“That’s fine,”
Gage says apathetically. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Out of my peripheral vision, I see him slide to the ground. He extends one leg out, while pulling the other up to his chest. He sits there, in the doorway, lazily. Like he doesn’t have anything better to do.
He’s challenging me.
He thinks this is a game.
I scoff, giving him my back.
He’s not any different than the other alphas, I tell myself.
He thinks he can play nice and undermine me; he has another thing coming.
Game on, Gage.
Game fucking on.