Chapter 19
Olly
I’ve never overridden a door lock before, but something tells me I should. I can almost sense the concern, the worry through the door, though I’m not certain why Auryn or Gage would be worried if they’ve been together all night.
The thought makes me sweat a little bit. I know it’s just instinct, a part of life and all. Omegas find alphas to mate and procreate with. It’s just how it is.
But I find the idea of Gage and Auryn mating conflicting on multiple levels. For one, she’s a target. Mating with her is bound to complicate things, and I know this.
But Diego has already done it, and I suspect Emmett has too, judging by the fact I could smell her all over him this morning at breakfast, which is how I’d discovered that Gage had locked himself in her room. All night.
Just hearing such things made me so uncomfortable I had to take off to the lab and…do something. Anything to keep my mind focused on the solid facts and not these wild thoughts that keep trying to distract me.
I have a job to do. Clearly, no one else remembers theirs.
“Auryn?”
I call out, because her voice rings out in alarm. “Are you alright? Is Gage—”
“I don’t, I can’t—”
Gage’s voice echoes with a curse, and I punch in the manual override.
“I’m coming in,”
I say as Auryn cries, “No!”
But it’s too late. The moment the door opens, my eyes widen, and I spin around, ready to walk right back out because…
I still, letting out a breath.
I’ve never walked in on any of the guys in the middle of…that.
I’ve always been observant enough to know to give the alphas a wide berth when it comes to their sexual activities. I don’t need to see that. Them. Fucking…anyone.
But I certainly didn’t think I’d see Gage and Auryn still tangled together, nor did I think the sight would make me feel like this.
I absentmindedly adjust my cock, telling myself that after I discuss my findings with Gage and perhaps run some extra tests on Auryn, I will take fifteen minutes to service myself and be done with it so I can focus.
But that feels difficult, to say the least, when I just walked in on them.
“I will…uh…be out here…”
I say, clearing my throat.
“Olly, this is not how I wanted to do this, but uh…”
Gage sounds strained. “I’m stuck.”
Stuck? What the hell?
His words shock me so much I actually do turn around, and that is when I see that Auryn’s face is pained, and she’s wriggling, and Gage looks redder than a tomato.
“Stuck?”
I ask, blinking. He nods, not meeting my gaze.
“Yes.”
Something about the embarrassment on his face kicks away all worry and discomfort, and the scientific part of my brain lights up.
I’ve never heard of an alpha getting stuck in an omega before. But then again, Auryn isn’t any omega. Her blood definitely confirmed that.
Which is what I need to talk to him about, as well as her, but I suppose that will have to wait.
“Are you still knotting?”
I ask, stepping into the room. “Did you—”
“Yes!”
Gage says, hissing at me. “I deflated hours ago, so I should be able to—”
He twists his body and grimaces as Auryn cries out in pain. “Ow!”
“Okay, okay, first…relax,” I say.
“Easy for you to say!”
Gage bites, and Auryn buries her face in his chest. She doesn’t look at me as she whimpers.
“Can you tell me what you’re feeling, Auryn?”
I ask, trying to remain calm.
“Tight,”
she says, not looking at me. “Everything feels…tight.”
It’s then that I notice the mark on her neck.
A claiming mark.
Oh, for the love of all things scientific! A grin spreads on my face. “You bit her,”
I whisper.
“Marvel over that later. Right now I need—”
“Did this lock happen before or after the bite?” I ask.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Gage growls.
“I need details,”
I say, my brain working faster than a hamster on a wheel. I talk as fast as I can, needing to get out the information as quickly as possible. “When did you knot her? Do you know the time? Did you inflate upon insertion or was it before—”
“Olly!”
“I need to know these things Gage,”
I say as I kneel to the floor, setting my gaze to where they are joined. I push against Gage’s hip, seeing how far I can push his resistance, and he growls so loud, it echoes in the room.
“I’m observing,”
I say as Auryn cries.
“I am so sorry,”
she says, but I’m not sure who she is speaking to.
“I…think it inflated after I, uh…”
“Okay, and did you bite her before or after you inflated?”
“After,”
Gage says, his voice low.
“When did you notice you couldn’t vacate? Immediately after, or was there initial resistance upon inflation?”
I watch as Auryn pulls away from his chest. She looks at me with watery eyes.
“I’ve never been knotted before. Is this normal?”
she asks warily.
“No.”
I don’t sugarcoat the truth. I couldn’t if I tried. “But locking is usually something that happens when an alpha female traps an omega male, not…the other way around.”
“Great, so they really fucked up with me,”
she murmurs. I don’t have time to process those words; instead, I file them away and focus on the task at hand.
“How long has it been?”
I say, trying to figure out the time the bodies were dropped off in my lab and now. About…six hours.
“I don’t know!”
Gage bites.
“Well, if you knotted her around midnight, it’s six-thirty, so that’s a good six hours. Alphas aren’t known to lock past six hours, so I’d say if this is the case, you should be able to come unglued in about….fifteen minutes?”
“Fifteen minutes?”
Auryn hisses.
“Unless—”
I roll my sleeves up because I really am hot in here. “I read in a study once, that there was this strain of alpha that affected a very, very small percentage of the population. A mutation in the gene that only affected women with an extra alpha chromosome.”
“English, Olivander.”
“The percentage was…small. About two percent of the women in the pack had the gene, and as such, they experienced alpha-like symptoms, which were in response to other alphas in their presence. Males, of course, because—”
“Get to the point, Olly,”
Gage mutters.
“Anyway, if you are able to provide ample stimulation to the clitoris, and if you massage the space beneath, it may trigger a response, and you may be able to vacate.”
“You’re kidding,”
he growls. I shake my head.
“No. It worked in the study.”
“I guess it’s worth a shot,”
Gage says as he looks at me where I kneel. “Are you going to watch or—”
“Well, I need to make sure you’re doing it correctly, so, yes.”
There is a tense pause and the heaviest pang of cinnamon that hits my nose. I purse my lips, trying to push the thoughts away. Now is certainly not the time.
Auryn mewls against his chest as Gage shifts his position, sliding a hand between them. I watch as best I can as he pulls her clit in between his fingers and rubs.
“Anything?” I ask.
Auryn shakes her head. “No.”
“Try moving your thumb at a ninety-degree angle—”
“Olly, I swear to God—”
“Just do it,”
I bite, and I hear the growl from Gage. But he shifts his position, stroking the underside of her clit, but I can tell from the angle it’s difficult, and the fact she doesn’t move tells me he’s not doing it right.
“A little lower,”
I direct. Gage huffs out an angry sound.
“You think you can do better, be my fucking guest.”
I catch Auryn’s gaze, and my blood freezes. I am sure I could, but…
“Uh…”
“That’s what I thought,”
Gage murmurs as Auryn bites her lip.
“Please?”
she asks. “If you think you can help, please…”
Something about her words, her pleas, beckon me.
Beta wants to help. He doesn’t like seeing her uncomfortable.
“Okay, but you’ll have to be still. I don’t want to get the angle wrong and be right back where we are.”
I look at Gage, and he huffs out a sigh. “Fine.”
I press one palm on Gage’s hip and push him back far enough I can slide my hand between them. I try my hardest to focus, but it’s difficult. I’ve seen plenty of omegas, examined a good bit in my line of work, and I’m more than familiar with knots and dicks and the mechanics of things.
But this feels different.
This feels…
The minute my fingers touch her, all I feel is slick wetness that sends a jolt right to my cock, and I bite my tongue. This isn’t about me or some weird beta response to the enigma that is Auryn.
This is science. This is data. This is testing a hypothesis firsthand.
I let out a breath, looking up at the ceiling because I can’t look at either of them, or I will freak out. If I can pretend it’s not Auryn’s slick folds I’m touching, if I can pretend it’s not the solidness of Gage’s cock against my wrist, I can get through this.
I carefully trace my fingers over her clit, noting it’s quite swollen, which isn’t all that odd, but the area around it feels puffy. Probably slightly inflamed from all the wriggling. My thumb courses below, and Auryn whines, the sound making it hard to concentrate.
I find the spot I’m looking for as I press just below, recalling the image I’d seen in the article, and gently stroke it with my thumb in even time with my breathing. One, two, three…
Moisture coats my fingertips, and on the fourth stroke, there’s so much moisture I think for sure she’ll have no problem sliding off.
“Try now,”
I say, my voice thicker than it should be as I take my hand away.
“Oh my God,”
Gage says in relief, and the wet popping sound tells me it did indeed work.
It worked!
I grin as I pull my hand out, wiping it on my lab coat, trying not to think about the fact I just touched Auryn and Gage. Intimately.
If I think about it, I’ll freak out.
Think of something else, think of something else…
I turn around, clearing my throat as I head out the door. “Right, so, um…meet me in my lab whenever you are, uh…ready.”
With my back to them, I suck in a breath and head for my lab, not waiting for either of them. I head straight to my sink and scrub my hands, letting out a deep breath.
I swear I can still smell cinnamon, my insides twisting and full of heat.
Beta is…agitated. Confused. Hard.
Fifteen minutes after lunch, then it’s back to work. I just need to be better about managing myself, clearly.
A knock on my door alerts me, and I let out a breath.
“Come in,”
I say, my voice betraying me.
Gage walks in. Without Auryn. I whine.
He looks at me with flushed cheeks and a smirk. “So…you wanted to talk to me about your findings, yeah?”
I’m more than glad to take his offer to discuss anything other than what just happened, so I launch into a spiel.
“Well, the alpha you brought me was ringless.”
Gage raises an eyebrow. “Ringless? What—”
“Blood tests indicate he was missing the primary chromosome that gives alphas their ring. Their knot.”
Gage’s face pales. “A knotless alpha?”
I nod. “Quite an anomaly, but not completely rare either.”
I shrug. “There’s been research done on certain packs to ascertain if knots are environmental factors or evolutionary factors. The existence of ringless alphas indicates it may be a flaw in the genetics.”
“So if he didn’t have a knot—”
“He’d likely not be able to reproduce. Plus, all that testosterone floating around would make him….”
I bristle. “Ornery.”
Gage scoffs. “You mean he’d be an asshole.”
I shrug. “Likely. And the omega you gave me…”
My voice softens. “She was force bred.”
My voice shakes as I say the words, and Gage sighs heavily.
“Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case…”
He looks to the tables, which are now clear, since I’ve moved the bodies to the morgue on sight. I’ll incinerate them later. We can’t leave any loose ends, after all.
“Did they…?”
I start, my heart twisting in my chest. “Auryn—”
Gage comes to stand beside me.
“Is that what they did to her?”
I find the words fall out of my mouth without thinking.
“Yes,”
Gage says solidly.
Pain hits me square in the chest. So I was right.
I wish I wasn’t right.
“Oh”
is all I can say, because knowing she’s endured that kind of pain, that kind of torment…
Beta wants to hurt those who hurt Auryn.
“What did you find out about her?”
Gage asks.
“The protein I can’t identify yet... it seems to shift. Sometimes it shows up, and other times I look at the same sample, and it’s gone. Like a flickering light.”
“What do you think it is?”
he asks curiously.
“I don’t know. But I think whatever it is, it’s why she smells different to me. It’s why she bites Emmett, but she curls up to Diego. It’s why she is resistant but other times—”
I look at the counter, at all my samples and work laid out.
Silence falls for a moment before he speaks.
“It’s why she favors a beta among the alphas, too.”
I don’t say anything. I can’t. Words escape me, so all I do is head for my work, but Gage stops me. He grabs me.
“Does that bother you?”
he asks, his hand on my wrist tight.
“Gage—”
“Tell me right now you don’t want Auryn, and I’ll let you go.”
“I don’t want Auryn,”
I say as I yank my wrist from him.
He laughs. “You are a lot of things, Olivander, but you are not that good of a liar.”
I scowl at him. “I am not lying, I—”
“You know what I think?”
He holds my wrist tighter, and I have half a mind to drag him with me, but he’s bigger. Heavier. Heavier than a headless alpha, for sure, so I’m sure I would struggle.
“I think you do want Auryn, but for some reason you’re scared.”
“I am not, I—”
“How many articles have you read? How long have you been studying omegas, Olly?”
“A while,”
I say in exasperation. “You know this!”
“Mm-hmm. And how many omegas have perfumed for you?”
“None, but–”
“No buts. What are you afraid of?”
I pull my wrist back with a growl. The sound is deep. Angry. “I’m not afraid!”
I snap. Gage smirks.
“I just…”
I turn away from him. “She has you. Emmett. Diego. Alphas.”
The sadness in my voice is evident. “There’s nothing I can give her.”
I close my eyes, hating that I’ve said the words. I hadn’t meant to.
“Olly—”
“Don’t,”
I say, feeling like I’m going to fall apart. My body shakes, and I think if he doesn’t leave I really am going to lose it.
Beta feels small.
“Scientifically speaking,”
he says calmly, “test the theory.”
I look up at him in question. “What?”
Gage shrugs. “Test the theory.”
“How do you expect me to do that?”
I bite out.
“You’re smart. You’ll figure it out,”
he says. “You know omegas better than anyone, right? Studied them for years.”
I blink at his words as he continues.
“So, put that knowledge to the test. If she doesn’t respond, your theory is confirmed.”
I think about his words. About the unidentifiable protein. The puzzle remains, and I do like puzzles… “And if—”
Gage pushes away from the counter. “Think of all the possible data.”
He smirks.
With that, he leaves, opening the door, and that’s when I see her. Standing outside, big eyes, staring at me from across the way.
“Your turn, princess,”
he says as he kisses the top of her head.
The door swings, and all I can do is stare at her, unable to move. Then she steps forward, opening the door and invading my lab.
And as the door shuts, all I can smell is sweet, sweet cinnamon.
“You wanted to see me?”