Chapter 6 #2
“My heat is over, you don’t have to tease me.” Sky didn’t think he could handle much more disappointment. “You can put your soothing pheromones away, too.”
Kian perched against the window ledge and crossed his arms. “I don’t mind.”
“I do.” Sky could feel those pheromones licking at his skin, as though trying to worm their way past his defenses.
Alphas could control and direct their pheromones, hone them, and use them in various ways. There were targeted pheromones to help trigger their partner’s heat, and soothing ones to help calm them when they became anxious or overwhelmed.
This was not Sky’s alpha. He didn’t want or need Kian’s pheromones one way or the other.
He was going to put all of this behind him.
“That’s not what you said last night.” Kian held his ground, and Sky dropped his gaze for the millionth time.
“I didn’t think the storm was going to be this bad. I know there was a flood warning but…” He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m really sorry.”
“For what?”
“Getting you into this mess. If it weren’t for me, you’d be home right now with your family.”
Kian cringed. “I should be thanking you then.”
Sky wanted to ask what that reaction was all about, but as if sensing his curiosity, Kian instantly changed the subject. The alpha obviously had something going on that he wasn’t comfortable sharing. Made sense. It did suck, though. Another reminder that there was nothing
between the two of them.
“Since we can’t go anywhere, we should take steps to ensure we’re as comfortable here as possible.
I’ll have my people on alert for the second air traffic is greenlit, but for now, we’re stuck.
So, first things first, where the hell is the heating system in this place?
I searched last night for a bit, but gave up when I couldn’t find anything.
At least it was on, or we might have frozen already, but it’s not nearly turned high enough.
Especially since you don’t exactly have any clothes left to wear. ”
Right. He was in Kian’s shirt and nothing else.
Sky shot to the other side of the room and tossed open one of the cabinets and rifled around behind a stack of blank canvases.
“I keep a pair of sweats in here in case I get wet clay smeared on me while I work,” he explained as he tugged the pants on.
“No shirts though. So, right. Heat.” A different word probably should have been chosen.
He tried not to dwell on the fact that he’d ruined his clothes last night as he passed the messy, used nest on the ground on his way back over to the alpha.
Tried not to think about how he had one of Kian’s old hoodies, stolen from his house last year, hidden in his nest at his apartment. With Elm’s weaker beta senses, he’d been unable to smell the item of Sky and had no idea he’d taken it.
“It’s attached to my multi-slate,” Sky told him, reaching for his wrist only to find the device was no longer strapped to it like it should be.
“It’s on the table,” Kian said. “I didn’t think it was comfortable to sleep in.”
The devices were about four to five inches long and covered half of Sky’s forearm, so no, it wasn’t.
“Thanks.” That had been seriously thoughtful.
Actually, all of it had been. He stopped on his way toward the table, hesitating, before turning to face the alpha.
“For last night too. Before, during,” his cheeks stained pink but he pretended not to notice, “and afterward. Cleaning me up and everything. I’m—”
“If that’s another apology,” Kian stopped him, “you can keep it.”
“Right.” The taste of bile coated Sky’s tongue, and he spun back around before the older male could see his disappointed expression.
He scowled and picked up his multi-slate but didn’t bother putting it back on. Instead, he turned off the do-not-disturb function and scrolled through the dozen or so missed messages he’d received over the past eight hours from his friends.
Since he was still living on campus, in a senior apartment with Elm, his best friend had sent the most messages, wondering why he hadn’t come home last night.
Elm: Yo, are you with Kenta? He went looking for you just now. Said something about your heat? What gives?
Elm: I can’t get in touch with either of you, so I’m guessing that’s a yes. Lol. Get it.
Elm: Hey, are you two still together? It’s getting pretty bad out there…
Elm: Sky, seriously. Where the hell are you? You good?
Sky sent off a quick reply, keeping it vague and only saying he got rained in at the studio. Once that was done, he waded through the rest of the messages, responding to one or two, but there weren’t any other important ones. Everyone in the city was trapped inside, same as him.
“You can’t ignore me forever, little omega,” Kian’s whispered words sent a dark shiver down Sky’s spine as a brush of pheromones carried over with them.
His head snapped up, eyes going wide. There was a slight ring of neon blue around Kian’s irises, but they hadn’t gone full-blown glow yet. Another wave of alpha pheromones drifted toward Sky, and he stumbled back a step before he could help it.
“Knock it off,” he demanded, voice shaking slightly.
“You said something last night that’s been bugging me,” Kian replied.
He didn’t pull his pheromones away, kept a steady stream of them coming until Sky’s head felt cloudy, and he needed to support himself against the table.
“All this time, you seem to have been under the false impression that I’m nice. ”
“I’m pretty sure that isn’t an insult.”
“You were always watching me. I thought you were paying close attention, but I guess I was wrong.”
“What are you doing?” Sky gasped when his lower region suddenly clenched and a gush of slick pooled at his entrance. His skin flushed, and his breathing labored. “Stop.”
“Why?” Despite his comment, Kian remained on his side of the room. “We’re going to be stuck here for at least the rest of the day. We might as well make the most of it.”
“Not like this.” Sky shook his head and forced his feet to move, so that he’d round the table, placing the heavy piece of furniture between them. “I hate when I can’t control my own body.”
“Do you?”
“Yes!”
Memories from his first time in the bathroom rushed to his head, and he fought against them like he always did.
Sky was a respectable omega. He wasn’t a slave to his impulses or his breeding. He didn’t enjoy being dominated by a strong alpha, wouldn’t lose himself or his morals for a taste of fleeting ecstasy.
Kian stared at him for a moment and then said, “I don’t believe you.”
Sky’s mouth gaped open, and he was yet again rendered speechless.