Chapter 6
Six
WILLOW
Cold water hit my face, and I fell on top of the closed toilet seat. I didn’t even know what day it was. My elbows fell to my thighs, and I cradled my face in my hands. My fever had broken a day or so ago, and since then, I’ve slept.
This morning, I finally made my way to the bathroom to try to be a person again. Too tired to stand, I sat on the floor in the shower while lukewarm water splashed over my tender skin.
Back out in the bedroom area, I eyed my nest. I should strip it. Aileen had been so kind to me these last few days. She’d brought me so many blankets and toys to help with my heat.
Three times a day, she checked on me, making sure I ate and drank something.
This was my first heat where I didn’t feel dreadful afterwards.
I always spent my heats alone. While toys helped, they didn’t fully replace an alpha.
I had no one to care for me, which meant I was usually dehydrated at the end of a long week.
Despite my heat being over, I knew I’d feel foggy for a few days. I should take it easy, but I wanted to talk to Sam. We had a standing lunch date on the last Saturday of every month. Maybe I could convince Kaelen to replace my cell so I could talk to her.
If I didn’t show up, my best friend would worry.
I toyed with the hem of the white dress shirt that hit the middle of my thighs. Even all these days later, it still smelled faintly of him. When I found the shirt mixed in with the blankets, I immediately added it to my nest, calling out for my alpha.
Well, not mine, even if my omega thought he was. I curled my fingers around the collar, hugging it close. My omega slipped into the background—content. Flashes of the moments leading up to my heat played out in my head, and I groaned.
No alpha ever affected me like that, even on the brink of my heat.
I needed to apologize. The last thing I needed was for Kaelen Finnegan to misunderstand my intentions. No matter how much my omega preened in his presence.
The handle was smooth under my fingertips as I tentatively opened the door. Gooseflesh prickled along my arms as my body stiffened, prepared to be shoved back into my cell the moment I stepped over the threshold.
Dark, smudged eyes met mine. My breath caught when I eyed the gun strapped to his torso. He stared at me, his face frustratingly impassive, until he caught what I was wearing.
Pink blush stained his cheeks, and he averted his gaze, clearing his throat.
“Am I allowed to leave the room?” I asked, prepared to slink back inside.
“I was told to stop others from coming in. Nothing about stopping you from getting out.”
Odd. Aileen came and went freely the last few days. Maybe Kaelen was worried about other alphas being drawn to me because of my heat. The beta shifted from side to side, tugging at the collar of his shirt. I moved further out into the hall, looking from left to right, trying to get my bearings.
“Do you know where Kaelen is?”
“The boss is in his office. Down the stairs, second door on the right.”
“Thanks. What’s your name?”
“Patrick.”
“Thank you, Patrick, for making sure nobody bothered me during my…” I struggled to say the word. “You know.”
“My pleasure, Miss Sterling.”
I winced at the title, always hating when people called me Miss anything. It was far too stuffy and formal and made me think of every boring charity event.
The polished wood was cool underneath my bare feet as I padded down the stairs.
I burrowed into the plush silk of his shirt, inhaling the remnants of his spiced sweetness.
Even though my heat had passed, my skin was still flushed and sensitive.
I had tried putting my sundress back on, but it was too itchy.
The only things I tolerated were his shirt and my panties.
Voices carried out into the hall as I approached the ajar door.
Tentatively, I pushed it open and stepped inside. All eyes snapped to me, and a thick silence settled over the space.
Two men stood beside each other on one side of the room. I recognized Aidan, but the other man was new. Kaelen’s alpha scent dwarfed Aidan’s. The other man’s scent was muted, and clearly a beta. He was a good head shorter than Aidan. He dipped his chin in my direction, looking to Kaelen.
I ran my fingers through my hair, twirling a blue highlight around my finger.
Kaelen pressed his palms into his desk, rising to his full, imposing height. The tip of his tongue licked over the points of his teeth, eyeing me like a lion about to pounce on a gazelle.
A jacket sat strewn over the back of his chair, his chest taut under his shirt.
My heart beat too fast, drowning out the ambient noise.
Those piercing jade eyes met mine, and I wanted to turn and run. The intensity did something funny to my insides. They were too discerning, and I was too exposed.
“Sweetheart.”
Kaelen’s commanding tone filled the room, making me slick with want.
“I-I. Um. I shouldn’t be here. I’ll go.”
“Stop,” he said, the demand almost a bark. I froze with my back to him, rubbing my sweaty palms on my thighs. “Come here.”
The glands on my wrists ached as his deep timbre lathed over me.
I sucked in a shaky breath, looking anywhere but at him as I made my way to his desk. Intimately aware of our audience, I tugged at the hem of his shirt, wishing it were longer. Nails dug into my palm as I itched the spot, wishing I suffered the sundress.
Soon, I stood in his shadow.
Rough fingertips brushed along the backs of my thighs, and I squeaked as my heart jumped into my throat. His well-kempt scruff scratched along my face, his cheek rubbing against mine.
A scent mark. My eyes widened, an omega whine clawing at my ribs.
His lips twitched before he pulled away.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked, his eyes roaming over my body.
“Yes,” I said, my voice cracking.
“Did you need something?”
“Um.” I rolled my lip between my teeth, dropping my voice into a whisper. “I wanted to apologize. For what happened before my heat. I didn’t know. It was early, and I shouldn’t have crawled on top of you and done things like that. It was inapp—”
One of his fingers pressed to my mouth, cutting off my ramblings. I resisted the urge to flick my tongue out and taste him. A strand of auburn hair fell free from his neat bun, falling deliciously between his eyes.
“Hush. You have nothing to apologize for. You did what your omega intended.”
My stomach flipped as butterflies swirled around, making me feel like a teenager with a crush. I peered at the two men watching us with amused expressions. Two fingers slid under my chin as he angled my face back to him.
“Don’t mind them,” he added. “Aidan is my brother, and Torin has been assigned as your personal guard.”
A spark fizzled behind my eyes as my brain short-circuited.
“My what?”
“Come,” he said, lacing his fingers with mine and ignoring my question. “We’ll get you breakfast. You need to eat.” He faced Aidan and Torin. “I want those files on my desk by the end of the day.”
All the gentleness seeped from his voice, replaced with something cold and authoritative. The men dipped their chins. I swore I saw Aidan wrap an arm around Torin’s waist as we left the office. Kaelen’s thumb rubbed across my knuckles as he led me through the house.
Two hands bracketed my hips, lifting and placing me on the counter beside the stove. His chest heaved with slow breaths as his palms splayed over my bare thighs, his fingers skimming beneath the hem, doing terrible things to my panties.
“What do you want?”
Your knot inside me, I thought to myself.
Damn my omega brain, she was still in heat mode.
“You’re jumping ahead, sweetheart,” he said, nipping at my ear.
Oh, no. I said the quiet part out loud.
My cheeks burned as I hid my face in my hands.
Stupid omega.
I tried to slip off the counter. I couldn’t be around him.
Everything about him made me act irrationally. Unfortunately, his hands held me still, his earnest eyes pinning me in place from beneath his neatly styled hair.
“Stay. I meant what you wanted for breakfast. Aileen has the morning off.”
My shoulders sagged at the change of subject. A hint of espresso mingled with my honeyed scent between us, and my stomach rumbled. The corners of his eyes crinkled as a laugh rolled through him, easing the last of my tension.
Until that moment, I wasn’t certain Kaelen Finnegan was capable of that. Unfortunately, my stomach betrayed me. There was no way I could leave now. Not that he would let me, anyway.
“You cook?”
Theoretically, I knew there were men who enjoyed making food. My dad had never been one, preferring to eat takeout once my mom fell ill and couldn’t cook anymore. Kaelen didn’t strike me as the kind to make his own food. Too busy and too important.
He had an air about him. But maybe I misjudged him.
“My Ma taught when we lived in Ireland.”
“And she is?”
“Moved on. About seven years ago now. Died in a car accident, broke my Da’s heart. He died two years later of heart failure. Doc said it was a broken heart. He couldn’t stand the loss of his mate. My parents were a bonded omega and alpha, had been that way since they were eighteen.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, an ache spreading through me.
I massaged the spot above my sternum. When I was younger, my parents were so in love. They would steal kisses and sneak off into the empty rooms. After I started high school, that all changed. Their interactions were forced, and all the light from my mom’s eyes faded until there was nothing left.
It was like her omega had given up, forgotten and abandoned by her alpha.
A shudder shook my tiny frame. I promised myself I would never let that happen to me. That I would never be so taken with an alpha that the rest of my life would stop mattering if they didn’t love me anymore.
I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t become a husk of a person.