Chapter 17
Octavian
Four days later
With a sigh too dreamy for my liking, I stretch my arms over my head before rolling my neck from side to side.
I’ve never gone through a heat like that before.
When I was in Illinois, Mandy used my first heat and each one that followed as a selling point so I was always with some raging asshole when it hit.
Since I’ve been out here, it’s been better but didn’t start that way.
I’ve been lucky enough to find meds to help with all of that shit over the last decade, but the first time I went into heat after I moved out here was terrible.
I didn’t have anyone to help me get meds yet, and I wasn’t about to find any idiot with a knot to help give me what my body clearly needed, so I powered through the best I could, almost died, then worked hard to find what I could use for the next time.
Needless to say, meds have been my friend, and I’ve managed ok.
I’ve never been very good at being an omega because I don’t like being one, but right now, I feel more like an omega than I ever have.
Going through my heat with Bentley, being able to let my body do what it was designed to do with an alpha who is not only my scent match but actually loves me, it was an experience I’m not sure I’ll ever forget.
And I won’t lie, it makes me kind of excited for the next time mother nature decides to be the cunt she is.
I am, however, sore as fuck.
Walking Floyd and Bella is not a very good workout compared to going into heat with Bentley around.
I hate the gym, the amount of germs and people are more than enough to keep me far, far away from a place like that, but I think I’m going to have to cave the next time my alpha asks me to work out with him.
I prefer watching that man get all jacked and sweaty, but I’m clearly out of shape and getting back into it would probably be beneficial to both of us.
Grinning to myself like an idiot, I rub the back of my neck as I walk toward the front of my store, entering the code to turn off the alarm then watch as the steel shades go up.
I don’t think I'll ever admit it, maybe not even to Bentley, but that puppy love phase has got its claws deep in me, and I’m not mad about it at all.
It’s always been important to me to be able to carve out a future for myself that I had complete control over, that I was able to keep separate from my past, but meeting Bentley threw me for a loop.
There wasn’t anything I could do about fate sending me a scent match that is my polar opposite in every way, and I didn’t like it, at first.
Now, when I think about my future and start making new plans, everything includes my alpha, and it all takes place at the ranch I never saw myself calling home. The thing is, Bentley feels like home and anywhere he is, I’ll happily follow.
Well, maybe not happily.
I don’t know how cut out I am for the dirt and filth that comes with living on a ranch and having animals, and I’m not sure my current rituals will transfer easily, but I’ll go wherever that man is because I love him, even if I’m scowling the entire way.
I flip the sign on the door from closed to open then turn to go fire up my POS system and as soon as my back is to the front of the shop, I hear the bell over the door ring.
“It’ll be just a minute,” I grumble, annoyed that I have customers already. I should be grateful, but I haven’t been down here in a few days and I have a lot of playing catch up to do. “I have to—”
A hand slams down on the back of my neck and the force sends my glasses crashing to the floor.
I’m shoved forward then almost dragged toward the backroom, grasping at the fingers digging into the flesh and muscle before I’m spun around and slammed into the door so hard the wind is knocked out of me.
“You fucking stink.”
I blink several times, trying to clear the spots from my vision, but I don’t need to see where that voice is coming from to recognize the source.
Kyle leans in and inhales deeply before he starts to cough. “What is that nasty ass stench?”
“I bet it’s that big alpha that’s been coming around,” Kassie says as she presses against me, her huge fake tits swallowing my arm as she props her elbow on my shoulder and pushes my hair out of my face. “Is it, Octy? Have you been letting that big, dumb meathead fuck your tight little asshole?”
I jerk my head away from her talons as she goes to do it again and growl, “He’s not some dumb meathead you ignorant bitch.” Kyle slams me against the wall again, the back of my skull bouncing off of it like a super ball. “And it’s none of your goddamn business, anyway.”
“Oh but it is,” she says as she drags her nail across my forehead and down my cheek hard enough to draw blood. “You are our business, and that means whoever is fucking you is our problem.”
Kassie licks at the blood on my face with a giggle as I gag. “You better get the hell out of here before he comes back. My alpha—”
Kyle yanks me away from the wall and lifts me by the hair before he slams me down on top of the front counter. “Your alpha? What the fuck do you mean, your alpha?”
“He doesn’t mean anything, Kyle,” Kassie says as she leans over me, gripping my face in her hand and squeezing before she slides her palm over my chest and down my stomach until she’s groping my dick through my jeans.
“There’s no bite. They might be fucking like rabbits, but that blonde bimbo hasn’t claimed our omega, and that means he’s still ours. ”
Bile crawls up my throat as she unzips my fly and I swear to god my dick tries to crawl up into my body in order to get away from her.
“Isn’t that right, Octy?” She pops the button then slips her hand inside my pants as her other makes its way to my hair and twists my curls around her fingers tightly.
“That big, dumb ape doesn’t want you for anything more than sex.
If he did, he would have bitten you, but you’re not good enough for him, are you? ”
“Go to hell,” I say as I spit in her face.
Kassie growls and yanks my hair harder, and Kyle pins me to the counter with a hand on my throat while he wrenches my arm up under my back just as his sister shoves her hand into my boxers. “You’ll pay for that, omega.”
My vision starts to fade as Kyle’s grip on my throat tightens, as he slowly cuts off my air supply while his stupid bitch of a twin gets ready to assault me, and all I can think about is Bentley’s smile and the way his voice sounded when he told me he loved me.
I only just recently started to believe I might be enough for him, but I can’t imagine even someone as perfect as Bentley Walker is going to want me after this, and I really can’t blame him for it.
Bentley
Tav said he wanted loaded french fries for lunch, so I’m picking up a couple of orders of it now. It’s funny that this is his post heat craving since it’s such a messy meal, but he looked so much more relaxed when he woke up today.
His shoulders weren’t at his ears, his body was at ease, and he smiled at me this morning in a wide, dopey way. Being properly fucked looks really good on my omega.
“Thanks,” I say, picking up the bag when my number is called. “Have a good one.”
The words, though polite, are said from reflex rather than my caring either way if the worker has a good or shit day.
All I want is to get back to my omega. He said he was going to walk Bella and Floyd before opening the record store.
I know he’s concerned his heat medication failed and he was away for so long, but I’ve seen his customers.
They’re ride or die, through grumpy moods and Tav’s scowls.
His customers are only concerned with the music he sells, and the worlds the albums promise.
I can understand that since music is such an important part of my life too.
It can affect mood, pull you out of the darkness, and give you a way to purge emotions.
In a way, Tav provides a safe space few can offer. There’s no disdain for whatever music a person chooses to listen to. It’s enough that they have a favorite.
Smiling at the thought of this being Tav’s only non prejudiced space because my omega is full of opinions, I hurry through the streets to get back to him.
The first thing I notice as I approach his building is that he’s opened up the shop for the day.
The steel shutters I was so surprised about are up, but most of the lights aren’t on.
Concerned he may have a migraine that came on suddenly, I wish I’d grabbed him a coke to go with our fries. Pushing open the door to the shop, all thoughts fall away until the only emotion I have left is blinding anger.
Two punks are snarling at my omega at the counter, and one of them just licked the side of his face. God, Tav is never going to feel clean enough after that. My fingers go nerveless as I drop the bag of food, and my long strides allow me to get to him in what feels like a matter of seconds.
The smell of pickles and sour milk hits me in the face as my fingers tangle in the woman’s messy, greasy hair and yank her head away from my omega.
“I know for a goddamned fact that you must have a death wish,” I growl. “Are you the little cunt who can’t keep her hands off my man? You and your creepy brother. There have got to be laws against this.”
I have to rip the woman’s hand out of Tav’s pants. She can’t seem to keep her hands off my omega. It takes me a second to get her fingers out of Tav’s hair without hurting him, but I manage.
“You… How dare you!” she screams, attempting to scratch me with her long, broken claws.
My mama taught me never to hit a woman, but I think she’ll look down from heaven while smiling, and tell me to slap a hoe.
“Keep your goddamned tongue away from my omega. How many times have you fucking licked him, you creep?”
Backhanding the cunt, I shake my head grimly.
“The daring lies with you,” I rasp. “Do you really need a bite as your neon sign to keep your hands and tongue to yourself? Nope, bad boy. Stay.”