8. Grace
I had the worst night of my life, in a sweat one minute and deep chills the next.
Mom told me it’s heat spikes and that I needed to get to the heat hotel before my perfume attracted all the alphas in the neighborhood to the house.
She knew it would be war, and we left within the hour.
It took us just under an hour to drive to New York City, and I swear she thought every car was following my scent.
Even now, as we settle into the hotel room, she stares at me constantly. She is becoming obsessed.
“I want you in the heat hotel now,” she says, staring out of my hotel window and at the sidewalk below. Mom turns to Harlow and Bardot for their back-up. “It’s not safe for her to be here while she’s perfuming the way she is.”
“I have an opinion,” I say, opening my suitcase and taking out the blankets I brought. The fabrics my omega likes—not me. And soon I won’t again.
“This room isn’t good enough. It’s too big. It’s not your nest.” Mom’s voice raises, panic setting in, no doubt.
I suppose it must be scary for my mom to be leaving me alone here. “I understand you’re worried...”
“Worried!” Her voice verges toward the hysterical. “My daughter is in heat. Everything is wrong... The room... Being alone... Soon you’ll be clawing to get out of this room and get to the alphas in the heat hotel and who knows what will happen to you.”
Harlow clears her throat. She takes my cashmere blanket and rubs it over her face, before plonking her ass on my bed. “I’m an alpha, and I even think this is nice.”
I smile. “I know. I’ll keep it for when I’m a beta again.”
“You won’t be a beta. You’ll be a disguised omega,” Mom tells me.
Harlow turns to me. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m a female alpha or that I’m your sister, but I don’t think you smell too bad, not much different from normal.”
Bardot nods her head. “I agree.”
Both of my sisters Harlow and Bardot are alphas. And they have a point. They’d smell my omega perfume even if it did nothing for them.
“Harlow!” Mom screeches. “That is hardly the point. She is about to go into heat and should be in the safety of the heat hotel, not in a hotel room until she thinks it’s time to cross the road where she’ll be as safe as a gazelle in the Serengeti.”
“Stop being so dramatic,” Bardot says flatly.
Mom lifts an exasperated hand to her face before rubbing at her temple.
Harlow looks at me. “What do you want to do, Grace?”
“I’m not ready to be around purring alphas,” I say. “I have things to help me until I am.”
Harlow waggles her eyebrows. She knows what I’ve brought with me. Ella gave me six different knotting toys she sells in her growing sex toy empire.
“It’s the growling and grunting alphas that will be outside this hotel that you’ll need to worry about,” Mom yells again, oblivious to what I told her.
“Well, if you keep your voice down, nobody will know I’m here.” Sarcasm laces my tone. “The two alphas in the room have already told you I don’t smell too strong.”
“Well, you do. And your perfume will leak out of this room, not your voice.” She sighs and shakes her head. “What’s the point?”
“Let her do what she feels is right.” Bardot spins to Mom. “Stop being so controlling.”
“I’m being a mother.” Mom rolls her eyes to the ceiling before raising her palms in the air. “Settle into the room. I give up. Don’t answer the door to anyone, and I’ll call the Heat Hotel about having a chaperone once you’re ready.”
I decide not to worry her any further and smile. “I’m going to lock the door, have a soak and put my fluffy pajamas on while I wait until the right time. Only then will I call the heat hotel, give them a code we agreed on, and they’ll send someone to the hotel for me.”
Mom narrows her eyes.
“I already spoke to them.”
What I don’t tell her is I’m not going to the heat hotel immediately because I opened a new account on OmegaFans, and I’m going to sell my heat for one night. Up to now, seventy-four alphas have signed up—at least, I assume they’re alphas. Each will pay me one thousand dollars to watch me get myself off for one night of my heat.
I’m trying not to think about what they’ll be doing when they watch. I don’t want to think about their cocks and knots, only about the money I’ll earn. Because even if a few drop out, I’ll still have a ton of money to put a down payment on my café.
Mom sighs. She knows she won’t get her own way. Not when my future is on the line.
I swipe my newly dyed red hair over my sweaty forehead. I want to keep my anonymity and replaced the red wig with a semi-permanent color just for my heat. Bardot claimed the red color will fade to pink again after a few washes.
Mom is still staring at me, waiting.
“I’ll call you once it’s over.”
“I’ll be staying in the hotel for a few days,” Mom says.
I frown and roll my eyes upward.
“Your sisters want to shop in New York, and Harlow is meeting Colton when he gets back to the city from his hockey game. And Bardot is going to watch a musical.”
I go to protest, but the more I think about it, I know she’s right. “Okay, but can I have some privacy? I need to clean up because I feel another spike coming on.”
“Did you put the birth control patch on?”
I raise my top and show her the small skin colored patch. Omegas in heat are extra fertile, and I don’t want to get pregnant. I want this heat over and done with and go back to my life where I can be a beta. Unfortunately, I never went on birth control before my awakening. My first and only sexual experience was with my beta ex-boyfriend, and he wore a condom. But Mom insists on the patch because she doesn’t trust alphas to wrap themselves, not when I’m in heat. “I put it on this morning.”
“It should be enough time for it to work by tomorrow.”
I stride to the door and pull on the handle, opening the door wide. “See you in a couple of days.”
“Hopefully, that’s all it will take.” Bardot says. “I was speaking to Ella, and she thinks yours will last longer.”
“Lucky me,” I say with a sigh.
Mom smiles. “As soon as it’s over, I’ll get you home and you can sleep it off for a few days.” She pulls me close to her, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and kissing the top of my head. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be in room six one five in case you need me in an emergency. I won’t leave the hotel. I’ve got some papers to work on, so I’m going to work from my room until you call me.”
“Thanks Mom.”
Bardot hugs me next, followed by Harlow, and only a couple of minutes later, I’m in the room alone.
After a long soak in the tub, I feel less like the heat will come on with a vengeance and I remove all the fabrics I brought and make the hotel bed resemble what my mom calls my nest.
Once I’m happy with how it looks, I take my iPad and log onto my OmegaFans app, smiling when I see another ten people have signed up for tonight’s performance.
I’m excited. My heart is pounding at the thought of how much I’ll make. It feels surreal that so many alphas will pay to watch an omega in heat. But it’s more overwhelming that I’m so close to my dream.
Ginger:
UPDATE–my temperature keeps spiking into heat territory and is expected to stay there from today sometime. Looking forward to seeing your knots to help me along the way.
I smile when I send the message out to the men who signed up and anyone else who may be interested. I’m crossing my fingers that I manage to get to one hundred watchers and have enough to purchase the café.
After I double-check the connection, I take all my new toys from their boxes and, after cleaning each one, I position them on one side of the bed. My gaze wanders from one toy to the next as a sudden gush of slick slides down the inside of my thigh, soaking my super soft leggings that I wore instead of my pajamas.
“Oh, God.”
The thought of earning so much money turns me on but doesn’t stop my nerves from fraying.
“Just think of the money, Grace,” I mutter to myself as I take the underwear from my suitcase. I’m going to wear white lingerie when I first go online. It’s lacy and a little revealing. Hopefully, it’ll help the alphas send me generous tips.
My OmegaFans app chimes. I check the message.
Xander: How much for my eyes only?
I reply.
Ginger: Sorry, I can’t.
I don’t want to see one alpha and start begging for his knot. I’m hoping that I’ll be watching lots of alphas, not just one, that way I won’t get attached to one and the reason I replied to Henry when I received his message this morning that I didn’t want to know the alphas who take me through my heat.
Xander: One hundred thousand for your heat. I want to help you through it, and obviously, you need the money.
I scrape my fingernail through my teeth as I contemplate the offer. One alpha to get me through the whole heat and enough money to buy my café at the same time.
Ginger: It’s a very nice offer but I’ll be going to the heat hotel when my deep heat kicks in.
Xander: I’m more than capable.
Ginger: I’m sure you are. But I want to remain in control and this way I will.
Xander: I’ll find you.
Ginger: It’ll be over by the time you do.
I hope.
Xander: You’re my omega. Tell me where you are.
Ginger: Once my heat is over, I won’t be an omega anymore, so get over it.
Xander: You’re mine.
I don’t think so, buddy. I’d choose Henry if I was going to do that.
The ache in my stomach lowers. I can’t cope with the back and forth of the conversation and send a last message to Xander.
Ginger: Consider yourself blocked.
I’m poorer but feel better for blocking the weirdo.
I crawl onto the bed, one hand reaches out to the blankets, pulling them closer to my skin as I snuggle inside the fabrics. My other hand slides inside my damp leggings and between my thighs. My fingers slip along the slick that is building between my legs as I stare at the lacy lingerie and suddenly don’t feel like wearing the scratchy but beautiful fabric.
I groan when the app chimes again. This time the sound lets me know another user has signed up for tonight. At the same time, my cell pings just as a searing pain slashes across my stomach.
I wrap my arms around my stomach for a moment before I reach across to the bedside table and grab my cell. I open up my messages.
HenryLuvsBetas: Please don’t go to the heat hotel.
Me: Why?
HenryLuvsBetas: I don’t know.
I drop my cell on the bed as I stare around at the suddenly too big hotel room and only now do I feel alone. I roll over on the bed, holding my knees against my chest as tears prick my eyes.
Nothing makes this feel right. Not even the bright blue sky that rests on the top of the high-rise buildings as I gaze out of the window.
Everything feels so wrong.