13. Stanton
I called Lucas too many times over the last two days, and I’m starting to worry so much I’m considering returning his father’s call from earlier.
We have two days off training, but I never expected him to go AWOL.
I pick up my phone and check his number, just in case the fucker decided to change it to stop anyone from calling him. Lucas is such a moody bastard nothing would surprise me anymore.
It’s the same number. I hit it, giving him one last chance to pick up before I send out a search party.
“Hello.” His voice is deep, but tired. My heart races as I think about what has happened.
“Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m fine. Just fucked.”
“Fucked?” I repeat.
“Yeah. What are you doing right now?” Lucas asks.
“Apart from being fucking worried about you. I thought someone had kidnapped you. I was just about to call your father, who is also looking for you.”
“I’m alive...”
“Good, and I’m just chilling.” Trying to hold back my pissed off voice. “Listening to music.”
“Have you been whoring tonight?”
“Fuck off Lucas. I haven’t fucked a beta since we lost the game.”
“What about an omega?” he asks. He thinks I’m fucking stupid if he thinks that’s going to catch me out.
“I’ve never ever fucked an omega. I’m saving myself.” It’s the first time I’ve told him. He watches his girls on BetaFans and I fuck betas. We’re practically the same.
Sort of.
“You are?” he questions. There’s a hum in his tone before he says. “What about the girl in Texas?”
I growl. He knows I followed him to our room. “I came back to the room just after you left, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” He pauses a beat and I hear the sweetest murmur in the background.
“Where are you?” I ask, because if he’s been giving me a hard time about fucking women and doing it himself, he’s going to hear my wrath.
“I need your help?”
“For what?”
“You know the omega from OmegaFans that everyone was going to watch during her heat?”
“Mm.”
“She’s my BetaFans girl.” There’s an audible swallow. “She’s revealed as an omega, and she’s in heat... Now.”
“How do you know it’s the BetaFans girl? Didn’t you say she blocked you?”
“She did. But then she decided she wanted me to take her through it. Oh, fuck it. Stanton, I need your help. I’m fucked. She’s rampant, and I’ve kept up with her for forty-eight hours, but now I need to sleep for longer than half an hour. I need to recharge. Even if it’s only for two hours. She only sleeps for fifteen to thirty minutes depending on how hard she comes, and then she’s raring to go again. I know she’ll go in a heat room with a pack of alphas if I don’t keep her satisfied.”
“You want me to fuck an omega?”
“My omega,” he says roughly.
“Is she? I thought you didn’t want an omega.”
“She’s different.”
“Does she smell like yours? Does she smell perfect?”
“She does. But she’s refusing to talk about scents. So I don’t know if we’re a match.”
“Where are you?”
As he tells me the address, I write it on a piece of paper, then I dash to my bedroom and turn on the shower.
“I need you to be here in five minutes. If you’re not, I’m calling Xander.”
I turn off the shower and grab my wallet and keys, and rush to the elevator. “On my way.”
I’m a little nervous as I walk from the elevator to the room Lucas and Scarlett are in. Lucas seems obsessed with this girl when she was a beta and now he knows she’s an omega. Not only an omega... his omega.
Is she mine too?
Is this the feeling I’ve been getting?
Did Lucas find our omega and now he wants a pack?
I go to rap my knuckles on the large wooden door, and the sweetest perfume seeps through the cracks. I stand back and swallow it down.
Mine.
As the door opens, the hit of raspberry and marshmallow sweeps up my nose first and a burst of chocolate and cinnamon follows.
When the smell blends together, it reminds me of the same smell my mom had in her perfume while growing up. The only smell that had my head turning to find out where it came from.
It’s my omega’s smell.
Mine.
“You have to stay calm around her. I don’t want her frightened away if you get aggressive.” Lucas stands in the doorway, his eyes on me as he waits for me to agree.
I close my eyes, inhaling her perfume. Her scent soothes me... feeds me. The tension I had prior to this moment flows from my body like an open dam.
“I’m not aggressive. Let me see her.”
“She’s asleep, but I don’t think for much longer,” he says, handing me a small bag. “It’s a mask. I don’t want her to recognize me.”
“Why not? I thought you wanted her.”
“I need to deal with my father first, and I don’t want him knowing about her.”
I stare at the nest she’s created. Soft blankets and cushions scatter around her, like she’s fallen asleep in the middle.
My heart throbs as much as my cock.
She’s beautiful as she sleeps.
Red hair—definitely dyed—maybe part of her persona. Her eyes are closed. Her lashes are long and dark, and her lips pink and plump—kissable.
“I don’t need to wear a mask. That’s a ‘you’ problem.”
“I asked you to come here. You stick by my rules. She’s mine.”
“Mm.” I don’t argue with him. I don’t want the door slamming in my face. But if Lucas thinks she is only his, he is sadly mistaken. He asked me here for a reason, and he knows what that is.
I test him. “Ours.”
He growls at me, but the only effect it has is a whimper from her lips.
Lucas and I twist to her and see her turning on the nest.
“We’ll talk later. Put the mask on.”
I smile as I take the mask. “Book a room. I’ll call you when she wears me out. What’s her name?”
“Scarlett.”
Three hours later, I’m spooning Scarlett and inhaling her scent as she sleeps soundly in my arms when Lucas tentatively opens the door.
I felt nothing like this in my life, feeling at home, at peace.
“Did she ask who you were?” he asks.
I nod. “I told her we were pack mates, and she smiled and fell back to sleep.”
“You didn’t tell her your name, did you?”
“Why are you being so evasive?”
“Did you?” Lucas grimaces under his breath.
“I told her I was called Stan, but why don’t you just tell her you want her?”
“I will. But this is all new to me. I never pursued an omega.” I get it, I’m the same, but I did it to pursue my hockey career. “It was way easier claiming I wasn’t interested in omegas with my father.”
I groan. “You’re an adult, Lucas. Tell him to fuck himself.”
“She’s the one, Stanton. I’m not fucking it up and I’m certainly not letting my father ruin my future. I need to be careful how I deal with this.”
My phone vibrates on the nightstand. Lucas grabs it quickly so it doesn’t wake Scarlett.
“Take it in the corridor, or the bathroom.” He glares at me as I kiss Scarlett on her shoulder and shimmy away. “Or in the room I booked. It’s on the second floor, room two, three, five.”
I glance at the caller. “It’s my sister, Selene.” I creep away, hitting the answer on my cell. “Hi, everything okay?”
“No,” she sobs. “You need to come home.”
“What happened?” My heart races at the sound of her tone.
“It’s mom. She was hurt in a car accident.”
“Fuck. Is she okay? Is she…”
“Stanton, please come home.” Selene says as I quietly shut the door to the bathroom. “She’s...”
Bile skates up my throat so fast I can taste on my tongue. “Selene.” There’s a warning in my tone.
“She’s on life support, Stanton.” She hiccups back a sob. “And they’re asking for her family to turn up because they want to turn it off.”
I drop to my knees and puke into the porcelain bowl. “N-no.”
“Please come home. I can’t do it by myself,” she begs.
I can’t see for the tears coating my eyes. My shoulders shake so much that I drop the phone on the floor.
“Fuck Stanton, what’s happened?” Lucas plunges on knees as I try to take in what I’ve just heard.
“My mom.” I scrub my hand over my face, shaking my head. It cannot be real. It cannot be real. “Oh fuck Lucas, what am I going to do?”
“Talk to me. What has happened?”
He knows how much I love my mom. I’ve taken her to enough hockey events for the world to know. Since my father died, I’ve financially looked after her and my younger sister. I don’t mind. I want to.
“I have to go to the hospital before they turn off her life support,” I choke.
“I’m so sorry.” Lucas presses his hand on my shoulder. “But you have to do what’s for the best.”
“And Scarlett.”
“Forget her.”
How can I forget my omega?
“You’ll never forgive yourself if you’re not there.” Lucas presses a comforting hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be fine now. Scarlett’s heat won’t last much longer.”
“But she’s ours,” I check as I drag my pants up my legs. I don’t go as far as assuming this is a pack yet. But we have our omega. I know he must be thinking the same thing.
“I’ll look after her, Stanton. But first, I need to deal with my father, and you really need to see your mother.”