Chapter Fifteen
Knox
“Come out, little omega. I’m going to help you real good.”
I cowered in the back corner of the bathroom stall, hoping the lock on the door and stall held until Linc arrived. I hadn’t wanted to call him, considered every other option, but I either waited for the pop star I barely knew, or let the alpha outside the door take me. There’d been two of them at one point, but I thought I’d heard them fist fighting only a few moments earlier. I guessed the one had left. I hoped so. The museum guard hadn’t helped me at all. Only told me I shouldn’t have gone outdoors in heat if I didn’t want alphas after me.
The thing was, I hadn’t even known I was in heat. If I was, why hadn’t Linc noticed earlier in the day? We’d been in his car and several elevators together. If anyone had noticed my heat, it should have been him. Invisible vises clenched at my chest. I thought we’d had a connection. One I’d tried to ignore, but he’d obviously felt some amicability since he’d offered to give me the code to his place. Why hadn’t he smelled it first? Why hadn’t he stopped the elevator in his building or Shifter Towers and had his way with me?
My cock stiffened at the thought, and I moaned.
The alpha banged on the door again. “I can hear you in there. Let me in and I’ll make you moan even louder.”
Maybe I was in heat, since I never would have behaved in such a manner of my own volition. I was on blockers. I wasn’t supposed to experience them.
A sudden roar shook everything around me. Voices shouted at each other, and I thought I heard someone hit the wall. Then nothing. Absolute silence. It felt almost deafening as I waited for a sign it was safe for me to leave the bathroom.
Then I heard a light knock on the door. “Knox? It’s Linc. You can come out now.”
I climbed off the toilet and unlocked the stall as fast as I could. Though at the main door, I paused. “It’s really you? How do I know?” I didn’t have the experience to grasp what a desperate alpha would say to get me to open the door.
“We’re both from Shifter Crossing, and you stayed at my place last night after our train was late and The Vista canceled your reservation. You had Pad See Ew and I had Curry Pad Thai. Then we watched a movie and you fell asleep. Please open the door so I can take you back to my place.”
“Back to your place?” Did he want to fuck me the same as the other two alphas I’d encountered earlier? While the thought of him helping me through my heat made my body tingle and my heart race, I didn’t want him to think he held any ownership over me since I’d called him.
“Yes. You shouldn’t be out in public while you’re in heat. I could smell you the instant I stepped inside the building.” He sighed and it sounded like he leaned against the wall beside the door. “I want you to stay at my place while I go back to work.”
Disappointment clenched my gut. He hadn’t even offered to help me through it. Maybe I’d imagined our connection all along, my approaching heat the only thing telling me otherwise.
I huffed out at breath then unlocked the door, slowly opening it to ensure no one else waited out there with Linc.
The instant I stepped out, he wrapped a blanket around me. “It’s a pheromone blocker. While I would fight off any alpha for you, I don’t want to leave you unprotected while I do.”
Had he really said he would fight for me, or had I imagined it? I couldn’t tell, my need for release increasing in his presence.
He held the blanket around me as he guided me outside to his car, glaring at any alpha who dared glance in my direction.
Once inside his vehicle, he rolled down all the windows and squealed the tires as he U-turned. He didn’t speak to me as he sped down Main Street toward his place, not bothering to take the underground roads.
Not until we were in the elevator of his building. “Did you know your heat was coming?”
I shook my head, guilt gnawing through the lust. “I’m on blockers. At least… Wait, what’s the date?”
“It’s October fifteenth.” He leaned back into the opposite corner as if trying to put as much space as possible between us.
“The fifteenth.” I paused for a moment, thinking back to when I’d received my last blocker. “Shit, I was supposed to get my injection today. I completely forgot with the planning of my vacation. I didn’t know I could go into heat that fast.”
The elevator door opened on the fourteenth floor, and Linc steered me out in front of him. “Have you ever been in heat before? Do you know how long yours lasts?”
“No.” As he entered his code, I leaned against the wall, suddenly overtaken by a hot flash and the extreme desire to be fucked. “I, oh shit.”
His face paled and he winced. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I moaned as I stepped toward him, ready to fling off the blanket and rub myself against him. “I need you. Just a quick release. Can you please help me?”
His eyes darkened and he released a low growl. “I…I can’t. It wouldn’t be right.”
“Please.” I dropped the blanket and took a step toward him.
He jumped back. “Knox, stop it. I like you, but I refuse to take advantage of you in this condition.” He picked up the blanket from the floor and wrapped it around me again before guiding me inside. “Stay here while I’m gone. Take a shower or a bath, or whatever you need to do. And I’ll see if I can find another omega in the building who is free to come and help you through this.”
“I don’t need an omega.” I glanced down at his cock, seeing his erection held tight in his pants. “I need you.”
Turning his head away from me, he gulped. “You’re making this difficult, but I know it’s not right like this. I’ll be back later.” He pulled the door closed behind him and left me to deal with my uncontrollable desire on my own.
Yet, I was in his place. His scent was all over everything. And I could use his belongings to help me release. It wouldn’t be the same as him fucking me through my heat, but it would be the closest I could get until he returned.