Chapter 6
Chapter Six
LEO
There’s a part of me that’s questioning if this is a sound idea. I argue with that voice in the back of my head from the moment I buckle into the backseat of Aiden’s car next to Mia. She looks so embarrassed, and I honestly I can’t begin to imagine. I’ve been on rut suppressants before. With the autoimmune medication, I’ve had to go off of them. But I think it’s still very different for us than it is for omegas in heat.
All I know is that from the moment she walked through the doors at Carnation Studio, I noticed her. Not quite scented like during the all of one round of drinks we had at Al’s. But damn did my everything just zero right in on Mia.
It’s like my alpha knew even then, hours before she went into heat.
I want to reach out and touch her, and even make the motion to, but sort of stop halfway and leave my hand resting awkwardly between us.
She’s young. So young. At least ten years younger than all of us, but she’s beautiful and so full of life. I want to kiss the frown off her face, and reassure her there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Heats happen. Ruts happen. And those of us unlucky enough to be an alpha or omega get to have our life events interrupted by them when the suppressants don’t work.
“It’s okay, Mia,” I settle for, as Aiden drives us up the street and around the corner. Already from here, I can see a large set of nice apartment buildings fully gated with security.
“I’m just mortified, it’s okay,” she says dryly. “I’m aware…” She trails off and sighs heavily. “I’m aware of the age and industry experience difference between you all and me. And yeah, I’m a fan of Lost Time and Designation Outsider. But I’m promise I’m all in on Exit Fate, and I promise I’ll sort these suppressants right away.”
“Mia, stop,” Aiden says.
Noah twists toward us from the passenger seat. “I know we just met for the first time, but honestly, it’s really okay. Listen to them. We can talk at Aiden’s place, and if it gets too much, you can go rest or… whatever else to make this pass enough to get you home.”
Whatever else.
I could think of a few more things we could do to help her that’d fit into that whatever else category, but all of it felt insane to offer even with the scent matches.
Because, as Noah pointed out, we just met.
But she’s an omega in need. She’s our omega, apparently. Not that we’re a pack. Not that anyone has said the phrase scent matches out loud.
Mia’s shaking by the time Aiden pulls into his VIP parking spot and we head on up to his place. His apartment is a penthouse overlooking the city around us. Mountains rise in the far distance, lit only by the light of a full moon. We enter into an open-floor kitchen, dining, and living room split visually with pillars and half-walls, where a main color scheme consisting solely of gray-scale leaves a bit to be desired.
Aiden offers us all the couch and pulls some more beers out of the fridge, and water for Mia and me. I nod a thanks on behalf of my disease and my medication, and make sure Mia drinks plenty for herself before we even begin talking again.
Aiden, on the other hand, makes quick work of drawing the curtains slightly closed over floor to ceiling windows for privacy, despite my assumption they’re fairly tinted from the outside.
“How are you?” Noah asks as he looks her over.
She shoots him a rather familiar deadpan look for two people who just met. “Dandy. Ugh, I’m sorry.”
Pain crosses Noah’s face. I recognize it—I’m feeling it too. They want to act, the knowledge on how to help, but not knowing if it’s okay.
Aiden finally takes a seat as well. We’re in his living room, a lowered section of floor where massive sectional couch surrounds an even larger TV. I make a mental note to remind him to downsize before the Designation Outsider money runs out. I learned that one the hard way with Lost Time.
Mia pulls her knees to her chest. “I’m?—”
“Stop apologizing,” Aiden cuts her off. “It’s a normal process, and since we’ve agreed to Exit Fate, it’s one we’ll have to circumnavigate anyway, right? So, drink the water.”
Water won’t help Mia. And everyone in this room knows it.
Mia sips the water anyway. Her hands are shaking, and her cheeks are flushed. When she’s not sipping water or talking, her lips are parted just slightly in a way that fully wakes the alpha inside me.
I shift in my seat as my pants grow tight. This cannot happen , I remind myself. And yet Mia’s sweet honey and strawberry candy scent is filling this room.
“Are you marked by an alpha?” Noah asks her. “Or a pack?”
Mis shakes her head. A lock of her cotton-candy hair falls over her face, and it takes everything within me not to lean over and gently caress it back over her ear. “No.”
Thank fuck.
“Well,” Aiden starts as he looks to Noah and I each in turn. We both nod. “It has occurred to all of us that we’re scent matches, wouldn’t you agree?”
Mia nods a little. She shifts in her seat, which causes her to bite her lip in return. “We are. How’s that for fate.”
Aiden chuckles. “Fate’s funny sometimes, I’ll give Her that.”
“So what do we do?” I ask, impressing in my tone what I want to happen here. Because I can’t keep looking at Mia in so desperate of need, knowing I can help alleviate that, if that’s something she wants.
“We just became a band,” Noah says. His hands are clenched on either side of his legs. It appears he’s having the same issues with restraint as I am. How the hell Aiden looks so cool about all of this is wild to me. “I don’t know if a pack is also something we want to commit to so quickly.”
Mia buries her face against her knees. “No one said just because you find scent matches means you have to become a pack.”
“No, but many say you’d be crazy not to,” Aiden says. “Listen, we can discuss all of that as it comes, or not, but if you want us to help you through this, Mia, just say the word. I think… I think we’d be all more than willing. Especially since you seem to be our omega. All of ours.”
Mia whimpers against her knees. Her entire body is shaking with need now, and her honey and candy scent keeps growing stronger. I bet she even tastes like candy.
Fuck. This is all messing with my inner alpha, too.
“I know the timing sucks, but I agree with Aiden,” Noah comments.
“I’ll be fine.” The words are muffled by Mia’s knees. Finally, she looks up. “Can I just go to sleep, please? Whatever direction you all want for the band is fine with me. That’s what we came out here tonight to talk about, right? I’ll sing whatever. Stuff you’ve all written, stuff I’ve written. Stuff we write together. Whatever you all want.”
“Mia,” Aiden says.
She shakes her head and moves to stand up. The movement must have caused some friction between her legs because she lets out a moan and falls forward until her palms rest on the coffee table covered in music records. She straightens while she shakes.
“Right, I need to leave this room,” she says.
Pretty sure her scent is going to flood this entire damned apartment whether she’s behind a closed door in another room or standing right beside us all. I want her to stay, I want her to let us help her. I want to take care of her—not just her need, but her . Make feel comfortable and safe.
But Mia starts walking away toward a hall. “You got a guest room, Aiden?”
Aiden shakes his head. “One bedroom. But it’s yours, take it. The sheets are clean and there’s fresh towels in the bathroom.”
“Thank you.” Mia stumbles down the hallway and out of sight. After a few moments, the sound of a door closing echoes down into the living space.
I glance at the other two alphas. “Are we just supposed to let her be in her heat alone?”
Noah gestures wildly. “We just met her, and each other. Don’t think it’s right.”
“It’s not,” Aiden agrees. “Even if she’s a scent match, even if we’re all matches enough to make a pack. She’s young.”
“Not that young,” Noah points out. “Twenty-two, I think?”
Aiden and I both release a short laugh at the same time. I say, “Eleven years. We’ve got eleven years on her.”
“Same, man,” Noah says. “But it is what it is.”
Aiden leans back with his hands pressed together behind his head. “Everything in me is screaming to go in there and help her ride out her heat. I don’t know what to do.”
“I understand,” I say. “But unless she asks, we probably shouldn’t.”
“No,” Noah agrees but the pain in his eyes hasn’t gone away. It’s literally pain to sit here knowing she needs us. “We need to be careful with her.” He shoots a look at Aiden. “And the band. You want to make a pack? Fine. But we’re all here because of the band.”
Aiden leans forward so that his elbows are on his knees and he’s looking up at both of us. “I meant what I said today. We all hit it off, and we made something irreplaceable. Wes’s offer was to see us through our first album and first tour, all we have to do is make the music and do our best. If we make it, we make it.”
“And what’s your definition of ‘making it?’” Noah asks him.
Valid. Lost Time never hit the amount of fame that Designation Outsider managed, but reaching either band’s level of fame would take a ton of work. And that’s a lot to ask of four people who’ve just come together, two of which who have never seen limelight before.
“Releasing an album successfully,” Aiden says, “and to not be booed on tour. I just want to make music, man. That’s all.”
Noah glances to me with an expectant look in his eyes. He wants my answer, too.
Mine’s simple. “I never thought I’d play music again or be in another band. I’m happy just to be here for the ride.”
“And what do you want out of this, Noah?” Aiden asks.
“I’m in for the music,” he answers without hesitation. “And maybe a bit of validation just like you, Aiden.”
“Like all of us,” I add.
“Then from tomorrow on, we’re music focused,” Aiden says. “I think forming a pack out of a band feels natural too, for the record. I’m willing to give that a go as well.”
Noah and I both nod in agreement.
“Then we take that day by day as well,” Aiden says. “And just because we’re a pack doesn’t mean Mia has to join it. But we’ll be there for her either way, same as a band would.”
It’s a good plan. It’s the right plan. And I even feel satisfied knowing these things are sorted. But Mia being an omega, being our scent matched omega, surely puts a large wrench into things.
I let it go as Aiden finds blankets for the three of us and we stretch out easily with more than enough space on all the sectional pieces while Mia takes Aiden’s bedroom.
But I simply can’t sleep. My inner alpha screams at me to go to her all night long, even as logic warns I need this sleep so badly. Not just to ignore the deep, primal call within me to be with Mia, but also because my body craves rest to keep itself alive.
I lose the war. Around three in the morning, I tiptoe out of the living space toward the bathroom to relieve myself. Whimpers pour out from underneath the closed door at the end of the hall.
Mia.
I finish up and then go to the door and gently knock on it. “Mia, it’s Leo. Can I come in?”
A soft sob escapes her. “Yes.”
My heart leaps in my chest. Even if nothing happens, at least she’s letting me inside. I open the door as quietly as I can and slip inside. The room is dark but she’s left the curtains open so the full moon’s light pours across Aiden’s massive bed.
Where she’s created a cocoon out of pillows. Her nest. I wonder if she even realizes she’s done it.
Mia’s curled up in the center. “I’m fine, I promise.”
The room smells of arousal so thickly I can almost taste it. She’s been in here for hours getting herself through her heat, just because we’re trying to be gentlemen rather than alphas who take advantage of an omega in heat.
Our omega needed us. And we left her in here alone.
I take several steps toward her. “Are you sure? I—” Fuck it. I should just be honest. “I can smell your sex, Mia. I know what omegas need right now. It’s not right for us to sit by and let you go through this alone just because we’ve only just met. Fate put us together, it would seem.”
Please let me in. Let me help.
This soul-deep urge has me waiting on her next words, her next breath itself.
As much as her inner omega is demanding release and satisfaction, my inner alpha yearns to be hers. To protect her, to aid her, to see her through this heat.
And yes, to rut her. To mate her. Mark her. To spill my seed into her. But I’m doing my best to tamper down those urges just now. And I can.
I will.
Mia whimpers again. Moonlight catches on sweat beading along her brow. She’s literally burning up. “It feels wrong to ask you.”
My heart leaps again. I take another few steps. “I’m offering, Mia. As much or as little as you need right now. You’re in control, always.”
She lifts her head to me. Our eyes meet across the short distance between us. Even in the dark, I can tell a blush heats her fair cheeks. “Hold me. Please.”
I practically run to her side and climb into her nest beside her. She settles in against my front as if this is natural. As if we’ve always known each other and cuddling is a normal thing we do.
I wrap my arms around her, and neither of us acknowledge how my hard erection is absolutely pressing against her perfectly round ass. I just hold her close and whisper in her ear. “Thank you, Mia. Thank you for trusting me.”
“I don’t want to feel this foolish,” she admits in the dark. “I think my drinking impacted my heat suppressants, that’s all. This will pass in a few days.”
I smell her hair and apple shampoo. I kiss the back of her head. “It will, and you’re not foolish.”
“Me being eleven years younger than you doesn’t bother you?”
“No.”
Mia shifts a little. Her ass rubs against my erection. It sends an electric course of arousal through my cock.
Mia freezes. “Sorry.”
I shake my head and place a kiss against her shoulder. “No, don’t be.”
“Some of this is involuntary.”
“It’s okay.”
She turns a little so our eyes meet and her lips are in kissing distance. I realize this because my gaze slips down to them and becomes transfixed, never to look elsewhere ever again. “I… I need…”
“What, Mia?” I ask her softly. “I’m here, whatever you need.” We just met and I’m ready in this moment to lay my life down for her if she asks. That’s how perfect she looks in my arms, how right .
“I need release again.” She ducks her head like she wants to hide.
I lean in and kiss her—quick, but with enough passion and reassurance to let her know that everything is still okay. The kiss takes my breath away, and we smile at each other after. “How do you want to reach that release, Mia?”
Tears begin to build in her eyes. Alarms blare in my chest.
“Mia? What’s wrong?”
“It’s been so long since a heat like this,” she sobs out. “Everything I do isn’t enough. It’s not enough.”
My cock is hard as fucking steel. But there is no fucking way I’ll knot her tonight. But I can help her.
“Do you want me to help you, Mia?” I ask her, my voice a mask of complete calm that’s so totally opposite of the storm raging inside me.
She nods in small motions.
“You need to say it, Mia.” I need the verbal okay. God, I want to hear all her words and never forget any of them. This fierce protectiveness, this primal desire is scaring the living shit out of me, but I’m not leaving this room unless or until Mia wants me to.
“Please touch me, Leo,” Mia says. “Please help me cum.”
My pulse is thundering in my ears, and my heart has nowhere left to leap but clear out of my chest, which it won’t do, so instead it pounds against my ribcage loud enough for everyone to hear. “I will.”
I trace down her arm with my fingertips, then down across her abdomen to her hips. I hover at the waistband of her pants. “May I?”
“Yes, Leo,” she says. “Please.”
It’s all the permission I need. I slip my hand down into her pants, across her front, and discover her distinct lack of panties—and the pool of slick that’s completely soaked everything between and underneath her thighs. The pants, the sheets, everything.
I growl as my fingers are coated in her slick. “ Mia .”
Mia bites her lip and purrs. “Growl my name again like that.”
Happily. “Mia.”
She whimpers in my arms. Fuck. I want her so badly.
Patience.
I slip my fingers between her soaked folds. She’s swollen, her clit ready at attention and begging for touch. But I know she can’t do slow right now, and I don’t think I’m capable of it, either. She needs release. So that’s what I will provide.
I fully coat two fingers in her slick and then press them inside her. Mia’s hips buck upward. Because of how she turned, she’s no longer entirely pressing her ass against my cock—thank fuck . She moans loudly and grasps at the bedsheets to either side of her.
“Oh, my god ,” she exclaims.
I’ve barely touched her. But her body reacts so instantly, so fully , that I come incredibly close to abandoning all reason and resolve to bury myself to the knot in her.
Not now.
This is about her right now.
I slip a third finger inside and growl at the way her tight walls stretch to accommodate more width. Is she a virgin? My thumb then finds her clit. At the same time, I lean in and kiss her again. My tongue asks for entrance against her lips. She accepts me in as I fuck her with my fingers at a hard pace, a pace an omega in heat requires, and she moans into my mouth as she cums hard and fast. Her legs quake with the sensitivity I know her body must be feeling. I thrust into her faster and harder with my fingers, then apply pressure to the special bundle of nerves just inside her walls as they clamp around me.
Mia’s eyes go wide and she purrs loudly. I keep my fingers hooked there, giving it a come-hither motion, until Mia’s breaths are heavy and stuttered, until her body coils tightly and then—releases.
She cums hard, deep from within, and cries out my name. I kiss her to silence the cry, not wanting to wake the other alphas. I want her to myself in this moment. I’ll share later, once her heat is calmed and she can finally sleep.
The deep orgasm seems to stop her body from shaking once she comes down from it. After a few moments, Mia pulls back from me and smiles. “I… think that was it. Fantastic. Thank you.”
I chuckle at the way she can barely put words together and kiss her sweaty forehead. “Heat calmed for the moment?”
She nods. “I’ll take more suppressants tomorrow when I get home.”
No, don’t. I want her off all suppressants and?—
Fucking no. I calm down the inner alpha screaming all the wrong things at me. Whether she takes heat suppressants or not isn’t for me to decide, obviously. But her slick feels so right on my hand, and her walls clamping down on my fingers made me wish they were my cock instead.
I withdraw my hands from her and lick one finger. She watches me with dilated eyes. “Good idea.”
God dammit, she does taste like honey and strawberry candy.
Mia’s gaze shoots down to my very prominent, very obvious hard cock. “Do you want me to—I mean, it’d be fair.”
I shake my head and withdraw entirely from the bed. “No. This was about you. If your heat flares again and you need us, we’re right down the hall. Please, just tell us.”
Mia looks slightly more confident about it now. But hesitation still hangs in the air, understandable and also felt in me. “Okay, thank you.”
“Goodnight, Mia.”
“Night, Leo.”
And then I do the hardest thing in my life in years: I leave the room. I say nothing else, I just leave. Because right now I’m so torn.
Her being not just an omega, but one in heat and scent matched, definitely makes everything about this Exit Fate opportunity much more complicated.
But it makes everything so right , too.
I go back to the bathroom as quietly as I can and slowly, as quietly as possible, pull my cock from my jeans and get myself off. I stroke slowly, drawing out this pleasure with the hand that pleasured Mia. I pretend it’s her hands. Her mouth. Her puckered lips.
I cum so hard I nearly lose vision.
Fuck, this is so complicated now.