Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
MIA
I only sleep for a few hours before I’m awake again in a way I can’t explain. My entire body feels alive . It’s nerves and my heat, yes, but also a constant thrumming within me that has me purring and wanting to curl right back up against Leo or my other bandmates.
My alphas? Maybe. Did we agree to make a pack last night? Or was it more of a wait and see thing? Because yeah, this was all accidental and secondary to Exit Fate. The music and the band are way more important.
Yet the way Leo makes my body sing and create its own music?—
I have to stop myself from thinking about it anymore before even more slick coats my thighs. As it is, these pants are absolutely useless now. For a moment, I consider tiptoeing out to ask Aiden if I can borrow some sweats, but then after last night, I’m thinking it’ll probably be a yes. And it’s not like there’s any hiding what I would’ve been very obviously doing in here.
What Leo was doing in here, though…
I bite my lip hard as flashes of it come back to me. Fuck. It was so hot, and also so damned inappropriate not just as a bandmate, but as a professional colleague.
My heat has never burned as hot as it feels right now, and I’m acutely aware that is because I’ve found scent matched alphas. However, this cannot and thus will not impede what we’re doing with Exit Fate.
It just can’t get in the way of making this band everything I know it can be. Everything Wes and the alphas know it can be.
Scent matching was accidental, that’s it.
I decide against just rifling through Aiden’s closet and instead aim to simply leave as quickly as possible from his apartment. I was pretty out of it last, and I’m well aware I’m on borrowed time before another heat flare strikes. But Al’s wasn’t that far from here. I can probably make it back there, get my car, and at least halfway home before I’ll be useless again.
I glance at the alarm clock next on Aiden’s bedside table. Seven in the morning. What are the chances the alphas are awake?
I slip out of Aiden’s bedroom and make it halfway down the hall back toward the living space when the answer becomes mortifyingly clear.
The smell of eggs, pancakes, and waffles wafts through the air alongside coffee brewing. Their soft murmurs are tossed back and forth to each other, quiet enough not to wake me.
Oh, fuck me.
I want to slink back against the wall or find a window exit. But a window from the penthouse isn’t an exactly valid escape route. So, I lift my chin and sling my bag across the shoulder like nothing’s wrong or happened and I’m just ready to leave. Because it shouldn’t be something embarrassing, but it is . Heats happen. Alphas assist. It is what it is.
But we’re coworkers, so it can’t .
Unless we make a pack. Unless we commit to one as well as a band.
I’ve known them less than twenty-four hours so that’s a big old no right now.
Right?
Conflict storms within me, stirring something farther south—another heat flare I simply do not have time for. I’m functional now, and I want to be functional enough to get at least halfway home before having to pull off and… and what? Get myself off enough to get the rest of the way home?
I’m never drinking again. I can’t afford my heat suppressants not working anymore, especially now . Especially with Exit Fate. We have so much work to do so quickly, and it needs to be done without distractions.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I can stop a heat cycle already in motion.
I hurry into the living space of Aiden’s apartment to find him cooking, and Noah and Leo at the kitchen island, sitting on barstools and eating breakfast. “Morning!”
I move quick toward the apartment door but Aiden steps into my path. I stop just short of bumping into him—which is good, because physical contact with one of these alphas might fully set me into this flare.
“Do you want breakfast?” Aiden asks with an innocent tone not questioning how I’m doing, which I appreciate.
Noah and Leo, on the other hand, meet my gaze with theirs full of concern.
“No, thank you, though,” I say quickly. “I should get going, it’s a long drive back home.”
Aiden’s cinnamon and chocolate scent fills my nostrils. He’s not touching me, but his presence is, and it’s making warmth bloom at my core. Another flash of Leo’s fingers inside me fully envelopes my mind. I sway on my feet.
Aiden touches a hand to my shoulder to steady me. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Something in the way he asks the question hits me wrong, as if this is my first heat ever and do I know what I’m doing. I’m young, but I’m not that young. And I also don’t think he meant it that way.
Still, my jaw clenches. “Yes, I’ll be okay. I just need…” Need new clothes. Fresh panties. A freezing cold shower and my knot dildos and the rest of the day alone. My face heats until I’m so warm I feel like you could cook on my forehead. “I need to get home.”
Aiden’s concerned green eyes narrow. He opens his mouth to speak, then shakes his head. “Please don’t feel embarrassed.”
I close my eyes and just breathe for ten seconds. A part of me hopes when I open my eyes again, all of this will have been a dream—or nightmare, more like. But it’s not.
“We’re supposed to be making a band,” I say to Aiden, but it’s for Noah and Leo, too. “And that’s the focus. I apparently suck at appropriately handling heat suppressants, and I’ll not let that happen again. But for right now, I want to get home and deal with this. And then we have music to make. So.” I lift my phone and shake it in front of me. “Text chain, lyric ideas. Send videos of guitar riffs and drum beats. Let’s just focus on the music right now.”
And not the way we’re all scent matched. Not the way this band already feels like home in an odd, very comforting way. And definitely not on the way Leo’s brown eyes have a little bit of joy shining in them because he’s remembering last night, too.
“Thank you for everything yesterday,” I say to all of them. “I won’t let you down. I’m really excited for what we make with Exit Fate.”
This feels like a line in the sand—and it should. Wes and Sable both warned me not to screw this opportunity up. Starting a pack with these alphas or letting them help me through this heat would be screwing it up. It’d be crossing that line that needs to exist if Exit Fate is to succeed.
Don’t mix love and work, isn’t that always the advice?
“We are too,” Noah says with a sad smile. “Let us know when you’re back home?”
I nod, grateful he’s moving this conversation away from Aiden’s ask I stay. Aiden freaking Paltier wants me to stay here and help me through my heat.
Leo Altis already did.
I went from being starstruck to running out of here so quickly it’s like I’d slept with all of them.
“Let’s plan to meet this weekend,” Aiden says, “and we’ll write and share stuff as Mia asked.”
“Sounds good to me,” Leo agrees. I note the joy has left his gaze.
Noah nods. “Sure thing.”
“Great.” I move toward the door again. “Thank you again for letting us crash here, Aiden. I’ll send you guys some stuff when I’m home.”
And then I leave. I walk out of Aiden’s apartment, hop into the elevator, and walk out into the parking lot to find my car already there. The guys must have gone back out and slowly brought all the cars back. But my keys were in my bag in Aiden’s room…
Leo.
I inhale slowly. An omega in heat like that, surrounded by alphas, can go so poorly. Has gone poorly for so many omegas over the years.
But these alphas were absolute gentlemen.
Tears prick my eyes. For so long, music took precedence over all my omega instincts. Now I’m facing both of these paths head-on and hoping I can manage them both.
What if we did make a pack? So many omegas go their whole lives without finding scent matches. What if two of my favorite musicians of all time and a brilliant bassist from Juilliard are my fated pack?
What if we also make and release an amazing record and place our mark on the music industry?
So many beautiful what-ifs stare me down as I stare at my car. Hope, anticipation, excitement—they all stir within me in the same exact place in my throat that fulfillment and inspiration sit when I’m performing.
But there’s also fear. Because nothing good I have ever stays.
Because this, all of this, is so new . It’s so fragile.
My legs begin to quake. I need to get on the road before my thighs are coated in slick again. And I desperately need a shower to just wash all of this away.
I unlock my car, hop into the driver’s seat, and throw my bag into the back. As I start my car, I catch sight of my reflection in the mirror.
I’m smiling so wide, with blushed cheeks and hopeful eyes despite it all.
I pull out of the apartment complex and drive to the highway. Any other omega in heat would’ve run back to her scent matches and begged to be taken care of. But I don’t. I can’t. But I also can’t stop thinking about Aiden’s green eyes and Leo’s strong hands and Noah’s roguish charm.
Ten minutes after I hop on the highway—although it feels like forever already as my slick slips free and my head begins feeling feverish—I call Sable.
Her voice crackles over my speakers. “Girl!” Accusatory and questioning all at once.
“I know,” I plead, “I’m sorry. Last night took an interesting turn.”
A pause, then she asks, “Interesting?”
I tell Sable everything. About dinner at Al’s, about my heat starting, about staying at Aiden’s apartment and Leo attending to me.
“Leo Altis had his fingers inside you ?” Sable squeals so loudly I’m convinced the drivers around me can hear despite all of us having our windows up. “ Girl! ”
I swallow hard. “I know, but it can’t happen again. It won’t.”
“Why the hell not?” Sable asks. “You’re scent matches, you should be together. You should turn around right now and beg them to aid you through this heat?”
Walls press down in my mind. Compartmentalizing is the only way forward. “No, Sable. Exit Fate comes first before anything else.”
“ They’re Exit Fate,” she presses. “They’re literally the other members of the band with you, Mia.”
“Work and play don’t mix well,” I argue. “You literally said to not screw this up. Me walking away from them this morning is me not screwing this up.”
It’s also dooming me to dealing with this heat solo, which so far is not going well. My thighs press together. I’m so feverish throughout my entire body.
“I meant your drinking,” Sable says coolly. “Which, need I remind you, is exactly why you’re in heat right now.”
“Yeah, I’m fucking aware.” My tone is sharper than needed, but luckily, Sable isn’t intimidated.
“Are you headed home now?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“Good, I’ll meet you there with drinks and food for the next day or so.”
“Thank you.”
The call falls silent for long enough that I consider turning back around. Maybe Sable is right, and this is beyond stupid. But I can’t get the absolute canyon between me and those alphas out of my mind. Two of them are actual rock stars, with years of experience in this industry, and the other has experience and classical training. They’re in their thirties. They know what they’re doing in probably all facets.
I’m twenty-two. I’m only remotely famous because of a few viral videos. And I’m an omega in heat who’s also a virgin.
We cannot mix work and play, even for scent matches.
“Sable,” I say.
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I’m not going to screw this up.” The band, or the alphas. “I’ll talk to them and figure this out.”
“Good, I’m happy to hear that.” Then her voice goes sweet again, and she swoons. “Tell me everything about Leo.”
I do, as best friends should. But by the time the story is over and the call has ended, I have to pull off at a rest stop and bring myself to orgasm a few times because even thinking about Leo’s fingers hooked inside me sends this flare into full effect.
My core craves a knot. My body wants an alpha—or three—inside me, filling and fulfilling every desire. God, just a bit longer of a drive and I’ll have my knot dildos.
It’s a long rest of the way home, and a blurry, feverish next few days.