Chapter 1 The Heat Clinic #2
Being an omega means being at the mercy of someone else’s needs and desires at all fucking times.
And I’m good at accepting its outcomes. I expect its unpredictability.
I expect that nothing will go how I want it.
For example, I want to get to another clinic, and yet, here I am, on the wrong train, with an alpha standing above me, his eyes closed, and he breathes me in.
And why do I expect everything to go to shit?
Because it always does.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t be a fucking omega to begin with.
His watch matches his shoes and belt with black leather and silver trimmings. He’s well put together. His leather satchel is like a compliment to mine. His hand is still over mine, with the scent-blocker in my loose fist. All the hair on my body rises to meet this man.
I’ve only been an omega for one year. I’d say the attention I get from alphas is new, but it’s really not.
I’ve always been smaller than my beta friends.
My eyes have always been larger and strange.
I have a voice that doesn’t get shrill or loud.
Even when I lose control, it’s quiet. I don’t feel it matches my inner life, my inner voice, at all.
I wear my hair short; I don’t like it on my neck.
It’s solidly blonde. While I’ve been skinny my whole life, once I perfumed, my body changed.
My breasts grew, and my legs, ass, and hips got some shape.
It’s a new feeling, so I usually wear oversized clothes.
I don’t know what to do with this new body.
I’ve never known an omega, so I can’t ask.
Both my parents were alphas, making me an anomaly.
I catch a whiff of the strange alpha above me, his scent going right to all my senses—birthday cake. He smells like a birthday cake, burning candles and all. I try to move my hand away from him. He holds on for a second longer and then lets go.
He takes a step away, looks around, ensuring no one else is bothering us, and then nods to me. Giving me permission to spray myself. I don’t hesitate. I spray myself from top to bottom and then back up again.
He looks like he might pout.
“Pity you had to hide that delicious scent of yours, Omega.”
I know it should bother me that he called me by my designation, but being seen for what I am pleases me. Or rather, pleases that innate, primal part of me.
“Where are you headed to? You seem in a hurry,” he asks and leans in a little closer, invading my personal space again.
The sway of the car racing along the tracks unsettles my already frayed nerves.
He won’t hurt me, I don’t think. There’s a train car full of people surrounding us. Not directly. The surrounding seats are empty.
“I just needed to get away,” I answer.
I have to be careful because most alphas can smell a lie, especially a lie from an omega. Or so the myth says. Maybe that’s just something from tv shows.
He considers the answer, then asks, “From the male you were just with?”
I drop my head, and again, it looks like an act of submission. I don’t mean to, it’s just his eyes are so focused on me, I need to be released.
“Yes,” I answer pitifully.
I’d made Arnie participate in a forbidden act. He’s most likely lost his job and his reputation. He was good at what he did at the Clinic, and I ruined his life with one sordid mistake.
“My name is Jake Meier. Pack lead of the Meier Pack.” Jake extends his hand to me, and I look back up at him, not quite meeting his gray eyes.
I take his hand, its size alarming. The omega side of me is so happy to have my hand in his. Especially so close to my heat. I need an alpha to help me through my heat. Nothing else will help.
And this one smells like birthday cake.
“Ondine.” I give him my name. Most omegas drop their surname unless they are attached to a pack. If I were in his pack, even temporarily, I would call myself Meier.
I realize I’ve been holding my breath when I suddenly gasp for air. He tightens his hold on me.
“You’re very pretty, Ondine. Beautiful face. Delicate hands. I bet you’re a really good omega.”
A knee-jerk reaction to whine at his praise erupts from me. The only thing I can do is not make it so loud. I hope only Jake hears it. His smile spreads across his face, revealing a Cheshire Cat-sized grin.
I crave this man’s attention, and I want to reject that instinct.
I am a bad omega.
Images of Arnie, desperate, colored red, and bleary-eyed, flash through my mind. What I did to him. Being told I am a good omega, by even a stranger, is what everything in me is craving after I fucked up so badly.
“You know, Ondine,” he pauses, so he can enjoy my reaction to hearing my name on his lips, “My pack is seeking an omega companion. I was just in the city today for my formal interview for placement at the Institute. This may be kismet.”
I’m not sure I hear him right. I drop my jaw as I try to discern if I heard him correctly.
“Seeking an omega?”
“We’ve never had one. It’s been the three of us for a while now, but my pack mate, Shadow, he’s not doing well. I want to make him happy. Shadow is a unique alpha. He’s good, but a bit needy. I think an omega would satisfy his needs that Sebastian and I can’t meet.”
Alphas can be with whomever they want, disregarding designation, I think bitterly. But it’s a mark of power and prestige to have an omega, but that doesn’t mean they can’t fuck whoever they please.
Even betas.
An alpha can fuck a beta, and it would mean very little. So, is this more than fucking?
“Oh,” is all I manage to say.
The train makes its descent to the underground rail. The lights dim, leaving only red and blue track lights on the ceiling. Shadows casting all over us.
“Would you like to come and meet them?” Jake says with his honey-toned voice. “I can show you the contract we’ve already made. We can do this privately, without the Institute’s involvement. Come meet my pack, baby.”
This was too much to take in at once. He is presenting me with all sorts of details and scenarios. Again, I find myself on the way to solving my problems, even when presented with an unforeseen detour. It’s been the only thing I can expect in life—the now.
If the day ever came when I made plans and got to see them through, I’d be more shocked than I’d ever been with these wrenches.
I nod my head, afraid of my own voice.
He smiles brighter, and there is a gleam in his eyes. The red light reflects in his bright eyes and casts shadows across his face. My body floods with oxytocin at having pleased an alpha. Shit, that’s going to make me spike.
He releases my hand, and I lean back, hold my satchel to my chest, and close my eyes. Determined to meditate in order to hold off on a spike, at least until I meet the other members of the Meier Pack.
I’m too close to my heat to make decisions using logic. As evident by what I just did to Arnie.
We don’t speak for the rest of the journey.
I don’t ask more about his pack or himself, and he doesn’t even seem curious in return.
He seems satisfied with his accomplishment.
That solving the problem of choosing an omega was gratifying.
He takes up a defensive pose around me. Facing towards the other passengers, his legs wide, and his eyes on any potential threats.
I’m grateful for it, even if I should be alarmed. I don’t know him from Adam.