Chapter 8 Blush
Blush
Sebastian
Ondine directs me to a good parking spot, in between the salon and her place. I shot a quick text to Jake about stopping over. I can’t lie to him. He responds quickly, agreeing it’s a good idea to check it out.
Boone is already leading Ondine by the small of her back into the salon. That fresh motherfucker. I jog over to meet them inside. The place is small and older. Two giant alphas take up all the waiting area space. Boone manages not to knock over anything. I’m not so lucky.
“Ondine! Oh my god, look at you! I’ve never seen you in a skirt!” A woman with long, beautiful, brown hair wearing all black greets my girl at the counter. Not my girl. Just Ondine. They hug and compliment each other a few more times.
“And who are these men? Are they yours?”
Her face goes pink again, and I’m jealous for the second time that it’s not me who’s made her blush like that.
“Sort of. This is Sebastian. He’s with the pack I’m in placement with right now. Just temporary.” It’s everything in me not to growl. I really don’t like how everyone keeps bringing up—it’s only temporary. “And this is Boone. He’s…Boone?”
Boone tips his hat at the stylist, and she blushes, too. This is ridiculous.
“Well, it’s nice to see you with alphas. It’s about time you spend time with one outside of the Clinic.”
She doesn’t respond and looks a bit sheepish. The stylist and her leave us to go to the chair to start her appointment. I overhear her say, “I’m guessing it didn’t work out with that beta. Did you tell him how you feel?”
Ondine whips her head to me, her eyes the size of moons. She knows I overheard. And it’s something she didn’t want me to hear.
Next to me, Boone says, “A beta?”
“Don’t be rude, Boone. They aren’t talking to us.”
But I’m just as curious as he is.
I hear her friend say sorry and change the subject.
Was it a beta that caused her to run into the train station, crying, hours away from a heat?
He wouldn’t have been able to help her, anyway.
An omega needs an alpha during heat. She needs a knot.
A beta would just frustrate her. It would cause pain and suffering.
Is that why she needed a Heat Clinic, because she’d been dating a beta? How very odd.
Boone rummages around for a few more minutes before barreling into the salon and sitting in a chair next to the women. He asks both of them a million questions. Stupid questions.
“What are you looking forward to most?”
“How would you feel if your plans were canceled?”
“When no one is around, what do you cook for yourself?”
I’m getting tired of it. I guess Ondine is looking forward to the full moon. She likes to see it every time it comes around. She expects plans to get canceled. And she cooks herself shrimp tacos when she’s alone. She’s always alone, she says.
The cut is done. It looks like it did before, just shinier. And her neck looks longer. I tell her this. But she doesn’t blush.
Hm. I’ll try again.
“I’m hungry. Let’s get something to eat!” Boone declares on the street.
“No, we don’t have time. Jake wants us home for dinner, and I want to see Ondine’s apartment.”
He boos me. Ondine wasn’t expecting the detour, but I say we will just check in on it. She can grab things she may need, too. She agrees, and we walk the two blocks to her street. Her apartment is on the basement level with its own walk out. As we descend the stairs, I turn to Boone.
“Stay here.” I don’t mean to bark, but I do. He’s shocked by my tone, but doesn’t resist. I turn back and rush after Ondine.
She gets a spare key from the landlady, who’s more than happy to let her in. I’m sure Ondine is a great tenant. She’s always so quiet at the pack house—doesn’t take more than she should and makes do.
It’s a nice place. Not fancy, but it’s a private room well decorated.
Good furniture. As I stand near a velvet soft pink couch next to her bookshelf, surrounded by her things, I realize I don’t know anything about her.
I’ve fucked this woman into a coma more than once, but I don’t know anything at all.
There’s a keyboard prominently displayed. Stacks of sheet music and piano books littered around it. Pencils scattered underfoot. It’s the only place that’s messy in the entire apartment.
She waters some plants and looks through her cabinets. Then, bags up some trash. Near the bookshelf, there’s a big purple beanbag chair, and I can’t help but sink into it.
“This is a nice place,” I remark.
“Thanks.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Well, I moved in when I graduated college. So, a year?”
I’m watching her move about the place, taking care of little things. She starts gathering some clothes and shoes. I’m resisting the urge to help her. Plus, the beanbag chair is losing structure, and I am sinking further into it.
“What do you do?”
She stops and pushes her hair out of her face so she can get a good look at me. She’s probably realizing she knows the taste of my cum, and yet I don’t know where she works.
I don’t want to resist this feeling.
“I’m a pianist. So I do lots of things. I’m a music teacher privately and at the charter high school downtown. I play piano for the ballet company during their practices. I take some gigs at a recording studio too. Some nights I play at a piano bar.”
Her shelves next to me are flushed with music theory books and piano books.
“That’s impressive. I don’t know any omegas who are so talented and…independent.”
She stops what she’s doing and smiles at me. She’s too far away to see if she’s blushing. I’ve now sunk into this beanbag so far that there’s no way I can get out of it without flailing about like a drunk starfish.
“Thank you. I’m not a great omega. I was certainly a good beta.
I had lots of friends. A boyfriend. A job at the dance department.
I was so excited to get my career started and get my own place.
I wanted to be single and date, and live that city life.
I am lucky. I have a trust fund from my parents.
It’s not much, but it covers my rent. Thank god.
There’s no way a musician could afford her own place like this.
It’s still not great, but I like this neighborhood. It’s older, but friendly.”
“What happened to the boyfriend?” I know I should ask better questions.
“We broke up right after graduation. He said I was too agreeable. Joke’s on him—it was the omega in me.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “Ondine, I have three sisters who are omegas. Agreeableness is not an omega trait. I can assure you.”
“Three!”
“And two alpha brothers. I come from a big pack. My omega mom was big on babies.”
“Wow,” she says and then zips up a bag.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“What’s your family like? Were they a big pack?”
She goes to the door. “You don’t have to do this, Sebastian. It’s fine. Ok? Let’s just enjoy this, whatever it is, and not worry about it too much.”
I have to get out of this beanbag chair.
“What’re you talking about?”
“You don’t have to ask me about my career or my family.
We aren’t dating. Your pack isn’t courting me.
Jake told me that Shadow was needing some companionship, and that’s why you had a contract available.
If you ask me, I think it’s actually Jake who needs the companionship.
But no matter. Let’s go back to your house, and you can do what you want with me. ”
I don’t like that. That doesn’t feel right. The wrongness of it unsettles my entire body. I make the journey out of the beanbag chair. It’s as awkward and painful as one could imagine.
Once I’m standing, I regain all my pride because she’s just standing there, too. Bag in hand. Serene look on her face like nothing is wrong at all.
Does she not feel the wrongness?
I want to throttle her. Which is the thought I have as I eat up the space between us. I back her into the door, then gently remove the bag from her hands and set it on the ground next to us. Then I stand up tall, showing her how much taller I am than her.
“You won’t get to know me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Yes, you did. You like Jake, you spend every evening with Shadow, but you don’t like me?”
“Jake barely talks to me. Shadow doesn’t look me in the eye and hasn’t touched me since my heat.”
Her confession rams through me like a deluge. I’d been giving her space to be with Shadow, so it didn’t occur to me that he wasn’t being good to her.
“Why didn’t you…” I stop asking my question before I foolishly ask why she didn’t come to me. She doesn’t know she can come to me.
Jake doesn’t talk to her, and Shadow doesn’t look her in the eye or even touch her. I thought he liked her. Is he pushing her away? Things were fine after her heat. At least I thought so.
Have I been so blind?
“You can come to me. Talk to me.”
She doesn’t respond. It’s all becoming so clear.
Jake treats her like a pet, and I guess Shadow is withholding affection entirely.
Her pretty, milky hazel eyes look up at me.
She’s always looking up at me. I don’t mean to, but I have my hand in her hair.
My other hand is on her waist. I want inside of her.
I want to lift up her skirt and be inside of her here and now. The desire is almost overwhelming.
I’ve been holding back on coming to her because I wanted to give Shadow time to be with her. With our eyes locked, I decide I’m not going to do that anymore.
I’m not gonna hold back.
She realizes my breathing has changed, and I must have a wild look in my eyes because she makes a little gasp, and the sound goes right to my dick.
“Why did you leave Boone out there?” she asks in her soft voice. It’s not an omega voice. That’s not a thing. It’s just her. Soft and quiet and agreeable.
“Because I wanted you all to myself. He was being greedy with you.” I didn’t realize how much that would affect this little omega.
I was just being honest. But my words make her entire body shiver, and her knees wobble.
I grab her before she falls, holding her up with my body, and she whistles a little noise from her chest.
“Whoa, there,” I steady her.
Under her breath, she says, “When you act possessive, your scent changes.”
“What?”
“Yeah, you usually smell the subtle scent of an orange. But just then, you smelled like those dried oranges—you know the ones they have in Old Fashions? You smelled like an Old Fashion with a dried orange. I didn’t know that could happen.
” She won’t meet my eyes. My hands are on her arms, still holding her steady, but she may not need it anymore. It may be me who needs it.
I’ve never…
I shake my head. I don’t know what’s happening.
I need to talk to my pack. This ends now. We need to talk to Shadow about how he’s treating her. And if she isn’t right for us, we have to end it now, before I become too interested.
I’ve always had a thing for musicians. And blondes.
“Come on, little omega. Let me get you home and fed.” I take a risk and kiss her forehead before pulling away.
I may be just seeing things, but I think her cheeks pink a little.
I take her bag from her. We turn off the lights and finally leave. She locks up and drops off the key with the landlady, who has been chatting this whole time with Boone.
Oh, God. I can’t take him anywhere. They act like best friends. Exchanging links to recipes and he sends her off with a reminder of the advice he had already bestowed upon her.
“Made another friend?” I tease Boone as we walk to the car. Ondine is keeping a noticeable distance from me.
“You left me alone with a stranger for thirty minutes while you banged your omega. What was I supposed to do?”
I hit him hard on the arm. “We didn’t bang. We just needed a minute without you asking if she liked a bedroom that had morning or evening light more. Or whatever the hell you’d been asking at the salon.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize asking questions was going to upset you.”
“That’s a dumb thing to say.”
Boone laughs at me. We get to the truck, and Ondine sits up front again. Thank god. I am not in the mood for more Boone.
I desperately want to be comfortable enough with her to put my hand on her leg. Or for her to rest her head on my arm instead of the window. Soon, I think, soon I’ll be closer to her. After I show her how an alpha is supposed to care for an omega.