Chapter 5
Mable
I’d never had any help during my heats.
From my very first heat, I had ridden them out solo.
Then I find myself in a surprise heat one time, and I end up hooking up with not one, but two different alphas? Strangers, at that?
If it hadn’t been for the evidence all over my body, from the bruises on my neck to the slightly sore but satisfied sensation between my legs, I would have assumed I had hallucinated the entire thing.
Crawling out of my nest and throwing open my windows to air the place out, I hauled myself into the shower, ignoring the sadness that welled up when it dawned on me I was about to wash away any trace of alpha scents.
Sure, I had already lost the scent of the first alpha because I had washed his scent off me after our encounter, but the second alpha had clung to me throughout my entire heat in a comforting way.
There was no avoiding it, though. I stank of slick, heat, and probably a copious amount of sweat. I couldn’t go out in public smelling like that.
Deep down, I was more satisfied than I usually was after a heat. When I went through a heat solo, I often came out of it with a sensation of emptiness, like I’d missed out on something. I still felt that a little , but it was nowhere near as strong as it usually was.
Would going through my heat with a pack of alphas stop that feeling?
After the longest shower in existence, I wrapped myself in a towel and sat at my tiny desk for a while. My nest was quite smelly at this point, so I couldn’t just flop among the sheets until I had washed them.
Post heat was also an exhausting time. It felt like going through the heat had drained me of every ounce of energy, and now all my movements were sluggish.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that I had to go through the heat itself, I then had to take care of everything afterward, including showering and completely redoing my nest. Not to mention, I hadn’t eaten a proper meal in days.
It was a lot for one omega.
Still, it wasn’t like I had any other options.
Wearing nothing but a towel, my hair dripping wet, I picked up my phone.
My group chat on ChattyPack had several messages.
S
Hey, are you okay?
D
You can’t just say you’re sick and not reply!
J
Maple girl, talk to us.
Most of their messages were like that, becoming more panicked. The last time I had messaged them was almost three days ago. Though I felt bad for making them panic, it was sweet of them to be concerned.
Maple
Hey! I’m sorry, I collapsed in bed for a few days, but I’m on the mend.
Why had I told them I had the flu? I could have been honest and said I was in heat—but something about that felt so intimate.
Then again, being sent a shirtless photo of one of the guys was also pretty intimate.
S
You’re okay?! Do you need anything?
P
We can have food delivered to you?
D
Actually, here’s a better option.
Minutes later, my phone pinged with an e-mail, and I could see from the notification that I’d been sent an e-gift card for a very popular food delivery service on campus.
D
This way, you can get food and we don’t have to know where you live.
J
I, for one, would love to know where our Maple girl lives.
I shook my head, a smile on my face. There was a small part of me that wanted to meet them so badly, but I knew it would ruin everything.
Through messages, they seemed like the perfect pack.
But what if I wasn’t good enough for them?
What if they took one look at me and decided I wasn’t the type of omega they wanted and ran the other way?
I doubted my heart could handle that. So I would take what I could get and enjoy our conversations.
Maple
I’ve told you before, I live in the forest. Among the fairies. I’m not a real person. I am merely a figment of your imagination.
S
But a very beautiful figment of our imagination.
Maple
I could look like a troll, for all you know. I live out in the forest under a bridge. Those creatures don’t tend to be particularly enchanting.
S
I don’t believe for one second that you’re not beautiful. If you want to prove me wrong, feel free to send a photo of yourself…
D
Dude, she’s been sick, knock it off!
S
Shit, sorry! Are you at least able to take some time to rest and recover?
Maple
I have a day or two. How are things on your end?
J
Busy, but fun. P is preparing for some fancy pants exam, so he’s had his head in the books while we’ve been training.
They were athletes. They had never gone into detail, but they spoke about training a lot so I knew it was a large part of their lives.
Maple
I have some exams soon, but they’re super low-stress so I can focus on work. Also, D—thank you for the gift card, you didn’t have to do that!
D
My pleasure. Do you have anyone around who can take care of you?
Maple
It’s just me, but I’m used to taking care of myself.
J
Ugh. I HATE that we can’t help.
Maple
Your sparkling conversation is helpful enough.
J
Liar.
Maple
*shrugs*
S
We’ve got a meeting we can’t avoid, but I don’t want to stop talking. You had us all worried.
Maple
Go and pay attention in your meeting, it’s probably important. I am going to go curl up in my nest and get a few more hours of sleep.
S
Can we join?
Maple
Down, boy.
S
You’re breaking my heart here.
Maple
I think you’ll survive.
S
I won’t. You’ve done me in, Maple girl.
Maple
I’m going to go nap now. I’ll leave you to wallow in your suffering.
I laughed as I put my phone down. Our conversations weren’t particularly in-depth, but there was something about them that made me feel lighter.
Talking to them was now a part of my daily routine, and it was very rare that I went more than a day without talking to them.
That was probably why being silent for several days while I was in heat had been a big red flag to them.
In the past, when I knew a heat was coming, I would tell them I was going dark to study for a while, or traveling.
Something to cover for my trip to horny hell.
Slightly more invigorated, I stood up, stretching, still wearing my towel as I turned towards the nest, determined to tackle the stinky sheets so I could nap away the post-heat exhaustion.
I would have to return to classes and work soon.
Heat leave wasn’t that long, and I was lucky my job granted me it at all—probably because it was a campus job.
It wasn’t uncommon for some workplaces to discriminate against omegas because they had to take a few days off every three months when their heat hit. It was stupid; just because our biology made us horny as fuck for a few days every now and then didn’t mean we were incompetent.
Slamming the washer door shut, I padded back to my nest. Thankfully, the omega dorm rooms came with their own washing machines because we often needed them, thanks to our heats and general messier existence.
Omegas produced a lot more bodily fluids, and the university administration had decided long ago that they shouldn’t be part of the communal laundry room.
Picking up my laptop, I sat at my small desk. I had a few emails I needed to check, thanks to taking a few heat days off.
I was kicking myself that I had gotten in the shower after I had been at the hockey rink. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I had washed off the phone number that the strawberry-jam-smelling alpha had written on the palm of my hand.
Looking down at the clean expanse of skin, I pouted. Was there any other way to find him? Probably not.
Thankfully, I had the number of the second alpha-my dark and rich coffee-scented man.
Cuddling with him in the nest had been one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I wasn’t afraid to admit that.
I hadn’t really dated much, and none of those dates had gotten to the cuddling stage, so I craved it badly.
Closing my laptop, I went to grab my phone. I needed to call or text him, or at least say thank you.
How exactly did one go about thanking an alpha for knotting them during their heat? A fruit basket didn’t really seem appropriate.
I paused—my phone wasn’t on the table.
Sighing, I stood up. I had a terrible habit of misplacing my phone. Closing my eyes, I tried to picture when I’d last had it.
Oh, it was in my hand when I had been shoving my bedding into the washing machine.
Oh no.
Oh no no no.
A squeak left my chest as I ran to the washing machine, groaning when I noticed that, among the tangled bedding was my cell phone.
I’d put my cell phone in the washing machine.
Crap.
It was swirling around in the soapy water now…
That was a new low, even for me.