Chapter Fifteen
Roy’s scent on me makes me nauseous all night. In retrospect, I wish I waited until Wednesday and had him scent me right before the tutoring session. I wasn’t able to sleep with the faint smell of garbage curling up my nose, and I failed to keep down my usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast.
Connor is late to our session for once. Maybe he won’t even come. Maybe I won’t have to have an awkward conversation with him about whose scent I’m smothered in.
Five minutes later, the doorknob twists. No such luck.
When Connor shuts the door behind him, I don’t look up. Part of me is afraid to meet his gaze.
But I know the second he realizes.
His scent spikes, filling the room. It’s acrid and sharp. Tinted with rage, jealousy, confusion.
“What do you want to work on today?” I ask. Normal. Just be normal.
Connor stalks across the room, spins my chair around, and braces his hands on the armrests. He leans over me, completely invading my personal space.
“ Who is he ?”
His voice is pure venom as he spits the words. A fleck of saliva hits my cheek, and I resist the urge to reach for it with my tongue.
I suppress a shiver.
“Who?” I ask.
“Don’t play dumb, Birdy. It doesn’t suit you.”
“I’m not sure what you mean. You just barge in here?—”
He snarls, baring canines that have been looking bigger and sharper lately. Was that a thing that happened to alphas?
“The fucking alpha slathered all over you.”
“That’s none of your business.” My voice comes out in a squeak. He’s intimidating when he’s riled up like this. And way too sexy.
He bows his head to my neck, inhales deep, and snarls.
“Who. Is. He”
I shiver. I can’t help it. This display of alpha aggression exceeds my expectations. I like it far more than I should. He’s finally noticing me.
“You’re overreacting.”
“Don’t test me right now, Lana. My alpha has the reins.”
I try and tug my wrist out of his grip, but it’s futile. “Maybe you’re the one who should up your suppressants.”
He laughs. “Already did, baby. Had to double my dose.”
“What? Since when?—”
“Since the second week of tutoring, when I nearly popped a knot just from sitting next to you. I had to jack off in the library bathrooms after our sessions so my dick could fit comfortably in my pants.”
That silences me. A trickle of slick slides between my thighs. Connor huffs, his eyes burning into me.
“Fuck, Lana. Did that turn you on?”
He jerks back like I scalded him and withdraws to the other side of the room.
“Get your things. We’re leaving.”
“Why?” My voice stutters.
“Because this entire room reeks of another alpha, and I am struggling . It’s making me want to break shit. To smother his scent with my own.”
My core heats. “What’s wrong with you?” I know, of course, but I want to hear him say it. Part of me exults in his suffering. In finally having the upper hand for once.
“I don’t know. I feel like I’m going mad.”
“Maybe we should just end the tutoring here. The semester’s almost over?—”
“ No . I’m not losing any more time with you.”
“I’ll fill out the papers for your admission requirement?—”
“Shut up. Just shut up.” He grips his head and pulls at his hair. His behavior is beginning to worry me. I didn’t expect him to be so affected . He was usually the one who got to remain unscathed.
“Connor—”
“Lana, please . Please don’t argue with me right now.”
“What can I do? What do you need?”
“I’ve gotta get out of this room. His scent on you is repulsive. It’s driving me crazy. Let’s go get some food. Go for a walk. Something, anything.”
I nod silently. “Okay. Okay, I’m coming.”
Connor steps outside the room as I gather my things. I can see him pacing outside the door.
When I step out, he slides my backpack off my shoulder and slings it over his, then takes my hand and pulls me toward the library stairs.
I follow obediently. It pleases my omega, and to be honest, I’ve never seen Connor quite like this.
Alphas in such a heightened state can be dangerous.
I don’t think he’ll hurt me, but he isn’t in his rational mind.
The last thing I need is him tracking Roy across campus and turning him into Roy-burger.
Connor leads me to his Camaro and opens the passenger door for me, tossing my backpack into the backseat. Then he slides into the driver’s seat in one smooth motion and starts the car.
“Where to?” I ask as the engine purrs to life.
Connor’s lips are furled, his hands clenching the steering wheel so hard his knuckles pale. He exits the parking lot and lays on the gas.
He doesn’t respond.
“Let’s go to Etienne’s,” I suggest.
“No. Nowhere public.”
I swallow.
Connor shakes his head and rolls the windows down, sending my hair whipping all over my face.
“Who is it?”
“It’s not important.”
“Did you choose him? For your heat?”
I really ought to let him believe that, but I can’t bring myself to.
“No.”
“I can’t stand his scent on you. You smell wrong .”
I sigh. “He’s just a friend. I’ve been struggling, without the suppressants. Everything smells so loud . I thought it might help.”
“You let a friend rub his spunk on your glands?”
I roll my eyes. “Gross. And no. I didn’t care to walk around with dried semen on my neck all day.”
“If it was the right alpha, you would love it.”
I swallow. The right alpha.
“Does he smell like garbage to you too?”
“He smells like I’m going to fucking kill someone if I don’t get his scent off you.”
Connor exits the highway for a random country backroad, pulls over on the side, and unbuckles.
“What are we doing?”
He stares out the windshield and shakes his head, then leans over and unbuckles my seatbelt.
Shit. Was he actually going to kick me out? I don’t even have a rideshare app on my phone anymore since there’s like one driver in town, and he’s a creep.
“Maybe we should take a walk.”
“Fuck a walk.”
“Connor—”
Connor leans over and grips my hips, lifting me and pulling me into his lap.
I go still as a mouse. I’m in Connor Masters’ lap. My mate’s lap. Without suppressants.
Connor seems half-here, half in crazed, primal alpha land.
My legs are draped across the center console, and I try and settle into a more comfortable position.
“Stop squirming,” he grits between his teeth.
“What are you?—”
“I just need a minute. I can’t think with his scent on you. And fuck if I’m gonna let my car smell like this.”
He grips my chin and turns my face toward him. He fixes me with a piercing stare. His dark eyes are blazing, and my body is on fire.
“Are you attached to this guy? Sure he’s ‘ just a friend?’ ”
I ought to lie, but instead the words, “I’m sure,” spill out of my mouth.
“Good girl.”
Then he buries his face in my throat and snarls against my skin. He licks a stripe from jawline to collarbone, and I go boneless beneath him, all the rigid lines of my body melting into his.
He worries a scent gland with his lips and teeth, then laps at it like an animal dying of thirst.
He repeats the move on the other side of my neck.
“Still stink,” he grumbles.
“Wrists.”
He lifts my right hand to his face, expression crinkling at the scent. Then he latches his lips to my wrist and sucks.
My neck was more sensitive, but I can see him now, and he’s staring right at me as he paints my wrist with short little licks. His eyes are dark with desire.
He swaps to my other wrist and gives it the same attention.
The air conditioning blows against the wet patches lingering on my skin, and my back arches against him.
“Do you still smell him?” I pant. My nose is full of Connor, Connor, Connor. His sweat, his skin, his spit.
“Mhmm,” he murmurs. He lets go of my wrist, and the gland is red and throbbing from his attentions.
He ducks back beneath my chin and tugs on my hair to pull my head back. The tickle of his stubble against my skin sends me into a tailspin. He buries his face in my throat and sucks hard at the scent glands on my neck, alternating sides until they’re both red and aching and I’m a puddle in his lap.
Then he pulls the collar of my shirt down and licks my mating gland, too, and I nearly come.
“Oh god. Connor.” His tongue on my skin sends me into a purring, melted mass.
I ought to tell him it’s overkill, he can stop now, but it feels so good. Everything’s coming undone so quickly, spinning further and further out of my control.
He huffs against my shoulder, breath ghosting my skin. “That’s it. Smell so good. Smell like mine.”
I curve my head into the crook of his neck, where his mating gland lies dormant until his first rut, and rub my face into it. The area is red and swollen.
“Fuck, Lana,” Connor groans.
My body is on fire. His dick is large and hard against my ass, and there’s slick in my panties.
Can he smell it? How wet he makes me? Is this what things could’ve been like between us all along?
He sucks, licks, and kisses every inch of my throat, feasting on my flesh. When he finally pulls away, his pupils are blown, and there’s a feral edge to him. His thumb caresses my bared shoulder, taking care to trace the edges of my mating gland, and I shudder.
He pulls me into him and drags deep on my scent. His hot breath, his smell, his proximity—it's overwhelming. Slick drenches my underwear. I have to get out of here.
“You’re going into heat soon.”
I yank back. “How soon?”
“I don’t fucking know, Lana. Soon . You smell insane.”
I flush. Fuck. I need to stop and consider this, but I can’t think clearly. It’s like I’m drunk on him. I’ve let this go too far. I shift atop him, and he groans and grips my hips, forcing me to be still.
“Fuck, I’m sorry. Maybe this was a bad idea,” he says.
I should get off his lap and roll down the window to let in fresh air. I should tell him to stop. But I’m tired of worrying. I’ve been tiptoeing on eggshells around him for weeks. I’m ready to surrender to this inextricable pull between us.
“No. I like it.”
I swing my leg over his lap to straddle him, and he lets out a rough exhale.