A Knotty Risk: The Possession of Paige (Propositions of an Alpha #5)

Chapter One

Paige

My fingers trembled as I tightened them into a fist and raised them towards the thin metal door. My other arm was clamped around my middle, my teeth gritted against the waves of pain that hit me every few minutes.

I shouldn’t be here.

I didn’t have a choice.

Holding my breath, I let the first knock echo through the walkway behind me before knocking again.

I couldn’t catch Adam’s scent, but that wasn’t surprising considering how many people walked through the area daily, and the breeze that helped carry all the smells away.

He’d lived in the same cheap apartment as long as I’d known him, and even though he usually came to my place, I’d been to his enough times to know I had the right door.

Time seemed to slow as I heard movement on the other side of the scrap of metal. The muscles of my lower belly tensed, and I squeezed my thighs together to try to hold in the fluid seeking to slip down them.

The thunk of the lock was loud in the silent space between the apartments.

Since he lived on the third floor it was high enough above the street for the road noises to be muffled, and it was still early afternoon, so most people weren’t home yet.

A wiz with computers, Adam worked for himself and set his own hours, generally later in the evening, so I’d risked coming despite no answer to my texts.

The hinges creaked as the door opened, and suddenly the scent of alpha surrounded me. His particular smell had always been pleasant, fresh cut wood with a hint of sweet apple, although it didn’t draw me in the way other omegas had said some alpha’s scent did.

“Paige? What are you doing here?”

I was forced to shuffle backwards as he stepped out of his apartment, still hanging onto the doorknob and pulling the door mostly shut behind him. A small gap remained, enough for more of his scent to roll out and make me whimper as my body reacted.

“I—You didn’t answer, but it’s time, and I couldn’t wait any longer. I’m sorry, I know it’s short notice, but—”

It was hard to gasp out an explanation between open-mouthed breaths, when the voice that drifted out from behind him stopped me as suddenly as if I’d been punched in the throat.

“Hey babe, is that the food? I’m going to jump in the shower real fast, so just leave mine on the counter. You can go ahead and start the movie.”

Mouth hanging open, I dragged my gaze up to Adam’s, finally meeting his blue eyes.

That was a woman’s voice.

Panic started to creep in, and I sucked in a ragged breath, forcing away the tunnel vision that tried to blind me.

“Paige, I can’t.”

Under the layers of faint scents left behind in the walkway and his fresh cut wood, and the apples now taking on the hint of rot, I found the scent I’d dreaded for years.

“You found your omega.”

The guilt on his face didn’t help my racing heart, or the way my breathing grew sharp and fast. I’d risked going out in public at the beginning of my heat to come to him.

The alpha, the friend, who had seen me through all my other cycles.

We had never been a couple, never more than two people trading favors, but I’d counted on him being there for me.

“I—Well, yeah, I think so. I was going to tell you, I just hadn’t found time to do it. I haven’t had my phone on me since last night, and I didn’t realize you were this close.”

I had already begun backing away, shaking my head. It wasn’t his fault I was pathetic and didn’t have an alpha to help me through my heats. Nor could I afford the places for omegas who didn’t want to suffer alone, or even the drugs to make the cycles more bearable.

“It’s… It’s fine.”

It wasn’t.

I’d known Adam since before my first heat. We had gone to the same high school, and while he was a couple years older than me, we’d connected through our preference for technology over people.

When I’d been terrified to turn to anyone else, and just as scared of spending my cycle alone, he’d been there for me. I’d trusted him, but it had always been a temporary arrangement.

“Let me pay for you to go to one of the centers.”

I jerked my head so hard I almost tipped over, reaching out to steady myself with a hand on the wall. The brick was rough beneath my fingertips, but instead of cringing away from the discomfort, I dragged my flesh along it, letting the pain ground me.

“No. It’s fine. Go back to your omega.”

The words came out harsher than I’d meant them, but it was either that, or sob. I didn’t have a backup plan. I didn’t even think I had the time to make it back home to my nest with the way the world swayed around me.

My heats had always been brutal. They came on fast, and I usually only had a few hours between the first signs and completely losing myself. I’d waited as long as possible for Adam to respond to my messages, so my time was running out.

“At least let me get you home. It’s not safe—”

The snarl that ripped out of my throat was unexpected, but the omega part of me felt betrayed. It didn’t matter that I’d known he would eventually find someone else, and that I’d have to come up with another way to deal with my cycles. I was hormonal, and he’d broken my trust.

“I don’t need anything from you.”

He looked torn between shock and an alpha’s natural reaction to someone challenging them, but one of the reasons I’d always felt safe with him was because he was good at controlling his alpha side, and he managed to stay calm.

Lips parting to say something else, he remained silent when the same feminine voice carried through the open crack to his apartment.

“Adam, is everything okay?”

I watched his jaw flex, his nostrils flaring as he struggled. Even with the growing panic in my chest, he’d been my friend for too long for me to truly be angry at him, and I didn’t want to ruin any happiness he may have found.

My shoulders slumped, the air in my lungs leaving me in a whoosh. My problems weren’t his, and the anger had at least cleared my head enough for me to hope I could make it back home.

“It’s fine, Adam. I’ll be fine. Just… Go back inside and pretend I was never here. And delete my messages before she sees them.”

Despite us never being romantic, my heart still broke a little as he took a step back and called out to the woman inside that everything was fine.

He was a good guy, but I knew how my dynamic could be, and an omega would never be comfortable with her alpha having an unmated omega as a friend.

This wasn’t just the end of our arrangement.

“Thanks for everything,” I whispered as I took two more steps backwards, using my hand on the wall to steady me.

The world wavered, flooded by moisture I refused to let drip down my cheeks. If I gave in or stopped to think, I was going to collapse, and I couldn’t let that happen outside his apartment.

My legs trembled as I forced myself to pull my eyes from him and turn around.

His apartment was at the front of the building, and my car was parked as close to the base of the stairs as I’d been able to get, but there was another exit at the rear, and I couldn’t bring myself to walk down the steps where he could watch me the whole way.

At least going the other direction, I’d be out of view if I lost my fight against the tears.

Forcing air into my lungs, I dug my fingers into the bricks and put one foot in front of the other.

Then did it again.

And again.

The tears didn’t start until I heard the click of his door closing behind me. The ending of a friendship, and the ending of my safe, reliable way of making it through my heat in the least amount of pain.

I leaned harder against the wall, letting my shoulder and arm keep me upright as the brick abraded my skin.

I had worn a tank top since I’d been sweating so there was nothing to protect me from the rough surface, but the pain was enough to keep me present as I put more space between myself and Adam.

If I remained, there was no telling what I might do once I sank further into instinct.

My belly cramped again, forcing a whine from my throat as nausea rose with the pain. Some omegas rode out their heats alone, yet I’d never been able to figure out how, since even the first few hours of mine were so painful I couldn’t imagine days of it.

But it looked as if I would have to find a way.

Tears continued to swim in my vision, blurring it, but I stumbled on.

My heartbeat was loud in my ears, my breath rasping through a throat gone dry, and the world seemed to pulse around me.

The pain in my belly was spreading, and I was walking hunched over, but I couldn’t force myself to straighten.

I was so distracted I didn’t notice the voices I was heading towards. It was the scents that finally forced me to focus, but by then, they’d caught mine as well.

Three sets of eyes were locked on me when I looked up from the concrete of the walkway. Three varied colors, all wide with surprise, and all darkening as their pupils expanded.

“Omega?”

I whimpered, knowing the situation was turning bad fast, but unable to get my body to cooperate. My brain was screaming to turn and run before it was too late, but my feet felt like lead, the muscles in my thighs quivering as my belly tightened again.

“It must be my birthday, for a gift like this to arrive.”

The one on the left with short blonde hair moved towards me as he spoke. I tried to cringe away, to pull myself off the wall and keep space between us, but all I managed to do was roll against the brick until my back was pressed to the rough surface.

The next breath I took was filled with the smell of him, lust spiking his motor oil scent to a gagging level. But even with my mind saying no and the urge to run, my body still responded to the alpha pheromones leaking from the three of them.

My body betraying me was just another blow when I was already defeated.

“Were you looking for help, omega? The three of us can help you.”