5. Bailey-Rose #2
“Screw holding back,” the man muttered seconds before he surged to his feet and picked me up. This move instinctively had me wrap my legs around his waist as he smothered his face in the crook of my neck. “God, I fucking love cherries, and you, little miss, smell like a whole-ass cherry pie.”
I giggled as his beard tickled my skin, making me relax instead of being so rigid in his arms.
“Even her laugh is adorable,” Alpha Hi mumbled. “She’s going to kill us with how cute she is.”
“Warrick, she’s not a puppy,” Ulysses commented. “Dig deep in that brain of yours and find a different word.”
“Why is her being like a puppy bad? I think adorable is the right word for her. Everything about her is cute, like a puppy,” another man interjected. His voice had a fascinating timbre with his accent.
Twisting, I tried to see where he was in the room, but Alpha Sweet-tea was having none of it and nipped at my neck.
That single move set off every nerve ending in my entire body.
It was as if someone set off fireworks that all started to shoot off at the same time.
My breathing became rapid, and for the first time, I felt my pussy throb with need.
I’d been on medication since I was fifteen to prevent me from ever having a heat.
My body couldn’t handle the physical response to the hormone shift that we Omegas dealt with every three months.
It was a time we became the most fertile and perfumed like mad.
This is what called to whatever Alphas were near, letting them know it was the best time to breed.
During this time, it could send the Alphas into rut, which was an almost mindless need to mate with the Omega.
All in all, a heat meant a group of supercharged horny people who wouldn’t heed any warning regarding keeping my heart rate or blood pressure in mind.
As if to prove everyone right, my monitor started buzzing, telling me I needed to calm down right now.
“What the hell is that?” Alpha Sweet-tea asked.
“Purple People,” I rasped, trying to concentrate but feeling this man’s panic wasn’t helping. “Flying—”
“I got you, Rosie. I hear you loud and clear,” Lysse said as he pulled me from the other Alpha.
The pounding of feet told me Crew and Eli were almost there with what I really needed.
“Lay her on the couch, now,” Eli barked.
I let out a whine as I flinched at the Alpha command in Eli’s order as Ulysses laid me down, stroking my hair out of my face. “Shh, it’s gonna be fine. Crew has your meds… he’s just prepping the injection.”
The sting of the needle on my upper arm told me relief was coming, and I needed to keep breathing.
While the medication was fast-acting, it worked better if I could convince my body to stop panicking as the medication did its job.
I pictured sitting in a meadow with my paints, watching the butterflies drinking from the wildflowers as they swayed in the gentle breeze.
Focusing on the movement, I tried to match my breathing to the gentle wave of flowers, which would expedite the slowing of my heart back down.
“Do you need the oxygen?” Crew asked.
I shook my head since my mind was clear, and I didn’t feel lightheaded.
A cool cloth was placed on my head, giving me something to focus on other than the panic my anxiety wanted to dwell on.
It was a trick Eli found in his many hours of research into holistic alternatives for my condition.
Most didn’t work or help, but this simple trick of the mind was fantastic.
“Wh-what just happened,” Alpha Sweet-tea demanded. “Please tell me I didn’t do something wrong to cause this. Did I hurt her? Is she going to be okay? Fuck, why didn’t I listen when you told us to take it easy with her?”
“Gareth, you need to take a deep breath, or you’re going to hyperventilate,” Yun-Sun warned.
“Please, I need to know she’s okay… please,” Gareth begged, his voice choked with emotion.
My breathing was almost back to normal. However, the pulse in my ears told me I wasn’t out of the woods yet, but I couldn’t let him think this was his fault.
Turning my head, I found Gareth standing there hugging himself tightly, his expression almost tormented.
It broke my tattered heart to see him so broken up over this.
“It’s not your fault. I was born like this,” I said, holding his gaze. “I’ll be okay. The medicine is working, and once my heart rate is back to normal, it will be like this never happened.”
Gareth scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to forget that right after I nipped at your neck… you almost died.”
I smiled at him, knowing this wasn’t going to be easy for any of my Alphas to adjust to. “When you’re worried about almost dying every day, it doesn’t become quite as scary as you think.”
“What do you mean?” Yun-Sun asked as he stepped up beside Gareth, followed by the other two Alphas whose names I hadn’t gotten yet.
My gaze shifted to Lysse, and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, knowing I didn’t want to tell these men the truth, especially after the dramatics that just happened, displaying the ugly truth of having someone with a chronic illness in your life.
The one thing we never want to be is a burden to our loved ones, but that’s exactly what we are, even if they don’t see it that way.