25. MAX
Chapter twenty-five
MAX
K atie’s body molds to mine, her chest pressed against my back, her fingers splayed wide across my abs.
I’m not an Alpha known for restraint–not like Callum or Loren. But I dig deep for every ounce of control I learned in the ring to keep from pulling my bike over and rutting Katie in the grass.
I’ve had flings and passionate affairs before. But this.
This is so much more .
“That’s the arts district,” I yell over my shoulder as we zip through Old Fourth Ward, the funky-cool collections of renovated houses and storefronts that make up the best arts and music scene in Halvassa. Hell, probably the best scene in all of Savolinna.
Katie nods, leaning a little into me as she looks at the brightly painted buildings. Her knee brushes my thigh as she sits back, and heat flares through me.
The large trauma hospital is in the new third ward, right on the edge of Old Fourth. It’s a relatively new facility with eleven floors and two fully guarded Omega-only units: one for maternal care, and one for all other medical procedures. It’s the only medical facility outside of the Conservatory to take an Omega, and I eye the front entrance warily.
Do the new MCs know they’ve been moved? It’s been just one week since Katie and her sisters were found. How much do people know yet?
I pull around the building to the back, tucking my bike into a small space near a secluded stairwell. One of the benefits of being a low-born street brawler is that I have friends in all kinds of places.
I grab my phone to check my texts. Sure enough, Lenny, an old bare knuckle boxer I trained at my first gym, had a message waiting. It’s a passcode to get us through the nurses’ entrance.
No searches, no exposure.
“You’re an Alpha. Will they let you in?” Katie asks, squirming on the seat behind me, but not unwrapping herself from my back. Her chest moves against my black t-shirt and I have to swallow down a growl of pleasure.
Gods, I want to strip her bare and suck those perky tits into my mouth. I want to rip off her tight little yoga pants until her cunt is exposed to me and she is laid out like a fucking feast on my bike. I want to suck her clit, and fill her with my tongue and fingers until she whines my name and her juices paint my chrome so I drive around smelling like her.
Fuck .
Her perfume floods the space around us, and I know she’s reacting to my arousal. She doesn't have control of her Omega biology. So I need to control myself for both of us.
“Max,” her voice is thick. It would be unfair of me to take her now, to pull her across my lap to straddle my hard cock while I kissed her, stroking into her wet mouth with my tongue. It would be unfair, and I want her to want every bit of pleasure I give her.
“We’re going in the back,” I say, hating myself for immediately thinking of her perfect ass.
I am acting like a horny teenager.
Mother of Fucking Wolves.
She swings one leg back, sliding off the bike and away from my body but there is no mistaking the warm perfume of her arousal. We’ve got to get some scent canceling soap for outings like this.
I unstrap my helmet, and turn to take hers, but she’s only watching me. Her brown eyes are dilated, not full blown but overcome with my own pheromones.
Shit.
“Katie I need you to take a deep breath,” I say, not moving toward her yet. She needs to clear her head. I know she’s struggling with her new designation and I don’t want our first kiss to be purely based on her fluctuating hormones.
She blinks rapidly, her little face still encased in the helmet and strap. Unconsciously, she runs her teeth over her lower lip and my control almost snaps. If she initiates, I am absolutely going to fuck her in the parking deck, restraint be damned.
But the warm mahogany color returns as her pupils recede to normal and she takes a few deep lungfuls of parking deck air.
“What…” she looks at me, then down at her own body. A blush burns up her neck and cheeks. It’s the cutest thing I’ve seen her do yet.
“I’ve got a buddy that works in maintenance. He’s going to meet us on the surgical floor so we can get your stuff. In and out, fast as a flash.”
She frowns. “Do I need to keep my helmet on?”
“Not if you don’t want to. Unless you plan on getting in any fights and need the extra protection?” I raise an eyebrow at her before stepping forward and helping her with the strap.
“I don’t need the helmet in a fight,” she says, rolling her eyes.
“So you say. I mean it when I say I am going to take you to my gym so I can see what you can do.”
She shrugs, but I see tension in her shoulders.
“Okay. I mean, I’m not an MMA fighter or anything. I didn't do it for fun.”
“What’s MMA?” I ask, leading her to the back stairwell and punching in the code Lenny texted me.
“Mixed Martial Arts. It’s, ah, like boxing but with kicking and biting.”
I snort. “Sounds like street brawling.”
“Basically. And they do it in huge cages.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Are you sure there aren’t Alphas on Earth? Because that sounds exactly like something an Alpha would design.”
Katie laughs, a light sound that cuts through the last of the tension between us. Her shoulders relax a little more
“As far as I know, everyone’s a Beta. There’s no bonding, no blood matches– nothing like that. And no packs. I mean there’s polyamory, but that’s unusual. Most people just have one partner at a time. And, you know, try to work it out.”
“Sounds boring.” I say it lightly, hoping to tease. She’s quiet as we climb the stairs for a moment, then sighs.
“I guess, maybe it is. But that’s what I’m used to– my normal.” There’s a tentativeness in her voice. Not an apology, but a wariness.
“Then, Tough Girl, let’s get you used to a new normal.”
I flash a playful smile and she shakes her head. It should be a light and breezy conversation, but something hangs on her, like an invisible weight. Does she not want a pack? Does it scare her to have three Alphas?
It would scare me not to have my packmates.
Maybe not scare. Unsettle.
We finish the climb in silence. I pause before I open the door. “Katie, look I’m not smooth like Loren. If I overstep, just tell me. I can take the heat.”
She smiles, this time with her teeth. “Oh, you can, can you?”
Just like that, the last of the tension fades and is replaced by a buzzing sort of playfulness between us.
“Yep, I can take an inferno.”
“Then you should probably keep an eye on all your matches.”
I open the door, ushering her into a narrow back hallway. Lenny leans casually against the wall, a bag in his hand.
“The champ himself!” Lenny says, clapping an arm on my shoulder. “And is this pretty little piece the Omega in question?”
He eyes her, hunger glinting in the gaze. Lenny is a Beta, a dominant Beta who probably should have been an Alpha. But, he’s still a biological Beta and I do not like the way he looks at my Omega.
My blood-work confirmed mate.
I growl reflexively, and Lenny raised his eyebrows.
“That must be one tight pussy if the legendary Oscar-Maximilian has come to heel.” He chuckles. “Never thought of you as the domestic type.”
My Alpha instincts do not like the way he’s talking to my Omega. I bare my teeth, ready to rip Lenny a new asshole for talking about my Omega that way. But she gets there first.
“Listen, Lenny ,” she says, her voice a false kind of cheerful. “If you so much as breathe a word about my very tight pussy again, I will rip your sack off and shove it down your throat for you to choke on. Understand?”
Lenny’s mouth hangs in a stunned silence. Omega don’t talk like that.
Except mine.
Fuck, I love her.
“Right, yeah.” He stutters, handing me the bag before he collects his jaw from the floor. “Firecracker,” he says, nodding in a kind of grudging respect.
Katie rifles through it, assessing what’s there. I lean against the wall between my old friend and my Omega.
“So Cal finally got over Gen-” Lenny begins but I growl before he can finish the name.
Katie pauses, looking between us.
“She’s old news,” I say as casually as I can.
Lenny nods. “Hard to resist an Omega.”
I glare at him again, but he’s looking at me, not at Katie. Yeah, the allure of an Omega has left many a Beta with the cold shoulder of the Alphas they used to be close with. It’s not fair, and I know it’s happened to Lenny at least once.
Biology is a bitch.
But Genevieve didn’t get dropped like a bad smell because of Katie. No, my packmates have spent the last year trying to recover from her train wreck.
“I think this is everything of mine. Did you see any other bags? My sisters’ belongings aren’t here.”
Lenny shrugs. “I was only asked about yours. Someone was coming to get them anyway, so you’re lucky I was able to grab it.”
Katie opens her mouth to speak, when a growl echoes down the corridor.
I smell the scent, cut grass and sharp lemon. Another Alpha.
“This isn’t an Omega restricted floor,” Lenny says, pushing us back down the hallway. Katie hesitates, but I grab her wrist.
I can absolutely beat the shit out of any Alpha that tries to mess with us. But I don’t want to explain to Callum why I snuck our Omega into the hospital and let her linger where an Alpha could catch her scent in the first place.
We don’t need that exposure.
“Omega,” the Alpha growls from somewhere on the other side of the wall.
“Thanks Len,” I say and yank Katie toward the stairwell. “Got to run. Don’t want to frighten my little kitten.”
Katie hisses just like a kitten, and Lenny laughs. But the growl deepens, and I hear the thumping footsteps of another Alpha running toward us.
“OMEGA STOP!” he barks, and beside me, Katie freezes.