Chapter 16 Kane
Kane
Mobile phones should never have been invented. The only thing they’re good for is contacting my scent match. Everything else is just a curse.
Like the fact Ollie can easily find out how much I’ve visited the hospital because people keep recording videos of me and uploading them on their freaking socials.
I’ve been going to the hospital at random times to catch her out, while also pissing off Miles, our Head Coach, and anyone else who catches me.
The coaches put the fear of God in me, but it’s all swept away whenever Timber opens his damn lunchbox, and the scent of maple syrup wafts up from it.
It’s killing me.
Timber has her right there in his meaty paws, and he won’t tell me how.
It doesn’t matter how much I dance around or annoy him, he swears he’s shared everything he knows about Luke.
But that can’t be true. This Luke guy couldn’t be the only one cooking his food, or living with him, or doing whatever it is that makes a single celery stick taste like heaven.
So, I’m going for a different approach. We have two days before we leave for the away games, and I want to see her again so badly I feel like I’m going insane. Timber is my pipeline to her; I just can’t work out how.
Timber and I were on top form today. We only shoved each other over in practice twice, and we were shouted at once, which is amazing for us.
But we need to talk, and I’m getting impatient.
I’ve been hanging around waiting for Timber to come out of the showers, and, after a stream of guys rushing in and out, he still hasn’t finished.
The door to the shower room creaks as I step inside, and steam billows around me. My bare feet don’t make a sound on the tiled floor, and it’s only when I get halfway through the room that I find him.
I kind of make it a rule not to be around Timber naked because he’s way too hot.
Especially when I see him from behind and the way his huge shoulders clench together, running down the length of his spine to his tight ass, which I know from experience is hard to get my hands around. Unless it’s changed in the years since I cupped it.
Timber is standing over the bench, which runs through the center of the room.
It’s where we usually chuck our bags, clothes, sprays, and lotions before we shower.
He’s already wearing pants that are struggling to contain his beefy thighs, but he’s topless.
He’s just standing there, staring at his shirt.
“Hey, baby,” I hum, moving closer. His muscles are just asking to be licked.
He reacts like I’ve caught him committing a crime, whipping the shirt behind his back.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
“You mean I’m not allowed to come to the team shower room?”
“I mean that you’ve already had a shower, so you can fuck off.”
“I love it when you talk like that. I’m all cute and fresh and clean, but I don’t mind getting dirty again if you want to mess me up.”
His glower turns into the scowl I love.
“I want to talk to you about something, so I was waiting for you to miraculously appear. But it looks like you’re too wrapped up in that shirt you’re hiding behind your back.”
“Just make it quick. I want to get home,” he bites out.
“Because Luke is waiting for you?”
He pauses, and the way his jaw shifts makes me sure I’m spot on.
I twist my lips as I nervously rub the back of my head. I’ve been rehearsing this since I said goodbye to her at the hospital, and I still don’t know how to say it properly.
“I just want to tell you I’ve met my scent match.
My omega,” I say with a fond chuckle as I remember how she moaned when I called her that.
“It’s like fate or something. I met her after my favorite fight a few weeks ago, you know, the one where you were on top grinding on my cock? Then everything became perfect.”
“Why the hell are you telling me this? Did you think I’d be happy for you or something?” he growls.
“I’m not looking for some kind of congratulations; I just want you to meet her.” I need to see them standing together to relax and stop spinning with anxiety that they might not click.
“I’m not interested in anything to do with your life.”
“What if it’s about yours?”
His brow furrows as his glare becomes deeper.
“I know I joked about it, but what about forming a pack with me? You don’t even have to like her. But it would get Marilyn off our backs, at least. Or, we could even pretend to be a pack and—”
“Out of every single alpha in the world I could be in a pack with, why would it be you?”
Pain stabs through me as my heart drops because it’s obvious what he’s talking about.
“I just want to make it up to you,” I say softly. And if that means introducing him to Ollie, then all the better.
He sighs. “Sorry, forget it. Don't start this shit again, I already told you, you were just a kid. Stop apologizing for something you can’t change.”
“But I just—”
“It wasn’t your fault. I’ve said it so many fucking times.
It was ten years ago; it’s not going to make a difference, no matter what you say, so just drop it.
And drop this omega shit. I don’t want to deal with that from you or Marilyn.
I’m having a shit day, so let me go,” he says as he sweeps the shirt, opening the hem so he can push his arms through, and I suddenly choke out as her scent floods the humid room.
My hand shoots forward, grabbing onto Timber’s bicep as maple syrup thickens the air, and I gasp.
Timber freezes beside me, but I can’t stop it. It’s so good and so right, deeply blended with his coffee. I wanted to plunge my face in it, lick it, suck it up so I can have one more taste of her.
My alpha side tears free as I start panting. The quicker I breathe, the more I can scent her as I lean closer to the shirt.
I have to possess it. I need to make it mine.
I stumble forward, reaching for it, but he won’t give me a single inch.
“Did you meet her?” I rasp, my hand trembling as I squeeze harder on his bicep.
“What the hell are you talking about?” He looks more taken aback than I am.
“Ollie!” I almost shout. “Have you met Ollie?”
Her perfume is so strong that he must have at least kissed her. There’s no way she could smell like that unless she was horny as fuck.
Even just the thought of Timber satisfying her turns me on so much that my cock is hardening. I want a play-by-play of exactly what he did to her to get her to smell like that.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“Timber, don’t fuck with me,” I say, my nerves wired to the very end. “You can’t say you’ve never met her when her scent is basically dripping off you. How did you get that shirt?”
“It’s just my fucking shirt, Kane. Why are you acting like this?”
I pull in a shuddering breath, trying to keep it together, but I moan as I taste her scent in the air.
I want to leap on him and stuff the shirt against his face and make him suffocate on her syrup until he admits he knows her. That he’s kissed her, stroked her, loved her enough that her scent is so fierce it’s like she’s in heat.
“Fine, don’t tell me then. But I’m serious now, Timber. You have to meet my omega. I don’t care if you don’t want to be in a pack with me. Just meet her, please. Just once, okay?”
Timber flinches back, and I know how desperate I sound. I know I’m acting like a loser, but I can’t stop it when she’s so close and so far away.
Is this a sign that she’s chosen Timber? Is she scent marking him like this because she’s making it clear I don’t have a chance?
Maybe she doesn’t ever think of me, and it’s all for Timber. Like, I don’t matter to her, even though I’m writhing inside every minute because I want to see her again.
Have I ever crossed her mind since we left the hospital?
Timber pulls on the shirt, and another waft of maple syrup breezes toward me, and a light purr makes Timber jump back. I need to pull myself together, or I might snap and go for him like an alpha getting possessive over their omega.
“I just want to meet Luke and ask him if he knows my omega.”
“‘My omega’ this, ‘my omega’ that. You don’t know anything about scent matches. Your Ollie and my home life aren’t connected, so stop trying to weasel your way in.”
“I’m guessing that’s a no?” I ask, my right eyebrow quirking upward. I need to come back, I have to focus, and just be the annoying asshole he likes. “And here I was hoping you’d invite me over to your place so we could have a cozy evening together.”
“You’re not coming within a mile of him,” he growls as his lips pull back over his teeth. It’s so fucking sexy, I chuckle to hide my next moan. I'll let it all out when I'm alone.
“Someone’s getting protective.” Like I was over Timber keeping Ollie to himself.
“Of course I’m being protective. Who knows what you’ll do to him?”
But it isn’t him I’m after.
“You have no idea who you need to protect,” I say as I brush the backs of my fingernails over his chest. “It’s your own safety you have to think of, not his.”
Instead of flinching back or growling at me, his eyes widen. My heart catches as he lets me clench the warm skin of his bicep to keep him with me.
“Come on, Timber. You’ve really never thought about it?” My hand travels up his chest to the damp arch of his collarbone before I run my palm over his pink neck. Since he’s had a shower, it’s the best time to leave my scent all over him.
“We’ll make good alphas, you know? And you’ll like Ollie, I promise; not just because she’s sexy and sassy.
Though she would probably kick my ass if she heard me say that.
” I trace under his round pec, and his muscles stiffen even more.
“That’s why you don’t like me, isn’t it?
Because I’m not the kind of person you can take care of. ”
He doesn’t reply, and I hope it’s because he’s too wrapped up in how I’m touching him.
“She’d fit right in your arms, and you’ll never guess what her scent is,” I hum, though it has to be obvious from the way I’ve come at him.
“Get off me,” he growls, all nice and low, and he’s not stepping away from me anymore.
Instead, his fists bunch around his shirt as his nostrils flare, almost like he’s able to scent me. But that’s just wishful thinking. He’s never let me close enough to remind him that he could taste me the last time we kissed.
“Are you going to make me, Timber? Because your skin is so hot, I can’t tell if it’s from the shower or if you like the way my fingers run over your curves.”
“Stop,” he growls as he hits my chest and knocks me away. I stumble back, but I won’t let it stop me.
My body sparks as he touches me, because usually the only time he ever puts his skin on mine is when he’s punching me. This time he looks different, like he actually wants it.
Timber glares at me as he pulls on the shirt, and another waft of maple syrup flows over me, nearly bringing me to my knees. I’m too turned on from a single piece of fabric.
So I sneak back to him.
Timber lets me near enough that, if he could ever scent me, he’d drown in the pure lavender that beats off me. All I have to do is rub up against him, and he’ll be swimming in me all day.
And that’s exactly the plan.
All I need to do is give Ollie a hint, enough to know I’m waiting for her, and then hopefully she’ll come to me.
Whatever way she’s related to Timber, if he’s so close to her that he's soaking in her perfume, then scent marking him should be enough to get her attention.
My hand creeps upward, my thumb brushes under his ear before I grasp the back of his neck. A quick massage along his spine is enough to mark him. The only way he can get rid of it is if he takes another shower.
Plus, he still isn’t pushing me away.
I thought I would feel a bite scar somewhere on his neck, and I was also sort of searching for it because I already had plans of where I wanted to bite him when he finally gave in. I couldn’t feel anything on his neck, but his ex-wife could have bitten him somewhere else.
With no one else in the room, I take a risk and press my chest against his. Instead of jumping away, this time he sucks in a harsh breath, and his head turns away. It’s like he wants me to go on, but he can’t admit it himself. He just needs some encouragement.
“All you have to do is say yes,” I whisper in his ear, my chest against his.
“You’ve known for ages I can give you what you want.
You just won’t admit it. And Ollie will be perfect for you, too,” I say as my hand sweeps his huge thighs.
They’re so hard that I can barely dig my fingers in.
But I don’t need to. I can just lazily run them upward to find his cock.
I’m not planning on going any further than that. Like with Ollie, no matter how desperate I am, I still want to make sure he comes back for more.
The shuddering breath that tickles my shoulder tells me his cock won’t be soft if I stroke him.
Before I can get to his crotch, his hand slams against my shoulder, and this time, I’m bowled backward. I scrabble to grab the door of a shower cubicle to stop myself from falling.
I don’t know why I’m shocked when I know I’m pushing his boundaries.
Timber’s hurt expression cuts deep, and I can’t tell what the hell is going on.
What’s happening in his head that’s giving him that heartbroken look? It’s the look he used to have in the years after I smashed his face. He keeps saying he doesn’t care that I ruined his life, but does he really hate me that much, after all?
I still don’t have the full story of how he broke up with his wife, but I know I’ve crossed a line. Silas said Timber has a huge issue with omegas, and trying to tempt him like this is too much.
I want to keep flirting with him, or tear that shirt off his back and run away with it so I can scent her again and again, but rubbing my lavender on him is enough for now.
“I’ll get that invitation eventually,” I say as I straighten up. “You can’t keep hiding Luke from me. You’ll have to let him out someday.”
Timber growls again, and need rumbles inside me. I want to see Ollie up against him, whether he traps her in his arms or she’s purring all over him, whatever it is, I want to see how she’ll meld with him so Timber can realize the three of us belong together.