Chapter 17
Chapter seventeen
Hot. Fever. Burning.
Camelia whimpered as she curled into a tighter ball, her senses prickling at her temperature skyrocketed. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
She shouldn’t have left her dad’s house. She saw the signs. She knew what was coming. She knew…fuck, she knew better.
Who was going to find her?
God, she hoped that it was a woman, or a beta.
They would take her back to her room to ride out her heat in peace.
It didn’t matter that Jessica thought that she was going to be gone for a few more weeks, she still had her student ID that would get her back into the dorm building.
Maybe she could even get there on her own, if she could just force her legs to fucking work. ..
Camelia's fingers dug into her arms, tiny pricks of pain registering as her nails pierced her skin. The pain dulled as her temperature burned hotter, and she could feel her pussy throbbing between her legs, getting uncomfortably wet and slick the longer she sat there on the ground.
She needed to stand up. Needed to get away. Needed to try and do something...
Footsteps sounded. Dully, at first. Camelia's head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and the more she tried to focus on anything the more it felt like her attention slipped from her grasp.
Thinking was near impossible, and she barely registered someone coming to a stop in front of her before they crouched down.
She knew it was a man. His voice was deep. Knew that he had to be speaking to her. Why else would he be in front of her?
Still, she couldn't do anything except let out a soft, tiny whimper as her mind fogged over more. She lifted her head a tiny bit, then gasped sharply at the scent that filled her nose the moment she took a deep breath.
"Whoa!" Before she could restrain herself, Camelia surged forward and wrapped her hands in tight fists of the shirt of the man who had found her, burying her nose in his neck and inhaling deeply, ignoring his soft cry of surprise.
He smelled fucking edible. Woodsmoke and a hint of pine and something spicy.
It made her pussy clench all over again, and she gently trailed the tip of her nose up his neck, whimpering softly when she felt the fluttering of his pulse against her lips.
"Hey. Camelia." The voice was vaguely familiar, and Camelia struggled to think of where she'd heard it before.
A hand patted her shoulder gingerly, before grasping and gently nudging her away.
Everything inside Camelia screamed for her to get close to him again, to the Alpha who had happened upon her in such a vulnerable state, but when the man's face swam into focus in front of her eyes, she let out a soft cry.
"Evan." Her voice was weak and thready, already so fucking needy with the beginnings of her heat, and Camelia's fingers itched to grab at him again. To pull close and stay there.
He nodded slowly, his nostrils flaring as his eyes searched her face.
"Are you okay?" His voice was tight, and Camelia instinctively knew that he already knew what was wrong with her.
The air around her was so thick with her pheromones that she could practically taste her desperation, and after a moment she slowly shook her head, feeling as though she were moving through molasses.
"No. Heat..." She whimpered, closing her eyes again, and Evan cursed under his breath.
"I didn't know you were an Omega." His voice was clipped, and Camelia barely had the brainpower to wonder whether she needed to say something to him, to try and comfort him somehow, before the next moment she was no longer sitting on the ground.
Evan scooped her up in his arms as easily as if she weighed five pounds, and Camelia barely had time to make a surprised sound before he was off, walking briskly with his arms securely around her, keeping her safe.
"You smell nice," Camelia mumbled, resting her head against his chest. His scent wasn't as strong here as it was near his pulse, but it still surrounded her in a comforting aura. She sighed even as her mind rebelled. Evan couldn’t be taking care of her.
Yes, he had been nicer to her lately, but he still had no reason to help her, to think of her, to go out of his way for her in any way…
He must have had some sort of personality transplant during his sleep. Yeah, that was more likely.
"You..." Evan's voice was strangled, and his arms tightened around her as he picked up the pace. "I need to get you somewhere safe."
There was a fierceness in his voice that Camelia had never heard before, and it made her heart thrum even as she snuggled closer to his chest. Rationally, she knew that the night was still cold even if she couldn’t feel it.
The tip of her nose was a little numb, but the heat burning inside of her eradicated any thought of frostbite or freezing.
She had more important things to worry about right now. Like getting Evan to strip her naked and sink his cock as deep inside her pussy as it would go, soothing the itch inside of her so that she could think again…
"Just a little further, Camelia." Evan growled, the sound vibrating against Camelia's cheek where it was pressed against his chest. "Just a little further, baby, and you'll be safe."
Safe from what? Camelia nodded vaguely, but her mind was clouded.
Fogged over with hormones and lust and Evan's scent, and her pussy lips moved slickly against each other with each minute movement of his arms. Camelia pressed her thighs together to try and relieve the burning ache, but all she succeeded in doing was making herself whimper with want as the pressure made her clit throb.
"Fuck." Evan sped up again, practically running with her in his arms now, and if Camelia had been more aware of her surroundings, she might have been impressed by the smoothness of his gait.
Nothing in his stride indicated that he was carrying an additional hundred-plus pounds of weight, and the bizarre safety that she felt in his arms intensified.
A shadow fell on the two of them, and Camelia barely opened her eyes enough to see Evan opening the door to a small townhome with one hand.
His hand shook slightly as he shifted her weight enough for him to open it, and Camelia felt fairly certain that he would have kicked the door down completely if he hadn't been able to open it the conventional way.
His muscles bunched around her as he held her, and Camelia couldn't help whimpering at the subtle display of masculinity.
"James." Evan barked the name out, kicking the front door to the home shut behind him.
Camelia was immediately overwhelmed by Evan's scent, far stronger in this space and mingled with another's, just as tempting and delicious.
She groaned softly, her pussy fluttering, and Evan growled softly under his breath as she was gently laid down on a soft surface and he carefully detached her fingers from his shirt.
"James!" Evan's voice was louder, more aggressive this time as he walked away, and Camelia whimpered softly as she curled in on herself at the sound.
A hint of anxiety penetrated the heat, the overwhelming arousal and desperation, and she covered her ears as a second pair of footsteps sounded, coming down the stairs.
"Jesus Christ, what?" The second voice was annoyed. Why was he annoyed? Camelia didn't do anything wrong. She just needed...fuck, she needed an Alpha...
Evan lowered his voice when he spoke again, so much so that Camelia couldn't make out what he was saying. Her hands clamped harder over her ears, and she groaned softly at the sensitivity of her nipples against her bra when she shifted.
God, she needed to...get it off...
"Off," she mumbled. Camelia grabbed the hem of her sweater and tugged at it, briefly stymied by the act of undressing before she managed to pull the heavy fabric over the top of her head, her shirt going with.
Immediately, she was more comfortable, the air cool on her heated skin, and she nodded to herself, mindless as she reached for the waist of her pants as well.
"Fuck!" Before Camelia could do more than fumble at the button of her jeans, her wrists were firmly grasped in two strong hands, and they pulled her away from what she was doing.
"Mmf," she mumbled in protest. She looked up, her vision a little bleary, and managed to focus on James' handsome face, who was looking at her with concern and a hint of apprehension.
But that didn't matter. Because the second he shifted a little closer to get a look at her, his scent hit Camelia like a freight train and she gasped before surging forward, practically tackling the man as she buried her nose in his throat.
It was the same scent mingled with Evan's in the home, but here, undiluted and unadulterated, James' scent made her instincts thrill.
Whiskey and leather and something bitter filled her nose, and it was so painfully masculine that she couldn't help the way that she moaned as she breathed it in.
"Evan, what the fuck?" James' voice was strangled, mildly confused, but his arms came around Camelia to hold her close, nonetheless. She sighed at the renewed sense of comfort and buried deeper into his embrace.