Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Beck
Something in me had snapped like a violin string pulled too tight. One second, I’d been ready to lay into her for sneaking around the house in the middle of the night, spying on me. The next, I’d wanted nothing more than to claim her.
And I definitely claimed her, if the way she was wrapped around me with her head buried in the crook of my neck was any indication.
It had taken all of my fucking willpower not to claim her as my knot had filled her, which made no sense considering our relationship so far. But it wasn’t like I could control an alpha’s biological need to claim an omega.
By the time I got to my room, I could already feel my knot deflating. I was torn between wanting to send her back to her room and sleeping still buried inside her. There was something seriously fucked up with my brain.
I felt like I was being pulled in two different directions.
My heart and body wanted one thing, while my brain was pushing back.
I had my issues and while I dealt with them fairly well most of the time, this was exactly why, as leader of the pack, I’d never entertained the idea of us having an omega.
An omega meant our world changed. It meant the potential to lose everything, not just what we’d built, but our minds and hearts. I’d already lost enough to last me a lifetime.
I lay down carefully on the bed with her on top of me and then rolled so we were on our sides, our legs tangled so we were both comfortable being stuck together.
I shouldn’t have knotted her.
She sighed and snuggled in closer to me, nuzzling my neck. I wasn’t usually into cuddling after sex, but the need to protect her and take care of her was overwhelming.
Everything was overwhelming.
My fingers danced along her back before going to her hair and working the ponytail holder out of it, letting her wavy hair fall free.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed her hair was different at first, but then again, women liked to style their hair many ways day to day.
I ran my fingers through it, gently working out the tangles.
“Beck?” She yawned, her hands resting on my chest between us.
“Hm?” I was purring lightly, hoping it kept her from pulling away from me in the next few minutes. An alpha’s purr was the ultimate comfort to an omega, and she was the first person I’d ever been compelled to purr for.
Not that I’d been with any other omegas—that was nearly impossible anyway without breaking laws—but there had been plenty of betas. The thought of them made my stomach turn over, like I had cheated on Kayla or something, which was ridiculous.
“Why do you hate me?”
“I don’t.” I kissed her shoulder and then moved up to nuzzle into her neck. “It’s complicated.”
“How so? You just have a stick up your ass?” And just like that, the honeymoon was over. “Because I’ve done nothing wrong, yet you treat me like I’m trash.”
I pulled back so I could see her face. “That wasn’t my intention.
I just... I’d been expecting one thing and then to have the rug pulled out from under me after I’d already wrapped my head around the whole thing was too much for me.
That’s no excuse for me being a dickwad, and I don’t deserve you or your forgiveness. ”
“If it’s going to cause you emotional duress to have me here, then you need to send me back.” She looked past my shoulder. “I never wanted this, just like you never wanted an omega.”
“Yet here we are, stuck together.” I cupped her cheek, and her glossy eyes met mine. From the dim light coming through the sliding glass door, they were dark like stormy waters. “Do you want us to send you back?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“I thought I’d come here, you’d all hate how I wasn’t the perfect omega you wanted, and then you’d send me back with a nice check.
I tried to tell the academy and Brian there was a mix-up, but even if they believed me, it’s not like the government would care. ”
Extreme possessiveness welled up inside of me. “Don’t say his name when my dick is inside you.”
A small smile spread across her face, and my anger at Brian fell away as quickly as it had appeared.
I had practice tomorrow to be angry with him, if he even showed up.
We’d put too much trust in him since he was one of the best coaches and managers there was.
Yet another reason for me to be apprehensive about Kayla too.
No one could be trusted except ourselves.
“You sound jealous, snookums.” She patted my cheek, and I turned my head and kissed her palm. “You’re kind of sweet when you want to be.”
I’d done it without thinking. Kind of like how we’d come to be in this very position in the first place. “Don’t get used to it, and don’t call me snookums.”
“Then don’t call me little omega. It’s condescending coming from you, and I’m not into the daddy kink.”
“Neither am I.” My knot was completely deflated, and I slowly pulled out with a heavy sigh. I would have stayed buried in her all night, but we were both a mess. “Let’s take a shower and then go to sleep.”
I rolled off the bed and held my hand out to her. She stared at it for a few heartbeats, and I was just about to shrug it off and go take a shower by myself when she grabbed it.
“You want me to sleep in here? You moved my stuff as far away from you as possible.” She stood and pulled her hand away from me.
“I just thought... you don’t have to, Kayla. I just thought it would be the polite thing to do seeing as we just had sex and I knotted you.” I shrugged as if the thought of her sleeping elsewhere didn’t bug the shit out of me.
“I think... maybe I should go back to my room.” She looked around as if searching for her clothes but then grabbed some tissues from my nightstand. “Thanks for ummm... the fun.” She patted my chest, and I captured her hand before she could pull away.
“Stay.” I grabbed the tissues from her. “I want you to stay.”
“You’re giving me whiplash.” She crossed her legs. “Can I shower first?”
I was thinking we’d shower together, but on second thought, that was a pretty intimate thing to do. “Sure, just don’t use all the hot water.”
She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand away, leaving me staring after her and wondering what the hell I was thinking.
My brain wasn’t completely sold on having Kayla become our omega, but my heart and body were quickly overpowering it.
And that scared the shit out of me.
I exited the locker room at our training facility, and my eyes immediately landed on Kayla.
Somehow, she’d convinced all four of us that coming to our practice was a good idea, but now that we were there, I regretted agreeing to it.
She was a distraction, and we needed to give the next two practices before playoffs our complete attention. How was I going to focus when I was going to worry about the other alphas in the facility trying to worm their way into her pants?
Because that was exactly what was going to happen. She was unbonded, and even though she had a mark on her neck I’d left the night before, she didn’t have the silvery claim scars of our bites.
“Thank fuck Brian is here. I was about ready to go to his condo and kick in his door.” Rio came out of the locker room behind me and threw his arm around my shoulders. “Perk up, Alpha. We’ve got our girl to impress.”
“That’s the problem,” I muttered as we strode toward Brian, who was setting up an agility course for us to warm up on.
I clenched my fists at my sides, my anger at the beta coming back tenfold. I didn’t like to fight, but if I needed to, I’d punch him in the face.
“Brian. Where have you been? We’ve been calling and texting you.” Rio squeezed my shoulder in warning—or maybe comfort—before moving away from me. “We have some things we need to talk about before practice.”
“Oh, hey.” He threw a cone down and turned around to face us. “Sorry, my phone service has been shoddy.”
I narrowed my eyes, not believing that bullshit for one second. “Why did you put down Kayla on Omega Match?”
He looked between both of us, confusion on his face before he looked over at Kayla on a bench in front of Rylan and Kane, who were on the ground stretching.
I moved my body in his line of sight and growled. “Don’t look at her.”
“Woah, okay, sorry.” He held up his hands in apology. “And what do you mean, why did I put Kayla down on Omega Match? That’s how it works. You submit the omegas you are interested in.”
“We’d discussed Kara, not Kayla.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Kayla didn’t even put our pack down, yet somehow we matched with her.”
“Kayla was the one we discussed. Curly hair, Omega of the Year at the academy four years in a row…” His brows furrowed and I couldn’t tell if he was being honest or was completely full of shit. “Right?”
“No, you fucking idiot. That’s Kara. Didn’t you double-check the profile before submitting our shit?” Rio was next to me again, probably to stop me if I got the urge to lunge forward and wring Brian’s neck.
“No, I’m pretty sure it was Kayla.” Brian pulled his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling through it. “No. Fuck. No, no, no.”
I squeezed my temples between my fingers. “You fucked up. She tried to tell you and you didn’t listen.”
“I… fuck. This is so unlike me.” He frowned at his phone. “Their names are just so similar and… fuck!”
Rio and I exchanged looks, both of us not sure what to think. Why would he purposely mix up the women?
I sighed. “Look, everyone makes mistakes, but this is a fucking huge one. Not to mention she says she didn’t list any packs. So, how did we match?”
Brian slid his phone into his pocket, his face a mask I couldn’t get a reading on. “She must have put the pack down. Omega Match isn’t a perfect system, but it wouldn’t just override her decision. Does she want you to send her back?”
“She doesn’t know what she wants and neither do we…” I looked over my shoulder as Kayla threw her head back and laughed at something.
“What we need to focus on right now is the playoffs and, hopefully, the championship. We shouldn’t have had you take care of something so important. We won’t make the same mistake twice.” Rio went to join the others, leaving me to deal with Brian.
“I honestly didn’t do it on purpose. Their parents are idiots for naming them such similar names.” Brian shook his head, and I wanted to smack him for speaking badly about Kayla’s parents. “Go get your pack. We need to start practice.”
I stepped into his personal space, causing him to freeze in place. “If I find out you’re lying, I’ll end you.”
“Are you threatening to kill me?” he scoffed, backing up a step. “I’m on your side. Why would I do anything to hurt the pack?”
I glared at him for a few moments, a growl bubbling in my throat. “Remember your place, Brian.”
He’d fucked up royally, but I was also partially to blame for giving him the chance to. That mistake wouldn’t ever happen again.
Kayla watched me as I walked over to them, the smile falling from her face. Fuck, that was the worst feeling in the world.
Internally kicking myself for letting her get under my skin, I looked at my three packmates instead of at her. “Time to practice. Kayla, don’t move from this bench.”
“Yes, daddy.” The sticky sweet sarcasm dripping off her words made me growl and before I could stop myself, I was leaning down toward her ear.
“Be a good little omega and I’ll reward you later.” I nipped at her neck and then walked away before I did something stupid like kiss her.
Rylan ran to catch up with me. “Dude, what the hell was that?”
“What was what?” I avoided his stare as we started to jog around the practice field.
“Be a good little omega and I’ll reward you later,” he mimicked in a growly voice that sounded nothing like me. “Did something happen? You smell like each other. Then there’s that hickey on her neck she didn’t have last night before she went to bed.”
I hadn’t told them anything about the night before and hadn’t planned to. “She was probably just rolling around in my dirty laundry or something.”
“But then why do you smell like her?” His questioning was irritating me. “And the hickey? How’d she get that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she smells like me because she’s staying with us, and maybe she burned her neck with her hair gadget.” I sped up, leaving him in the dust.
“Liar!” he shouted after me, laughing like he was going to have a lot of fun teasing the fuck out of me.
It was going to be a long practice.