Chapter 3
There was a knock on his door just as Cody was drifting off into the hazy pain that usually came right before the well-known desperation, and he startled badly before he remembered where he was.
“Room service!” Someone called.
Oh. His food. Of course.
He dragged himself out of bed with a groan and staggered to the door. He took a deep, fortifying breath, then pulled it open.
A stocky man with a name tag that said Vince was pushing a service cart. Cody started breathing through his mouth after he got the first whiff of unattached alpha.
“Hey,” Cody managed, trying for a weak smile. He had to lean against the door frame to keep from curling in on himself.
“Dinner for Cody Wallace?” Vince said, his own smile a lot brighter.
“Uh, yeah,” Cody said, taking a step back and feeling gratified that he didn’t just fall over. “Can you just, uh, put it down on the table?” He didn’t trust himself to hold the tray steady and not spill everything all over the carpet.
“Sure thing,” Vince said, easily hefting the tray and walking into Cody’s room. After he set the tray down, he turned back to Cody, shifting where he stood instead of heading back out the open door. “Hey, uh…”
“Yeah?” Cody asked, wanting Vince out of his room.
Vince took a deep breath. “You’re really Cody Wallace, right? Like, the actual one?”
“I think so,” Cody said with a forced chuckle. “Unless you know something I don’t.”
Another deep inhale from Vince. “That’s really cool,” he said, taking a step toward Cody, who unconsciously took his own step back. “Do you think I could get an autograph?”
Cody wanted Vince to leave him alone to eat and be miserable in peace, but Cody’s reputation didn’t go away just because he was currently in heat and hating himself. At least an autograph was easy enough. “Yeah man, of course.”
He turned to hunt down a piece of paper and a pen, jolting when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “Hey–”
He was cut off by Vince pulling him backwards, making Cody stumble as he fell back against Vince’s chest.
“You smell so fucking good,” Vince said, voice a low rumble as he nosed at Cody’s neck.
Fuck. Cody ripped himself away from Vince’s grasp, horror dropping in his stomach.
Cody hadn’t reapplied his scent blocker before answering the door, nor had he sprayed his room after getting back from the game, because he was a fucking idiot.
Meaning he’d led Vince into a room soaked in the scent of an omega in heat.
Fuck fuck fuck—
“Get out,” Cody gasped, shoving Vince toward the door. He couldn’t scent induce someone. He couldn’t. He would rather die than be exactly the sort of person all the gossip rags thought he was, that his dad thought he was. “Get out, get out!”
Vince caught his wrists and held them tight, leaning down to tuck his face back into the join of Cody’s neck and shoulder, breathing in deep as Cody panicked. Vince wasn’t that much bigger than Cody, but Cody was already weak and trembly and hurting with heat.
Cody was still a hockey player though, one who had spent most of his life dealing with people stronger than him trying to push him around. He didn’t want to hurt Vince, but he’d apologize later, because right now everything about this situation was unsafe. Cody was too vulnerable.
And he was not about to let an innocent bystander get scent induced by his stupid fucking omega pheromones. He needed to get Vince out of his fucking room so Cody could lock himself away.
He brought his knee up, catching Vince right in the stomach. Vince let out a choked grunt and let go of Cody’s wrists, and Cody scrambled backwards. Vince was between him and the door, but it wasn’t like Cody could run into the hall, not stinking like heat.
He turned and made a break for the bathroom, because at least that was a door that could lock, not to mention where his scent blocker was. He just needed to barricade himself in the bathroom and douse himself in his blocker and wait for Vince to come back to himself—
A hand grabbed a fistful of his hoodie and yanked Cody backwards, away from the open bathroom door, slamming Cody hard into the adjacent wall. While he was still reeling, Vince grabbed his wrists again and crowded in way, way too close.
“Fuck, I can smell how ready you are,” Vince growled, pushing Cody’s wrists above his head with one hand, holding them so tightly that Cody felt his bones creak.
Which meant Vince knew.
The sick fear of what was about to happen made Cody’s head swim as he struggled in Vince’s hold, trying to keep breathing as his body flushed hotter.
He could feel his libido inhibitor wearing off, which meant he was already well on his way to losing himself to his heat…
which meant he was about to be too far gone to even put up a fight.
“Fucker—” Cody tried to kick as Vince grabbed a fistful of his curls, but Vince was too close. “Get off me!”
Vince laughed, the sound rough like sandpaper as he yanked Cody’s head to the side and sank his teeth into Cody’s neck, just shy of his scent gland. Cody heard himself make a thin, terrified sound.
“Doesn’t smell like that’s what you really want,” Vince said lowly, bullying one on his legs between Cody’s thighs. “Doesn’t feel like it either.”
“Please,” Cody whispered, throat dry. “Please, you don’t want to do this, you don’t really want me, please.”
Suddenly, an alpha growl rang out through the room, and then Vince was yanked off of him. Cody got a glimpse of Leo’s face twisted in a snarl before he had to bury his own face in his hands, shoulders shaking as he slid down the wall until he was seated on the floor.
He didn’t know how long he sat there, a trembling mess, but eventually some noise filtered in through the buzz in his ears.
“–ody? Cody, can you please look at me?”
Leo. That was Leo’s voice and Leo’s scent. And while neither were threaded with the notes of calm that they usually were, they still meant safe.
Cody looked up, all too aware of his ragged breathing, to find Leo crouched on the floor in front of him, expression wracked with worry. “Hey,” he said quietly. “Are you hurt?”
His wrists ached and his neck throbbed, but nothing else had happened. Cody shook his head mutely before he froze. “Where’s—where’s Vince?”
Leo’s expression clouded over, a fury that Cody had never seen before, not even on the ice.
“That’s his name?” Before Cody could answer, Leo continued.
“Sergei and I were coming back from dinner early and heard—your door was open. I ripped him off you, and Sergei dragged him out. That fucker won’t be bothering you again,” Leo growled.
“And he’ll think twice about attacking any omega. ”
Cody shivered and whined, because after a run-in with an alpha, everything was exacerbated. Leo’s scent was everywhere in the room, and while it was a definite improvement over Vince’s, Cody was overwhelmed by how it made him want to bury his face in it.
Fuck, no, he needed to focus. He had to deal with Vince. Was Cody going to have to do anything? Press charges? Could he afford not to? Nothing was stopping Vince from taking this story to the first news outlet who would hear him out.
Cody Wallace: the omega who was so unstable he was scent inducing alphas. God, they were going to rip Cody to shreds. He’d be lucky to still have a contract after all was said and done.
He needed to contact PR and let them know about the incoming shitstorm.
He needed to probably tell their GM what had happened too.
He needed to drag himself to bed and ride out his oncoming heatwave, so that when he surfaced from the misery he’d be ready to take his libido inhibitors and get on a plane tomorrow.
“Fuck,” he muttered, shivering. He felt feverish, too hot in his clothes, and now his room didn’t feel safe anymore.
There wasn’t anywhere to curl up and hide to wait out his heatwave, no soft nest that would offer a modicum of comfort.
“Fuck,” he whispered again, bringing his knees up to his chest.
Then he shuddered, head jerking up in horror, because if he’d scent induced Vince into losing his mind, then Leo, who was another fucking alpha–
“Y-you’ve got to get out of here!”
Leo rocked back on his heels, holding up his hands. “I can give you space,” he said quietly. “If you want the space. But I…I don’t know if you should be alone right now?”
Cody shook his head. Being left alone was the last thing he wanted, but he couldn’t let what had happened to Vince happen to Leo. Cody didn’t know if he could emotionally survive that. “No, I–it’s fine, I–”
He couldn’t look at Leo anymore, with his open, concerned expression. Instead, Cody used the wall to help support himself so he could shakily rise to his feet. “It’s fine,” he said again, voice hitching as he was hit by another painful cramp. “I’m fine.”
“Cody—”
Cody couldn’t fight the urge to wrap his arms around himself in a farce of comfort. “You need to leave. Please, you don’t want to be around me right now.”
“Like hell I don’t,” Leo growled. “Fuck, Cody, you were just assaulted. The last thing I want to do is leave you alone.”
“I’m fine,” Cody repeated desperately. He was so far from fine, but maybe it would make a difference if he kept saying it. “And I wasn’t assaulted—i-it was my fault. He couldn’t help it, I—” His words cut out right before he blurted out that he was in heat.
He knew Leo had to have smelled it on him, but Cody couldn’t make himself say it out loud.
“None of what just happened was your fault,” Leo said roughly, hands curling into fists. “But we don’t have to talk about it now if you don’t want to, I understand. But Cody, please, you’re hurting. What can I do?”
Stay here with me.
Don’t leave me alone.
Help me feel safe.
Touch me. Please, just–
Cody bit down on his bottom lip to keep any of that from spilling free, unable to keep from shivering. Leo’s scent, though distressed, was still a calming presence. Leagues better than Vince’s. Cody wanted to bury his face in it and inhale, and just the thought made him dizzy.