Chapter 7 #2
When I use that key to escape, I will tear open the entire fucking mattress.
Bird draws back to stare at me in wonder. “My smart Alpha.”
I smile, glowing. “What matters now is that you become strong enough to survive outside. Ideally, we would stay inside the Facility until it’s warmer weather.
Right now, it’ll be snowing outside. It will be hard to escape in those conditions, but we can’t risk waiting in case they turn on the pheromone blockers again. ”
Bird lays his forehead against mine. “What matters is that we escape before you burn.”
My eyes widen in alarm at the feel of his forehead.
He’s the one who is burning up.
Is he ill?
Falling into pheromone imbalance again? Have I been pushing him too hard?
“You’re sweating.” I study Bird with concern. “This dancing has overexerted you.”
“It’s just hot in here.”
My lips pinch. “It’s cold.”
Bird’s eyes widen. “Shit.”
“Do you feel like…?”
“I have flu?” Bird shakes off my hold on his neck, pulling away from me. He touches his forehead. Alarm sheets through his expression. “I’m burning up. Alpha, I’m going into…”
“Heat.”
I hate the way that Bird’s smile dies.
His eyes gleam with sudden tears. “What do I…? I’m not ready. I thought that I would have… I’ve only just found you.”
To my shock, Bird throws himself at me, nuzzling my neck.
He’s shaking.
I step away from the bars, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, tentatively. “I’m here. I can see you through it.”
Doesn’t he want me to?
The rejection hits me harder than I thought anything could.
I battle to keep my expression cool, but my heart is in agony.
“Please,” Bird whispers, “I’ve never spent my heat with someone I’m falling for. One last time, yeah?”
He’s falling for me…?
Warmth spreads through me. It’s unexpected.
I’m not falling for him too, right?
He’s my scent match.
My Omega.
But what we have isn’t romantic love.
I scrunch up my nose.
But then everything fits into place.
Bird thinks that he will die in this heat.
After all, he almost did last time.
Bile rushes up my throat.
What if he does die? I can’t be certain.
True terror rushes through me.
“I’ll call for a doctor,” I promise. “I’ll scream down the fucking place until they take you to a specialist and—”
“No,” Bird pleads. “No more doctors. Whatever happens, I want to spend this heat with you. What if they take me away from you? Don’t do that to me.
I have never been as happy as I’ve been this last week.
Waking in your arms, Ro. Meeting someone else like me.
You accept me and never treat me like I’m less than.
You don’t pamper me like I’m a pretty doll, who is some beautiful but dumb elite Omega.
But you also don’t treat me like a worthless whore who can be ordered out of a catalog.
I’ve never been seen as just a person by anyone but my sister, you know? ”
I swallow.
My throat is thick with tears.
What’s wrong with me?
I understand how he feels.
No one has seen me apart from my brother, either.
“You’ve seen me too,” I reply. “You treat me as worthy. You accept all of me. But what if spending this heat with me kills you?”
Bird tilts up his chin. “Worth it.”
Brave Omega.
Yet my uber pheromones are what Bird has needed so far. I have stabilized him.
I’m not a doctor, but Bird’s repeated knotting with Alphas who weren’t his scent bonds was likely what risked his life.
Won’t knotting with his scent match be what saves him?
If I bond with him, could I save him for good?
Yet how can I spend his heat with him in a cell, which will be dangerous without a doctor supervising, while still not having told him the truth?
I have checked into Omega Hotels myself.
I am one of the many faceless Alphas who have used the system that he has been fighting to take down.
His enemy.
I must tell him.
First, however, I can’t bear the hopeful, tearful expression that he is turning on me.
It’s a hundred times more powerful than a bullet.
Omegas certainly know how to weaponize their adorableness.
“How can I refuse that kind of charming recklessness?” I roll my eyes but I am smiling as I grab Bird and tug him to the mattress.
“That’s me, a charming rebel.” Bird happily allows himself to be pushed onto his back, sprawling out in a seductive sprawl.
“Some would say idiot.”
“Some are dickheads.”
I crawl onto the mattress, pushing Bird’s sweaty curls back from his face.
Yet the lie is eating away at me.
I can’t bond with him without admitting who I am — what type of Alpha.
Bird appears to catch my expression.
His brow furrows. “What’s wrong? This heat is dangerous, but there’s no one else who I would rather spend it with. We’re together and—”
“That’s not it.” Our gazes lock. “I can’t ask you to bond with me.”
Bird’s expression becomes frosty in a way that shocks me.
He has never looked at me like that.
“I understand.” He turns away his head.
“You don’t.”
“Please don’t explain. I know what I am. Who would want me?”
“I would, idiot. I’m no good at flowery speeches and shit.
” Frustrated, I grip Bird’s chin and force him to turn back to look at me.
His lips are trembling, and he’s desperately trying to hide how hurt he is.
“I’m fucking this up. I’m not used to anyone wanting to spend time with me. I’m not likable, let alone lovable.”
Confused, Bird shakes his head. “Debatable.”
“What I’m trying to say is that I’m not rejecting you. I want to bond with you, Little Bird, more than I’ve wanted anything. But I can’t ask that of you without telling you that I’m one of the Alphaholes who used Omega Hotels.”
This time, the coldness in Bird’s gaze is genuine and for an entirely different reason.
He wrenches out of my hold and scrutinizes me. “Uh-huh.”
“That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say? So, do you think that I’m property? Did you see me listed in a catalog? Did you enjoy the convenience of having Omegas delivered to your room?”
What do I answer first?
I steel myself. “I have never seen you or any Omega as property. I didn’t visit your branch of the hotels.
I’ve never seen you, although I have heard of your famous pack.
And yeah, Hotel Omegas were simply a convenience to me.
On missions, the Adonis pack booked the hotels for me if they were over my ruts.
I wasn’t allowed to date or have romantic relationships. ”
Bird’s expression softens. “You had no choice.”
“Everyone has a choice. I was trapped in my hell, but I still didn’t stop to think how much you and the other Hotel Omegas were trapped in theirs. I’m not a victim. I’m guilty and I’m sorry.”
I hold my breath.
Will he accept my apology? How can he?
Fiorella and the instructors always said that sorry was only a word. Forgiveness was earned through punishment.
I straighten my shoulders. I’ll accept any punishment he gives me.
Bird tilts his head. “Huh, so Alphas aren’t perfect. You’ve blown my little Omega mind.”
I blink. “You’re joking.”
“I’m also in heat and need your lock. Are you waiting for me to demand blood?
Woah, you are. Stop looking like a kicked puppy.
I accept your apology, Ro. I never blamed the Traditional packs who used the hotel.
They’d stayed there for generations. Why would they question it?
I saw how each had their own problems and did my best to bring them some joy.
The problem was the system itself. We need to change society, yeah? ”
Is this Omega real? How can anyone be this kind and forgiving?
He’s not even demanding I grovel more.
I kiss him.
Slow. Deep.
Then I whisper, “You’re okay if I take the revenge route instead, right?”
Bird chuckles. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
I kiss him again, before I glance around myself, wishing that I could build my Omega a proper nest.
He deserves one.
I want to make this good for him.
I grab the thin blanket, pushing it into a loose nest around Bird.
When I frown, he looks at me, concerned.
“What’s wrong?” He asks.
“This isn’t a good enough nest for you,” I reply. “I never had a proper one either when I became Switch. But I used my clothes.”
“This nest is good enough because you’re sharing it with me.”
Bird’s words mend a part of me that I didn’t know was cracked.
I snarl, nipping at his neck. “You’re all I need, my Omega.”
He strokes my hair. “My Alpha.”
“I’m good at improvising. I have a plan.” My eyes gleam, wickedly.
“Oh, I like a plan.” Sweat drips down Bird’s forehead, but he’s grinning.
I am excited by the idea of him being surrounded and marked by my scent.
I sit back, stripping off my top and then shimmying out of my pants.
Bird purrs deep in his throat, watching me with dilated pupils. “Beautiful.”
No one has called me beautiful before.
I didn’t talk to the Omegas in the hotels, and they were too timid to talk to me.
Why would they see me as beautiful, anyway, when I am carved with the scars of my training and missions? How can Bird?
I arch my brow. “Don’t think flattery will make me go easy on you.”
“I would hope not.”
I use my clothes to build up the nest around Bird’s head. If I place them lower than that, then they’ll be ruined by my rut.
Bird buries his face into my clothes, taking desperate breaths of my scent. He squirms in his fever, but he’s wriggling in pleasure, rather than distress.
I am trained to tell the difference.
It washes satisfaction through me that my scent is helping him.
“Alpha,” Bird murmurs.
Alpha said in my Omega’s sweet tone makes me shiver.
My pupils become blown. My pheromones hang in a thick fog around us. A tremor runs through me.
Startled, I realize that I am being pulled into my rut because of the strength of my connection to this Omega.
My pussy aches in the way that it does as the muscles prepare for a locking.
Locking is the female Alpha version of a rut. Biologically, the muscles in the pussy are stronger than in other dynamics. They can contract and constrict a male Omega’s cock, locking the Alpha and Omega together.
I lick over my canines.
I itch to bite and claim Bird.
He is mine.
He is my Omega, laid out in front of me.