Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Siobhan
“So have any of you gone into heat early?” I ask between pulling weeds and secretly feeding them to Daisy, Sage’s pet sheep. Daisy nudges my hand for another, and I scratch behind her fluffy ear.
Sage shakes her head, wide brown eyes staring at me in concern.
“I haven’t,” Wren says. She has her usual gardening gloves on while pulling out the end of season plants, Bea helping her with the bigger ones. It frosted last week and the ground froze, so we won’t be getting any more harvesting in until next year.
“Uh-uh.” Bea shakes their head with a half-shrug.
“Thank goodness I don’t have to worry about that.” Claire might be a beta, but we consider her an honorary omega and a staple in our Omega Gardening Club. “Is that why I haven’t seen you around town this week? You’re normally all over the place filming or burning incense or hiding crystals—”
“Hey!” I protest and fling a weed at her.
“What!” Claire says with a laugh. “It’s true.”
“Kinda is,” Sage murmurs under her breath, and I stare at her in betrayal. She twists her lips to the side, trying to hide a grin, and I roll my eyes with a snort-laugh.
“Fine. But yeah, kinda went into an unexpected heat.”
“How early?” Sage asks.
“A few weeks, basically a month.” I wrinkle my nose. “Does that mean I’ll still have one soon?”
“No idea.” Claire shrugs.
“I’m already looking into it,” Bea says in their soothing librarian voice, which has the opposite effect it’s supposed to.
I take a deep breath, trying not to let my thoughts spin.
“Sooooo?” Claire says, and I twist to look at her. “Who helped you with it? Do you know why it came early?”
I knew this was coming, and I don’t mind sharing with them—they’re my best friends—but for some reason my face still heats when I think of telling them about it.
“Ooooooh! Spill!” Claire dumps her armload of plant debris right where she’s standing and bounces over to me, then falls to her knees, puppy-dog eyes locked on mine and hands clasped to her chest.
“Oh my Goddess,” I mutter. I push away from the planter box and turn around so I can rest my back against it, and the others crowd around until we’re all squeezed into the four-foot-wide space between two of the grow boxes.
Our heads are barely visible above them now that we’re all sitting down, and it reminds me of building blanket forts with my friends as a kid.
Daisy noses her way between us and tries to nibble on my hair.
“Well, it started when I was spending the night with Aury—”
Sage squeaks and I turn to her in alarm. But she’s got her big doe eyes locked on me, purple hair blowing in the breeze while she bites her lip to hold in what looks like an excited smile. Wren is shooting me a knowing look from next to her.
“I take it tai chi stalking—I mean, lessons—have been going well?” Bea says, nudging my knee with theirs.
I roll my eyes, but I can’t hold in the grin. I love our little group. “I guess you could say that…” I explain what happened, how I met my scent-matched alphas, and Wren pipes up.
“That’s probably what triggered it,” she says.
Her voice is soft, and she has her gardening gloves folded neatly in her lap where she sits with her feet tucked under her, a couple inches away from the rest of us.
My heart pangs and I long to snatch her up and pull her closer, demand she let herself fully be a part of this—with us.
I don’t, but I do tilt my head in question at her words, and she continues. “It’s biological. Sometimes a strong scent-match can trigger an early heat. Evolutionists hypothesize that it was a survival mechanism.”
“Force omegas into heat as soon as they meet a strong enough pack and the species is more likely to survive?” Bea says.
Wren nods with a rueful smile. “Something like that.”
“Huh.” I pick a twig from Daisy’s fur, and we all jump when a shadow looms over us.
“Why is there a pile of plants in the middle of my walkway?” Neveah, one of Sage’s alphas and the owner of the community garden and associated lavender farm, stares down at us.
“And what are you all doing crammed into such a small space? You know you can use the picnic tables or the employee lounge if you want to hang out and chat.”
“Sorry Vee,” I say. “My fault.”
“Siobhan’s got good tea right now,” Sage stage-whispers to Neveah, who beams back at her.
“Oh yeah? Well in that case, forget I was here.” She drops a kiss on the top of Sage’s head, then bends down to pick up our mess.
“Ah, I can get that, Vee!” I say.
She waves me off. “I got it, you finish up with the gossiping so I can hear about it later.”
“Mother Earth help me,” I groan and plunk my head back against the wooden planter.
Sage giggles, but she doesn’t deny it. I also don’t expect her to.
“So the heat was good then?” Claire asks, getting us back on track.
“So good,” I say, then grimace. “Except…”
Bea lowers their phone and pins me with a look. “Except?”
I cringe and fiddle with the twig I pulled from Daisy’s fur. “One of the alphas, Jayce, kinda accidentally bonded me. And then I kinda bit him back.”
“Oh my gosh!” Sage squeals, all excitement.
“Where?” Bea asks at the same time as Claire says, “Are you okay?”
“I’m good, yeah. Just kind of… embarrassed, I guess.” I bury my face in my hands and brace myself to finish telling them what happened. “I might have gone a bit feral and bit himonhisdick.”
Silence.
“Say that again?” Wren says, her tone all polite concern.
I peek out between my fingers to see four stunned faces staring at me. No blinking. Not a single muscle twitch. Not even the wind is blowing through any stray strands of hair.
“Yeah. His dick. I bit it.”
“And that’s… where you… I mean, that’s how you…” Bea trails off, clearly unsure how to ask what they’re all trying to figure out.
“Uh-huh. Yep. That’s where I bonded him back.” My voice has never been so high-pitched in my life.
“Holy shit,” Bea whispers. Then they pull a clear crystal from their pocket and hand it to me. “I think you need this more than I do.”
I laugh, surprised to find tears in my eyes. I reach into my own pocket and pull out four different crystals, one for each of them.
“You know we all have plenty by now,” Claire says. She takes the tiger eye regardless; a balancing stone for the mother hen of our group.
I pass out the others: sunstone for Sage to bring her all the joy she missed out on early in life; turquoise for Wren so she can find her truth; and blue sodalite for Bea who doesn’t need any help focusing but would probably appreciate it anyways. They take them without complaint, and I relax.
“I have something else to tell you all too,” I say. “Should we take Vee up on her offer of the staff lounge?”
“Definitely,” Sage says, jumping to her feet. “I’ll run Daisy back to her pen and meet you all there!”
The gardening club was so understanding and supportive with everything that my heart feels like it’s going to explode as I drive home. I told them about my potential new pack, and then about Hels Spells AKA Helen AKA my new least favorite person—and witch—ever.
They all agreed it’s probably better to do the video and then distance myself.
I’m worried not following through on it will push viewers away or create a rift I won’t recover from, and this is my livelihood.
They reminded me I’ve been doing this for years and have come back from other challenges.
I’ve had people try to tear me down before, and I didn’t let them.
This situation might be different, but the outcome will be the same.
I will prevail. I will get through this.
I will succeed, and I will keep getting to do what I love.
Plus, it would be shitty to cancel this last minute. The full moon is only a few days away.
When I get home, I set up my tripod in my filming room. I check the lighting, rehearse what I want to say, and grab a tarot deck for emotional support.
Then I hit record.
“Hi everyone! As you probably know by now, Helen of Hels Spells and I have been discussing the possibility of a collab! So exciting, I know,” I pause and grin at the camera, then continue.
“So I wanted to check in with all of my favorite witchy followers on what you want to see! Obviously, I work mostly with crystals and tarot, but I’d love your ideas on how we can incorporate our two witchy styles into one amazing extra-magical video for all of you.
Drop a comment with your ideas, and we might do it! ”
I click the button on my remote to stop recording and the smile drops from my face.
I slump back in my seat, giving myself a moment to breathe and let the anxious adrenaline settle.
I film videos all the time, literally for hours every week, but for some reason this one really stressed me out.
It doesn’t take long to edit, even with Bunny trying to lay on my keyboard or swipe at my hands for pets.
I adjust the lighting and sound, add captions, tag Helen as a collaborator, then throw a glittery filter on top before posting with quiet, trending background music.
Within a couple hours, my followers have flooded the comments with requests for tarot and readings, yet they’re somehow drowned out by Helen’s followers. They’re demanding a ritual she’s been teasing but unable to do because it requires two people with varying skills.
“Ugh,” I groan, throwing my head back. I shut my phone off, toss it on the kitchen counter as I walk by, then head into my reading room to get lost in a book with my new fluffy companion for the rest of the day.