Jace

“I will,” Emma said. “I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

A loud bang told me the front door had closed behind Jude. Knowing I needed to face this, I pushed my bedroom door open. Em’s eyes met mine from where she sat cross-legged on the couch, studiously ignoring the cell phone, which was buzzing incessantly on the coffee table.

She reached down and hit the button to turn it off.

Suddenly, I knew exactly who it was, who was calling. Hadn’t Emma mentioned being with an alpha last night…? Ryder… Was it the same Ryder that Jace introduced me to this morning? The same Ryder who was best friends with the alpha I’d bailed on?

“Who’s calling?” I asked, my voice little more than a croak.

“Nobody,” she said evasively.

My teeth clamped down tight, and I felt an answering ache in response. Shuffling over, I dropped down on the couch opposite Em. “Who is it?” I asked again.

“It’s just a guy I met last night. You know, the one I was with.”

Only it was more than just the guy she was with, because I’d bailed on his friend, and something told me an alpha didn’t take well to omega rejection. He’d wanted to take care of me, but my foggy mind couldn’t work out what that meant when all I could hear was the blonde girl’s words taunting me. I had my pride. I didn’t want to be just another omega in his stable.

I should have known better. Men like Jace, they weren’t for me. For Em, for Jewel, for any of the glittering, beautiful girls who brought men to their sides like bees to honey. Yeah, that made a whole lot more sense. Me? Jace would never have come near someone like me, not without those bloody hormones.

My hands shook as I brushed my hair back. Fool that I was, I had jumped in headfirst.

“I’ll get you some water,” she said, untangling her legs and rising, then she disappeared into the kitchen. As I heard the clatter of the cupboard opening followed by the tap as she filled up a glass, I took a moment to compose myself.

Handing me the drink, she took the couch opposite. “You seem different.”

“I’m an omega,” I replied.

Her face went deathly white. “What? How can you be an omega? Are you sure?”

Later in life reveals were rare, but despite the tests run and the reassurance from the doctor, I’d always known something was wrong. Now I knew why.

“I’m very sure,” I said. “I’ve just built a nest.” The nest building was the least of what had happened and the only part I felt comfortable discussing.

A giggle escaped her lips, and she pressed a hand to them like that might stifle it.

I laughed too, not a happy sound at all but…it was ridiculous. Then my smile faded because what followed was like experiencing a personalised hell.

“I need to get some suppressants,” I said.

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Okay, how do we do…that?” She picked up her phone again, which immediately started buzzing. She frowned and declined the call, before tapping away on the screen. “Do you have other omega urges?”

“Yeah, and I wish I bloody didn’t.”

Emma laughed again, fingers lying over her phone screen. Given she’d been with an alpha last night, at least she wasn’t an omega. It would have tipped her over the edge, like me, had that been the case. “Em, you used protection, didn’t you?” Why was I asking her if she used protection? Had I? No, I hadn’t. I hadn’t used a bloody thing. Jesus. I was going to have to get myself checked!

Her face flushed bright red, her fingers paused, and she shook her head. “We didn’t,” she said. “We talked. We fooled around for a while, and he kept his pants on the whole time. I’ve never been so frustrated in all my life. Well, not that frustrated. But yeah, I wanted it. He wouldn’t let me have it.”

What the hell kind of guy didn’t take what was on offer?

“I think he’s a Dom.”

“A what?”

“A Dom, like you read about in the books? BDSM. I think that’s him in a nutshell.”

“He’s not a Dom.” I swiped a hand over my face. I wasn’t mentally present enough to cope with this conversation right now.

“Well, he’s got some very Dom-like tendencies,” she said, using her hand to fan herself. “I’ve never been so desperate to get into a man’s pants in my life, and he was having none of it. That’s iron control if ever I saw it.”

Yeah, I’d also experienced a lot of that last night…and this morning.

“So did you…” She nods her head at me. “Did you…with the other one?”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s what triggered me.” I searched for the point where I could have pulled away, could have made the right call. There were several points where I wasn’t yet wholly lost to my instincts. The most memorable was when I was standing there in Jace’s room.

“Take them off,” he’d said, no alpha bark, merely a suggestion I could refuse. “Take them off and show me the fucking beautiful body that makes mine ache. I’m so fucking hard, Sloane. Take them off, if this is what you want. If you want me.”

Then I’d stripped like a good little omega, especially for him.

I had picked him.

“I’m glad you’re not an omega,” I said. “Because everything is hell.”

“I thought it would be hot, you know, to be that into a man.”

Not all of it was bad, none of it was terrible. If I were honest, it was the most amazing experience of my life. Then he’d taken me for breakfast, introduced me to his little omega harem, and left me alone with them so they could fill me in. There had been cattiness, but there had also been a ring of truth. I was just another helpless woman that he’d picked up and cared for, driven by a weird kind of alpha protective urge.

I didn’t want to be looked after. I wanted to be claimed, wanted what he’d promised as he’d fucked me in the early hours of the morning, the sweet words about how he would share the burden with me, be a partner. Only he didn’t want to be my partner. He wanted to add me to his little harem.

I still wanted him. Jesus, I needed to take some suppressants, or I was never going to think straight.

My stomach flip-flopped, and heat washed over my body in a new and yet familiar way.

Fuck! No, don’t let it be starting again. I groaned and pressed my hand to my belly. I could feel slick seeping. I can’t do this. I can’t be here. I can’t. I’m go