The Mating Game by Lana Ferguson - 10

Alpha .

Alpha.

Alpha.

I need to let her go, and I know that. It’s just that her fucking scent is swirling around me, keeping a chokehold on my senses. My cock throbs against her back even as I draw in ragged breaths at her throat, and every instinct I have is screaming at me to touch her, to take her—both things I can’t do.

Untangling myself from her is actual torture; my body protests with every nerve ending, every cell angry at me as I carefully lay her across my bed and slowly back away. I stare at the picture in front of me—her soft brown hair fanning across my sheets as her chest rises and falls slowly, her hand still delicately tucked inside her sweatpants—and it takes everything in me to walk away.

I stomp to the attached bath with difficulty, shutting the door behind me to try to gain a reprieve from her scent, knowing it would be better to leave the room altogether but seemingly unable to put that much distance between us with the way she still smells so…vulnerable.

I can smell her in my bathroom even with the door shut, her scent clinging to my clothes and my skin, and I hiss when I palm my aching cock, feeling the base throb as my knot threatens to swell even without the promised warmth of her body fitting snugly around it. I quickly shed my clothes, which are saturated with her, kick them aside and turn on the hot water as if I might somehow be able to wash her away and save myself from the madness that’s creeping in from having a sweet-smelling omega in heat only a few feet from me.

The hot water barely helps; even under the spray, my cock continues to pulse with want, my muscles taut and my senses on high alert. I curse under my breath as I stare down at my angry-looking erection, knowing deep down that it won’t go away without some sort of relief. Not with Tess’s scent still lingering in the air. I close my eyes and count to five, steeling myself for what will surely be an unsatisfying experience. Nothing could ever satisfy me with the heat-drenched scent of a lovely omega in the other room.

Still, I reach down and begin to angrily pump myself, trying not to imagine Tess, because I know it’s wrong, but unable to help it. The sounds she made are still ringing in my ears—soft cries and sharp gasps—and the weight of her body might as well be imprinted against mine for the way I can still feel her touching me. I stroke my fist up and down my shaft as copious amounts of pre-cum drip from the slit at the head, hissing under my breath as pleasure and pain war with each other.

I hate that she’s affecting me this way, hate that I’m helpless against what her scent does to my body. It feels too much like before, when I let myself get wrapped up in someone just like her only to have my heart ripped out and stomped on.

My mouth falls open as I start to fuck my fist, the action rough and raw and nothing like what it might feel like had this happened under different circumstances. If Tess weren’t a stranger who had only asked for my help out of desperation. Maybe in that alternate reality I might have her on her stomach right now, maybe I’d be teasing the head of my cock against her slick entrance, pushing inside her ever so gently even as she keens for more. Maybe I’d be feeling the warm, wet stretch of her enveloping my cock, sucking me deeper inside even as she begs for my knot. Maybe I’d—

“ Fuck .”

Cum jets from my cock and coats my palm, but still I don’t stop. I stroke myself with my warm release, my breath sawing out of me roughly as my knot starts to swell, even without being snugly fitted inside an omega in heat. It’s brutal and a bit painful, and all I can do is reach lower, wrapping my hand around the useless swell and massaging it with my fist to try to bring some relief.

Alpha , I recall. She called me alpha.

Like I was hers.

Like she was mine .

I shiver with every touch, my eyes shut tight as flashes of Tess’s hand working inside her sweats flit through my thoughts. I think about how pretty she might be between her legs. I think about how her little fingers might look working her swollen clit while I tell her what to do.

Because my omega was so good for me.

I grip my throbbing knot tightly, clenching my teeth as I try to get ahold of myself. She’s not mine . I know that. It’s just the hormones talking. I know that.

Doesn’t make any of it better.

Even minutes later, gripping my knot and willing it to soften as I brace myself under the hot spray of the shower, I’m still thinking about her. About how she sounded, how she felt, how she looked. I can’t stop thinking about it.

When I finally get out of the shower to change, my knot is still slightly swollen but more manageable, even if it hurts like a bitch, almost like it’s angry with me for not putting it where it belongs.

I don’t even know her , I argue weakly.

The omega in question remains sprawled across my bed, sleeping peacefully, oblivious to the turmoil she’s caused. I watch her from my bathroom doorway, telling myself to leave her there, to sleep somewhere else, to put distance between us—but I can’t seem to move away.

I know, I can’t sleep with her. That would make for a whole new onslaught in what will surely already be an awkward conversation.

Leave.

Just leave.

I stand in place for seconds more, simply staring at her.

Then, with a curse, I plod over to the chair in the corner and plop myself down in it. I know without a doubt that I’m going to sleep like shit tonight, but it seems my alpha is refusing to let Tess out of our sight. I watch her until my eyes grow heavy, worried for what the morning will bring.

Worried that if she asks for my help again, I won’t be able to refuse her next time.

When I jolt awake the next morning, the sun streaming in through the blinds, the first thing I notice is that my bed is empty. I sit up straight, my heart immediately starting to pound, and my head whips back and forth as I try to make sense of the fact that my sheets are now sans Tess.

My skin feels itchy with her absence, and despite knowing that my instincts are apparently still running the show, I find myself stalking to my bedroom door and throwing it open with the intention of finding her and making sure she’s okay anyway. The door to her bedroom is closed, and figuring that turnabout is fair play, I don’t hesitate to raise my fist and beat against the wood. I hear her shuffling around in there immediately, her shadow appearing at the crack under the door.

“Tess,” I call, but there’s no answer.

I knock again, a little harder this time, but her door remains frustratingly closed.

“We’ve got to talk about it, Tess,” I sigh, still feeling restless because I can’t see her.

It seems that despite the fact that we didn’t actually get physical, my alpha has decided she’s ours to take care of until she’s…better. Something that will prove difficult when another wave hits. I don’t know if I can survive another without touching her.

Which is why we need to talk.

“Tess! I’m not leaving, and I live here, so you can either open the door, and we can talk about it, or I can—”

She wrenches the door open, and then she’s standing there, her hair a mess and her teeth worrying at her bottom lip. Her cheeks are flushed pink, her pale skin rosy at the apples, and her wide brown eyes even more owlish than usual. The dark circles underneath them certainly aren’t helping matters.

“I was hoping if I pretended you weren’t real long enough, maybe you’d go away,” she mumbles.

“Clearly not,” I remark.

She sighs, leaning against the doorframe as she scrubs a hand down her face. “A girl can dream.”

“We have to talk about it. We have to decide what you’re going to do before another wave—”

And then it hits me.

I can’t scent her heat anymore.

I lean in despite her garbled protests, inhaling at her throat deeply. Nothing. She smells normal now. Granted, even her usual scent is mouthwatering, but it doesn’t have my knot threatening to swell, at least.

I rear back, confused. “How can it already be over?”

“Yeah…” She rubs at the back of her neck. “About that…” She winces. “Are you sure we can’t just pretend nothing happened?”

I grit my teeth, still remembering the hell that was last night, when I was forced to stick close to her despite being tortured by her delicious scent.

“No,” I tell her resolutely. “We can’t.” I feel frustration building inside me. “How could you be so careless?”

Her eyes go wide. “ Excuse me?”

“You come here on the cusp of your heat—no suppressants—and you just don’t say anything? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been? What if I’d been a bad guy? What if I’d taken advantage of you?”

And I’m realizing how much that thought angers me. The possibility that there might have been someone with less scruples than me whom she could have found herself with. Someone who would have used her.

My alpha hates that.

I immediately feel guilty when her eyes go wide with shock, but the very real fear I feel when she’s imagining it keeps me from apologizing. Her mouth parts, her eyes going to the floor as she considers the question.

“I didn’t know, okay?”

This gives me pause. “What?”

“I didn’t know this was going to happen!”

“Like…” I struggle to think of reasons as to why that might occur. “Like you’re off schedule?”

She snorts, rolling her eyes. “Like there isn’t a schedule. Or…there wasn’t. I guess there is now.” She throws up her hands. “I don’t know!”

“You’re going to have to give me more than that.”

“Listen,” she says with a huff. “Two days ago? I woke up a beta. The same way I’ve woken up for the last twenty-eight years. The same as my parents and my brothers and everyone else I know in my family. Then suddenly, after Satan’s sky ride of a flight and the worst flu symptoms I’ve ever had, some random ER doctor is telling me that, surprise! I am apparently a shifter. And not just any ol’ regular shifter, but an omega .”

My nose wrinkles. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re telling me,” she scoffs.

I eye her incredulously, earning me another roll of her eyes.

“It’s called ‘late presentation,’ ” she tells me.

“And that’s…a thing?”

“Apparently.”

“Huh.” It’s definitely nothing I’ve ever heard of, but then again, she’s only the second omega I’ve spent any real time with. So what do I know? “And that causes you to…”

I wave my hand aimlessly, hoping she’ll throw me a bone so I don’t have to say it.

Her brow cocks. “To throw myself at the first guy I can get my hands on? Apparently.”

Her phrasing leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because I’m thinking of the possible scenario where someone else might have been around last night. Again, my alpha hates this very much.

Fucking hormones.

“To be fair,” I say, clearing my throat. “It being us trapped in the lodge probably isn’t making things any better.”

Her head tilts to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Because of what I am.”

She looks lost. “And…you are?”

“An alpha,” I answer flatly. “My pheromones are going to make yours go haywire.”

“You are?”

“You didn’t know?”

Her eyes go wide. “I had no idea. How would I have? I didn’t even know what I was two days ago.”

“But you said…”

Alpha.

Alpha.

Alpha.

I take a deep breath. “That’s what you called me. Last night.”

I watch as her cheeks tinge pink, no doubt remembering everything that happened last night. Not that I can blame her. It’s playing on a loop in the back of my mind.

“Oh” is all she says.

“Oh?”

“I mean…the doctor mentioned that I should steer clear of…people like you. I don’t even remember saying that. Maybe I was thinking out loud?”

Silence stretches between us, both of us no doubt trying to decide how to move forward. I can feel irritation brewing inside me, an emotion that makes no sense. Why on earth would I be annoyed that she hadn’t meant to call me that last night?

“Can we just…” She shuffles her weight from one foot to the other. “Can we please just pretend last night didn’t happen?”

“Pretend,” I echo dumbly.

“Yeah, I mean…I still have a job to do.”

“And what if this happens again?”

Her mouth forms an O shape, her brows lifting. “Again?”

“It seems like this came out of nowhere, right?”

“Kind of,” she admits.

“And it only lasted a few hours? I’m no expert, but that’s not normal.”

“The doctor said that I might experience some…issues. While my body changes.”

“There’s a chance this will happen again, Tess.”

She bites her lower lip. “Maybe it won’t.”

I want to grab her and shake her. I’m too on edge thinking about this happening when someone else is around. When she’s vulnerable .

“And what if it does?”

“Then I’ll deal with it,” she says primly. “Contrary to the way I acted last night, I can take care of myself.”

I stare back at her, thinking. The words on the tip of my tongue go against everything I’ve ever sworn to myself, but the thought of her finding herself in a situation where someone might use her makes my stomach twist. I can’t let myself get wrapped up in…whatever this is. I know where that road leads.

“You need to be on suppressants,” I say through gritted teeth.

Her brows knit. “The doctor said we shouldn’t hinder my body’s natural changes.”

“And how is that fair to me?”

She rears back. “Fair to you ?”

“You think it was easy ? Turning you down like I did? It causes me physical pain to be around you when you’re like that.”

“Wow,” she snorts. “I’m sorry that my life blowing up is inconveniencing you .”

I wince, trying to get my aggravation in check as I realize that this whole thing most likely is a nightmare for her—the fact that she can’t control it. Part of me feels like an asshole now.

I’m opening my mouth to try to smooth things over, maybe even offer to stay with Jeannie while Tess is here, as much of a hassle as that will be for me, but then—

“Oy, Tess! You here?”

I take a step back to catch sight of three random men pushing through the door in the foyer at the base of the stairs, each carrying a bag and looking around with interest. When I turn to Tess, I notice relief in her features, her mouth even twisting up in a smile.

“Be right there!” she calls, leaning past me. Then she gives me her attention once more. “Look. I’m sorry to inconvenience you—but I can handle myself. I’m really sorry I put you in that…position last night, but it won’t happen again. I can do this job, and now that I know what to expect, I can handle whatever issues arise on my own going forward.”

I can feel the argument trying to escape my mouth, but she’s already pushing past me to bound down the stairs. I move to brace myself on the banister as I watch her throw herself at one of the men, feeling a prickling sensation in my skin as I watch them take turns hugging her tight. Just watching them makes my stomach churn for some reason.

Am I…jealous?

No. Absolutely not. It’s just my fucking instincts and hormonal bullshit. Besides, I reason—to myself or my alpha, I can’t be sure—these have to be her brothers . Her beta brothers, she said. They pose no threat to me.

Not that there would be any reason for them to.

I know I should go introduce myself and play nice or whatever, but right now…I can’t seem to muster up the desire to do anything more than push off the banister and skulk back to my room. My room, which still smells completely saturated with her .

I tell myself that in a day or so, these urges will abate. Everything I’m feeling is just a direct result of what happened. It’s a natural response, that’s all.

I take a deep breath, letting her sweet scent fill my nostrils, only realizing what I’ve done when I feel myself start to harden in my sweats.

Natural response , I scoff at myself.

Right.