Page 19 of Bubblegum Pop

“Yes,” Odin said coarsely. “I don’t think I’m much use now.”

Bones gave him a sharp nod before he moved back to the door, taking my original position.

Candy was meant to stay inside, to wash up with the attendants while the team cleaned the room. After that, they’d begin post-heat treatment, and we’d have to endure another pack entering her room and wait for her moans to start all over again.

There was a group of four betas in pink dresses hovering by the open door with their trolleys and hoovers, frustrated looks on their faces as they moved around us. Even if they wanted to get on with their job, they had to be used to the fact that omegas needed time between guests leaving and the post-treatment pack arriving.

Another beta finally emerged from the room, wearing the navy blues of the attendants that stood inside the suite when the clients were with the hosts. “She’s rejected post-heat treatment,” she said, biting her lip and looking back at the door. “We’re letting her stay for a bit longer. She doesn’t want to leave yet.”

The head maid sighed as she adjusted her hoover. “Well, can we at least start cleaning?”

The attendant twisted her lips, her gaze landing on Odin and I pressed against the wall. She stepped away to let them through, and another brush of Candy’s cloying scent wafted from the room before the door clicked shut.

“Maybe she doesn’t know what to do next?” Odin said as I paced myself, trying to keep us level. Though I hated to see him stressed, it was better than his anger, and I nodded, my thumb stroking his hip. He didn’t need me to point out that they’d been prepping her for weeks. He already knew that.

It was an ironclad rule that we shouldn’t interfere with the hosts, though we were growing more tense with every second that dragged by.

All we heard for the next hour was the occasional whirring of hoovers.

By the time the cleaning crew was done, the two of us were complete messes, jumping at even the tiniest creak from behind the door.

Bones stayed with us, though I suspected it was to make sure we didn’t do anything stupid, like barge into the room while she was in there.

The cleaners exited the room along with the attendants, almost exactly like those alphas had done, chatting away like nothing was wrong. “How is she?” I asked as I pushed myself off from the wall.

“She’s fine,” one answered. “She’s had a shower.”

“She’s just resting.” Another scowled at us for blocking her way.

But they were betas, and they didn’t know what it was like. We’d seen what happened in the past when omegas rejected the treatment—it could throw them off for months. Some of them became balls of anxiety, endlessly touch-starved, no matter how attentive their clients were, and some collapsed whenever anyone came near them.

She needed someone there with her. Post-heat omegas were most vulnerable like this. Even if it was a beta attendant, she needed someone to hold her, to help her relax, to make her purr.

Fierce tension still vibrated in our bond, and the deep pool of calm that forced down my rage was faltering. Even though I’d practised for years to hold us together, there was only so much I could take.

“It should be us,” Odin said, his quiet words powerful in the empty corridor.

I stared at the closed door, hands curled, nails digging into my palms as I drew in a ragged breath.

“We should be in there with her.” His voice grew deeper, tinged with longing.

After days of standing guard and sleepless nights, I was fighting a losing battle. Trying to calm a rut-fuelled Zeus from afar and keep Odin placid had taken all my energy, and now the only thing left to do was give in.

“Apollo! Wait!” Bones called out, but it was too late.

I leapt toward the room, my swallowed anger bursting to the surface as a growl ripped from me, and I tore open the door.

Candy

Iwas still in heat. It had been four days of endless pain, and the fuckboy alphas who bought me were finally leaving.

£100,000, that was what I was worth. And I’d get twenty-five per cent of it, which was more than I ever thought I could earn in my life.

As soon as I entered pre-heat, they were notified, and my alphas drove me to the spa. The winners arrived just as I did. They were uni students on holiday, so they answered the call straight away.

That was the day my omega instincts took over, where I needed to build a nest and create a safe space for myself before we began. They paid to have me for five days, and they came before I could build a nest, so everything from the warehouse staff still lay in the corner, waiting to be unwrapped. They didn't touch it once the whole time they were in the room.

I thought I just had to pretend I liked it, like every other time I’d fucked for money. I had no idea what it really meant to be in heat.

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