Page 140 of Toxic

What did it even mean? I knew—felt—that Skye already had his own opinion on it. Of course, True Mates were known for their intense attraction and insatiable libido, able to go at it like rabbits all day long. But I didn’t let myself entertain that absurd thought because it would’ve been… just too perfect. And it would’ve shattered all my fears and the walls I’d so carefully built around myself since the day Anton left. And I just wasn’t convinced there was a need for that.

In fact, I didn’t want to analyze it. At all. I’d hate to get my hopes up because I knew that if it turned out not to be true, I’d feel even more crushed, devastated.

My philosophy was simple: expect the worst, and at best, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I lived by that motto.

Carefully, inch by inch, I pulled away from Skye, feeling his dick slip out of me slowly. I regretted that the connection was ending, but a new day had begun, and what happened yesterday… well, belonged in yesterday. I had to deal with it now, and with my trembling, writhing conscience.

Skye didn’t wake up. He just muttered something, and his hand made a gesture like he wanted to reach for me, but I was already gone, so it just fell back onto the blanket.

I got up quietly, picking up my clothes from the floor. Putting them back on wasn’t pleasant, especially since my thighs were practically glued together, streaks of dried semen covering them. I didn’t even want to touch my ass; it was crusted over with it too.

A similar layer coated my lower abdomen. I’d lost count of how many times I’d come. It was insane—one long, hours-long frenzy of ecstasy.

I sneaked out of the room as cautiously as possible and headed to mine for a shower and some time to think about what I needed to do next.

Mainly, facing the horrible reality of me… cheating. It all felt heavy, inevitable, as I stood under the warm streams of water, washing away the traces of the sin I’d committed.

The grim realization was there: I needed to urgently call Liam.

Yet, there was something else gnawing at me, as I looked at my body in the mirror. One thing was almost shocking. During the crazy evening, Skye had left a lot of hickeys on my body—I saw them when I stood up for a minute to grab a bottle ofmineral water—I glimpsed red spots all over my chest and neck in the wall mirror. Now… my skin was damn flawless. What the fuck just happened? Also—my hole. It should have been wrecked, sore and swollen, but it was not. It was as if I hadn't even had sex yesterday, let alone an all-nighter!

Even the bite mark on my neck gland looked healed, pale, flat, like an already stable mating scar and… the area around it wasn’t hypersensitive at all. And it should have been—Skye bit me hard (which I loved)!

But I couldn’t dwell on that too long because something else, much more disturbing, caught my attention.

My nipples looked different than usual. Instead of their normal raspberry-pink hue, they were now dark red, almost burgundy.

Fear gripped my throat. They always changed color like this the day before… my mini-heat.

Was this happening again? Was Fate really this cruel to me? I stared at my body… my treacherous body. Having unprotected sex even up to seven days before a heat meant—I’d get pregnant.

Fuck, no! I cursed under my breath and pressed my hands to my face.

In situations like this, an omega would just take a morning-after pill, but with my messed-up body, that wouldn’t work. A beta’s hormonal system was significantly different from an omega’s, whose hormones were produced by neck glands.

All the available drugs affected that production, but for some betas, like me, there wasn’t much to block. Our glands were only minimally active. The pregnancy mechanism was unusual—there were many differences even among betas themselves. Often, the hormones that sustained pregnancy didn’t come from the neck glands but from quasi-ovaries, or sometimes a mix of the two, interacting with each other in amultitude of ways. That was why hormonal treatments were unreliable.

At moments like this, I cursed my fate—why I had to be some weird mutant—a beta with omega traits that came in the form of bigger nipples and a slick-producing ass. But not only that, also with something far more distressing and tragic.

Cursing under my breath, I dried my hair and dressed in a way that hid the new scar on my neck under a turtleneck. For some reason, I didn’t want to fuel Skye’s suspicions about our mateship, as it did… fuel mine enough. But I managed to forcefully push it out of my mind.

Then I grabbed my phone and sat on the bed, curling my legs underneath me.

Yes, I had to make that dreaded call. I’d done what I would never forgive any boyfriend for doing. Hypocrite. Cheater. That’s what I’d become.

My hand trembled as I dialed his number.

"Soren?" I heard Liam’s voice, a hint of happiness in it. Sadly, his happiness wouldn’t last long.

"Hey, I have some bad news."

"What happened? Where are you?"

"What happened? Well… where to start. I don’t have any excuse for what I did, except that I was drinking. But even that doesn’t fully explain it. I think I wanted it—no matter how shitty that sounds—I’ve wanted it for so long."

There was a brief silence on the line, then Liam asked in a seemingly calm tone, "Did you sleep with him?"

"Yes." I barely recognized my own voice. It sounded choked, as if something was gripping my throat, drenched in so much shame that I had to clear it just to keep talking.

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