Page 13 of Fallen Omega

The smoke on the wind holds hints of rum and roses. Mossand secrets, naked pagan chases under a big-bellied moon. I want?—

“Stop that,” I reprimand myself.

I smell an alpha. Another one. That’s all.

Someone rushes, bumping into me. The man smells of expensive cologne that assaults my senses, mainly because he bathed in it, and he offers me irritation in a frown. “Don’t hog the path!”

He darts off, checking his watch, and my shoulders slump as I force myself to walk.

But the smoke is tinged with a dark note like rum soaked tobacco, and I almost stumble as it rolls over me. So damn close. Danger and sex and blood and need. Rough sensuality. That’s the smell.

I whirl around. People are on the streets and cars drive by. Noise the scent blocked out rushes me, and I’m once more in a living, breathing city.

I didn’t even notice when that strange blanket came over me. I search the faces of the crowd, men alone, in groups. Women. Couples.

Nothing. No one stirs me and the scent…

It’s gone.

This is too busy. Too dangerous. I need…I need a place where people don’t follow societal rules. Where I can buy cheap booze, where people keep to themselves.

I’m hoping my vile drug store shield will keep working. I read once that it doesn't stop an omega going crazy over the scent of an alpha, but it can help hide the omega’s scent.

It’s got to be true, right?

My heat’s coming tomorrow, and I need to get something to get me through it. First, I steel myself and head to the place in the Hollows but when I knock and the slat opens, whoever it is slams it shut again and locks it when they see me.

I stand for ten minutes, trying to get them to open, knocking until my knuckles are bruised, but…no one comes.

That blond ghost of a man warned me, but…what am I meant to do? I’ll buy booze, yes, but what kind of fool would I be if I didn’t try to get the blockers?

I can’t stay here. Not tonight. My skin buzzes as I ache, and I’m in the shadowy street. Alone.

No. I’m not alone. I’m being watched.

And as I turn, I catch a knee-buckling whiff of the invisible alpha.

Pagan. Hunter. Killer.

Mine.

I almost stumble back and fall.

Mine?Mine? Where did that come from?

It’s got to be the heat talking. My body’s revving, like it’ll take any alpha.

No. It won’t.

That disgusting man flashes in my mind. Craig. My betrothed.

Anybody except him.

And I can’t stand here all night, either. I turn and walk until I reach the water, the river that runs through Starlight City. There I breathe in the slight salt that comes from the sea beyond and the brackish pools under the boardwalk. It’s a nice walk for an ugly part of town and when I reach the Avenues, I turn left, away from the water.

The Avenues sounds fancy, but it’s a step up or down or maybe sideways from the Hollows, lots of legit and not so legit places. Streets are old, crooked, and cross each other. They’re not on a grid.

But I’ve heard from snippets of conversations at work that there are clubs and bars where you can have a good time, even buy drugs if you want. And the booze is cheap.

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