Page 22 of Real

Unless…

“Buddy, I know you don’t start your heat for another hour, but I’m worried about other alphas picking up your scent. Just for the sake of safety, would you consider… letting me mark you?”

I don’t even know if that would work. At the beginning of a red wolf shifter’s heat, an omega smells irresistible. But if they let an alpha bite their scent gland, their scent shifts and they’re not desirable to anyone but the alpha who claimed them. It doesn’t need to be a bite deep enough to form a bond. Just a gentle bite. We used to call it a bite of intention.

Unfortunately, my teeth were extracted in the breeding pits so I couldn’t bond to any of the omegas. A nonprofit organization paid for me to get nice implants that look very real, but they aren’t.

Would Buddy’s body react to a bite of intention from me?

Buddy reaches out for my arm. “Mark me? What do you mean?”

“Bite the crook of your neck. You don’t have to let me. It’s okay. We can figure out something else.”

Buddy yanks on the collar of his precious crane shirt to bare his neck for me. At the crook there’s a small patch of skin that’s pinker than the skin around it—just like the scent gland of an omega red wolf shifter. That patch of skin is breathtakingly beautiful. Buddy arches his neck toward me, and I can’t help myself. I slide my arm around him and pull him close, letting my shirt fall as I bury my nose in his neck.

He lets out a breathy, “Oh” and clutches at my shirt like a lifeline.

“Can I?” I whisper. I want to bite him more than I want my next breath.

“Please,” he moans.

I open my mouth and bite down. His skin is salty and so fused with his scent, I don’t want to let him go. I suck at his skin, unable to pull myself away.

He sobs.

I finally snap out of it. “Did it not work?” I should have told him there was a possibility I couldn’t mark him properly.

Then his scent shifts. He smells sweeter than before.

He smells like mine.

“Please, H. I’ll do anything. Anything.” His voice is soft and vulnerable. Desperate.

Is he already in heat? I thought it wasn’t starting for another hour.

“Buddy, did your heat start early?”

He breaks down crying, ducking his forehead into my chest. “I’m sorry. You’re so wonderful. I have a mouth. I have hands. Please, H. I’d do anything for just one time with you. Please.”

He isn’t making any sense. I tuck my finger under his chin and tilt his head up. Tears are streaming down his cheeks.

“I’m so sorry. I know you don’t want me. I’m nothing but plastic. Worthless.”

I kiss him hard. He needs to know how beautiful he is. A part of me knows that he’s only desperate for my touch because of his heat. I have no right to kiss or reassure him. But his lips are so soft and wet. I devour them, spearing my tongue inside his hot mouth. Buddy kisses me back with a ferocity that leaves me breathless.

He wants me. God, he wants me.

I reach around with my other hand and cup his ass. I shouldn’t. God, this is wrong.

He trembles against me and the scent of his slick becomes overpowering.

In the back of my mind, I know he’s exactly like the omegas in the pits. They didn’t care who I was. They were so drugged, they couldn’t. But I could offer Buddy a little relief, couldn’t I? Not with my dick of course. What if I fingered him? It wouldn’t be about me getting off, just giving him what he needs.

Or that’s how I justify it to myself.

“What do you need?” I ask, squeezing his ass.

“You,” he whines. “Please. I won’t tell anyone you fucked me. It’ll be a secret. Please. You can pretend I’m whoever you want.”

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