Page 55 of Wicked

“He could wait until tonight at nightfall. But he won’t still be in heat on Sunday.”

Ari thinks about that for a moment. “I can’t make it until Sunday. There are clients coming who need me even more desperately than your friend. Write down the address, and I’ll be there. That’s the best I can do.”

21

Manny

One by one, our options dry up. Anne returns with only a pendant to extend Candlewick’s heat for three hours. Lester has an offer from a warlock, but admits the man is unstable and accidentally turned his last client into a goat. Ken is gone the longest. According to Steppe, he disappeared with one of the sanctuary’s cars over six hours ago.

All I can do is savor my precious last hours with Candlewick. The crowd of omegas in our room plays rowdy party games and turns the other way, so I can fuck Candlewick into the mattress as loudly as I want. I’m done feeling self-conscious about sex, so their presence doesn’t matter.

This may be the only time I get to make love to him, and I’m not going to waste it.

Candlewick is sweet and pliant in my arms. He begs for my fingers as often as my knot. He loves it when I suck him off too. Every orgasm I pull from him is a cherished moment I refuse to take for granted. Every kiss and touch and moment we are tied together by my knot is an opportunity to be close to him that I may never get again.

Even if I don’t get to keep him, I want him to know how much he is loved and how hard I fought to be with him. I will not let him walk away from this situation thinking that I didn’t want him with every marrow of my being.

Our friends fight for us too. By drinking far too much champagne in a hospital room or by tracking down the warlock friends. We are supported on all sides. As the minutes tick by, and our chances of being together dwindle, that is more comforting than I could ever express.

Even if we can’t be together, we won’t end up alone.

The night wears on, and Ken returns. He promises his warlock friend will come Sunday night. Lester tries to tell him that Candlewick’s heat will only last until Saturday morning, even with the pendant.

Ken says there’s nothing else he can do. It’s Sunday night or nothing.

Milo walks over to their huddle next to our bed. “What if we shock his system into maintaining their magical connection?”

“What do you mean?” Lester asks.

“Well, they’ve been using condoms, right? To prevent pregnancy? What if they stop using them, and we force Candlewick to feel our thralls more intensely? Make him extremely aware that his thrall has competition? Then when he gets pregnant, he’ll sense these other thralls, and maybe his inner omega will want to hold onto that connection.”

That sounds terrifying for Candlewick. If it didn’t work, it might scar him for life. And even if it did work, he’d likely still be traumatized from the experience.

“We have no reason to think that will be effective,” Lester says.

Anne bites her lip. “I think we should try it. If Candlewick agrees.”

If Candlewick agrees? Candlewick is already in heat. There’s no way he could consent to anything right now.

“Don’t you have some of that fertility stuff they give the omegas in the pits? You help them taper off of it here, right?” Milo asks Ken. “He’ll be more fertile with that. If you give him as much as his system can take, it might heighten his emotional reaction to our thralls too.”

“No,” I say. “I won’t let you do that to him. That medication is horrible. He shouldn’t have to take it.”

Candlewick turns his head and smiles at me, sleepily. We’re tied by my knot now, and he’s resting contentedly in my arms. He probably has no idea what they’re talking about.

“Give me the meds,” he whispers.

“No. They don’t even know that it will work.”

He presses a soft kiss to my cheek. “You fought for me. Let me fight for you. Give me the meds.”

“But if you get pregnant and it doesn’t work—”

“Give. Me. The. Meds,” he repeats. Then he looks up at Milo. “And you. I want you right in my face while we do this. Your thrall is the strongest. If we’re going to shock my system, then we need to go all out.”

To my utter horror, no one cares what I think anymore. Ken and Steppe go get the doctor while Anne gets everyone to sit in a tight circle around our bed. Their thralls are unbearable at this proximity, and for a horrible moment, I think I’m in the pits.

Which is good. I never met an omega in the pits whose thrall didn’t pull me in, even though several of them had children. That means their heats came and went, and I still felt it.

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