Page 30 of Omega Rock

Noah offers his arm and I take it, both of us with our instruments in tow. Leo and Aiden hang behind and keep chatting.

“Boring at best, it seems,” Noah comments as we search for a jam to join.

I giggle. “I’m sure Aiden will open up more soon.”

Noah smirks my way. “I know you already had Leo opening up. Or was it more the other way around?” He playfully taps his chin.

My cheeks flush with warmth. “I was not really, um, functioning that night and?—”

Noah laughs and takes my hand. His long, strong fingers press between mine and take my breath away. I look up at his warm smile and light brown eyes. His pine and cedar scent envelop me. I’m aware that we’re fully surrounded by other party-goers, but for this split second of extended eye contact, it feels like we’re the only people in the entire world.

“I’m just joking, Mia,” Noah finally says. “We all wanted to help you, to be honest. But we weren’t sure…” He breaks eye contact for a moment. “Obviously it’s nothing any of us can control, and we’d just met. But…”

“Scent matches are rare,” I say. Maybe we all should have actually talked this out that next morning instead of me retreating and hiding away for several days. “I just don’t want to let anyone in the band down, you know? I’m aware of the age difference, the experience difference, of what’s at stake, not just for us, but Wes, too.”

I know I’ve said this before. I’ve been thinking it in thought spirals since that morning. And I know that repeating it over and over again, like pacing thought-paths through drying cement to leave permanent marks, won’t make it less of an issue. Still, I word vomit anyway.

Noah reaches up and brushes a stray strand of hair out of my face, then holds my cheek. “You won’t. You’re already amazing, Mia. And if next heat cycle you need us, we’re here.”

The party continues around us. Another jazz group has picked up nearby. Maybe this is the worst place to have this discussion, but we’re having it, apparently.

I shake my head a little. “Mixing pack and band is bound to not end well.”

Noah’s thumb brushes my cheek so casually, so idly, I wonder if he even knows he’s doing it. “Might be worth the risk, though. If taken slowly.”

My heart flutters. I’d been entirely feverish and delirious with my heat when Leo kissed me and more. I was not thinking straight at all. And then I thought way too logical about it all.

Everything both makes sense and doesn’t at all with these alphas. These bandmates. I want to risk it all for the music, but at what cost?

“Slowly,” I echo. “I suppose that’s possible.” The words are logical, but my tone is far more pliable and flirty than it should be for someone who wants to focus on the professionalism.

Noah lets go of my face and nods toward the jazz room. “Let’s dance?”

“Please.”

He leads me to where a group is playing smooth jazz while others dance, too. It’s slow, and Noah immediately pulls me close to him. I feel like I’m dancing with him alone in the middle of the woods, not a crowded room full of other people.

Noah places a hand on my lower back and presses me to him. I inhale his woody scent and try to memorize the parts of his body touching mine. His chest against mine, his head against my forehead. He’s much taller than me, older, and beneath the casual black jeans and dark blue button-down he’s wearing, I can feel how muscular his is.

I can feel how safe this beautiful musician and alpha makes me feel.

Noah spins me around. I chuckle as my back presses against his chest. We dance like this, our guitars set aside nearby, for a few songs. By then I feel a hardness against me where our hips meet. Even through his dark jeans, his arousal is obvious. Noah inclines his head, lowers it to my ear where he sniffs my scent. His nose brushes the sensitive skin of my neck. I relax my head against his shoulder as arousal—genuine, non-heat induced arousal—shoots through me.

My pulse pounds thickly in my ears. Can Noah hear it? Is he aware that every brush of his fingers on my hips, every press of his hips to mine, sends my body into a spiral of warmth and anticipation and need?

As the night pours on, someone in the house dims the lights for mood purposes. It’s then that Noah tightens his grip on my hip with one hand. His other slips behind me to cup my ass.

“You are beautiful, Mia,” he whispers against my ear, just loud enough over the music to be heard. He grinds himself against my ass again.

I release a heavy breath, my lips parted.Fuck.This wasnottaking it slow, but his scent has grown even stronger since we started dancing. I’m not in heat, I’m not in heat, I’mnotin heat. I’m not even drinking.

This is real. This is uninhibited lust.

“Mia,” Noah says as he kisses my neck. “I can’t stop thinking of your scent. Ofeverything.”

My cheeks flush again. So they did hear me at Aiden’s. Of course they fucking heard me—I’m not exactly quiet when I cum, even though I’ve never actually slept with anyone. But when you add all of that to an alpha’s instincts, I’m actually surprised Aiden and Noah didn’t join.

But I know why they didn’t. Respect. Caution.

---