Page 3 of This Pack of Ours

An omega without a pack had two options for their heat: ride it out, preferably while sedated, or fill their body’s need for knots by finding a pack of willing alphas. Not that there was anything official to organize heat helpers.

I knew for a fact most of the packs here were part of a covert online forum as heat helpers. My grandmother had somehow found it. She kept sending me photos of the bidding wars—blurry, bright pictures of her computer screen followed by a wall of her commentary.

“Yeah," she said, recovering enough to straighten a bit.

“Wait, 514?” I wrinkled my nose. “That’s the Aven pack, right?”

She nodded, and I grimaced, rubbing my face with the end of my sleeve.

“Cancel,” I said.

“Excuse me?” Her eyebrow raised. “Cancel… my heat?”

My face went hot again.

“N—No, but you can’t go with them.”

She didn’t look convinced.

“I caught them trying to spike someone’s drink last month,” I said in a low voice. It was the rich ones who got away with shit like that. I’d reported them, but I didn’t have faith that anything would come of it. I swear, the richer they were, the worse they thought they could treat omegas. I’d heard rumours that at Rookwood Academy—where super rich packs went—an omega had shown up to a ball covered inbite marks.Like permanent scars, head-to-toe. That was some vicious shit.

“Just… can I take you to a sedation clinic or something?”

“Fuck. No, I… can’t.” Her expression crumpled and then, without warning, she burst into tears.

Shit.

It was too much. She was this fierce gold pack omega. She couldn’t break down in front of me. I launched forward, tugging her into a hug.

She froze.

God, Kit, you can’t just go around hugging people like this, I told myself. Before I could turn away, though, she curled into me, hands gripping my shirt again. Sobs wracked her body, and my eyes were watering too, because I knew how unfair this was. We were at the mercy of our heats—we’d all felt that at one time or another—and it was worse for her as a gold pack. But maybe I could help her a little bit. For the first time, I felt a purr in my chest as she sobbed, trying to soothe her, one hand stroking her hair and the other her back.

Soothe.

I found my aura reaching out to hers—a storm of fear and misery. Our auras weren’t like alpha’s auras, they didn’t give us any extra strength, they were just instincts mixed with our scents. I breathed, slowly letting my scent mix with hers, drawing her into the calm.

I held her until her tears subsided, and then she just clutched me, her eyes closed. Warmth spread through me as she held on. The moment seemed to stretch on forever, with her resting in my arms, her only movement an occasional hiccup.

She gave a stuttering sigh, and then pulled away, wiping her tear-streaked cheeks.

“Sorry,” she said with a sniff, not meeting my eyes. “I was sedated last heat. There was an alpha—fuck—” She choked off, not able to finish as another tear slid down her already soaked cheek.

“Shit.” I pulled her close again. Given our cycles, that couldn’t have been more than a few months ago. She took another steadying breath. “God, I’m just trying to survive this heat,” she said, her voice wobbly. “And I thought maybe… if I got helpers from an academy….”

I rubbed her back and looked down at her, offering a shy smile.

“I’ll make sure you’re safe, okay? I know all the packs here, and there aremuchbetter options.” I pulled back, and those beautiful gold eyes met mine, looking… hopeful. My heart skipped a beat. “I’ll take you there—ask them myself. What’s the Aven pack paying you?”

She blinked at me, cocking her head, clearly confused.

Fuck.

“You’re not charging them?” I asked. I didn’t think my opinion on the Aven pack could drop any lower, but here we were. They’d let her travel here all by herself while she was in pre-heat, and they weren’t even offering a dime?

I’d seen what they were willing to pay. She must not know about the forum; probably found this pack via a sketchy KevinsList personal ad.

“What if they say no?” she asked.

---