Page 33 of Knot Our Omega

“Yeah?” She swiped at her forehead with the back of her hand. “I’m just so hot. If this is what it feels like, no wonder suppressants are used. I just took a cool shower, and I think I need another one already. Between the sweat and the slick…I can’t imagine feeling less attractive.”

Vargas smirked. “You look pretty hot to me, and not hot in a bad way.”

“How can you say that? I must just look so gross.”

“Anything but,” I murmured. “You know how heat works right? It makes the female want her mates but also the mates go wild for her. The scent alone had me stiff as sticks.”

“Is that an expression?” Vargas asked. “Remember, English isn’t my first language.”

“I don’t think so. I just made it up.”

“Whatever. It isn’t helping me to get past this misery.” Rumor marched over to the sink and stuck her face under the stream of water. “This sucks so much.”

Wilder gave us both a look, and we nodded. “Rumor, before you go in any deeper, we’d like to ask you something.”

“Sure, what?” She sounded less tense now. “Anything.”

“If you’re in agreement, we’d like to mark you and take care of your heat before you get any deeper into the haze.”

“After breakfast,” I added.

“And that’s what I need my strength for?” She started to protest then stopped. “Okay, toast and eggs and bacon because I will need a lot of strength for this, I think.”

I was making basted eggs using the bacon grease when Rumor’s phone buzzed on the counter.

“Could you get that for me?” she asked. “It’s probably just spam.”

Sad, but she really didn’t have anyone but us to call her. She’d been totally cut off from her whole life except her friend Lily who had managed to call a couple of times.

“I’ve got it.” I was closest. “Oh, what the hell?” I read the text and handed the phone to Rumor. “Just delete it.”

She frowned, but when she read the screen, she just shook her head. “Why?”

“I don’t know, but let’s enjoy our breakfast and not think about it too much.”

“It’s insane,” she muttered, but helped herself to a slice of toast just as I slid the plate of eggs and bacon across the table to her. “I don’t understand her at all anymore.”

After we ate, Rumor wandered off to shower and dress, and I was alone with the other alphas. “What was that?” Wilder asked.

I pushed the phone Rumor left behind across the table to him, and he swiped the screen. “What is this? Why does she want to know if we’ve marked Rumor? If her heat has come on. They’re twins. Maybe Reyna thinks their heats should line up or something? But why would she care? She made it pretty obvious that she has no love for our omega.”

“That’s a puzzle.” Vargas studied the phone in turn and frowned. “But I don’t like it. I don’t trust that alpha female. It’s not like she calls every day to chat up her sister and see how things are going. Her only contacts are like this, demanding personal information in a way that makes me very uncomfortable.”

“Agreed.” I moved to clear the table, trying to think of a reason that was not sinister. She didn’t want to know if they lined up, did she? Did females do that? I’d never heard of such things, but I did have limited experience with females. “I think we need to be extra vigilant with her. That pack was about as sleazy as any I’ve seen and if they are behind this, nothing good can be happening.”

“But she’s safe here.” Wilder cracked his knuckles. “As long as we’re on the homestead.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Vargas

We should have stayed on the homestead.

But we needed provisions if we were going to survive three-to-five days of nearly nonstop sex. Wilder hadn’t been joking about our omega needing her strength. Actually, we all would, and none of us were going to want to break away and cook elaborate meals. Or anything complicated at all.

We thought about leaving her at home with one of us, but what if there was an attack? Not that we had a reason to expect one, but we were all uneasy enough to prefer to keep her with us all. Also, she wanted to come, and we didn’t want to have her worried about anything while she was dealing with the onset of heat.

Rumor had a list of things to pick up while we were in town, and it seemed as soon as we got going, her symptoms eased some. She had begun to like shopping, and we liked to make her happy.

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