Page 3 of Crave

Present

The sun shone through the window of the room I was currently nesting in. This wasn’t my Packhouse. Wasn’t my home. The Alphas outside these locked doors weren’t my Alphas. But beside me was the greatest love of my life, so that was something.

Somehow, by some weird twist of fate, the Goddess—or Mother Nature, biology, whatever—had gone insane and spontaneously turned all unmated female Betas into Omegas in a mass procreation event, complete with simultaneous heats and a town-wide frenzy.

And guess who got caught up in that? Yep, this girl.

Quinn was wrapped around my body like he was trying to soak me in, and I was hoping the pungentfuck mepheromones I was throwing off were enough to disguise the scent that was starting to seep through his skin. He hadn’t taken Jericho’s suppressant meds since this whole Omega bullshit started, and they were starting to wear off for the first time in a decade. We’d been religious about ensuring he’d taken them every day since we’d been discovered in California by a group of Legion soldiers.

That month had been the best of our lives. We’d been free, even though we’d lived basically like hermits in a flea-ridden hotel under an overpass. It hadn’t mattered; we’d been fucking happy. So damn joyful.

But in the end, like all good things, it ended. We’d been dragged back to Maxton like errant children, but at least the drugs had time to take effect, and we were brought back as two naughty Beta teens and not a fucking runaway Omega. There would’ve been much more dire consequences than being quickly paired off. Quinn’s parents had mated him to Wilkie as soon as he’d arrived back, and I’d begged to go with him, convincing Wilkie we’d be better as a Beta pair. There was no doubt in my mind that I’d rather suffer in Wilkie’s Pack every day than be separated from Quinn.

And damn, had I suffered. We both had.

If only Jericho could see us now. We’d ended up in the same position again. I’d only visited the handsome witch once after we made it back, just before the mating ceremony with the Wilkie Pack. I’d begged for something that would prevent our bastard Alpha from matebonding Quinn and I.

Jericho had provided, and to this day, neither Quinn nor I were bonded to that old fuck. Not that he’d admit it, even under pain of death.

I wasn’t sure what Jericho had done, but every time Wilkie got naked within a certain distance of us, he couldn’t get hard. Stayed as soft as a cheap ice cream in the sun. Obviously you couldn’t matebond if you had erectile dysfunction. And that psychopath had punished me for it every single day of our Pack lives.

More than once, Errol—another Beta—had stepped in to stop Wilkie from beating me into unconsciousness. Errol wasn’t a bad guy; he was just weak and useless. It was his bite that was on my neck. He was the only real anchor to the Wilkie Pack we had, though Wilkie liked to pretend it was his mark marring the soft curve of Quinn’s neck and my own.

No, Errol wasn’t so bad. But Wilkie’s second Beta, Green, and even Joseph, the third down the Pack hierarchy, were all monsters. Monsters I’d have to return to any minute now. This was just a brief respite in the shitshow that was my life.

Who would’ve ever predicted that I’d be an Omega?

I had a brief flash of Quinn poised over me, both of us fulfilling a biological need and connecting deeper than I’d ever thought possible. Mated Omegas. My heart thumped in my chest as it filled with emotion that threatened to choke me.

Quinn stirred behind me, his fingers pressing into the soft flesh of my hip. My body ached, and I was starving. As if on cue, Quinn’s stomach rumbled where it was pressed against my spine. We’d fucked for a whole three days as the heat hit me hard, and it had taken that long for Quinn’s meds to wear off enough to enact his natural Omega instincts. But there wasn’t a single Alpha in this room to impregnate my Omega, and I intended to keep it that way for as long as goddamn possible.

“The heat is over,” he said with a yawn, though his morning wood seemed to contradict his words. He didn’t have to say more, though. The heat had been a surprising, lust-filled haze. Now reality was coming, and that bitch was going to slap hard.

I was hoping that we could milk this for another day or so before we’d have to go back to the Pack. “Get up and take your meds, babe. Paradise is coming to an end, and I refuse to give Wilkie the satisfaction of two Omegas.”

My voice was light, but Quinn’s face still folded into a frown as he reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out a pill bottle. Without fail, Jericho sent a new packet every month. He wasn’t in his house on the outskirts of town now, and I didn’t know where he’d gone. But the pills kept arriving in our prearranged spot close to town, and every time I mentally thanked him for keeping Quinn safe, even if he’d moved on with his life.

Quinn’s sigh was filled with years worth of suffering and worry. “He’s not going to let the matebond slide anymore. He’d probably tape popsicle sticks to his dick just to fuck you.” It’d be funny if it wasn’t true.

I shuddered, pure disgust making the hairs on my arms raise. “The average heat without a secondary Omega goes for a week, right?” I whispered. “I say we drag it out another few days. Merrick and Murphy will let us stay.”

Quinn frowned at the mention of the two Alphas who were currently letting us make use of their nest. Well, it was a spare room with all their pillows, blankets—hell, were those their shirts?—tossed in. I swallowed hard as I turned my face to sniff the tee beneath my head. Looks like I’d buried my face in Murphy’s shirt as Quinn made me come. My Omega had wanted to roll around on the scent of those two Alphas, men I’d known since I was a kid. Men I’d loved for so many years before I’d had to make a choice between them and Quinn.

And I’d always choose Quinn’s safety over my happiness. Every damn time.

“Considering Merrick bit off Wilkie’s ear, I’m almost positive they’ll let us stay as long as we like.”

I flipped over to face Quinn so fast I felt woozy. “Excuse me?”

We hadn’t spoken much about what led up to me waking in this nest with Quinn by my side. He’d given me the rough version—I was now an Omega, as were a bunch of the other female Betas in town. We were at Merrick and Murphy’s place because they’d been tasked by the Alpha General to retrieve us from Wilkie’s Packhouse after I’d fallen unconscious and the rest of the Pack had gone kind of nuts.

When I’d woken up, there was just the heat and a whole lot of fucking. So much fucking. With no Alphas in here, it had all fallen to Quinn, and he’d stepped up admirably. I was deliciously wrung out.

His laugh was amused, but there was an undertone of bitterness. “When I called Radic because you’d collapsed—your eyes rolled back in your head, and then you were dead to the world—he sent Merrick and Murphy. I was so fucking scared, Zanny. Wilkie was prowling around and trying to drag your body back to his room, saying you were a much better lay unconscious.”

I vomited a little in my mouth, but I was unsurprised. We’d lived for years with that piece of shit. Nothing he could say would surprise me anymore.

“Anyway, Errol was arguing with him that something was obviously wrong, and I took the moment to drag you into my room and barricade the door. Merrick and Murphy showed up, and Wilkie fronted up to them. There was a fight, but Wilkie’s no match for both of them. Anyway, in the fight Merrick bit off Wilkie’s ear, and apparently Doc was too busy to sew it back on.”

---