Page 51 of Knot for Sale

I was so hard in my pants that it was becoming painful.

I was so stupid that it was also becoming painful.

What thehellwas happening to me? I’d been with so many rent-a-packs over the years that I’d lost count. And I’dneversuffered this kind of dewy-eyed omega delusion bullshit. These alphas weren’t looking for a six-bedroom Craftsman in upstate New York. Apparently, they were about to declare war on a major London crime family, which was about as far from picket fences and nurseries as you could get.

It was just my instincts playing tricks on me because of the stress. That was all. In the normal course of things, the crazy patchwork scent of sweet and sharp, rich and musky wouldn’t affect me like this. I just needed to get the craziness out of my system, and everything would be fine. Emma was knotted and out for the count. She’d be all right without me for a few more minutes.

Stifling a groan, I unbuckled my designer Luca Faloni belt and slid my pants and boxers down to my hips. I was leaking slick like I was the one in heat, not Emma. The others had probably been able to smell it, even with the dampeners they’d taken. That should have been mortifying. Instead, the thought made my dick twitch and a fresh pulse of dampness slide down my inner thighs.

I bit the inside of my cheek hard to keep from making noise as I shoved a hand between my legs and jammed three fingers inside myself, then grabbed my cock with the other hand and started pumping.

One of the alphas would do this for you, whispered a little voice in my head.They wouldn’t even give it a second thought...

I came hard, a weird, choked noise slipping past my control as slick squirted around my fingers and clear omega fluid pulsed from my dick. My muscles quivered and jerked, leaving me feeling like a stranded jellyfish lying in a puddle on the beach when my body finally went limp. I let my forehead thump softly against the wall, standing there panting for a minute before I reluctantly dragged myself upright and started cleaning up with wads of toilet paper.

If the others hadn’t been able to smell me before, they sure as hell would now.

Short of jumping in the tiny shower—which would be even more obvious—there was nothing for it.‘Dignity’and‘omega heat’simply weren’t concepts that belonged in the same sentence, unfortunately. In the normal course of things, that was part of the charm. Everyone involved was a mess and nobody cared, because it was simply an unavoidable side effect of the process.

This was not the normal course of things.

I flushed the toilet, disposing of as much of the evidence as I could wipe away. Then I washed my hands and braced myself to wade back into the lake of pheromones outside the door. I tried very hard to ignore the way my passage was clenching around nothing, silently begging for something nice and thick and satisfying to fill it up and make all of my problems go away for a bit.

The problems would still be there, I told it firmly.

Yes, but we wouldn’t care about them, it shot back.

I gritted my teeth, unlocked the door, and slid it open—because the idea of one of the alphas knocking to ask if I was all right while I was having a silent argument with my own genitals was just too mortifying. The stereotype of omegas being crazy and emotional was already bad enough without that kind of extra help from me.

None of the others were lurking outside waiting for my return, but Gabriel was watching from his seat with a look of concern on his face. Curran followed his gaze a moment later.

“All right, lad?” Curran asked.

I nodded, not meeting his eyes, and slunk back to my seat. When I braved a look, Onyx was still spooned behind Emma, pale skin contrasting against tawny. The alpha stroked a hand soothingly over Em’s sweat-damp forehead, their brow furrowed in concern.

“She’s feverish, Curran,” Onyx said. “Like,reallyfeverish.”

As though on cue, Emma let out a low whimper of distress. I tensed, because she should be completely insensible for a few hours while her body recovered from its first peak.

“That’s not right,” I said stupidly.

Curran crouched by Emma and felt her forehead as well. Overcoming my shakiness, I joined them, kneeling among the nest of pillows. Emma rooted against Curran’s rough palm as though following the sensation of coolness.

He grunted. “Bloody heat blockers. She’s been on them forever, right? I thought it seemed like we were getting off too easy.”

“What does that mean?” Gabriel hadn’t risen to join us, but he’d moved forward to perch on the edge of the seat, his elbows resting loosely on his knees.

“They bollocks up the hormone balance of a heat cycle,” Curran said grimly. “And the longer you take them, the worse it gets. The first normal heat when you come off them is usually a clusterfuck, though it hits every omega a bit different.”

“Interesting choice of words to describe a heat,” Onyx said. “Clusterfuck, I mean.”

Curran shot them an unamused glance. “Someone get me some ice and a couple of damp washcloths. Dunno how muchkeeping her temperature down will help, but she needs to be able to rest between rounds.”

Gabriel rose and went toward the galley area, so I returned to the head and went scavenging for washcloths in the little recessed storage cabinets.Goddamn it. I knew all the reasons why omegas used heat blockers. I knew why Em, in particular, used them—even if I didn’t agree with her reasoning. But I still hated them on principal, and this kind of thing was why.

Heats were supposed to beawesome. Obviously, terrific sex was awesome all on its own. But the total, mindless relaxation that came between peaks was a very close second. If Em couldn’t even get peace while she wasactively being knotted—

I clenched my jaw and dampened the washcloths, hurrying back to meet Gabriel, who was holding a plastic container of ice from the fridge. Curran took the ice and rolled up a few pieces in each of the cloths, draping one over Em’s neck and mating gland, and the other over her forehead.

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