Page 16 of Overeager
“Why the fuck are you so gloomy?” Spencer asked, tugging on Noah’s backpack and making it clear Noah had lost the don’t-come-off-as-a-grumpy-dick battle. “Regretting your decision to take Omega Studies?”
Noah gave him a shove toward the side of the path. “No.”
“Whyareyou taking it, anyway?” Spencer let the momentum of Noah’s shove land him at Chase’s side, slinging an arm around the beta’s shoulders. “Think they messed up your designation?”
Noah wished Spencer was still in shoving distance, but he had to make do with flipping him off. “It fulfills one of my gen ed requirements, genius. Plus, my folks think all alphas should be required to take it. For a bit of empathy.” He said the last part pointedly, but if Spencer caught it, he brushed it right off.
“Why areyoutaking it, then?” Spencer gave Chase’s shoulders a little shake, directing his question to the beta.
Chase shrugged, walking easily despite Spencer’s manhandling. “Because I wanted a class with Noah.”
“Ugh. Why are you so cute?” Spencer pinched Chase’s cheek, avoiding his half-hearted answering punch easily, then leaned over to swipe a hand down Noah’s neck in a casual scent marking before veering off in the direction of his own class. “Your funeral, bros! Let’s meet for lunch!”
Noah and Chase both stopped for a moment, staring after his departure. “Is it too late to give him back?” Noah asked.
“Yeah, pretty sure we’re stuck with him.”
It was nonsense anyway, and they both knew it. Their trio had been in the same freshman orientation group, and they’d all just … clicked. Three years later and they were living together by choice, so apparently there was no unclicking to be had.
The two of them kept on toward class, and Chase caught Noah looking at his phone again. “Still no text?”
Noah glared at his phone. “Maybe—maybe I wasn’t any good.”
It hadn’t felt that way at the time. It had felt fucking amazing, the way Eli’s body had taken him in. The little sounds he’d made, and the way his legs had locked behind Noah’s hips, pulling him in closer. Noah wanted more of it. He wanted Eli to ride him, to see what it looked like with that small frame grinding down on top of him. He wanted to fucking taste him, to part Eli’s cheeks and tongue every bit of slick out of him. He wanted toknothim, to stuff him full and keep him close for hours, pushing him into orgasm after orgasm.
“Dude.”
Noah came out of his horny fog to find Chase staring at him. “What?”
“Are you—?” Chase wrinkled his nose with a cough. “Your pheromones, man.”
“Oh fuck.” Noah reined them in again with a bit of effort, wincing. “Sorry.”
“No worries.” Chase gave another awkward cough. “I can barely smell it,” he lied. “Just thought you might not want to rock up to the lecture hall putting out sex signals for all to scent.”
Noah shoved his phone back in his pocket, irritated with himself. He wasn’t some newly presented alpha, letting hisrampant pheromones run wild like that. “What’swrongwith me?”
“You’ve got a crush.” Chase shrugged, turning the brim of his cap backward. “Happens to the best of us.”
“Doesn’t happen to you,” Noah pointed out.
Chase wasn’t a virgin, but Noah had never seen him falling hard for anyone either. The beta was kind of … reserved. It probably would have been good for him to have a crush, actually. He’d been sort of subdued since leaving the lacrosse team last year. Chase claimed he didn’t regret it, and Noah had a feeling that was at least partially true, but he still seemed off.
“That’s cause I’m—Oof.”
Noah caught Chase’s arm as the beta stumbled, having run straight into a broad chest. The man he’d run into was an alpha for sure. And probably a professor, based on how he was dressed, in a tight button-down and slacks. He had a sheaf of handouts in his hands, half of which had dropped to the ground when Chase had crashed into him.
And Chase was just staring at him, wide-eyed.
Noah stepped forward. “Sorry, man,” he said. “I’ll grab—” He stopped when the alpha professor sent a piercing look his way, a rush of dark, heavy pheromones freezing Noah in place.
Holy shit. That was some intense stuff, even for another alpha.
It was Chase who unfroze first, kneeling and grabbing the papers, handing them back to the professor. “Here you are, sir.”
The alpha took them from him, locking eyes with Chase. “There’s a good boy,” he murmured, his voice a deep rumble. Or at least, that was what Noah thought he’d said, but that would have been, like, way inappropriate, wouldn’t it? The alpha nodded. “Carry on, then.”
And after one last, lingering glance at Chase, he swept past them, heading into the math and sciences building.
