Page 31 of Want It All
‘Seb,’ Tristan said, his voice breaking through my stupor. ‘We’re back, baby.’
I looked up, confused. We’d stopped, and I was holding Rose’s hand, staring at her wrist. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been doing it, but Banksia waited before us, its windows staring down intently.
‘Let’s go inside, yeah?’ Tristan murmured.
I nodded, but because I couldn’t help myself, I lifted Rose’s hand to my lips.
I couldn’t scent anything but soap, sand, and salt, but it jolted through my veins regardless.
She stared at me, her eyes slightly glazed.
I inhaled and caught a hint of sweet scent.
My own.
Tristan reacted immediately. ‘Come on, baby,’ he said, and I was swept inside in a whirlwind of alpha. There were a handful of students in the entranceway beyond the double doors, but they scattered – literallyscattered– when Tristan glared at them, dominance flowing outwards like a fucking tsunami.
The last thing I glimpsed through the doors was Rose’s startled face.
‘It shouldn’t be for another fortnight,’ Tristan said under his breath, half dragging me up the stairs. ‘Those motherfucking doctors will be hearing from me.’ He got me into our room, locking the door behind us and immediately turning up the air purifier as my scent thickened.‘Fuck, baby,’ he murmured, his pupils blowing out, his thick erection pressing against his board shorts. ‘What do you need?’
‘You,’ I managed, and a handful of moments later I was standing in the shower and my cock was halfway down his throat.
He bundled me up on the couch afterwards, checking the calendar as he dragged a hand through his damp curls. ‘It isn’t supposed to come for another fortnight,’ he repeated, his distress pressing against my skin. A purr rumbled through my chest in response as I tried to soothe him, but it didn’t seem to help.
‘This has never happened,’ he said tightly. ‘Those suppressants are supposed to work. Those doctorsassuredus. Maybe we need –’
He fell silent as a loud, insistent knock sounded on the door.
Iknewwhoitwas, even before I opened the door.
He let me step outside and close the door before his fists found my collar and he pinned me against the wall.
‘What thefuck?’ he hissed. His expression was furious, his knuckles white. There were two perfect spots of outraged red on his pale cheeks, and I’d never seen his grey eyes so stormy.
‘Not here,’ I answered tersely, pushing him away – with more difficulty than I’d anticipated – before striding to the study room at the end of the hall. Two later-year students were sitting inside, studying. ‘Get out,’ I said, and after scrambling to collect their laptops and phones, they did.
Byron waited until they’d closed the door, then rounded on me. ‘An omega?’ he raged. ‘He’s an omega?You brought your omega here,unbitten and unbonded? Whose idea was it to pass him off as a beta?Fuck,’ he went on, raking his hands through his already-dishevelled hair. ‘Amale omega. I didn’t even know there was one in thecountry. Is he registered? He can’t be registered,’ he growled, answering his own question. ‘There’d beOPF officers here if he was; they’d never leave him alone. And packs wouldkillto have him.Fuck. This is so dangerous I can’t even comprehend it.’
‘Do you think you’re telling me anything I don’t already know?’ I said coldly.
Byron stopped and looked at me, reallylooked, and I felt suddenly exposed. I was used to being the dominant alpha in most places, but it struck me that right nowI might not be. This huge alpha with his gentle grey eyes could be the one to put me on my back.
His eyes weren’t gentle now, though. They were dark, intent, his pupils blown out with anger.
Or lust.
Possibly both.
‘Did Rose catch his perfume?’ I said abruptly.
His scent hadn’t been strong. He’d taken extra blockers through the day, and it was a heat spike, rather than the prelude to an actual heat – something that Sebastian had never had. The moment he’d emerged as an omega – a few months after I’d met him, and later than people usually revealed – he’d taken so many heat suppressants that the doctors I’d paid to keep quiet were sure he’d done permanent damage to his hormonal cycle.
I can’t, he’d said, terrified and determined all at once.I can’t be this. I can’t letthisget in my way.
Every instinct in me had roared to life, wanting to protect my beta – my new omega – from everyone, from everything. Watching him fight his newly emerged nature and his own instincts had been a new kind of torture, but it was what he wanted, so I’d clamped my inner alpha down tight and done whatever I could to support him. Which included helping him through the monthly heat spikes, which the doctors had assured us were his body’s way of reconciling his suppressed heats.
Until now, the heat spikes had been like clockwork. But this one wastwo weeks early, and I was riding a wave of anxious worry as my instincts shouted at me to run back to Sebastian’s side, to cool his fever, soothe his hurts, and tend his aching cock.
