Page 6 of Waiting for Fate
“Bea and Omen will both check in often. They’ve already promised you weekly video calls. Let them head back before it gets too late and you have another reason to fret over them.”
Dad concedes, sniffling as Mom drags him back into the house.
I mouth ‘thank you’ as I climb into the passenger seat of the car Omen and I share. She’s smiling up at the farmhouse door, having watched the entire interaction. I know sometimes it cuts her how deeply my family cares for me when her own family couldn’t care less about her. Bumping my shoulder against hers, I buckle myself in and hook my phone up to the radio.
“Please get us out of here before he has a full meltdown,” I joke.
She shakes her head and rolls her eyes as she pulls us out of the driveway and starts us on what will hopefully be our last trip back to the dorms at the Omega Academy.
Moving is a pain in my ass.
I started feeling the urge to nest late last night, which hasn’t helped my declining mood. My heat is way too close to have this many strangers in my space. I can only hope I will last through everyone helping us move into our new place.
“Come on, bumblebee,” Dad calls from the empty living room. I’m dragging my feet. Trying to force myself to leave the now empty bedroom and carry the last bag out to the car so we can head to Starburgh to meet Omen and the rest of our friends at the apartment.
I fidget through the drive, picking at the seams of my pants and trying not to freak out from how bright the car is. Dad notices though and slips his giant hoodie off to drop it over my head. His buttery popcorn scent fills my nose as I’m buried in the soft fabric. It’s big enough the hood flops down over my eyes, providing the darkness I need to keep myself calm.
I flash him a grateful smile and he squeezes my hand twice before pulling away. As a male omega, he understands all of my urges and instincts on a level my alpha fathers do not.
The urge to hide away in a dark place in anticipation of my upcoming heat is almost overwhelming, especially when there is so much to be done at the apartment. I feel awful for leaving Omen to unpack most of our stuff, but I’ll be checking into a heat suite tonight. There is no way I can handle a messy room with an incomplete nest right now.
The moving truck we rented sits outside of the tan stone building where our new apartment is. A small set of steps leads up into a tiny front yard with neatly kept flower beds beneath the living room window. The reinforced front door currently stands wide open as family friends help us carry boxes and furniture inside. It’s a chaotic mess of scents and bodies that puts my nerves right back on edge.
Stepping inside, I force myself to dive into sorting out the boxes and totes, dragging them to the side in whatever room they belong in. The main room is an open kitchen and living room, separated by a decent sized island with barstools tucked beneath the outer side. My bedroom is directly off of this space, with my nest tucked beside my closet in the back corner. Our shared bathroom and Omen's bedroom are located down a short hallway from my room.
It’s small, but cozy. Perfect for two unbonded omegas to share while they kick ass in their professional careers.
Dragging a box into my bedroom, I find Pops building my bed while my Uncle Memphis reassembles my desk. I wave to them both as I drop a box off and head back to the trucks.
Time blurs as I help unload all of our stuff. Sweat covers my body and my nose itches from all the scents blending together. I’m shuffling over to turn on the scent canceling system attached to our air conditioning unit when Donovan Griffith, my mother’s boss, arrives carrying an enormous stack of pizzas.
The smell of cheesy goodness perks me back up from the funk my hormones have me in, but when he announces he is assigning Omen and me bodyguards for the duration of the Primordial Covenant tour, all my happiness seeps back out of me.
“No.” I demand, shrinking at the thought of being tailed by a stranger for the next two months. For all I know, whoever they assign to us could relay our every move back to Donovan and my parents. I may come from a happy, relaxed family, but that doesn’t mean I want them to know about my late night hook ups. Some things are not supposed to be shared with family.
“Yes,” my father, Phoenix, says sternly. His tone brokers no arguments, but I ignore the pressure of his alpha presence.
Before I can get any complaints out, my mother cuts in. “We aren’t budging on this, Sabine. A senator from New Hampshire has announced his intention to run for office, including an early campaign tour that collides with several of your tour stops. This isn’t about saddling you with a babysitter. There are genuine concerns the protests around the shows may lead to Omen’s identity being outed.”
Well shit. She certainly knows me well enough to know what buttons to press to get me to back down. I would do anything to keep Omen’s birth family from finding her. Even putting up with whatever overbearing bodyguard the DAU sends my way.
When my shoulders sink, my parents relax. They wouldn’t push this on us if it wasn’t serious. Knowing that and accepting it are two very different things. Especially when I am not thinking straight from the pre-heat hormones throwing a rave in my body.
A knock at the apartment door pulls their attention away, so I slip to the couch and sink down next to Omen, grumbling my displeasure and pouting about the situation we’ve found ourselves in.
Two men walk in, greeting Donovan and my parents. My heart races as I watch them. They’re gorgeous. The type of ripped and cocky that makes my pussy weep, and that’s before our eyes even meet.
Donovan leads them over, introducing Omen to her guard first. Lex Ferguson is slightly shorter than his partner, closer to six feet. His dark, honey blonde hair is wavy but short, hanging down over his forehead on top. Dazzling stormy gray eyes quickly move from my best friend to me, and a full body shudder tries to work its way down my spine with the intensity of their depths. The scowl on his face and his rigid posture make him seem like an asshole. I’ve always loved an unredeemable bad boy.
“Bea, meet your assigned bodyguard, Ridley Hale.” Donovan introduces the second man with a gesture of his hand. Short, disheveled hickory hair and a panty melting smile make this alpha seem flirty and down for a quick fuck in the bathroom. His bright blue-green eyes crinkle at the corners as he beams at me, unaffected by my crabby attitude.
I’m in the best kind of trouble if I get to spend the next eight weeks with these two.
Lex and Ridley aren’t here for long before my exuberant new bodyguard is whispering a promise to see me soon and slipping out the front door. Longing pierces my heart as they leave, but I brush it off as a side effect of the closeness of my heat.
Slowly, our apartment empties. The stress drains from my body when it’s just me and Omen left. My best friend shoots me a knowing look. “You need to call your heat helpers and get to the hotel.”
My head flops against the back of the couch as I groan. I don’t want to get up. I want to curl into a ball here and sleep for a week. Oms doesn’t let me settle though, pulling me up by the arms and sending me into my bedroom to pull out all the things I’ll need for my heat nest. She takes my phone and sends a message to the alpha and beta I’d requested for my heat and orders me a ride share to get to the heat center I’ll be staying in until I’m clear-headed again.
