Page 34 of Outback Mate
My eyes sting with welling emotion.
“Oh god. Oh god,” I chant as an onslaught of feelings bubble up and spill from me in a tear-choked laugh.
I’m mated. My Alpha mated me!
I revel in the relief streaming through me.
No more aura sickness. No more lonely nights. No more painful heats with insufficient Betas or knotting dildos that never quite hit the right spot. After what my Alpha just wrung from my body, I’ll never be satisfied without his touch again.
I’m a mated Omega. Finally!
Sure, it’s overwhelming, but this is what I came here for. I wanted to find an Alpha. And I did, just not in the way I expected.He’snot what I expected.
The small pen light barely allows me to see. I strain my eyes to find his stiff dark figure looming above me. Not a whisper of movement coming from him, only the press of his gaze on my broken gland.
My smile wavers.
“It’s fine,” I say. “That was… We both wanted it, right?”
A chill has crept into the room. A cold, stiff energy replacing the fevered heat from moments ago.
“I bit you,” he says with what sounds like disgust, and I can’t help the whimper that slips from me. His scent is sour, and it makes my stomach curdle.
All happy feelings leak away until I’m left feeling confused and adrift. I squeeze my knees tighter to my chest, as if it’ll hold me together.
I hear him swallow thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing on his shadowed outline.
“It will heal. You’ll recover. But the scarring will always be there. It can be bitten over when you find your Alpha.”
He says it so clinically and detached, like he’s not the one who gave me the bite, but rather a doctor consulting on a case of an unwanted mating.
“What?” I whisper. It’s drowned out by the roar of the rain still hammering outside. The storm sounds more aggressive now, like it’s building to a violent crescendo. “I… I don’t want another Alpha.You’remy Alpha.”
I curse the power outage. It’s so dark, and I wish I could see if he’s as wrecked as I feel. His scent doesn’t change. It’s still tainted with displeasure.
“You’re a patient, and Iviolatedyou.“ His gloves snap as he pulls them off roughly, and the clatter of a bin being opened and slammed shut makes me flinch.
“I’m your Omega! It’s okay.”
I understand he’s concerned about his professionalism, but calling the beautiful thing we did together a violation hurts me deeper than I can express.
What we shared was wonderful, even if it was fast, but that’s what’s expected with scent-matched mates. We’resupposedto jump each other’s bones and fuck like touch-starved freaks.
There’s a reason they made laws to protect scent matches from being charged with public indecency. When two compatible mates meet, it can be sexually explosive. There’s no way he’llface any consequences for claiming me while under his care as a physician.
Doc lets out a ragged breath, and it cuts me right through the chest.
He’s shutting down.
His aura sickness is so obvious to me now. It’s like a shield that forms, cutting him off from his Alpha instincts and emotions. This must be what he meant when he said we couldn’t be together.
I lift my hand to my gland and trace the already healing wound, the enzymes in my mate’s saliva working their healing magic. I know he must be able to feel me in his chest, like a golden thread holding us together. It’s weak because he didn’t let me bite him in return.
Outrage comes swift and hard.
“Why did you stop me? Our bond isn’t complete.”
His scent gets so much more potent, and the acrid sour aroma stings my nostrils.
