Page 27 of Heat Clickbait
"We'd been together six months. Nothing serious, or so I thought. But when my heat hit unexpectedly, I'd miscalculated the timing coming off suppressants, he said he'd help. Said he'd take care of me." I pulled my knees up to my chest, making myself smaller. "He lasted exactly four hours before he couldn't handle it anymore. Said I was 'too needy,' 'too much,' that my heat was 'aggressive' and 'unfeminine.'"
"He left you?" Blitz's voice had gone deadly quiet, all his usual golden retriever energy transformed into something dangerous.
"In the middle of it. Just... walked out. Left me locked in his apartment because he 'didn't want me wandering the streets in that condition.' Like I was some kind of rabid animal that needed to be contained." The words came out flat, matter-of-fact, but I felt all five of them tense around me. "His roommatefound me twelve hours later, had to call campus medical. They sedated me through the rest of it."
"That's—" Nova started, but I wasn't done.
"The worst part wasn't even the abandonment. It was after. He told people I'd been 'crazy' during heat. That I'd attacked him, demanded things no proper Omega would want. Made me sound like some kind of deviant. And people believed him, because why wouldn't they? He was Rex Hamilton, upcoming streaming star with his moody acoustic covers and his careful image. I was just another Omega who couldn't control herself."
Ghost's hand found mine, his fingers interlacing with mine in silent support.
"That's when I went back on suppressants. Stronger ones. Enough to kill any heat response completely. And I built my entire brand on not needing what Rex couldn't give me. At first I just built it on being questionable. Was I Omega? Was I Beta? Who could say? If I was Omega, I was one who didn't need an Alpha's help, who was better off alone." I laughed, but it came out cracked. "And then when I came out as Omega my mom called. First time since she'd left. Said she'd seen my content, that I was 'making the same mistakes' by being so public with my Omega status. That I'd end up just like her. Humiliated and abandoned."
"She abandoned you first," Milo said softly, and the understanding in his voice nearly undid me.
"Yeah. She did. To protect me from this, from needing anyone, from the possibility of public humiliation. And I spent years believing she was right. That needing someone meant losing yourself. That biology was the enemy of autonomy." I looked around the nest, at these five men who'd spent days proving that wrong. "I came off suppressants when everything happened with Kara, but really, I think I was testing myself.Seeing if I could handle being... whole. Turns out I couldn't. Not alone."
"You were never meant to handle it alone," Nova said, his accent thick with emotion. "None of us are."
"But Rex?—"
"Was a pathetic excuse for an Alpha who wouldn't recognize a gift if it bit him on his pretentious acoustic-guitar-playing arse," Nova interrupted, and the vehemence in his voice made me blink.
"You trusted the wrong person," Ghost said quietly. "That's not your fault. His failure, not yours."
"But I built everything on not trusting anyone after that," I admitted. "And now here I am, literally surrounded by Alphas, having just begged for your bites while in heat. Everything I swore I'd never do."
"You didn't just beg," Crash pointed out with characteristic honesty. "You demanded. Very different energy."
Despite everything, I laughed. "Oh good, so I was an aggressive disaster. That's so much better."
"You were perfect," Blitz said firmly. "Every single second. Even when you hated us for saying no."
"About that..." I started, then stopped, not sure how to continue.
"We have our own fears," Nova said quietly, and something in his tone made me look at him properly. "About overwhelming you. Trapping you. Being everything the forums warn Omegas about."
"You're nothing like?—"
"Aren't we?" He met my eyes steadily. "Five Alphas who scent-matched you in public, took you to our house, locked you in our nest for three days? On paper, we're every Omega's nightmare."
"My mother's certainly," I admitted. "She's probably already planning her 'I told you so' speech for when this falls apart."
"If," Milo corrected gently. "If it falls apart."
"When," I insisted. "Everything falls apart. People leave. That's what they do."
"Rex left," Ghost said quietly. "One Alpha. One failure. Not a pattern, just a data point."
"My mother left. My father left. Rex left." I counted them on my fingers. "That's a pattern."
"We're not them," Crash said simply, and the certainty in his voice made me want to believe him.
"You don't know that. You can't. It's been three days. The hormones, the sex high, it's all?—"
"Biochemistry," Nova agreed. "But also choice. We choose to stay. Every day, every moment, we'll keep choosing to stay."
"Even when I'm not in heat? When I'm just regular Callie with her trust issues and her need for control and her inability to let people close?"
