Page 21 of Prodigy & Tybalt
“Good instinct.”
“—my morning was going to be a dull, depressing stretch of paperwork, security checks, and phone calls. You’ve made the whole day brighter in just a few hours.”
“Well.” I might have worked up the nerve to tell him he’d done the same for me, and the pain was easier to handle when he touched me, but a stranger’s voice cut into our little daydream.
“You smell incredible,” a rich, male voice commented. Alpha. Not growling or barking, but unfamiliar, and that was enough to raise my hackles.
I whipped around to glare at the blonde, tanned man watching me through wire-frame glasses. He was around my age, hot I guessed, and he had a bookish charm that might have interested me if my whole world wasn’t currently consumed byTybalt and Prodigy and my impending heat. (And my mate, but I fought hard not to think about him right now.)
Blonde Guy leaned closer, his nostrils flaring, and I knew what he smelled. An omega dangerously close to her heat. A scent practicallybeggingfor an alpha’s knot. It was probably a biological response on his part, and he wasn’t being a total creep, but now he was in my personal space and huffing down my scent like I was a Yankee fucking Candle.
I reached into my borrowed jacket to whip out my knife and threaten him, but a low, forceful growl ripped through the air, not loud or showy butpotent.The growl of a confident alpha, who knew he could absolutely destroy this other guy. A growl of simmering rage, protectiveness, and the promise of instant death if the other alpha didn’t back off. Which to his credit he did immediately.
I would have clapped at the impressive show, but I was too busy swooning against the bookcase, my heartbeat fast, my breathing rapid, and my temperature wild.
Prodigy kept his eyes on Blonde Guy until he disappeared into another aisle, watching for a long second to make sure he’d really gone, before he turned back to me. I knew my face was hot, my skin red, pupils probably dilated. There was no hiding my heat now. But knowing Prodigy, he knew about it the whole time. Maybe he knew before I did.
“He induced a heat,” I told him, my voice scratchy. “I think he crushed up pills in the smoothies he fed me. Explains why they were so vile. Also, they were green.”
“A kale-induced crime, I’m sure,” Prodigy replied, so normally that I wilted even more. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, even if my stomach twisted and twisted and twisted some more. “I’ll need Giant to run a blood test, just to make sure that bastard didn’t do anything more damaging.”
I scowled. The check-up had been bad enough. “What about whatIneed?” I.e. to be left the fuck alone. Also, as many books as I could physically get my hands on, plus pain relief, and… and I needed him to touch me again.
“I told you, ray of light. Whatever you need, tell me and it’s yours.”
I groaned, leaning back against the bookshelf, not caring that the spines dug intomyspine. I let my eyes fall shut. “You asked if I need more or less touch.”
“I did,” he agreed in such a calm, even tone that it soothed me.
“More,” I confessed in a whisper. “But I think it might—make it worse.” The heat.
“Sweetheart, there’s no making it better or worse when it’s this close.”
I choked back a groan when he pulled me against him, the books wedged awkwardly between us but the brush of his body a relief so profound I melted.
“I’ll pay you back for the books,” I said, because… I don’t know. I needed to say something.
“You’ll do no such thing.”
“But—”
“Miraya, don’t insult me. Let me spoil you.”
I sighed, the hug and his words lulling me into a near-drugged state. I’d never had all my omega needs met before, and it was dangerous how good it felt. A kiss feathered over my temple, and then he stepped back.
“Now,” he said in a steely voice, “you’re going to pick out ten more books, and then I’m going to drive us home, and we’ll figure out what you need for your heat. Okay?”
“Ten is excessive.”
“Ten is the bare minimum,” he disagreed, and dipped his head to kiss me. I sighed, grasping the lapels of his jacket to keephim close, greedy for the taste of him. Every brush of his lips over mine cleansed the memory of kisses that had been forced on me. It might have just been the cloud of hormones, but he tasted like sweet coffee and brownies, and I could easily become addicted.
I was completely dazed when he turned me towards the shelf again and encouraged me to get everything I wanted.
Everything I wanted. A very dangerous suggestion, because what I wanted was him and Tybalt. Sweet and spicy, cool and fiery. But I didn’t just want them for my heat. I wanted them for keeps.
11
Miraya
