Page 3 of Omega's Virtue: Part One (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 2)

“Enough? You are a brute. Let me go,” I snarled. The pistol went off—not on purpose, mind. I pulled the trigger by mistake as I tried to push him away. For such a small gun, it made an awfully loud bang. Louder still was the alpha’s shout of pain. The bullet, I was certain, had lodged in his shoulder. Still, his grip did not give way. If anything, it tightened and his giant frame shifted, as if to protect me from some threat.

“Oh, Goddess!” I gasped. “I… I didn’t mean… I meant to shoot you, but only if I meant to? Oh. Goddess. My heat.”

The cramps were back, stabbing my body, commanding it to take this alpha to my nest, to take his knot. Little chance of that happening now. Not when blood, blossoming like an alpha’s mate stain, ruined his beautiful coat.

“It is nothing,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ll live, you little fool. Stop. If ever there was a way to stop an alpha from rutting an omega through her heat, a bullet in the shoulder would do it.”

“I thought… Your shoulder. Oh, I want something sweet,” I begged the wounded alpha. Frustrated tears gathered at the corners of my eyes. “Why does my heat make me so foolish? The Goddess must hate me.”

“Damned dramatic omegas.” He hissed in genuine pain when I shifted in his arms. “Up you get. I can’t bring you chocolates if you are in my lap.”

“You could give me your knot,” I ventured, inspired by the proximity of his hard cock to my sex. His growl had my eyes going big. “Oh. Or not.”

We struggled to stand. Me for the cramps and the alpha’s reluctance to let me go. And the large alpha? His wound had shaken him, but I was much too small to help him to his feet. “I should—”

“Do not move from where you are. I can manage,” he growled.

“Must you always be growling?” I whimpered. My cramps had never been so bad, nor had the way my skin burned or my mating gland throbbed. “My…”

I reached to touch where my mate gland was buried under layers of clothes, which I wished to claw from my body. I panicked because I should not be acting like an unmated omega around an alpha. It was wrong. I could not understand it. Despite the pain of my mate’s rejection, I’d been grateful that unlike so many other young omegas I did not need to take suppressants. Mated omegas changed on a biological level by a mate bite and did not need to take such precautions. But this afternoon, my mating gland was once again awake to a virile alpha. Had my mate found another? Could he have replaced me? Did that explain why this silvered alpha called to me?

“No… He couldn’t have.” I looked helplessly at my victim. Stared at the lone exit. Glanced again at the beautiful alpha. “I’m sorry. I can’t stay.”

Beatrice

Hot tears felldown my face as I stumbled out of the corridor, walking this time, half afraid to run in case I lost my way once again. I glanced over my shoulder, worried my victim followed, as I was certain he would. Alphas like my silver devil did not give up after being shot. He’d find and fuck me. The prospect sent a dangerous shiver through me. Would his knot and bite be so bad if my mate (I snarled at the word) had found another omega? No. I could not. Despite everything, I would stay loyal to my mate, and no other alpha would replace him in my bed.

With the Goddess’ own luck, I made it to the street and hailed a passing hackney carriage without meeting a soul. The driver looked skeptical, but a healthy tip had him agreeing to take me to the lodgings Mama had rented for the season. Even though I was as safe as a hackney could make me, I stuck my head out the window for fear the alpha would catch me. Perhaps he was dead… No. He’d been too angry to be dead. I turned my head and inhaled his scent, which had seeped into my coat. More slick poured from me. No doubt the seat would be covered with the stuff. This was why unmated omegas drank teas and tonics to help suppress the slick our bodies produced. I’d completely forgotten how much slick one omega could produce during her heat. I’d pay the driver double since he’d need to clean the interior before taking another passenger.

We arrived at the house on Half Moon Street without incident, and I emptied my pockets into the relieved driver’s hands. The journey had been short, but the state I’d left his hackney in… I blushed at it.

“Mama! Mama!” I screamed on rushing into the house, pushing past our butler. “Help! Something terrible has happened.”

“What is’t?” She called from the landing. Mama wore a dark green riding habit, the train draped over one arm and had her thick red hair cut and styled into a Bedford crop. A fashionable hat completed her toilette. “Why! Beatrice. I thought you’d gone to see your tailor… Where have you been?”

She trotted down the stairs until she was close enough to scent me. “Your heat! What… You foolish girl. Why… Why is it so strong? It shouldn’t be… You were mated by that pathetic alpha. Up stairs with you! Jones! Go tell Bertha to prepare for Miss Beatrice’s heat. Bea… What happened?”

“I went to—” I gasped as a sharp cramp hit me. “Royal Academy, presented ‘Omega’s Progress’! Oh, Goddess… Alpha chased me. Shot him. Not dead.”

“Do they know your name? Why would you do something so stupid!”

“No? Yes, the one I shot does. I don’t know him.”

“That is something then.” Mama frowned and clenched her jaw before shaking her head in frustration. “Jefferies. Take her to her nest immediately. And tend to her should she ask you.”

Our beta footman scooped me up as if I weighed nothing and carried me up three flights of stairs. I was not an easy burden. Now that my body had been promised a nest, I meant to prepare it as quickly as possible. Tugging at my cravat, I reached in and pressed hard onto my mating gland, trying to soothe the almost painful tightness of the skin. The gland would be swollen, stretched thin so that an alpha could easily bite through the skin and mate me. Not since I was eighteen had I felt so needy and out of control, squirming and whining. Jefferies, however, made it to my bedroom and gently eased me onto the narrow bed. He stayed, observing, as I untied my cravat.

“Do you want me to stay?” he asked, a quiet desire in his voice. It wouldn’t be the first heat he had spent with me, and while the temptation existed, I shook my head.

“No,” I told him, burying my face into my coat as I hunted for the scent of the silver alpha.

“You smell of alpha.” The words sounded strangled from him. I whimpered at the memory of the mysterious alpha, his touch and scent fresh in my mind. Jefferies clenched his jaw. “I shall leave you then.”

He squeezed my hand, his thumb rubbing over my knuckles. He stepped back but paused in the door. The look in his eyes felt like goodbye. I didn’t know why he looked so sad, because my heat’s base, instinctual demands clouded my brain.

A maid rushed in with fresh sheets. Another had a pitcher of barley water and cold meats and bread. They scurried out as I stripped. The cool air was heaven on my feverish body, but still it demanded a nest. I tugged the feather mattress off the bed and dragged it against the wall, tossing the pillows and blankets on top, sniffing at my clothes and determining how best to spread the unknown alpha’s scent around me, especially the elusive whiffs of elfwort. Goddess, I’d not smelt anything so good since I’d had my first knot. The nest was not adequate, too open and big for my tastes, but it would have to do. I scrambled for the dildos I kept for my personal pleasure, then dived into my nest to suffer through my heat.

Elfwort.

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