Page 16 of Knotty New Year

“Let me help,” I murmured, stepping into the closet.

She hissed, the sound of a cornered cat. I waited, letting my eyes adjust. The closet floor was lined with pillows, and… my clothing. It wasn’t thrown in either. It was arranged, with a lip of pillows around the perimeter of the rough circle, and the shirts and sweats carefully pleated over the edges.

My heart went cold. My cock went hard. And my knot swelled up.

My little omega had built a fucking nest.

How had this happened? She hadn’t smelled like she was in heat. She’d smelled good, but not…Oh shit.One instance of my sister’s oversharing echoed in my head.

“I couldn’t help it, Nicky. He loaned me his coat, and then he dropped me off—we were going to wait! But in four hours, I was turning my apartment into Fort Blanketlandia, and in so much pain, I had to call him.”

She’d reminded me there were two kinds of heats: the normal cyclical one, which came once a year. And the mating heat, which only happened if an omega met her true mate, and they were close enough for her to feel he’d accepted her. Or would accept her.

I’d done this. I’d given her my clothing. I’d filled the whole house with my pheromones.I’d stuck my damnedthumbin her mouth.

“Alpha,” she whimpered. Not Mr. Paxson, Pax, or Nicholas. Not even sir.

Alpha.

I steeled myself. I knew I had to turn around, put distance between us. I could go jump in the fifteen-foot snow drifts at the fence line to cool off. But I couldn’t leave her buried under all Lin’s clothing. She could be hurt under there, beaned in the head by the metal rod, for fuck’s sake. I had to see her, make sure she was all right. Then I would go.

“Can I help you, Omega?” I asked quietly. “Can I come into your nest and help?”

Chapter8

Candy

“Can I come into your nest and help?”

I almost sobbed in relief when I heard Pax’s gentle words. Okay, I actually did sob. “Yes, please,” I finally managed to say, clawing at the clothing that had fallen on top of me. I was fairly certain the kitten costume had landed directly on my head, and I was as equally horrified at that as I was at the knowledge that Nicholas Paxson had seen my pathetic first attempt at nest-building using his clothing.

But warring with horror for my dominant emotion was joy. He had just offered to come into my nest and help me, which I’d thought was the last thing Mr. “Avoid The Sitter At All Costs” would say. I felt the terrible cat costume being lifted away, and covered my face with my hands. Not because the light was harsh, but because I had been crying off and on for an entire day, and I knew my face had swelled up like a giant strawberry.

Then I felt hands on my hair, fingers threading through the tangled mess. “I need to see your eyes, love. I need to check for a concussion.”

I had to look up then.Love?“It… It didn’t hit my head.”

“You screamed like you were hurt,” he growled. “Your face. Something’s wrong with it.”I tried to cover it again, but he lifted me up, so the light from the other room fell on it. “You’ve been…”

“Crying, okay?” I burst out. “I’ve been crying, and now I need you to go away so I can cry some more.”

“Why?” His hands kept running through my hair, his clever fingers undoing the tangles that had formed. I closed my eyes and let myself lean into him. I knew he might push me away, but maybe he would hold me up for a moment. And if a moment was all I could get with him, I would take it.

I lifted my face to his, and as fast as I could, I laid a quick, dry kiss on his lips.

He held still, then gave a groan and wrapped his arms around my waist, lifting me off the floor. He ravaged my mouth, his tongue forcing its way in between my lips, his hands holding me so tight it might leave bruises on my ass. I hoped it did. I wanted him to mark me everywhere.

His cock was rock hard, almost painfully so, as he pressed it into my groin. I could feel the thickening of the knot that had formed at the base, and I wanted nothing more than to feel that. Finally, to feel what it would be like to be stretched that wide, to be overcome with the pain and pleasure of it, to have my body owned by my alpha.

Claimed ashis.

I knew he would. He’d asked permission to enter my nest, hadn’t he? Asked to help me. No alpha could resist an omega in need. No honorable one would leave an omega wanting.

“Fuck me, Alpha,” I mumbled when he began kissing down my neck, his teeth scraping against my neck. “Bite me.”

He froze, his breath hissing in and out like he’d been running up a mountain. “I can’t… I won’t take that from you.”

What the hell did that mean?

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