I woke up to the morning sun drenching my room, feeling lucid.
Viper was the first thing on my mind, along with the knowledge he’d been watching me down by the pool the previous night.
I’d sensed him as I inhaled his scent from deeper in the yard, but it didn’t make me want to hide my passion… quite the opposite. Even now, a tingle ignited between my legs at the memory. Who would have thought that being watched turned me on so much, when the waves of heat came at me, desperation took on a different meaning.
His musky and pumpkin scent overwhelmed me as I pictured his fingers tracing my body, his cock pressing into me.
It was ridiculous to crave an Alpha who made it clear he didn’t want me at the mansion, yet my Omega side didn’t seem to care. When arousal came over me, I was lost to the heat. I tensed, thinking about how little control I had.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I showered, dried off, then wrapped a towel around my body and twisted my hair up in another towel.
Someone knocked on the bedroom door, then an older woman entered, carrying a tray of food and a bulging shopping bag. She wore her greying hair in a blue floral scarf pushed off her face. It matched her simple dress, which fell to her knees and cinched at her waist with a thin belt, with the rest loose around her thin frame. I could tell by her sweet raspberry scent she was an Omega, too.
“Morning,” she chirped as she set down the tray with pancakes and toast, which left me salivating at how good they smelled. “We haven’t met.” Turning to face me, she stepped closer and set the bag on the bed. “I’m Thelma, Shane’s grandmother.”
“Shane?” I murmured, my mind circling with the names I’d learned recently and if I’d forgotten someone.
“The boy goes by Shadow now, but to me, he’ll always be Shane. You know, I used to babysit him. His father had little patience for children.”
“Nice to meet you. Good to know there’s another Omega in the mansion and not just me.” My smile felt lopsided as awkwardness came over me.
She rubbed my arms, her smiling eyes warming me. “Well, someone needs to take care of the boys in the house… and now you.” Her words were playful. “Now, I brought you breakfast for your big day,” she sing-songed, glancing over the tray of pancakes.
“I have a big day?” I blinked at her.
“You’ll find out after you eat something. You need the energy for your heat cycles.”
Her gaze shone a pale gray, reminding me of Shadow’s eyes. I could see the family resemblance in the shape of his almond eyes and the bridge of his nose.
I turned to the tray of food eagerly, ravenous for food, then looked at the bag she left on the bed.
“I went shopping for some clothes while you’re staying with us. It’s been so long since I’ve had a female in the house. Go ahead and have a look.” She laughed loudly, and I enjoyed how confident she was. I would have loved to grow up with a mother like her.
“New clothes?” My eyes might have been teary. I rapidly closed the distance to my bed in seconds, pawing through the bag of clothes, including underwear and even bras. Sighing with a strange relief, I lifted my gaze to her, certain I was about to burst out crying. “Thank you so much.” I sniffled, blinking back the tears as I rushed over and hugged her. She smelled of fire and baked roasts
She patted my back gently. “I need to ensure you are comfortable here with us and to know you are safe.”
“I didn’t know what to expect, but this is a wonderful surprise. No one’s ever bought me a huge bag of clothes before.”
Her expression was kind, age lines deepening at the corners of her eyes, and she tilted her head, studying me. “Not even your mother?”
I shook my head and discreetly wiped away the one tear that escaped from the corner of my eye. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have one, seeing I don’t even remember her.” Retreating to the bed, I dug into the bag, excitement bubbling across my stomach. “This means everything to me. Thank you. In fact, I can’t recall the last time I got brand-new clothes,” I murmured mostly to myself. When I pulled out a pair of skin-tight jeans, I might have squealed. “You’re going to laugh at me, but I have never owned a new pair of jeans.” Next, I lifted a cute white off-the-shoulder top with tiny golden buttons down the front. I’d seen females on TV shows wearing these kinds of clothes, which contrasted greatly with the usual baggy pants and loose tops we had to wear at the Bakewell Institute for Girls.
Thelma stepped up alongside me, her hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. “You deserve only the best.”
Lowering the top into the bag, I twisted around to Shadow’s grandma.
“You’re really nice to me. I’m not used to it.” Lowering my gaze, there was a strange pull to the older woman, something motherly. Somehow, I knew she only had my best interest at heart. At the same time, I’d believed Daniel cared, but then he started acting all strange.
“I know how it feels. When I was about your age, I went into my heat at a carnival with my friends. Of course, our parents were there because going out alone was even more restricted back in the day than it is now. Anyway, I digress. The place was swarming with Alphas, and that’s when my life as I’d known it ended.” She breathed heavily, and her shoulders sagged.
“What happened? I can’t even imagine how terrified you would have been.” Back at the Glass Slipper Ball, I was scared out of my mind, crying, and an utter mess.
“My mother tried to protect me, ushering me back to the family car, but we barely made it a few steps before we were bombarded by Alphas, who had turned feral to get their hands on me. The only reason I wasn’t torn apart by the hungry men was the most powerful mafia boss of the city was there, and he stepped in to collect me in his arms. The rest of the Alphas backed away, terrified. Then he turned to my parents and said, ‘My son will take good care of her.’ That was the last time I saw my parents until I paid my respects at their funeral.” Her lips pursed, and she shrugged it away as though too much time had passed to feel the ache of being taken from her family so abruptly.
“So, wait, you mated into the mafia family of our city? Is it the Matteis or the Shchavlev family? And does that make Shadow part of the mafia?” I might have talked too fast at that moment because we’d all heard the stories broadcast on the news channels about the two Families dominating our city of Liberty, the constant deaths, the assassinations. And so many times, the fights had everything to do with the two mafia families trading Omegas. Rumors seemed to imply they controlled the authorities as well, but to discover Shadow was related to them left me shaking. I wasn’t sure how to feel except super paranoid.
“He led the Matteis, an Italian family who reported to the Godfather back in their homeland,” Thelma explained, scooping the clothes out of the bag and folding them on the bed. “My dear Alpha husband had been the kindest I’d known, except he wasn’t ever strong enough for his father, and after years of living under his shadow, he abandoned his family. We moved away once I fell pregnant.” She started chuckling, but there was a strain on her face.
“Oh, that’s enough reminiscing for today of my miserable life. It’s a past I left behind, and I lost so much to the Matteis family, I don’t want to remember them.” The hurt in her gray eyes cinched in around me.
“I’m so sorry for what you went through.” I reached over and placed my hand on her arm. Her presence reminded me so much of my friends, and at that moment, I missed them terribly. My chest ached for her, for me, for my friends.
Thelma’s strong smile revealed the hardship and sorrow painted on her face. As much as I’d love to listen to her speak for hours and discover what happened to her husband and where Shadow’s parents were, I wouldn’t pry.
“All I have left is my grandson, and I want him to make the right decision, to find the kind of happiness I lost.” She turned to face me and tucked my pink hair behind my ears.
I stared at this woman who brought emotions out of me about the family who rejected and dumped me at the Bakewell Institute for Girls. I craved nothing more than to one day have a family of my own.
“And you, my dear, need to speak up for what you need from the Alphas. Sometimes, they can get in their own way by overthinking a situation. It sounds like you deserve a bright future, which my grandson can provide once he fixes a few things in his life.”
My throat thickened, and another tear rolled down my cheek while my head pulsed. Those were the kindest words I’d ever received. What did Shadow have to fix?
She wiped away my tear with a tender touch.
“Now, eat up because you have a big day ahead of you. Remember, you still have time before you go into full heat, so use the time to get to know the Alphas since they will be the only ones who can help you when your heat comes.”
“Do I? How can you tell?” I met her gaze as my chest tightened. “How long do I have?”
“Your periods of calm get shorter. Usually, cycles don’t last more than a month.”
I nodded, thinking I’d be stuck here for a month then, and perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing until I got through my first heat. The thought brought with it the image of my time with Shadow. I’d rather have him help me through this than someone else. The other two Alphas felt distant to me, and Daniel, well, I didn’t know what was going on between us.
“I appreciate it.”
“You don’t know much about being an Omega, do you?” She pinched her lips to the side and folded the bag.
“Not really. I’m kind of fumbling my way through it.” My lopsided grin had Thelma sighing with a pitiful expression.
“It’s okay, dear. I’ll be here to help you. Now, I must go before the maid burns down the place. She’s a Beta and great at following orders, but she couldn’t find her way around the kitchen if I gave her a map.” With a small nod, Thelma strolled out of my room, closing the door behind her but not locking it.
I decided then that I liked her a lot. My mind ran over everything she’d told me. My gaze, on the other hand, swept to the plate of pancakes coated in maple syrup she’d left on the small corner table. I wasted no time collecting the fork and digging in.
I was used to bland food. At the Institute, Ms. Bakewell allowed us treats like this dish, but it always tasted bland because she only ordered enough ingredients to make half of what the cooks needed, so they had to spread it out as much as they could. Thelma, Shadow’s grandma, seemed to be unhampered by that restriction. The first mouthful had me moaning as the sweetness spread over my tongue, and the fluffiness of the French Toast melted on my tongue. This was a blissful slice of heaven.
I’d finished the toast and was working on my orange juice as I eyed the folded clothes, realizing I was still wrapped in a towel. Before I knew it, I dropped it and grabbed a white thong, pulling on, then a simple lace bra that fit perfectly. I ran my fingers over the fancy fabric that pushed up my breasts. A girl could get used to such luxury. All my previous panties and bras had been standard white without a hint of lace.
Was it crazy that such a little thing as a set of lacey bra and undies made me happy?
In total, Thelma had brought me four outfits and a pair of simple slip-on white sandals. I chose the sleeveless shift dress made of the softest white fabric, which gently followed my curves, falling midway down my thighs.
When someone knocked on the door, I lifted my head, half expecting them to just walk in since everyone had been doing that.
“Come in,” I finally said when they didn’t barge in.
Aspen strolled in, a large, blond, godlike Alpha with wide broad shoulders and chest broad and a square jawline covered in a thin layer of light growth. Roguish and charming with a bright grin, the Alpha had been the one who carried me from the ball. He stood in my room with tranquil blue eyes and hair hanging just over his shoulders and sitting messily around his face.
He was breathtaking.
My pulse thumped loudly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he heard it. The last person I expected was him, considering he hadn’t visited me since we arrived from the ball nights ago.
“Hello, little Omega. I guess we haven’t properly met unless you call being shoved into a car and rushing away from the ball an introduction.” His face was illuminated by his humor and small chuckle, though beneath his teasing voice, he was being genuine. I remembered his kindness in the car when the other Alpha, Viper, had been a real dick.
“I’m Aspen, and I would have come to you earlier, but that night of the ball, Viper and I had rushed out of the city for a job. But we’re back home now, and well…” He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “I intend to make up for lost time.”
He eyed me head to toe, his expression calm, though I caught the quickening of his breaths when he studied me.
“You look angelic in all white. Beautiful. Almost virginal.”
I broke out laughing.
“Well, if you’re here hoping to find an Omega to claim, we’re fresh out of virgins.” Twisting around and moving to put the clothes in the cupboard, I wasn’t sure why it got on my nerves that he hadn’t come to see me until now, but seeing him had my gut all knotted up.
The guy had no obligation to me, and he’d been out of town, yet my heat was rising along with a drama queen who demanded he should have been there for me. Talk about crazy. I barely knew the Alpha, and I behaved like we’d been together for months.
Footfalls closed in behind me, and I felt his large body behind me, the heat pouring from him, although he didn’t touch me.
“I understand I fucked up and should have been by your side from the very beginning to help with your pain. I can’t take back the time, but I can make up for it.”
I turned around, and he stood so impossibly close, my breasts rubbed against him in the process. Desire erupted inside me so fast, the room spun, and his breath quickened.
“I don’t know why I’m upset with you. You don’t owe me anything,” I murmured, my cheeks heating up. I stepped away from him before I begged him to kiss me. The need in me was staggering.
He gently took my hand, sending a jolt of energy racing up my arm and down my spine.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” he explained. “That night at the ball when you had your first heat cycle, we were the first Alphas who connected with you, which semi-marked you to us three. It’s not concrete, but just being in the same room will get our juices running, you could say.” He cocked an eyebrow, and his expression turned mischievous.
“So, you’re saying if another Alpha walked into the room with me now, I wouldn’t feel the need to climb him like a tree?”
The smile curling his lips deepened.
My thighs pressed together, and a light purr grazed my throat.
Geez, girl, control yourself.
“Correct.”
He moved after me as I backed away. My pulse raced faster, and he kept coming until my back hit the wall. Leaning an elbow on the wall over my shoulder, the other hand casually tucked into the pocket of his jeans.
“But when any of the three Alphas under this roof come anywhere near you, you’ll be desperate to climb us like a tree. And just for the record, I can’t wait for you to do that to me.”
He didn’t touch me but seemed content staring at me, waiting for me to give in. No matter how we spun these dances of desires, we all knew the truth of where we’d end up. I was an Omega with an unbearable need to be fucked by these Alphas who wanted nothing more than to breed me.
I knew that and had fought it my whole life, but with my transformation, I’d lost all control of my body and urges. My skin rippled with goosebumps from the heat pouring off him and how I needed him to claim me to help break the heat cycles as they came over me. What made it worse was these men were well aware of my dependency on them, and I hated losing the last threads of freedom I had, along with every bit of my pride. Yet the longer he stared at me, the more desire skipped over my skin.
“Maybe the solution is to keep our distance.”
“That’s not going to work.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to upset you again for not being there for you. There’s really only one solution, isn’t there, little Omega?”
My spine arched, my breasts pushing outward, while my cheeks blushed feverishly at how obvious I was at what I longed for him to say.
“I will give you the world if you’d let me.” His breathing sped up, and I couldn’t ignore his struggle. “We’re going to start with a surprise I have for you. Well, if you’re up to it. I’d like to take you out.”
“Oh, you want to leave this room instead of it just being us?” I could have just died at that moment. My mouth had turned into a sex-starved monster. “I-I mean out of the house and this compound and…”
Just stop talking now.
His chuckling didn’t help.
“Ready to go now?” Taking my hand, his touch ignited a zap of fire in my chest, opening me up to him. He glanced at me, and his shoulders reared back as if he’d felt it as well. The connection—or whatever we had—made this Alpha call to me.
Blinking up at this gorgeous, powerful man, who might be strong enough to carry a mountain on his shoulders, warmth raced up my neck and face at his touch.
Whatever you do, don’t ask him to stay in the room all day so he can fuck you like rabbits do.
Keeping my mouth clamped shut, I nodded while my nerve endings were popping with a terrible hankering for a huge mountain man.
“Come on, let’s get going before you start climbing me, then we’re going nowhere.” Aspen led me out of the bedroom and down the stairs so fast, I could barely keep up with him. If he hadn’t been holding my hand, I would have been lagging way behind, considering one of his long strides equaled two of mine.
We passed a bunch of wooden crates near the back door, which had no markings on them, and while I had every intention of asking Aspen what they were, I completely forgot about them the moment I stepped out of the back door.
My jaw dropped as I looked at the yard.
Right in front of us towered a multicolored hot air balloon.
“Whoa! Is that for us? And you were serious. We’re leaving the compound? It’s safe, right?”
“You’re always safe with me,” he assured, already dragging me across the lawn to where a female, I assumed a Beta, stood near the basket, her head lowered in respect to Aspen.
He lifted me into the rectangular basket, which was big enough to hold six adults. There was a leather bench-like seat on one end and two metal cylinders on the other end.
Aspen climbed in and fiddled with the burner that blew into the mouth of the balloon, and its heat slightly flared across my face, then it roared loudly, making my ears ring.
Turning around, I stared at the yard, lost for words. I hadn’t expected this—not in a million years. Next thing I knew, we were moving upward. Panic shooting through me, I grabbed the edge of the wicker basket. Frantically, I turned to Aspen, who was working the burner, the blaring sound only adding to my distress that we were about to float into the air, and I might die if we fell.
“You’ve done this before, right?” I pasted myself to the edge of the basket, watching the yard grow smaller beneath us. I had no reason beforehand to think I suffered from a fear of heights, but as we soared above the tree line, my breaths were coming out as gasps.
“A couple of times. It’s pretty simple,” Aspen explained, glancing from me to the basket and down to the ground. “It’s super simple. Hot air helps us rise, and cool air will have us slowly descend.”
I kept looking over the edge, seeing how I wouldn’t survive such a fall. We were too high. I saw the chimney on the roof of the mansion and even the roof vents. Beyond the compound walls, I realized the place was almost in the middle of nowhere. A road wove away from the gate past open woodland without a house in sight… at least not yet. And I didn’t want to go higher to find out, especially when the world seemed to spin around me.
“I think we’re high enough now. You can stop. This is the perfect spot. Oh, look, how lovely. Yep, okay, let’s go back down.” My stomach lurched each time I glanced down, and my chest tightened. A knot formed in my stomach too, but I squelched it with a deep breath.
“You alright?” Aspen called as he operated the balloon.
“Fine,” I said, trying not to sound afraid. “Tell me about yourself, Aspen.” Maybe if he talked, I might be able to get through the trip. I quickly sat down to avoid looking over the edge any longer.
“What do you want to know?” He came to sit beside me, his presence calming me a little.
“Do you have a family?” I asked and regretted it. I’d grown up in at Bakewell Institute for Girls and knew not everyone had a family.
“Yeah, well, I did. I had an older brother once.” He looked away, and I caught what he’d actually said.
“Once?” I asked, my eyebrows up.
“Uh, there was an accident during a fight, and things went really bad.” He didn’t elaborate but stared out at the cloudless sky around us, and it hurt me to see him in agony.
We sat in silence, and I placed my hand on his, letting him know I was there. I didn’t understand the conditions under which his brother didn’t survive the fight.
“I’m sorry that happened,” I finally murmured, feeling the pain washing off him in waves, his masculine scent faint, almost gone completely. “Aspen, I wish…,”
“You wish what, Trinity?” He looked back at me, his brow furrowed and his voice dark. “I’ve wished a million times for one thing, and it’s never happened. I’ve told myself we were better off living for those that can’t, but I haven’t managed it yet, just like I failed my brother.”
Silence pulsed between us, then he shook himself and exhaled loudly.
“That went south fast, didn’t it? Sorry, little Omega, for being a downer. I’m good at fucking things up, but we’re going to fix this. I didn’t bring you out here to bring you down. Quite the opposite.”
I gave him a heartfelt smile, and while the sense of grief evaporated, I understood he’d learned how to hide it away. I could see the traces of it lingering in his eyes and felt something new in my chest, something that could be admiration… or adoration. Maybe a little of both, I decided as I leaned against him.
That was exactly when the balloon lurched, and it felt like we were dropping out of the sky.
I screamed.
