Faith & the Dead End Devils (Sweet Omegaverse, #8)(16)
Chance sucked in a breath and Bear sighed, as if they'd passed the air between them.
"Has it gotten worse or better?" Bear asked.
"Worse for a few days. Then stayed the same."
"And headaches?"
I nodded slowly. Bear took the small box from my hands. "This is a fancy CBD bath bomb. Scent enhancing, just right for omegas. Got a bunch of that kind of stuff for you. And lots of blankets and pillows for your nest. A whole pantry of snacks. Truffles. Everything I could find that you would know hadn't been tampered with."
Another sob broke free, this one in earnest. I fell forward into Bear's chest, and he bundled me up in his arms, rubbing my back, his purr vibrating through his chest into mine.
"It's gonna be all right, Butterfly. We'll figure it out, okay? We're gonna have to talk about some ibuprofen for your head. I'll do whatever I can so you feel comfortable, okay?"
His comfort just made me sob harder. He knew exactly how vulnerable I was now, right down to not being able to see clearly. Knew I was afraid of food, of pills. Soon, he'd know that the idea of being left alone with arousal terrified me too, made me feel like I was being watched, studied.
"I can take all this to the laundromat," Chance said, quiet under my crying. "Wash the store smells off so she can have it clean and how she likes."
"Start a bath on your way out," Bear said. "Grab that bag, the purple one."
I moaned into Bear's shirt, shaking with my crying, so fucking relieved to be taken care of that it physically hurt inside of me.
Relieved to finally have my heat, to have that dreaded threat arrive not on the road with my brother while we were in danger, but here. With an alpha and beta that didn't frighten me. That were safe and nice.
"Jesus, you thought of fucking everything," Chance murmured.
I sobbed because I was actually excited. To be spoiled. To have a nice bath with expensive omega products. To know what else Bear had found me. What food and clothes. To eat truffles from a box all in one sitting so I would know they were safe and mine.
Bear shifted me on his lap, cradled me, and tucked my wet face back into his warm throat. He rocked me and I wept with the sweetness of it.
"It's okay now. I've got you, Butterfly. It's okay."
7. KING
I scowled at the number in my phone. Would calling Preston Bowers create a favor I would have to pay later, or one he'd owe me? Did he have the right connections to hide an omega? Powerful enough, but safe for the girl too?
He was the omega's best option in my catalog, but he didn't feel like a sure thing, and I'd already debated the risk for the better part of an afternoon.
After prepping a lunch tray for a hindbrain omega who wouldn't let go of her guard dog. Chance was acting like a knot-whipped alpha and he didn't even have the right designation.
She needed to go.
I set my phone face down on my desk as a soft knock hit my office door.
"It's Bear." My crew knew to announce themselves and not waste my time.
"Come in," I called.
Bear had arrived to the club on the back of a cruiser Harley nine years ago. He'd been huge, silent, and it hadn't taken longer than an hour for one of my guys to take offense with him—either at Bear's size or the sudden interest of all the club girls. I'd watched from the corner as the stranger had laid one after another, brothers and prospects alike, flat on their back. When the Devils had given up trying to beat his ass, he'd sat right back on the stool and continued his beer.
I'd recruited him to the crew on the spot, knew I'd wanted him as my enforcer the second old Beggar was ready to retire.
Bear was still huge, still generally silent, still able to knock any challenger down to the floor. He'd been loyal to me for his entire tenure of six years, never asked a question that wasn't worth considering. I needed him, now more than ever.
"She's alone?" I asked as he shut the door behind him.
He shook his head. "In the bath, Chance is with her."
Bear made it halfway across the room before I smelled it, that same heady scent that had gusted over me when Chance opened the door to Bear's apartment earlier. Omega perfume. Sweet enough to make my mouth water, needy enough to make my blood rush to my cock.
"Fuck. She's all over you," I said, sitting up in my chair even as I wanted to push back, escape the influence of the perfume.
"I'm careful. Avoiding the others. Didn't have time to wash her off again," Bear said with a shrug. He stopped short of the chair in front of my desk, dark eyes meeting mine, and a warning bell rang in my ears. "Her heat's coming in."
My jaw clenched at the announcement.
"I can see her through it, but it'd be better if the others weren't around. There's not gonna be any chance of hiding her during…" Bear drifted off.
During the fuck fest of the omega's heat. No hiding her perfume as Bear knotted her for a week straight. Probably no hiding the sounds either.
What's it like? my hindbrain wanted to shout.
"Better to get her settled elsewhere, don't you think?" I asked.
Bear tried to hide his reaction. He did a decent job, actually. His hands twitched, but he didn't clench them into fists like I suspected he wanted to, and he forced his eyes away from mine, clearing the growl out of his throat before speaking.