Knot So Perfect Omega (Omega Match #1)(17)

With a sigh, I slogged down the steps. I was glad we had the day off to recover from our game before we kicked it into high gear for the playoffs and hopefully the championship. We’d made it into the playoffs the year before, but were knocked out of contention when Rylan dove to stop a thirty-pound ball from the opposing team from going into the hole and broke his arm.

I could still hear the bone snapping.

There was a light on in the kitchen, but with a quick glance in that direction, I found it empty. The couch was abandoned too. “Beck?”

“Come on, Kara. Open the door.” I barely picked up on his voice and turned toward the hallway where we had an office and a gamer room.

Beck was sitting on the floor next to the gamer room door, his head back against the wall. What had the asshole done now?

“What are you doing?” I stood in front of him, my hands on my hips.

“I don’t know.” He peered up at me and scrubbed his hands over his face. “We were making out in the kitchen, and I told her if she wanted me to stop, she needed to tell me, and then she ran off. She locked herself in here.”

“Did you try the door through the bathroom?” There was a bathroom connecting the office we used for meetings and the gamer room where we had computers and gaming systems. “There’s the key thing that will unlock the door.”

I reached for the small, metal key that unlocked all the interior doors that sat on top of the doorframe. Kind of pointless to have locks that could so easily be unlocked if you asked me.

“Of course I checked the bathroom door. It’s locked.” He pushed up off the floor and snatched the key away from me, putting it back. “We aren’t going to just barge in there.”

I put my ear against the door and heard a muffled whimper. “What the fuck did you do to her, man?”

“Nothing! We were both into it. At least, I thought she was.” He looked dejected as fuck, which was surprising considering his feelings on welcoming an omega in the first place.

I put my hand on his arm. “I heard that the omegas that end up at academies are all virgins and inexperienced unless they were sexually active before emerging. Think about it, dude... since they were sixteen, they’ve lived away from everyone else in their little bubbles.”

One of the things I hated most about our society was how omegas were treated like fragile little porcelain dolls that had to be locked away so the big bad alphas didn’t destroy their innocence. It should have been the opposite. Alphas should be the ones to take scent blockers and rut suppressants to curb the need to take an omega and bond with them.

“I was in the moment and just... fuck!” He put his forehead against the door and banged it a few times with a growl. “Please, Kara. Open the door so we can talk.”

“Why don’t you go get some sleep? She’s clearly not going to come out of there right now.” I grabbed his shoulder and he let me lead him down the hall to the living room.

“My room is filled with her perfume. Those suppressants don’t work for shit,” he grumbled and shrugged off my hand. “I need to clean up the glass on the kitchen floor.”

I followed him and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Maybe that’s what scared her into hiding.”

“No. She got a sliver of it in her foot after she dropped it and I took it out.” He went to the pantry and grabbed a broom and dustpan. “It’s not like I came down here and expected to be swept away by her.”

“Pun intended?” I gestured to the broom and then began cleaning up the first aid kit next to the sink. “I wasn’t accusing you of anything, by the way. I’m just a little surprised you’re all worked up over her.”

“You and me both.”

AFTER A FEW MORE HOURS OF restless sleep, I finally got out of bed to start my day, hoping whatever had upset Kara was now forgotten. I’d managed to convince Beck to sleep in the guest room and wondered if he actually had or if he’d gone back to his post outside the locked door.

An upset omega was the last thing we needed when we were about to start heavy training for the playoffs. What we needed was a sit down to get to know each other and lay out our expectations of one another. In a way, this was like an arranged marriage, and it wasn’t like the love was going to be immediate.

I showered and dressed in my favorite pair of dark wash jeans that fit my muscular thighs and ass perfectly. I paired them with a solid white Alpha Fit T-shirt. Looking in my bathroom mirror at the Alpha Fit words across my chest, I still couldn’t believe we’d landed a deal with United Alpha Sports.

Not bothering with shoes, I headed downstairs to find Rylan eating a breakfast sandwich and drinking coffee at the kitchen island. Out of the four of us, he was the youngest, and also the earliest riser. It didn’t matter what day of the week it was or how late he was up the night before, he was up at six every day.

“No Kara yet?” I went directly to the coffee maker and poured myself a cup.

“She wasn’t on the couch when I got up.” Rylan popped the last bite of his sandwich in his mouth and jumped up. “I have a gaming date with my sis.”

“That’s where she’s locked herself. Something happened between her and Beck last night.” I sipped my coffee as I walked out of the kitchen area and toward the room in question, Rylan right behind me. “It sucks because the more I’ve thought about having an omega, the more I want it. We don’t want to end up like one of those older packs that start to go a bit feral because they don’t have an omega to keep them grounded.”