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The inside zipper of my purse reveals the suppressant case where ninety stark white pills glare at me.

How did this happen?

I remember picking them up from the pharmacy and heading into court right after, where my exes read out an itemized list of my shopping on the pack accounts in court. And I mean everything down to the vibrators and lube I preferred. No wonder I didn’t remember.

Shit, shit,shit.

Now that I’m paying attention, I feel the low-grade fever, the sweat on my brow and the desperate urge to burrow that’s been festering for days. What I assumed was anxiety is actually the initial heat cramps. They’re not bad, but they’ll get there soon enough.

A spike of terror shoots through me. I’ve never had to deal with a heat alone. It can be excruciating, even deadly, without someone to help. I could go to a heat center, but the notoriously pro-alpha Omega Protection Agency runs the ones closest to my place. Without knowing they’ve received my dissolution notice, there’s no guarantee they won’t call Pack Parker when I’m too out of it to argue. Considering the shit they’ve pulled since I left, a forced bonding doesn’t seem so out of character. I can’t risk it.

Mellie’s horror stories of funky smelling alphas from apps make them just as unappealing and with my cash tied up in the storefront and lawyer’s fees, I don’t have the money to rent a room at Aura or hire an escort for the entirety of my heat, either. In the end, there’s only one place to go.

Revelry’s a free heat center that allows every omega—mated, courting or single—a safe place to ride out heats however they choose. The rooms are free, vetted packs are on standby, and they offer food and toy packages on a sliding scale. Kai recommends them all the time to the omegas she volunteers with.

The timing sucks, but I can’t do anything about Nymph right now. What I can do is throw off the last vestiges of my former lifeand start fresh in the arms of someone else. Plus, a few days of hot sex sounds like a good stress relief.

More excitement builds, as does the slow, simmering heat of an incoming spike.

I can’t just fall off the face of the earth, so I send another text to the group chat.

Me

Heat starting. Heading to Revelry. You’re all listed as emergency contacts.

Maverick

Good luck, be safe.

Kai

Seconded. Call when you get home.

Lacey

Ignore Mom and Dad. Just enjoy yourself. You deserve it.

Mellie

GET THAT DICK!

Even after I put the phone away, my muse is still tugging me forward, desperate to create regardless of my body’s threats. Peering at the time, I turn toward Diamond’s. I’ll shop before I head to the center. A few dozen orgasms and I can get back to doing what I love alpha-free.

Everything’s going to be okay.

Maybe if I say it enough, it’ll feel like the truth.

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

NATE

I’mneck deep in an engine rebuild, bear paw hands trying to fit the tiniest bolt known to man into an equally small holeIcan’t fucking seewhen someone slams a door. The bolt wobbles and frustration simmers below the surface, unfamiliar yet not. My instincts have been better since I started therapy, but they’re still unstable and hard to regulate on a good day. Meaning, I’m two seconds away from snapping like a twig if I can’t get this to work.

Dad’s voice echoes gently in my mind.Nice and easy, bud. Take your time.

He was a plumber by trade, but his passion was cars. Even too exhausted to function, he’d coach me through each repair like he had all the time in the world. Attempting to channel his energy, I hold my breath and try again, but another loud clang and the bolt slips out of my grasp, disappearing to whatever hellscape holds lost tools, missing socks, and my fucking patience.

“What the hell, Con?”