Page 10 of Advocate Omega (Unforeseen Paths #1)

Entering the living room, I don’t see him.

So I walk through it to the kitchen and again, I come up short.

Deciding to go outside, I head for the back door.

When it swings open, I find him standing in the middle of the grassy field.

The same one I ran through last night. He’s not yelling or crying, but perfectly still.

“Lucan?”

“They aren’t out there,” he states, voice tight. “No one is.”

“How can you be sure? Even you can’t hear a quarter mile out.”

He grunts. “I can.”

I gape at his back. “Seriously?”

“I can take you now, if you’re ready.”

Oh.

So, this is it then. Not even twenty-four hours, and he’s done. Ready to go back to his isolation. I guess I can see why. “I—let me get dressed,” I say, suddenly sad.

He turns to face me. “Unless,” he swallows, “you don’t want to.”

“Wait,” I throw out my hands. “I’m confused. You’re asking if I want to stay?”

“I’m asking you what you want to do. We can go now, and they’ll never know you were here.”

“So you want me to leave,” I clarify.

He doesn’t reply, just stares at me.

“Do you want me to go?” I ask him flat out. Why the fuck is my voice cracking?

“Yes,” he finally says. “But not due to the reason you’re thinking.”

“Like you know what I’m fucking thinking,” I snap. Hell, I don’t even know what I’m thinking. All I know is I’m sad for no reason, starving again, and everything feels… wrong.

As if he can sense my internal distress, he walks over to me and stops only a few feet away. “You’re almost going into heat.”

My head whips up, eyes clashing with his. “Excuse me?”

“I can smell it on you. Do you usually eat your body weight in sandwiches? Steal strangers’ clothes and obey a sigma’s command?”

“Sigma? You’re a sigma ?”

He nods once.

“Answer me, Zander.”

I want to, but now that he’s pointed out how easy it is for me to do what he says, I bite my tongue.

“It’s your heat. I’d say you have three days before it starts. I don’t have anything here to…help with that. If you leave now, you might be able to get somewhere safe or to find someone you wish to service you.”

“Service me,” I repeat numbly.

“Yes,” he insists. “Because that’s what omegas do when they aren’t bonded to an alpha or alphas. They are serviced.”

“Going into heat.” It’s finally going to happen, and I’m here. I don’t even know where here is. I don’t have a phone to call Gabe. I’m all alone.

Being alone isn’t usually an issue for me. But it’s never been to this extent.

“Zander,” Lucan says gently. “I can’t handle an omega in heat. Not now.”

My chin wobbles, so I tuck it into my chest. I wring my fingers, trying to think, trying to come up with a plan. “I don’t know what to do,” I admit. “I—if you could just tell me where I am, then I could figure out where I need to go.”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Why?” I demand, my eyes filling with tears. “Who am I going to tell? No one wants to fuck with the Moon Clan , anyway!”

“You’re emotional.”

“So?” I sneer. “Maybe you should try it so you don’t look so fucking constipated.”

Silence.

Oh shit. I fucked up this time.

This sigma is going to revoke all niceness and become every asshole I’ve ever tried to avoid. He’s going to scruff me, drag me through the woods, and kick me so far to the curb I won’t even be able to recall where I came from. I go to cower, to tuck and run, but he doesn’t do any of that.

Lucan laughs.

He laughs hard and with his whole belly. I peek up at him, watching him swipe at his tears, try to sober up, then laugh all over again. “I look constipated?” he finally asks after a while.

“A little?” I shrug. “I just said it because I’m upset.”

“It’s the beard, isn’t it?”

I study him, thinking. “Considering I have no idea what your face looks like, I can’t be sure.”

Again, he laughs. It’s making me…happy. I internally preen, feeling my earlier woes slipping away. Heat? Who fucking cares? I just made a giant sigma laugh.

“In all seriousness,” he sobers and returns to his usual gloom and doom expression. “I can’t have you go into heat here. Every wolf in the valley will smell you.”

“See,” I start, holding my hips. “You keep saying that. That I have this… smell . I’ve been hiding right under at least five different clans’ noses for years. I don’t smell like an omega. Vamps can’t detect me, or other wolves. So, what smell are you smelling? My body odor?”

“I smelled you the minute you set foot inside my house.” He takes a step.

“I knew you were an omega because of it.” Another step.

He’s right in front of me now. Something flashes in his eyes when he glances at my neck.

“And if you go into heat, they will smell it. Whatever fluke in your genetic makeup has masked your scent will be ripped apart as soon as it happens, I can guarantee that.”

“Oh,” I whisper.

“It’s safer if you leave and find… accommodations.”

I hold my arms, looking to him for answers. “What would you do?”

He scoffs. “Me?”

“Yes, you. If you were me in this exact situation. What would you do, Lucan?”

Thinking about it, he hums. “Well, I suppose I’d seek out someone I trusted. Someone I knew would be honorable and treat me with the respect I deserve.”

“I don’t have anyone like that,” I admit. “The only person I would trust is bonded to a really bossy alpha who doesn’t like me and literally can't help me.”

“In that case,” he says with a huff, “I would probably ride it out alone.”

“And be in agony.”

He nods stiffly.

“Fuck.”

“The alphas here would…be kind to you, but you would be chained here, to them. You’d be…well, another omega. And you don’t want that.”

“Double fuck.” I whimper and hold my head.

“Are you sure there isn’t anyone you trust? Even a little? Someone who wouldn’t hurt you and would make sure you’re taken care of?”

Hell, the way he says it, like he’s lived and breathed the role several times over, makes it hard to think logically.

Despite being outside, his scent is still strong, and I hate that I love it so much.

Sure, he’s scruffy and huge, but I think…

no, what the hell am I thinking! I can’t… there’s no way…

“Zander?”

I pull my hands from my face and stare up into his green eyes. “I trust you a little,” I blurt. Stupid. Alphas make omegas stupid. Clearly, I'm falling into that trap quickly.

But he’s not an alpha. He’s a sigma.

Fucking same thing.

“What?” he shouts, almost hysterical.

There’s no taking it back. “You haven’t hurt me at all. You’ve been keeping me hidden and safe. Why wouldn’t I trust you?”

“Because you don’t know me? Because I’m…because…” He looks me up and down, and a low growl forms in his throat. “No.”

“No?”

“No, I’m…I can’t.”

“Because I don’t know you,” I reiterate.

“Because I can’t let another omega destroy me!”