Page 24 of Advocate Omega (Unforeseen Paths #1)

Zander

As soon as Lucan hit the spare bed, he passed the fuck out.

I feel a bit guilty about it. But I’m also really mad at him currently. He kept that fun little nugget of information away from me. The male literally bared his soul while we were together, but failed to inform me he’s a damn Prime Alpha.

Unreal.

I’ll be sure to let him have a large chunk of my mind once he wakes up. For now, I’m sitting in the living room with Gabe, who is snacking on a plate of cheese and sliced meats.

Griffin went to inform the rest of the important alphas that they had someone powerful among them. Gabe cried a little when he left, but then quickly told me it was due to his hormones. Always the fucking hormones, I swear.

“You had sex with him,” he says casually, popping a white cube of cheese into his mouth.

Can he not smell me? I wonder when I stopped smelling like slick and started smelling like nothing again.

“I did not,” I argue. “He… helped me .”

His eyes are round behind his glasses. “You had your first heat?”

I slump into the couch and cover my face. “Yeah.”

“Gods!” he slaps me, and I’m grateful the territorial alpha upstairs is unconscious. “And you couldn’t have said that earlier? We were texting for like half of your drive up here!”

“Shhh!”

“Sorry,” he whispers. “It’s just…well, how was it? Did you…is your… hole okay?”

Gabe knows all about my lack of slickness. My cheeks heat against my will, and he squeals in excitement. “It’s not an issue anymore.”

“I need to know everything. Tell me everything. ”

And I do. From my kidnapping to how I escaped and ended up in Lucan’s cabin. How he protected me and kept me safe. Every last detail except those I feel are too personal, Gabe hears. When I finish, feeling warm and tingly all over, he scoots closer and snuggles against me.

“I think I like him,” I whisper, toying with some of his hair. “Really like him, Gabe. And I’m…”

“Scared?”

I nod.

“That’s okay. You’ve been adamant for years that you’d never let this happen, and now it is. But he’s been so good to you.”

“That’s the thing,” I insist. “How do I know for sure that’s how he really is? What if he just…did all that because it was nice? Like he was just being nice to me because it was my first time.”

“He calls you precious and baby and sweet thing. That’s not just an alpha being nice. Dakota went through his first heat with that garbage can, Alvin. Alvin called him his little cockslut.”

I laugh, remembering how upset Gabe got over that when he first told me. This was before Griffin. It’s hard to believe they’ve only been bonded for a little over a year. “He definitely didn’t call me that,” I muse. “Even though I kind of was.”

Gabe giggles and laces our fingers together. “So, you like him. I don’t see what the problem is?”

“Well,” I take a deep breath, “he was bonded before.”

“What?” He lifts his head to frown at me. “Bonded?”

“I guess not fully?” I shrug. “He bonded to this douche canoe, Ian, and then the moron rejected him. Luc became a sigma and yeah.”

“So you’re worried he still wants this Ian?”

I shake my head. “No. I know he doesn’t.” Weathering my lip, I think about how I want to say this. If I’m ready to admit it. This is Gabe, after all, and I can trust him with anything. “I’m worried I won’t want to be what he needs.”

“Needs?”

“He wants a mate. With kids and a house and the whole nine yards,” I grumble. “I don’t know what I want.”

He whines. “That’s so sad.”

“What if I never want that? I like him, Gabe. I really do. There’s something about him that just…fuck I can’t explain it.”

“Have you talked about this? With him?”

“Kinda?” I look to him helplessly. “I don’t want to hurt him. He’s been hurt so much, you know?”

“Why does it have to be so… cookie-cutter?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, look at me. I knew I wanted kids, but I didn’t think I’d be pregnant the first time Griffin knotted me.

But now that it’s happened, I’m fine with it.

It feels right. Sometimes fate pushes you down an unexpected path, and you end up liking where it leads.

” He shrugs. “What if you just…were with him? You get to know each other better, fall in love, and then cross those roads when you get there?”

I laugh. Manically. “ Fall in love? ”

“It’s a reasonable conclusion.”

My heart thuds wildly at the implication. “No.”

“I can hear that pitter-patter going on. You might already be falling,” he coos and gets on his knees to squeeze my cheeks. “Zander is in loooove. ”

“I am not!” I whine and shove his hands off me. He dives, landing in my lap and rubbing all over me like a kid. “Gabe!”

“Love, love, love .”

“I will strike you,” I warn.

“You wouldn’t dare hurt me. I’m with child .”

I growl and tickle him. He flails, grabbing me by the neck, and we roll to the floor.

For several minutes, I lose myself in my friend.

We play and tease, and laugh. It feels so good that I don’t even notice that Lucan is awake, watching with an amused expression and eyes swirling with affection.

Gabe gasps and stops his assault on tickling my sides.

He’s straddling me, and I’ve got a wad of his hair in my fist.

“Come here,” Lucan rumbles.

Gabe hurries to get off me, and I rise to my feet.

I cast a glance at my friend who beams and nods eagerly.

What a loser. Shaking my head and laughing, I go over to Lucan and bare my throat.

It’s what he wants, and it’s silly to pretend otherwise.

A pleased growl leaves him as he scoops me up and scents me instantly.

His canines nip at my skin before suckling and licking.

He nuzzles me and rubs his cheeks over mine.

Powerful gusts of his pheromones fill the air, and when he’s satisfied that I no longer smell like Gabe, he puts me down and brushes my hair behind my ear.

“Less grumpy?” I ask, breathless and heart racing.

“Mmm.” He flicks his eyes around the room before settling back on me. Then I remember I’m mad at him. I slap his big chest and then give it a little squeeze for good measure. “What was that for?”

“You are a Prime Alpha?”

Groaning, he picks me up again, making me squeak, and then says to Gabe, “I need a moment with him.”

“Take all the time you need,” he says happily and returns to his snacks.

It’s hard to stay mad when you have a beautiful male pinning you to the bed and staring at you like he wants to eat you.

But I hold fast and scowl at him. He smiles and playfully nips at my lips.

I grunt and refuse to give in. He pokes and prods at my face with his nose, then kisses my cheek and forehead.

This is the first time he’s been so openly affectionate since the end of my heat.

I can’t stop the way my body lights up and my heart beats harder for him.

“Baby,” he purrs. “I was going to tell you.”

“You so weren’t,” I argue.

He chuckles and kisses a path down my neck.

I squirm, my cock already thickening. I don’t know how I can even be turned on after a week of straight sex.

I huff and puff, and he keeps kissing me, petting me, and slowly grinding into my rapidly growing erection.

It’s manipulation. It’s…fucking rude and hot .

“Lucan,” I bark.

He groans and lifts his head. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

“Um, yeah .”

Sighing, he rolls off me but makes sure I come with him. I snuggle into him because he has me trapped in his arms. There’s no way I can escape, obviously. And when I take a deep sniff from his armpit, that’s completely unrelated.

“My sire was Prime Alpha,” he starts, gently running his fingers up and down my back.

I wiggle closer and throw my leg over his.

“He led our entire clan. But he got sick young. Far too young, and when he passed, it was decided unanimously that the clan had outgrown a single leader. The packs with alphas created a council of sorts, and by the time I was of age, I had accepted my role as just another alpha. I never once used my authority over them. And, to be honest, I didn’t want to. ”

“Keep going,” I urge, finding his nipple through his shirt and biting it. He grunts and squeezes me.

“I helped out different packs during rigorous heat cycles.”

I snarl and bite him hard. “Leave that part out,” I demand, and he lifts my chin. “I don’t want to hear about how you stuck your cock in all kinds of omegas.”

“Gods, you are perfect, you know that?” he says huskily.

“I’m still mad ,” I insist, frowning. He smiles and kisses the tip of my nose. I try to bite it, but he dodges my canines.

“I’m not trying to make you jealous, sweet. There was a point to—”

“Don’t care. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Okay,” he concedes and strokes my cheek. “I later discovered that the alphas of my sire’s generation spread lies about me. They swore I didn’t inherit the gene from him. And my father left this world when my sire did, so there was no one to argue those claims.”

“Your father died, too?” I gasp. “Seriously?”

“They were fated, sweet. Their lives are bound for eternity. And they completed the mating ritual. When my sire died, so did my father.”

I whine for him, and he shushes me. “It’s alright.”

“It’s not!”

“I learned quickly that this entire thing was planned out. But I had other plans. Like I said, I wanted to be a mate, so that had been my purpose for most of my adult years. I had no interest in ruling over a clan, and I didn’t care to prove anyone wrong. I was…happy.”

I crawl over his body so we are chest to chest. “So why didn’t you tell me?”

Shame fills his eyes. “I already went against your word once. I didn’t want to have that lingering between us and potentially influence you.”

I absorb that. “If you are a Prime Alpha,” I continue, needing to know more, “then how come Ryker was able to challenge you? Treat you like you were beneath him.”

Lucan blows out a breath. “Because I have never used that against him. He knows what I am, so does Ulric, and…” Shaking his head, he feels up my sides before slipping his hands under my shirt.

“There was a time when I got close. When I lost control and made a fucking fool of myself, but I kept it in check.”

“Luc,” I insist. “You can make them all back off. You . You can tell them to leave me alone.”

“And if I do that, I have to rule the entire clan,” he snaps. “I have to live among them, be their leader and protector. I’ll have to…” He stops abruptly.

“Have to what?”

“Leave you,” he says with a pained sigh.

“Oh,” I whisper. “You would?”

He nods. “You aren’t…we aren’t…” Blinking rapidly, he gently urges me off of him and sits up to wipe at his eyes. “It’s better for everyone involved if I just stay away. Fend off those who come after us, and eventually, I’ll disappear.”

I’m on my knees, watching him work through a wave of emotion, and feel helpless.

I don’t want him to disappear. That sounds like the worst thing ever.

My chest hurts, so I rub it and whine for his attention.

Some of this shit feels out of my control.

It makes no sense, but I’m not questioning it right now.

He pulls me to his side, presses a kiss to the top of my head, and trembles.

“It’s different with you,” he whispers. “So different.”

I’ve never felt any of these emotions before, so I have nothing to compare them to. That doesn’t change the fact that I feel the same way. “I don’t want you to leave me,” I whisper back. “I like…this. Whatever this is.”

“Me too, precious.”

“But I’m worried,” I confess, feeling braver. “I’m so worried that I won’t ever be what you want.”

He doesn’t reply.

“What if I never want to have kids? What if I want to be a cave diver for ten years? What if I decide that I need to go be like…an exotic dancer or something?” That makes him growl, and I smile, knowing he would absolutely have a thing or two to say about that.

“The point is, I’m still figuring it out, Luc. ”

“I know.”

“And it feels like,” I swallow, “it feels like I’m already yours. I didn’t get to pick that. I didn’t get to…”

“Choose me,” he supplies when I can’t, those two words broken and miserable.

Impulsively, I straddle his lap and cup his face. I’m not explaining this right. It all sounds like a rejection, and that’s the last thing I want. His eyes are on our laps, and I whine pathetically. “Look at me.”

He does, raw and vulnerable. “I don’t expect you to do anything. The way I feel isn’t your fault or something you can change. It’s just…who I am.”

“Hold me,” I insist. He lifts his limp arms and wraps them around me. “Kiss me.”

He kisses me, and I moan against him. I can’t deny how my heart beats faster, or how my body ignites with need.

I care about this male, I know that I do.

For whatever reason, we were meant to meet—I was meant to know him.

But I need to know if I was meant to be with him. And I’m not sure how to determine that.