Page 7 of Advocate Omega (Unforeseen Paths #1)

When he reaches the closed door, he knocks. Fucking knocks. Who even is this guy? “Uh, yeah?”

“You can come out.”

I’m not sure I can. “Yeah, okay.” I adjust my cock quickly, but it is still obvious. Thankfully, he doesn’t wait and walks away from the door. I plug my nose and take a few steadying breaths. Then I think about how much I don’t want to end up like my friend. How miserable I’d be if that were me.

My cock shrivels like its trained to.

I glance around the room for anything to wipe off Lucan’s scent with, but come up empty.

Suffering it is. I leave the bedroom and make a three-second plan to say thank you and take my chances across the creek.

How hard can it be to navigate the wilderness at night with nothing?

Can’t be that hard. My ancestors did it all the time.

Shit.

I enter the living room, and he’s back in the kitchen, so I wander over that way.

Palms flat on the countertop, head hanging down dramatically, Lucan’s nostrils flare when I approach.

Snapping out of whatever minor crisis he’s having, he grabs a washcloth from the rack hanging above the sink and wets it thoroughly.

“It won’t get it all the way off, but it’ll help.” He offers the dripping rag.

I take it from him, mumbling a thanks, and wash my neck.

For some reason, I’m disappointed. Why? No idea. But it’s a damn struggle to make myself scrub away his scent. My fingers don't want to cooperate. A bit of my hair gets wet in the process, so I take the hair tie I keep around my wrist and pull it back into a small bun instead of finishing.

“Well, thanks for covering for me,” I tell him, but he’s already walking away from me. Yet again, I follow the male. “I’ll go now. Sorry for ruining your night.”

He stops and sighs. He sure does sigh a lot. “You can’t go.”

“Not fifteen minutes ago, you said I could,” I point out.

Scrubbing at his face, he spins and faces me. Those green eyes look even sadder than before, pained and wounded, and he pins me with regret. “They won’t give up so easily. And now that I’ve raised suspicions, they’ll keep an eye on this area for the night, and possibly tomorrow.”

It takes me a few seconds to understand what he’s saying. “So I’m stuck here?” I balk. “Stuck? With you ?” That earlier panic returns with a vengeance, and I try to take a breath, but it ends up being some fucked up wheeze.

“The alternative is stuck out there with them .” He points towards his front door. “Ulric won’t force anything on you, but he does expect a certain level of cooperation from an omega, especially one without a clan.”

“Is that all you care about? That I’m an omega?” I demand. “Is that all we are worth to you? Our fucking wombs ?”

He gives me no reaction. Instead, he glances at the floor.

“Well, newsflash, Lucan , not all of us want to sit around, popping out kids, and being nothing, alright? That won’t be me.

Fancy genes or not, I don’t give a flying fuck.

I don’t want anything to do with you, your clan, or any wolf ever!

” I yell, shaking all over. “I don’t want it.

So unless your clan is A-okay with rape, that’s never going to happen. ”

His eyes find mine. “No one will touch you.”

“And being in heat can still be rape,” I insist. “You can’t consent if you’re in heat.”

“I’m well aware,” he grits out.

“Being ‘overcome by your rut’ isn’t a fucking excuse,” I keep going, my voice cracking. “There’s never an excuse to take someone’s choice away. To keep them tied to their ‘hierarchy status’ or whatever ancient fucking practice you pretend justifies it.”

I realize I’m taking out a lifetime’s worth of trauma on this stranger, but I can’t help it. It’s just…got to come out.

“Alphas make omegas stupid. They ruin us. I don’t want to be ruined, Lucan, alright? So, I’ll…I don’t know. But I can’t stay here. They’ll wait me out until I finally get a heat and then…and then…” I can’t keep going, can’t breathe. I clutch at my chest, gasping for air.

He crosses the space quickly. His hand shoots out to touch me, but then at the last moment, he stops. “Take my home.”

“W-what?” I squint, doubling over and holding my knees.

“You stay here until they think you’re long gone. Then you can go. I’ll take you across the creek and point you in the right direction.”

In and out. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Fuck, he smells amazing. No nose, then, just mouth. I pant like an overheated bull, dizzy, sweaty.

“Breathe,” he orders. “Slower. That’s it. Even slower. Breathe.”

Lucan is squatting and still has to duck down to catch my gaze. “Keep talking. It helps.”

A tiny smile makes his mustache lift. “Deep breath now, hold it. Release. One, breathe. Two, breathe. There you go.”

I feel a little better. Thank the gods. “Thanks,” I murmur.

“I think after a day or two, they’ll back off and give up,” he says as I stand upright again.

“Where will you be?”

“Around.”

“You mean outside.”

“Sure.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Are you always this giving?”

“I disagree with what they’ve done. I wouldn’t call it giving, more so foiling their plans.”

“So it’s pettiness.”

“Sure.”

“And you’re totally okay with me hiding in your weird little house.”

That makes him pause. “I’ll deal with it.”

“Because you don’t want me here? You don’t want me for yourself?”

Those green eyes dim, not that there was much light in them to begin with, but our banter seemed to push back some of the sadness. It’s returned full force and then some. “Like I told you before, I don’t have anything to give you.”