Page 13 of Bewitched

L ayla opened her eyes to darkness. She had slept, but there had been no rest in it. Her joints felt frozen together, and her mouth was dry. She was cocooned under a weighted blanket filled with beads that mimicked a warm hug. The closet was quiet, and Jaxon was gone. She pulled a pillow close and took in his scent. It calmed her, soothing some deep animal part of herself.

She was deeply lonely by herself in the dark. She felt sick. She wanted her mom. Except her mom would be horrified. She wanted her dad or Mina. She wanted her Alpha, but he wasn’t there. He had left her again.

Her fingers twitched. She could feel them, but she couldn’t see them. Was she even here? “Alpha?” she croaked.

The bed beyond the closet creaked, and Jaxon slid the door open. Diffused light spilled into her nest, and the world had color again. Jaxon was dressed in a clean pair of sweatpants and a shirt. Seeing him clothed was suddenly strange and distressing. She whimpered. He was leaving.

“Kitten?”

“Can you see me?” She didn’t feel real — like she was so hollow she was invisible. Maybe he had been looking for her, but he couldn’t see her, a ghost made of skin.

He crouched in front of her and poked the tip of her nose. “I can see you, kitten. You’re right here.”

She smiled, and he smiled back at her. Her mate smiled. She could feel his happiness inside her chest, a strange contentment. She had never felt it before, even for herself. It might have been part of the bond or something else. She didn’t know. She should have paid more attention in school. She was so stupid.

She felt the anxiety creeping up, clawing at her throat. She was being bad, but she couldn’t stop it. And that only made the anxiety worse.

Jaxon touched her cheek, drawing her thoughts away from the turmoil inside. She tried to focus on him, on his calloused fingers on the skin close to her mouth. He smelled so good. She flicked her tongue out and tasted skin and a burst of cinnamon from his wrist. She shuddered.

“Good girl,” he whispered.

She rubbed her face harder against his hand. She wanted to draw him back inside and curl up in his scent. She’d even let him fuck her again if he just came back inside, but he resisted her pull.

She whined. She had to be doing something wrong. She needed to ask someone, but she didn’t know very many mated omegas. Everyone at school was unmated. Oh, Roan. He could help. He knew all the special rules that came with mating.

“Can I call Roan?”

Jaxon frowned. “Later, you need to rest right now.”

Alpha was right. She was tired. Maybe Roan was tired, too. He was always so busy with his alpha. Mina was always complaining that he was too busy to hang out. Layla never tried to hang out with Roan. Would she ever get to hang out with Mina again? She didn’t want to leave her sister all alone.

“Can I call Mina?”

Jaxon laughed. “Definitely not.”

Guess she’d never see her sister again. Alphas were territorial like that. Panic and fear crawled up from her stomach. Would she get any of her old life back? Would he force her to live in Greenway Tower and never leave? She didn’t want to be trapped. She didn’t want to be alone. She reached for him, grabbing at his knees plaintively. “I have class. I’m in school. Can I go to school? I don’t want to get in trouble. Please, let me—“

He gently pushed her back into the closet. “None of that now. No class today. Just sleep.”

Her lip trembled. “Maybe tomorrow? I can go tomorrow.”

She felt his anger in her stomach. She made him mad again.

“Next week, Layla. Stop trying to leave,” he said.

Layla nodded and pulled the blanket over her head. He couldn’t be mad at her if she didn’t exist. She forgot he was so mad at her. She needed to remember that if she was supposed to be a good omega. She had been a good beta for so long… She had to be good.

Jaxon put his hand over the blanket and pressed on her head. “Kitten, we are going to have company soon. I couldn’t hold them off—“

There was a knock on the apartment’s outer wall, and a familiar feminine voice said, “Son of a bitch…”

“Fuck,” Jaxon snarled and slid the closet door closed. “Stay there.”

Layla curled further in her blanket burrito. She didn’t want visitors. She felt sick to death of people in her space.

“Jax, what did you do?” the feminine voice asked.

Georgia. That’s who that was. Oh no. Another alpha in her den. They would fight again, like Axel. Layla needed to—

“Yeah, he made a mess,” a masculine voice said. She knew this one, too. Clover. Beta Clover. Mina’s Clover. Not a threat, but not welcome either. “Couldn’t you have taken this to the hallway? You have carpet.”

Jaxon growled, and Layla shivered. He wasn’t angry, not truly angry, more annoyed and frustrated.

“Enough,” snapped a third voice. Damian Sorreto. Alpha. Angry, mean alpha. “I pay you to clean, not to run your mouth.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Clover said.

Damian sighed. “Did the girl see this?”

Layla scrabbled to the back of the closet and flopped against the wall. She was so groggy, that she couldn’t keep her hands or knees under her. She was trapped. There was no place safe for her anymore.

“She’s the one who stabbed him in the back,” Jaxon said.

Damian hummed. “Let’s go see the damage then.”

Layla ducked under her blanket, curling it around herself. She was still naked. She didn’t mind it so much when it was just Jaxon — but Damian. Damian hated her already. He would think she was a whore. Worse than a whore. What was worse than a whore? Her mother probably knew.

She heard them enter the bedroom, and the door slid open. Damian crouched in front of her nest, and she let out a small growl. Where was Jaxon? Where was her Alpha? Damian clicked his tongue at her like she was a dog, and she reluctantly pulled the blanket off her head.

There he was in front of her, wearing slacks with a button-up shirt and vest, his sleeves rolled up. His hair was more silver than gold now, compared to her memory of him dragging Bryson away from her father, though he wasn’t any less commanding.

“Come here, Omega,” Damian said.

Layla flinched. She wasn’t an omega. Except she was, but not for him. She wasn’t an omega for him.

Jaxon growled. “She doesn’t like that. Don’t call her by her designation.”

Damian nodded, keeping his eyes on Layla. “Come here.”

The demand wasn’t a Command, but it nonetheless drew her forward. She could smell the pine and notes of old books in his scent.

Damian put his hand under her chin, and she tilted her head away to keep his fingers from touching her skin. She had no desire to let him touch her, but the movement seemed to be what he wanted as he stared at the bruising over her mating gland.

Damian growled softly. “You really know how to make a mess, Harlow.”

She could feel Jaxon tense like a bowstring. One pluck, and he’d break. He sat on the bed, stripped of all its sheets. He watched Damian stiffly, clearly unhappy with another alpha so close to his bitten mate.

Layla silently agreed. Damian needed to leave. She wanted to be alone, preferably alone with her Alpha. She bared her teeth at him, and Damian chuckled.

“How long has she been like this?” Damian asked.

“Three days now,” Jaxon said. “It comes in waves, not constant.”

Damian nodded, and Layla copied the motion until she felt dizzy. He touched the side of her face to stop her. Layla glared, but the world was swirling too much to be effective. She didn’t feel good.

“That happens when the suppressants are still trying to work, but her biology has triggered anyway. Did you speak to Kaiser?”

Layla attempted to growl. “I don’t like Kaiser,” she mumbled.

“Several times,” Jaxon said, ignoring her.

She felt his annoyance like a spike of adrenalin, and she decided to be annoyed with Damian, too. If he got his fingers close to her mouth, she’d bite him.

“Did anything change after you bit her?” Damian asked.

Jaxon shrugged. “She’s been asleep.”

“How long?”

She couldn’t have been asleep that long. She still felt awful.

“About twelve hours. I Commanded her.”

Damian growled so low Layla could feel it through the air more than hear it. “Idiot,” Damian snarled. “You interrupted her bonding instinct. A restricted bonding can cause a cascade of physiological consequences—”

Layla whined. The alphas were angry. They were angry at her. She screwed up. She screwed up. She was such a fuck up.

Jaxon clenched his fists. “She wanted me to—“

Damian turned toward Jaxon, but he remained on his knees at Layla’s side. “And you listened to a compromised omega? What a knowledgeable alpha you are.”

Layla barked in distress. She had to get their attention. She couldn’t let them fight. No more fighting. She couldn’t take it. No more blood. No more death because of her.

Damian turned back to her and purred, a lighter rumble than Jaxon’s deep bass. It was a contented sound like her father made. Parental. It soothed her and must have done the same for Jaxon because he settled back into the bed. No fighting.

Damian stared at her. “What is she on?”

Jaxon rubbed his face. “Kitten, what suppressants were you taking?”

She glanced between them warily and looked away to pull a pillow close to her nose. Jaxon’s scent filled her senses. It was the only comfort she was going to get. “Omerex.”

Damian grunted and leaned further into her nest, sniffing. “Wayland Corporation. When are you due for your next dose?”

Layla glanced at him and then away. She didn’t like his direct attention. It was too focused. Like he could see through her — like she was hollow. Who was going to fill her up again? “Three months,” she whispered.

Damian cursed and rubbed at his beard. She could smell his agitation. “Once is an aberration. Twice is a lawsuit. Fucking hell.”

“So it is the same?” Jaxon asked.

Layla was so confused. What were they talking about? Why were they mad? She wanted to soothe her Alpha, crawl under the bed with him, and hide, but she couldn’t get past Damian.

“Likely,” Damian said. “Aslin Nash is an alpha. Her mother… she was a beta.”

Layla nodded. Her mother was a beta who never understood these things. Not that Layla understood them either. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t supposed to have a heat, have a mate. She was supposed to go to school. Marry a nice beta. Have pups. Oh no, not pups, children. Betas had children. Omega whores had pups because they were animals.

Damian cocked his head, and his eyebrows lifted. “What?”

Layla blushed. Did she say that out loud? How much had she said out loud?

Jaxon rubbed his face, and Layla felt another emotion from him that she could not name. It made her want to cry and hide. “She hasn’t been making a lot of sense. She keeps forgetting events, circling back to things she’s already done. She doesn’t recognize me half the time.”

Damian nodded. “Kaiser has said the same.”

“I don’t like Kaiser,” Layla repeated. She didn’t want him or his sickly-sweet honeysuckle scent anywhere near her or her Alpha.

Damian chuckled and smiled at her.

Layla waited a moment, and when she decided that she wasn’t going to get in trouble for speaking, she smiled back.

“Good girl,” Damian said.

Layla preened. Damian liked her. Finally! She smiled wider and turned to Jaxon, trying to show him her best smile, but he didn’t return it. His eyes were flat and far away. Her smile dropped, and she curled back into her blanket. Mad again. Okay. She could be quiet.

“She seems calm, if not completely lucid,” Damian said. “That’s good. What about you?”

Jaxon snorted. “Me? I knew what I was doing. There was an alpha in my den trying to take my omega.”

Damian waved him off. “If he was stupid enough to invade the den of a rutting alpha, then he is more foolish than I thought and deserved his fate.”

Yes, they killed an invading alpha. Jaxon was a good alpha. Layla strained a smile at him again. Forcing her lips to stretch until her cheeks hurt. Jaxon finally twitched a smile, and Layla felt immense relief. She needed him to like her. She needed him to be happy with her.

“And her?” Damian asked. “Did you know what you were doing there?”

Jaxon snorted. “When? When I snatched her up from her campus or when I bit her? Well, they probably have the same answer.”

Layla whined and tried to scoot further back into her nest. It was her fault. She made him want her. Made him kill for her. She made him bite her.

Damian sighed. “She’ll need to be on Subrexa. It worked for Kaiser—“

“I don’t like Kaiser,” Layla whispered, but they weren’t paying attention to her.

“—You’ll have to go on Alpheron until her hormones level out.”

“No,” Jaxon said. “I’m not—“

“You will,” Damian said with force. “I don’t need you killing anyone else or causing her to cycle again. Don’t you remember what happened with Hera?”

Jaxon flinched.

“I don’t like Kaiser,” Layla said louder. She really needed Jaxon to know that before he left her for a better omega.

“Of course, dear,” Damian said to her before turning back to Jaxon. “At least, this is manageable. Assuming Aslin Nash doesn’t kill you first.”

Jaxon growled unhappily. “Do we have to do this now?”

Damian hummed. “Right. You are still in an agitated state. Your bond is weak. You’ll be better off if you bite her again and stay with her. Awake this time.”

Jaxon glared, and any other alpha would have cowered.

“I will continue to run interference with Nash, but he will come looking for her eventually.”

Layla shook her head. “No, no, no, no. I’m not supposed to be here. He’s going to be so mad at me.”

Damian purred and ran his fingers through her hair. “I doubt that. Fathers can never remain angry with their omega children.”

She closed her eyes and relaxed into his touch. It was nice, not as good as Jaxon, but nice. She wished Jaxon would touch her like that. Soft and kind.

Jaxon growled, and Layla could feel it vibrate inside her. “Stop touching her.”

Damian took his hand away. “Let an old man indulge a pretty girl.”

“Indulge the other one.”

Damian smiled, but it wasn’t kind. “As you say.”

Jaxon gripped the mattress, digging his fingers into the cloth. “You are two minutes from becoming the next stain on my floor.”

Damian rose and stood at his full height, still several inches shorter than Jaxon’s massive stature. Damian approached him and grabbed Jaxon by his hair, pulling his head back. “Watch yourself, boy. I took you in and made you the man you are. Don’t make me break you.”

Layla growled, a real growl in her throat and chest. She would protect Jaxon again. She would. Even Damian Sorreto couldn’t frighten her from defending her mate.

Damian released him and glanced at Layla with a frown. “Interesting.”

Jaxon rubbed the back of his head and looked away. He knew better than to challenge Damian, but Layla didn’t care for alpha rules.

“She’s a better choice for you than I expected,” Damian said. “Call me when she’s lucid. I will have a doctor on standby with better equipment than a university health center.”

Jaxon nodded, but his eyes were hard on Damian.

“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t want your mate,” Damian said. “I am sure I have never seen you so possessive. It’s a good look on you.”

Jaxon snorted. “Get out.”

Damian laughed and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

Jaxon collapsed into himself, his face in his hands. “Fuck.”

Layla edged out of the closet. She could feel his desolation. It ached deep inside. “Alpha?”

He looked up, tired and strained.

She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how to comfort him. Didn’t know what he would like. He was practically a stranger. “I’m cold,” she whispered.

Jaxon grunted as he got up, his footsteps heavy. She shuffled back into the nest, and he joined her in her blanket cocoon. He pulled her close, and she squeezed him back. She slotted her legs between his comfortably.

She didn’t want him to feel bad. This wasn’t his fault. Layla linked their fingers together and brought their joined hands between them. Jaxon smiled softly and kissed the top of her head. Good. He wasn’t too mad at her. She could live with that. She would do her best to take care of her mate.