Page 17 of Bewitched

L ayla had sputtered and growled while she sat in Jaxon’s lap, but she never managed to purr like Kaiser and Eris. Jaxon eventually grabbed her and pulled her under him, laying over her like a particularly heavy blanket.

She should have been bothered to have him all over her, holding her down with his face in her neck, pressing his half-hard cock against her hip. But she wasn’t, not in the slightest. She didn’t even really remember who was there. Kaiser… Roan… Others. Jaxon and his cinnamon spice pheromones were the only things that mattered.

She relaxed, half-asleep, her head pillowed under Jaxon’s hand in the middle of the bed, the omegas surrounding her, moving, breathing. Jaxon’s nose pressed into her hair, while she listened to Eris chatter and Holden ask every question imaginable about The Omegas of Orange County.

It was good. So good.

It had to end at some point.

The front door creaked open, and Holden was the first to growl and posture to protect the nest of omegas, moving to shield them from the open door.

Layla shuddered and tried to turn to see who was interrupting their fragile peace, but Kaiser put his hand on her chest and kept her down.

“Hello? Anyone home?” a soft voice asked.

“Warren?” Holden said and rushed into the living room.

Jaxon growled and pulled Layla further beneath him, and her face was pressed into his chest, physically protecting her with his body. She pushed against him, keeping her head back so she could watch the door, but he didn’t move. She didn’t want to be caught unaware again, not like with Axel. Jaxon ran his hands down her sides. He snuffled at her neck, but he didn’t lick or bite, his eyes firmly on the door.

“It’s alright,” Holden boomed, returning to the bedroom. “It’s just this dumb fuck.”

A short, round omega in a turtleneck sweater peaked around Holden’s massive frame and waved. His smile was bright and friendly, but his shoulders were down, submissive.

Roan slid off the bed and stood. “Warren?”

“Hi, Roan,” he said with a small blush.

Jaxon’s growl trailed away, but he shifted over Layla to hide her more.

“Oi! Don’t call my mate dumb,” a beta woman said as she walked into the room. She was short, and her brown hair was frizzy. She ignored the tension in the room, like she couldn’t smell it, and set a bag on the floor.

“Nora!” Holden yelled and grabbed the woman by the back of the neck. Layla tensed, but Nora only giggled and batted at his hands as Holden attempted to rub the scent gland on his wrist behind her ears.

“Stop that. I’m working!” she said between giggles.

“Hi, Warren!” Eris said.

“Good morning, Eris,” Warren said sweetly, paternally.

Warren looked over the nest, and when his eyes rested on Layla, she blushed. “I’m Doctor Warren Carter, but you can just call me Warren. You must be Layla.”

“Hello,” she said, and Jaxon growled softly, his chest vibrating.

“Damian Sorreto called me here.” Warren reached for her, scratching her scalp right under Jaxon’s teeth like he wasn’t afraid. Layla sniffed at his scent gland, unmedicated petrichor. “I’m here to ensure you are healthy and see what went wrong with your suppressants.”

Layla nodded. That was good. She needed to know what went wrong. If it could be fixed. If things could go back to like they were before she ever went into heat.

“Are you attached?” Warren asked.

Layla cocked her head, unsure what he meant for a moment, and then it clicked. “Oh my god, no!” She pushed at her alpha, kicking him until he lifted up enough to give her room to sit up. No, no, no. She would never let him knot her with an audience. Well, she liked to think she wouldn’t. Deep in her heat, she wasn’t sure what else she’d let him do.

Jaxon grabbed her arm, not letting her go far. “Stop.”

She didn’t resist him as he held her for a moment longer, but slowly, his grip loosened, and he released her with a disgruntled sigh.

“Alright,” Warren said. “Can I have everyone out except Miss Layla, and if you want an omega support?”

Jaxon growled again. “If you think for one second—”

Warren snorted, utterly uncowed. “Hush. You have taken up quite enough of her time. Go out there and let Nora take your vitals and do your bloodwork.”

He looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but Holden shouldered his way to Jaxon’s side and patted him on the back. “Come on, there. Better do as he says. He gets really annoying when you don’t.”

Jaxon grumbled but finally acquiesced, leaving the bed after another touch to her wrist. Layla moved toward the head of the bed and hugged her knees.

“Who do you want here, Layla?” Kaiser asked.

She glanced between Kaiser and Roan. She didn’t want to hurt Roan’s feelings, but this had happened to Kaiser, too. He understood what she felt.

She bit her lip. “Kaiser.”

Roan smiled and rubbed their wrists together before leaving the room. Jaxon grumbled and growled the whole way out, but Holden had him in hand.

The bedroom finally emptied, leaving only Layla, Kaiser, and Warren.

“There,” Warren said soothingly. “All those alpha hormones out of here.”

Layla felt cold and lonely. She could sense Jaxon’s agitation even from the other side of the door. Part of her wanted to comfort her alpha, but the other part of her wanted Warren to help fix things so she could go back to not having one at all.

Warren smiled at her, but she curled closer to Kaiser. “I need to take your vitals. Would that be okay?”

Layla nodded and let Warren check her over. He took her blood pressure and pulse and looked at the cuts on her hands and legs. He palpitated her neck and her abdomen with a clinical efficiency that she appreciated.

“Thank you,” he said. “You’re a little dehydrated, but that’s normal. Can I do a pelvic exam?”

Layla sucked in a breath and shook her head. No more touching. No more hands. She couldn’t take the embarrassment. The shame.

“Okay, you should get one with a doctor in the next two weeks to ensure everything is healing properly.”

Layla glanced miserably at Kaiser, but he was no help. “Okay.”

Warren smiled encouragingly. “Good. Thank you. Now, this might be distressing, but we need to discuss the beginning of your heat and how you got here, okay?”

Layla whimpered and curled into Kaiser’s side. She wanted the body beside her to be bigger, meatier. She wanted Alpha. “Why?”

“So we can track down how this started.”

She glanced at Kaiser, and he nodded. “Okay.”

Warren sat down on the end of the bed with a notebook. “Had you met Alpha Harlow prior to your heat?”

“Years ago,” she whispered.

Layla was twelve when she met Ryan Bartlet. He was handsome and charming, and he smelled of delicious cinnamon. She thought herself in love as soon as she saw him. Arrogant smile and all.

Then Layla saw him , the biggest man she had ever met, standing right behind Ryan as his head of security. He was supposed to blend in, probably, but Layla couldn’t not pay attention to him. His face was scarred and scowling, but she hardly noticed. She could only take in his scent, his whole presence. He was so big in her mind. She couldn’t pay attention to anyone else when he was there in the same room as her. Alpha, a voice inside her head screamed.

Layla vibrated inside and out. Him. Everything about him. Her teeth itched.

Alpha glared down at her, and she squeaked.

“Get a good look, girl?” he asked with such disdain that Layla collapsed.

Alpha hated her.

Alpha was angry with her.

Layla cried, sobbing so hard she threw up.

Jaxon had immediately fled from her presence, and Layla was left a mess on the floor. She couldn’t even explain what was wrong.

She had cried for three days straight, wouldn’t eat, and hid under her bed. Her father finally took her to an omega emergency clinic, where they sedated her. She didn’t remember much after that.

No one ever explained what happened. No one ever talked about it. Her little mental breakdown was shoved out of everyone’s memories, never to be spoken of again. Another mystery of herself that she’d never understand. “He always hated me.”

Layla told Warren everything, from the first time she met Jaxon to the last disastrous meeting outside the cafe. She told him how he frightened her — how he became a background nuisance in her life — how he found her and took her. As she got further into the story, tears started falling from her eyes, no matter how hard she tried to bite them back. But she kept talking. She closed her eyes and told Warren about how fuzzy everything felt — she wasn’t real.

She choked as the story came to Axel and how he pounded on the door. She glanced at Kaiser through blurry eyes, and he nodded.

“I killed him,” she said.

Warren looked up from where he was taking notes in his book. “Your alpha killed him.”

Layla shook her head, staring at the blank television. The darkened screen reflected a negative image of the room. “I stabbed him in the back. I think I got his liver. He would have died anyway. Just slower.”

Warren raised his eyebrows; his scent was agitated and excited. He had discovered something new, and Layla cringed. She didn’t want to be something new.

“When did Harlow bite you?” Warren eventually asked.

Layla tried to focus. “Here. After the fight with… We were here… He was…”

She didn’t have the words for it. ‘Fucking’ sounded so crude, and ‘mating’ wasn’t better. She didn’t know how to describe the heat of the moment, holding each other like they meant more than life itself.

“Having sex?” Kaiser supplied.

Layla grimaced but nodded. “I asked him to bite me. I asked, but I didn’t mean… I didn’t want… what did I do?”

Kaiser held her tighter and buried his nose in her hair like her father used to do.

“I’m still crying. Damnit.” She wiped at the tears on her cheeks, trying to dry them.

“Shhh,” Kaiser shushed and rocked her.

“You are doing very good, Layla. You’re helping so much,” Warren said.

She wasn’t. She wasn’t doing anything. It was all so confusing, and she needed it to stop. Layla lifted her head. “What happened to me?!”

She started sobbing harder, and that made her even more upset because she wasn’t even sad, just so overwhelmed and confused and exhausted.

Warren set his notebook aside and looked her in the eyes. It was a doctor’s look, not that of a fellow omega. “I’m not sure yet. Your medication failed to prevent a breakout heat. Your body attempted to produce enough hormones to override the suppressant and flooded your system, causing heat sickness and an aggressive reaction in the alphas around you.”

“Not all alphas reacted aggressively,” Kaiser said. “Bryson never… my father. Jaxon was never aggressive when I had a breakout. It was just Hera.”

Layla opened her eyes. “Rolland was nice to me. And so was Georgia. Raina was… off, but Garret was the first alpha to attack me.”

Warren stared at the ceiling for a moment. “It could be compatibility. If Harlow didn’t react to you, Kaiser, but he reacted to Layla, then there must be something within their physiology that calls to each other. And the alpha that reacted to you was your sister. Not many alphas are more compatible than those sharing biological markers. I am sorry.”

Kaiser rubbed his face. “I should have stopped that medication immediately.”

“Why didn’t you?” Warren asked.

“I didn’t want to,” Kaiser said with a near growl.

Layla curled into herself, and Kaiser cursed.

There was a soft knock at the door, and Nora stuck her head in. “Hello there, how is everyone?”

Warren stood up and began to pack his bag. “We’re good, Nora. It’s alright. I have everything I need, but Miss Layla, if you want to talk, I am always available. Or if you remember something that seems important. I do only want to help.”

His soft brown eyes were compassionate, but she was so tired. Layla looked away.

“Kaiser,” Warren said. “I don’t believe it would have mattered if you remained on Omerex or not. All it needed was the first heat to draw you two close. There was no escaping it afterward.”

Kaiser looked at the bedspread, deep in thought.

Warren whispered something to his partner, and Nora nodded.

Layla watched her pull a syringe and a vial of clear liquid out of her bag. Nora sat down on the bed. “We need to talk about a contraceptive.”

Layla’s stomach tightened. “Oh.” She laid a hand over her stomach and the slightly bloated swell. It wasn’t a pup yet, but it wanted to be. Did she want pups? Did she want pups with Jaxon?

She didn’t know. She couldn’t think. She wanted her Alpha. She didn’t want to think about any of this. More tears threatened.

“Miss Layla, we don’t know what will happen to a fetus under the influence of your medication. I don’t want to pressure you into a decision, but it is easier to stop this now rather than later,” Nora said.

Layla swallowed down the tears. No pups or maybe sick pups. “Hera’s pups were fine, weren’t they?”

“Hera Sorreto was an alpha; though she was the birth parent, she wasn’t under the same physical effects from the medication as you are,” Nora explained patiently.

She closed her eyes. “Fine, okay. Just do it.”

Kaiser curled over her and kept his hands close to her face, letting his honeysuckle scent soothe her as Nora worked quickly and efficiently at pulling up her sleeve and pressing the needle into her skin.

Layla kept her eyes closed and pressed her forehead into Kaiser’s neck as Nora finished up and pulled the blankets over her legs. She didn’t want to cry anymore. She was so damn tired.

Nora’s voice was low. “Thank you. You did so well.”

Layla nodded and curled up under the covers.

Nora patted her shoulder before leaving the room.

She just wanted to sleep again. Kaiser slid under the blankets with her and pulled Layla close.

She chewed on her lip and let Kaiser fuss over her, covering the scents of Warren, Nora, and Jaxon with his own. Compulsively parental, just like he probably was with all of his pups — all his pups with Hera.

She glanced up at Kaiser, worry eating at her. “What happened to Hera?”

Kaiser sucked in a long breath and stared at the wall over her head. The memory had to hurt. Just as it ached to think of Jaxon leaving her but she had to know. There were so many secrets about her, all the things everyone left unsaid.

“When we were caught, we were separated,” Kaiser said. “They tried to break our bond, and it worked, eventually. They put me on a different suppressant, and I didn’t have a breakout heat again, but it didn’t matter. I was hers, and she was mine. Hera was just so angry and enraged. She hated me, or she loved me. I don’t know. I really don’t. She still sought me out like it was a compulsion. She couldn’t stay away, and I didn’t want to make her.” He stopped talking and then pulled Layla tighter into his chest. “She killed herself.”

Layla gasped, and her heart ached for him.

“She left a letter — to Bryson and to me. She said she couldn’t stay away from me. She thought she was hurting me, forcing me into this relationship with her. She wasn’t. She was my Alpha. I don’t — I don’t know what she was thinking.”

Layla squeezed him tighter. She tried to imagine what it would be like to leave Jaxon. Just the thought of being separated from him made her heart clench and her stomach ache. But what if he no longer wanted her? What if her mother took her away?

Layla glanced up at him.

Tears shined in his eyes. “I love Georgia. She’s a wonderful person, a good alpha, but it isn’t the same. If I had a choice — if that choice hadn’t been taken from me. It would always be Hera.”