Page 2 of Bewitched

L ayla pressed on the swollen gland at her wrist. She could barely feel it, but the stimulation brought excess oil to bead on her skin. She grimaced and wiped it away with a tissue.

She pulled her sweater sleeve back down and sighed. Waiting on the uncomfortable examination table in the Medcenter was an exercise in patience that she didn’t have. She was just getting her period. She had already checked her underwear just to make sure. She would have been humiliated if she bled all over Jaxon Harlow’s truck. She wasn’t bleeding. It was just an uh… wetness.

The door opened, and a smiling beta nurse walked in. “Miss Nash,” the nurse said, “your hormone levels are a little high but within range for a pre-heat.”

Layla stared at the nurse. “Excuse me?” She shook her head. “I’m not cycling. I’m on the shot. I should have three months before I cycle.”

The nurse raised her eyebrows and flipped through the paperwork again. “Not a cycle, Miss Nash. This isn’t menstruation. You are going into full heat. You have a week at most.”

Layla laughed. She couldn’t have a heat. She had never had a heat. Her mother made sure to put her on suppressants before she even presented. She took the best suppressants on the market. They were expensive and tailored. They had a zero percent chance of failure.

After what happened to Roan, they didn’t take any chances.

“I can’t have a heat,” Layla said.

The nurse smiled and pulled up a chair. Her name was Faline. The badge was pinned to her scrubs. Some lady named Faline could not be telling her she was going into heat.

“It’s a perfectly natural part of being an omega. Medication can fail at any time. If you have recently presented—“

“I’ve never presented!” Layla knew she was loud. It wasn’t proper, but she couldn’t shove down the panic like she could with everything else. “I’ve never had a heat.”

“Oh.” The nurse stared, her eyes big and worried. Was a nurse supposed to look worried like that? “You never presented? How did you…”

“I was tested when my half-brother presented. His was… dramatic.” If getting snatched out of a cabin during summer camp was considered dramatic. Roan had disappeared for nearly four months, only reappearing once he had presented and had been irrevocably mated to Alpha Holden Thane. It had been worse than Summer’s disappearance, if only because it happened twice to the same family. The news had gobbled it up. Not only was Roan a stain on the Nash name, he had to make a spectacle out of it.

Layla Nash could not be in the news—not for something shameful like a breakout heat on the most expensive hormone suppressant in existence.

“Okay,” the nurse said slowly. “This says you are on Omerex. Is that still correct?”

Layla nodded, not really seeing her. Omerex didn’t fail. It couldn’t.

“I’ll need to take this to one of our doctors, and they can help us with our options.” Faline smiled, and Layla smiled back reflexively. “That’s a good girl. But we should plan what to do for a heat, right? If you don’t want to spend time with an alpha friend, we can reserve a room for you at the Omega Center.”

Layla rubbed her eyes, and cinnamon crept into her nostrils. Jaxon. She stared at her sleeve where he had touched her. He couldn’t be right. This wasn’t happening. Her hormones were off, sure, but she wasn’t going into heat.

The beta nurse smiled and patted Layla’s knee patronizingly. “Perhaps we should call your parents?”

No. Never. Her mother could never know. Shera would die of shame. She’d make Layla come home and never let her leave again. She shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

Faline didn’t look convinced, but she nodded and left the room.

Layla didn’t wait for her to bring a doctor back. She grabbed her bag and ran out of the Medcenter like the devil was at her heels. She didn’t reserve a room at the Omega Center. She didn’t call her parents. She didn’t text Mina.

Because she wasn’t going into heat.

She quickly walked toward her dorm room in the omega housing section of campus. No matter how much she tried to argue with the administration, if she lived on campus, she had to live in omega housing, much to her embarrassment.

The tall fence surrounding the complex attempted not to look menacing, but the razor wire on top meant business. It was the only place that was truly safe for omegas. No alphas inside. Ever. Even the maintenance workers were required to be betas or omegas.

It was a little sexist, and it bothered her in a philosophical way. Alphas were people, too, and most of the time, they weren’t dangerous. But then again, bride stealing and alpha duels were common enough to get a regular place in the news.

Layla wasn’t going to be in the news. She wasn’t like other omegas.

She waved at the beta guard at the only entrance to the housing complex, and he waved back. The guards had the very important job of protecting the omegas’ nests and homes. Not all alphas respected omega autonomy. Pushy, aggressive, violent alphas.

No, not for her. She would eventually marry a nice beta and settle down into society like her mother, so this little hormone hiccup didn’t matter.

Layla lived on the second floor in a large apartment meant for four omegas to live communally, but her father paid to keep the roommate number down to a single omega companion.

Most omegas liked communal living and would form strong bonds with each other before separating later to live with an exclusive partner. It helped regulate hormones and form lifelong friendships. It was all scientifically proven.

It was good for them. Not that Layla needed that. She had never required omega companionship. That would be sexist. Layla could be friends with anyone. Even alphas. Sometimes alphas.

She tossed her keys in the bowl by the door and dropped her bag in the middle of the floor. Her roommate wasn’t home yet. Now, Helena Wayland was a true omega. She was the youngest daughter and only omega of the Wayland Pharmaceutical Company family, though she didn’t flaunt her connections. She was a people person. She could get along with anyone from dominant alpha to sensitive omega. It was a skill that Layla had to work to cultivate.

Her phone rang, playing a tune she’d come to hate. Her mother. Shera Nash always called at the worst times or when she knew Layla had done something wrong. How could she though? The Medcenter couldn’t have called her that fast.

She wanted to throw up. It wouldn’t do any good to reject the call. Shera would just keep calling until she picked up.

Layla accepted the call.

“Hello? Layla, sweetie? Are you there? What happened?” her mother’s panicked voice came across the line.

“What do you mean? I’m fine,” Layla said and closed her eyes. Shera couldn’t know anything. She wasn’t on the medical information release form. Mina had taken that right as a local familial alpha.

“You’re not fine. My insurance pinged me. You went to that college medical center,” she said. “Now tell me what happened. I called that silly clinic, and they wouldn’t tell me a darn thing. I should sue.”

“They’re not allowed to tell you anything. I’m an adult.” She rubbed her eyes. At least the Medcenter did one thing right. She could take care of herself. She didn’t need her mom to do it for her.

“But you have special needs. What if something happened and you weren’t able to make sound decisions? I need to know, Layla. You have to be very careful. There are so many people who would take advantage of a nice girl like you.”

“Mom, I’m fine. It was a… a—” She couldn’t think. She was never very good at lying, least of all lying to her mother. “—I tripped and fell. I’m not hurt. I just… had to get checked out. It’s the school’s policy, so they don’t get in trouble.”

“Oh,” Shera’s voice calmed an octave, “well, that’s sensible. Are you sure you’re alright? Maybe it would be better if you lived at home for a while, just to be sure.”

“I don’t need to move back home. I’ve been doing this for years.”

“Yes, well, Summer was older than you are now when that evil alpha took her.”

Layla cringed. They could never have a conversation where she didn’t bring up an awful event that happened to an omega. “Mom…”

“You can never be too careful. I was there, you know. Summer was always a flirt, and she didn’t like me one bit. Not that I wanted anything terrible to happen to her, but she was an omega. She used her wiles.”

“Mom—”

Shera sighed. “Bryson was such a bear about her. You know how he is, such an alpha. So pushy. I was sure they’d be mated, but she just liked the attention, you know, just like Roan. Slutty, really.”

Layla cringed. She should hang up. She shouldn’t let her mother go on about Roan like that, a child she had raised. But Layla had never been good at disobeying.

“Your father let her get away with it, too. Shameful girl. But Aslin had to drag Bryson off to a corner and calm him down. Your father is such a good man, not like an alpha at all. I don’t know why he enjoys being friends with that ogre.”

Bryson Bartlet was always a contentious subject in their family. He wasn’t really an uncle, just the man her father loved like a brother. Shera hated him. Layla agreed with her mother, though not as strongly. Bryson wasn’t a good alpha. He was loud and violent, but he’d always protected her like she was family. It was just too much for Layla’s nerves.

“Well, it all happened so fast,” Shera continued. “Bryson was growling, and Aslin sent me away to look after Summer, but she was gone.” Her mother sighed. “Just gone. She didn’t even scream. She just walked off with that strange alpha and disappeared. Alphas are nasty business, Layla. You have to be careful.”

“I know, Mom,” she mumbled.

“You can’t lead them on. They’ll wander off for anything that smells tasty.”

“I know,” she whispered. She wished her mom would stop. Just once, she wished her mom could hear how desperate she was to end the conversation.

“Even your father isn’t immune,” Shera said with haughty hostility.

“I know .” Everyone knew. Shera never let anyone forget it. Aslin Nash had cheated. They had barely been married a year when her father brought home little baby Roan. They hadn’t even had their own children yet — not until Layla was born six years later.

“That homewrecking omega whore thought she could keep my husband if she got fat with his pup, but Aslin is a loyal man. He knows how to keep his promises, even if he is weak.”

Layla didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Omegas were licentious homewreckers. Alphas were weak-willed libidinal monsters. She knew the speech by heart.

“Her son is just like her. And to think I raised him in my home, right beside you,” Shera continued, spite heavy in her voice. “Some omegas just can’t help themselves.”

There was no getting her off track after that. Once she’d moved on to badmouthing Roan, it was the end of her civility.

“I tried to raise him right, and the first chance he gets, he snaps up that awful feral alpha.”

That wasn’t what happened. Shera always got it twisted up in her head. Roan would never. He was soft, sweet, and submissive — a perfect omega. Alpha Holden had been the one…

Thinking of Roan’s alpha made Layla sick to her stomach.

“That beast,” Shera said. “He would have taken you too if given half a chance. Greedy animal.”

Layla cringed, trying to duck down and make herself smaller. She didn’t want Holden near her. He made her stomach ache with terror.

He had spoken to her exactly once in all the years he’d been mated to Roan. He’d smiled at her, all teeth, and said hello.

Layla had immediately dropped to the floor and sobbed. It was like he’d kicked all the air out of her. She couldn’t explain her reaction at all, except for a terrible fear that he would attack her too. And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, Mina had run into the room and bit Holden right on the arm. It took Roan and Aslin five minutes to separate them, and Layla couldn’t stop crying.

Holden had bled everywhere, and Mina wasn’t even sorry.

Layla wasn’t sorry either. She had just thrown up instead.

Those extreme reactions didn’t stop until she was medicated, though every once in a while, that terrible anxiety flared to life — like the first time she met Jaxon Harlow.

Shera sighed. “I know you’d never do anything like that. You’re a good girl.”

“Yeah,” she said automatically, but her brain buzzed unpleasantly. She wasn’t an omega. She wasn’t like them. She wouldn’t be stolen. She wouldn’t mate an alpha. She was a good girl. She did what she was told. “Mom, I have to go. I need to study.”

“Of course you do. You’re such a smart girl. If your sister had half your sense. Have you spoken to her recently? She isn’t answering my calls.”

“No,” Layla lied, her throat thick with tears. “I gotta go. Love you, bye.”

“Bye, sweetie.”

Layla disconnected the call and looked around the room. It was too quiet.

She wiped her cheeks, and Jaxon’s scent drifted to her nose, burning. “Shit.”

She stripped off her sweater and the embedded scents of charcoal and cinnamon. She needed to get Mina and Jaxon’s smells off of her. She wasn’t an omega. She wasn’t allowed. They couldn’t affect her.

She raced to the bathroom and washed her hands under the hottest water she could stand, then her wrists, scrubbing at the scent glands until they turned raw and red. She could smell herself — strong, unpleasant, like liquid sugar.

She pulled her red hair up into a messy bun before starting on her neck. The scent glands on either side under her jaw were sensitive, but the mating gland right at the crook of her neck and shoulder was practically on fire. She scrubbed it anyway until tears of pain were in her eyes. She couldn’t smell like this — like an omega.

She couldn’t. She was a good girl, not a homewrecking whore.

She sprayed a scent blocker over her hair, neck, wrists, armpits, and between her thighs. She was more than her designation. She was Layla Nash, perfect daughter, perfect sister, perfect college student. Her mother said so.

Layla opened the medicine cabinet and stared at the line of pill bottles. Helena’s suppressants and other hormone regulators stood in a row. Her roommate didn’t take Omerex. There were dozens of suppressants on the market for omegas and alphas. It kept them calm. It kept them regulated. It kept them normal.

Helena never had a breakout heat or an out-of-cycle period.

Before she could think too hard about stealing or drug interactions, Layla shook out a pill and swallowed it down with water from the sink.

Solved it. Her hormones would fix themselves, and she’d be fine in a few days. No one would ever need to know.

She returned to her bedroom and dropped to her knees. She crawled under the bed, hiding in the dark. She had already stashed a pillow and an afghan her father had brought back from one of his business trips with Bryson under there. It was soft and comfortable and smelled like a home away from home.

She had always liked tight, enclosed spaces. It had nothing to do with being an omega. Omegas liked bright and airy nests, blankets and pillows weaved into a circle. Helena had made several right in the middle of her bedroom floor, and they were nothing like the dark dens Layla preferred.

Because she wasn’t a real omega. She was just weird — eccentric. It was okay to be eccentric.

Layla let out a long breath, relaxing for the first time in hours. Nothing could get to her in the dark.

She cuddled up with her blanket and pulled out her phone. She tried to put her mother out of her mind. Shera was just concerned. Layla could handle herself. She didn’t need her mom to take care of her.

Though, she still needed to tell Mina that she was fine — that she wasn’t in heat. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her except for an overprotective alpha sister.

She opened the messenger app and accidentally scrolled past Mina’s contact information and right to Roan’s name.

They hadn’t spoken in… six months? Her mother had never let them be true friends or siblings, and once he was taken, there hadn’t been another chance. She regretted it. There was a small part of her that wished she would have stood up to her mother more.

Her phone buzzed, and Layla dropped the phone on the floor. She cursed and scrambled to pick it back up and look at the screen.

unknown

you need a knot yet omega

She stared at the screen, her breath catching before it reached her lungs. Who would talk to her like that? Who would dare?

Layla

Who is this?

unknown

your alpha

Jaxon. That rude assh… alpha. Rude alpha.

She thumbed over to the block button and pushed it. She didn’t need unsolicited texts from rude alphas. Jaxon was the rudest and the worst. He just couldn’t leave her be. And she didn’t want to think about any more alphas.

Layla stared at the slats under her bed as uneasiness crept along her nerves. Jaxon was Mina's partner, and Mina worked a dangerous job. What if she got hurt, and Jaxon needed to call her? Mina could be alone and scared at a hospital, and Layla would never know because she blocked him. Besides, he couldn’t do much over texts; just be a jerk, and that was normal for alphas and especially normal for him.

Layla unblocked the number, but she had to put a stop to this. Texting her was for Mina-related business only.

Layla

No, thank you.

Jaxon

call me when you do

Layla stuffed the phone under her pillow. The memory of cinnamon tickled her nose. She hated him so much. Why couldn’t he just be nice to her? Even Axel Harlow was nice to her face, even if everyone knew he was awful to the omegas he lured to his bed.

She heard the front door open, and Helena breezed into the dorm, bringing a sweet peach aroma that was an overly sugared version of her typical omega scent. Whatever perfume she’d picked up was just a little too much for her.

“Layla!” she crooned. “My sweet girl, where are you?”

“In here,” Layla said. It was easier to give into Helena’s neediness than fight with her.

Helena peeked into the room. She was blond and mild and effortlessly perfect. Her soft brown eyes went wide as she knelt down and peered under the bed. “Sweet heavens, Layla, are you alright? Did a boy break up with you? A girl? Did that cute beta in Calc turn you down? I’ll make him regret it.”

Layla crawled out sluggishly, realizing she was still lazing around in just her bra. She did feel a little better. Maybe all she needed was a few extra doses of hormone regulators. That nurse didn’t know what she was doing. No one named Faline would know anything about omega biology. “No, Hel, it’s fine. I’m just being moody.”

“You know you could just make a nest instead of hiding under there. I could help.”

Layla grimaced. She wasn’t hiding, and she certainly didn’t need a nest. “I like it under there.”

“Well, I’m just saying it doesn’t need to be so dingy.” The woman shrugged, and there was a quirk to her lips that meant she had a plan. “Anyway, I’m going to a party. Do you want to come? Get out of this… funk.”

Layla’s phone buzzed again.

She sighed. She hated college parties. They were always full of flirty drunk alphas. She didn’t need that right now. She needed to take a nap.

She looked at her phone just to give herself a moment to turn Helena down gently.

Jaxon

don’t do anything stupid tonight kitten

Layla glared. No one told her what to do, especially a nasty, rude alpha.