Page 12 of Bliss & Her Idols (Pack Bonds Omegaverse #10)

Cricket nods. “You’re going to save him like you saved me, right?

We can do it together. I know that Jin is our pack.

I feel it. We’ve been pen pals for a long time.

I know him better than any Beta. We can court and win him over.

It’s harder because he’s not some trash living in the woods but a celebrity.

But we can still work out a plan to bring him back to our nest.”

Our nest.

Our pack.

Surely, it’s true when both of us feel it?

Is this possible?

The Betas of Rock concert is tomorrow. This is my first chance to go undercover and work out what’s going on.

Yet should my plan be about more than saving Jin, if it turns out that he needs protection?

Should I also be working out a way to court him as the Beta for Cricket and me?

To finally, find pack bonds for us both?

Fuck, it’s what I want, desperately.

It’s what my male Omega wants, and I’d give anything to meet Cricket’s needs. He’s never had them met before.

Yet it has to be what Jin wants too, and why would he choose two Reject Omegas? He’s one of the most elite Betas in the world.

I stroke a curl out of Cricket’s face because I can’t bear to shatter his dream. “See him up there? Our Ice Dragon is watching over our nest. Hmm, that made your cock harden even further. Looks like I have an exhibitionist on my hands.”

Cricket tries to hide behind the pillow that he’s holding, before throwing it across the nest. “If Jin was watching, then I’d probably come untouched.”

“Challenge accepted.” I glance significantly upwards, ghosting my hand up Cricket’s thigh. His breath hitches. “Since he pretty much is.”

I lick down Cricket’s scent gland because Omegas know how to bring other Omegas pleasure.

Cricket whines, humping upwards, as if to tempt me to touch his cock.

I don’t.

Instead, I whisper my fingers down his thighs, urging them to open, but never quite touching between them.

He’s already on edge.

A onesie can be washed.

I can’t wait to see Cricket fall apart.

“Look up at our Beta,” I murmur. “He can see his Omega, panting and writhing for him. He wants you to put on this performance for him.”

I tease Cricket, feathering light touches up his sides and then stroking circles on his nipples, deliberately dragging the fluffy material over his nubs.

Cricket’s eyelashes flutter shut. “Bee…”

“I’m here.” I suck harder on Cricket’s neck, feeling how fast his pulse is pounding. “Good Omega.”

And it’s the good Omega , which does it.

It pulls Cricket over the edge of a fast, hard, untouched orgasm

He stiffens and arches up. His toes curl.

He thrashes his head to the side, groaning, as if in pain.

I continue to lick and kiss Cricket’s neck smugly through what sounds like explosive and life altering pleasure.

I did that.

Then I pet Cricket, as he eases back onto the bed with a sigh. His gaze is hazy, when it settles back on mine.

“I didn’t know that it could feel like that.” Cricket is looking at me like I’m a goddess. “Can we do it again?”

I splutter with laughter. “You may find that you need to give it a minute.”

“Okay.” He snuggles against my side, before glancing down at his crotch. “Sticky.”

“The price you pay.”

“Worth it.” He takes a shaky breath, resting his forehead against mine. “Your nest is better than any I’ve fantasized. Lying here with you — your touch — is better than a dream. It’s heaven. Do you think… I hope… Maybe heaven for Omegas will feel like this…?”

I jolt like a bucket of ice water has been thrown over me.

He sounds so hopeful.

It’s devastating.

Because he really means that.

I snarl in order to bite back my sob.

I grab Cricket by the shoulders and roll him onto his back.

Careful of his ribs, even in my anguish, I settle myself over his waist, straddling him.

He stares up at me with his wide, amber eyes. His curls tumble across his cheeks.

Like this, I realize that I’m larger than him.

I lean over Cricket, pressing down on his wrists to keep him in place. “Why did Hudson say…? You know what he told us. I can’t get it out of my head. I’ve only just found you for real. I need you by my side forever. I need to know what’s wrong.”

There’s a whirlwind inside me, tearing me up. I don’t want it to escape outward onto my Omega.

I can protect him from many things.

I want to protect him from everything.

Yet I’m trembling that he’s hiding something I can’t fight.

It’s terrifying.

He hesitates.

“Please,” I whisper.

Cricket’s gaze slides from mine. “Why does it matter how long I have left? I just want to live for now.”

My heart leaps into my throat. “Why wouldn’t you…?”

“Omegaosis. A condition of the womb that’s particular to both male and female Omegas and stops them from bearing children, as well as having heats,” he says blankly like he’s reading out of a medical journal.

“It also causes stabbing pains, but I’ve got used to them.

They started when I was in my teens. I tried to tell my parents, but they only took notice when my heats didn’t start.

The condition marks me out as defective. ”

My heart is breaking.

“Wait,” I panic, realizing that I’m straddling him, “I’m not hurting you, am I?”

He shakes his head. “It feels nice. Your ass is soft and warm. Like a hot water bottle.”

I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.

“Omegaosis is rare,” I say, slowly. “I don’t know much about it but I didn’t think that it was life shortening any longer, if treatment—”

“ If ,” the word comes out sharper than Cricket has yet spoken.

“If treatment is started in the teen years. I’m twenty-one.

My parents didn’t waste money on sending me to doctors or buying medications.

” When his gaze swings back to mine, it’s broken in a way that shocks me.

“I looked my condition up one night. I wish that I hadn’t.

But it’s okay. I accept it, as long as I can be with you now. ”

“Fuck that.” My voice is tear roughened. “I don’t. Tomorrow, I’m taking you to the best doctors. I want a second opinion and—”

He stops my rant with a kiss.

“You’re not taking me anywhere,” he says gently against my lips, and this time, every gust of his breath against my mouth feels like a gift, “because tomorrow you told me that your mission to save our Beta begins. We’re rescuing my Dragon as the priority.

Then, if you want to waste money on doctors, we can focus on me. ”

“We will.” I nip his lower lip in retaliation. “And it will be the best money that I ever spend. Is there any way that I can help you until then?”

“The hot bath was nice,” Cricket says, tentatively like he’s asking for too much, “it helped the pain. This warm nest too. The heat is good for me. If you don’t mind me having those things again.”

“Anything,” I say, meaning it.

“And you truly don’t mind that I’m from the Burrow pack? I didn’t mean to lie to you. I keep my identity secret from everyone; it’s a rule within the pack. I also didn’t think that you’d want to be friends with a poor criminal. An Omega from a pack of thieves.”

I snort. “I’m not sure you know who you’re talking to.”

He looks at me with a curious expression.

Actually, he really doesn’t know who he’s talking to.

I sigh, sitting back but still straddling him.

I can do this.

Cricket has been brave, sharing about himself. If he’s going to become a member of our pack, then he needs to know our secret and decide whether he accepts it or not.

Yet it’s hard because it’s one that could lead to my entire family being executed.

When I start to tremble, Cricket startles. He reaches to grasp my hands.

“The funny thing is that you’re worried I won’t accept you because you come from a pack of criminals,” I say.

“But I’ve been bullied most of my life because my parents were executed as the worst type of criminal.

” Cricket’s eyes widen but with compassion and not fear or contempt.

He doesn’t pull his hand from mine but squeezes.

“They were fighting to protect dynamics from forced bonds. They were executed as rebels. Piper and I are marked as Rejects because of it.”

“I’m sorry.” Cricket traces his thumb over the R on my bracelet. “They were freedom fighters then and not criminals like my family are. Let me guess, your pack continued the fight…?”

Well, that was easy.

I gape at him.

Cricket gives a smug smile that looks good on him. “It’s the logical explanation for why you do the journalism that you do. Why you’ve been working with me. And why you rushed to save me.”

“I rushed to save you because you’re my best friend.” I hold his gaze. “And I’m falling in love with you.”

A flush spreads down Cricket’s neck. “I’m already in love with you.”

We both burst out purring at the same time. Then we laugh.

It breaks the tension of the moment.

I pull my hands out of Cricket’s grip and then turn my head to the side.

I lean over him, pushing my hair away from the base of my neck to reveal my wolf tattoo.

“It’s beautiful.” Cricket reverently brushes his fingers over the tattoo.

I shiver. “My brothers have them too. Our Wolf pack secretly run the Bonds Protection Unit.”

“So, the next person that we’re protecting is my Dragon, right? Can I join your unit?”

“You do understand the risks?” I check, cautiously.

I brush my hair back into place.

Cricket waves his hand like the risks are nothing.

“Do you want to know the code that I worked out from Jin’s letters?

” Then his face falls. “I lost his letters though. I don’t have proof for you.

Everything he sent is back under the floorboard where I hid them.

My youngest brother would always collect the mail.

It’s the only reason that I could receive them. ”

Instantly, my mind focuses.

At last, the code.

“Do you still remember what was in them?” I ask.

I wonder if Piper would give up his ticket to the concert. Cricket is the world expert on both Jin and the Idols. I need him on this mission.

More than that, Cricket has been isolated in a forest cabin for most of his life. He needs this experience.

Cricket nods. “The code was hidden in plain sight. It was in the letters over the last month. Some of them just felt off. So, I searched through them for codes.”

My heart starts pumping faster.

This is huge.

Except, without the physical letters, I don’t have the evidence to publish my story yet.

I grit my teeth.

They could have been the center of my article.

The proof.

It’s too much of a risk to drive back to Burrows territory. I won’t risk any of my pack for the sake of my journalistic career.

“If Jin had to hide a message, then that’s a clear indication that not only is his communication being monitored but he’s afraid.

That snippet of the rulebook, which is about Idols being banned from sharing anything about their lives that’s not approved without risking a forced bond, looks more likely to be true. ”

Cricket’s eyes gleam in the dark. “Do you want to know what the decoded message said?”

“Fuck, yeah.”

My breathing sounds too loud in the quiet of the night.

What message was worth the Beta taking such a risk to smuggle out?

Cricket reaches up to pull me closer, until our foreheads touch. “It took me a little time to work out the code. Finally, I cracked it. When I put together the last letter of every paragraph, it spelled out: HELP ME .”