Page 21 of Bliss & Her Idols (Pack Bonds Omegaverse #10)

CHAPTER TEN

Omega Hotel, Haven

M y head throbs but then, so does my pussy.

I groan, stretching out.

Every part of me feels like it’s on fire.

“You’re safe, Bee. I’m with you,” a sweet voice says.

I scrunch up my eyes but can’t get myself to open them.

I’m burning up. My mind is foggy.

What’s happened?

I struggle to remember.

When I take a deep breath, I’m overwhelmed by an intoxicating mix of scents: sweet and spicy orange, cinnamon, and honeycomb cherry cake.

Except, an even stronger and more delicious scent winds around me that makes me squirm.

It’s not familiar and yet it’s like I’ve been surrounded by it my entire life.

Or possibly, have been waiting for it.

Vanilla tea.

I’m in paradise.

Maybe I’ve died.

I purr, snuggling my face against something soft that smells even more strongly of vanilla tea.

Slick drips between my thighs.

I’m soaking.

Shocked out of my daze, as if by the strength of the new scent alone, I suddenly remember meeting the crow-black haired Alpha, the Betas of Rock concert, the way that Jin dedicated his song to Cricket and me, before my unexpected heat engulfed me.

My eyes snap open in shock. My purring breaks off.

Jin ruined his most important show for me.

Is the singer in danger now?

Where the hell am I?

I’m lying face down on a pillow of the soft bed. My cheek and nose is pressed against an Ice Dragon t-shirt.

I scrunch up my nose.

This t-shirt is where the delicious tea smell is coming from.

My eyes widen.

It’s Tor’s shirt.

I reel onto my back to find Cricket lying next to me on this small bed, which has been heaped with glitzy silver and blue cushions, blankets, and satin and silk clothes that have been stacked into a nest around me.

No one has built me a nest before.

Cricket rests his hand reassuringly on my arm. “You’re breathing very fast. Do you want me to get you some water?”

“Where am I?” My gaze settles on Cricket.

He’s stripped to only his leather pants. His hair is tousled over his eyes.

He’s added his punky top to the nest, and it calms the panic in me that Cricket must have helped to create this nest.

“We’re in Jin’s hotel room.” Cricket’s eyes are lit with excitement. “Look, that’s his handwritten setlist. I mean, he’s messier than I imagined. Plus, I thought that he would have a bigger and more luxurious room. But nobody has this type of access.”

I can’t tell if he’s talking as a fan, undercover journalist, or about our mission.

Yet he’s right about all of it.

I push my damp hair out of my eyes.

I’m lying, still dressed, on the top of the bed in Jin’s hotel room.

The room is small but clean with artistic black and white prints of guitars hanging on the walls. Fresh vases of roses are the only bright spots between the monochrome wardrobe, chest of drawers, couch, and carpet.

Empty mugs and water bottles, along with sheets of music and scribbled notes litter the floor. A battered suitcase rests against the far wall.

Despite my aching limbs, I force myself to take in as many details and clues as I can.

There are no electronic devices, not even a phone.

It appears that Jin truly doesn’t have access to them, which is why there are so many papers scattered across the room.

Are all creatives this much of a hot mess?

“Did you make the nest?” I ask.

Cricket’s smile wavers. “Is it okay? I wanted to do something special for our first heat together. But this is all we had. Tor and Jin did their best too. Honestly, they were as clueless as me. But they were dedicated and enthusiastic.”

Cricket nudges the sides of the nest, and I realize with shock that they’re shimmering blue because they’re made out of Jin’s elaborate costume, including his diaphanous coat.

My heart leaps.

Is Jin truly sacrificing his precious costume simply to make me a nest?

Jin’s kiss was amazing. He begged to become part of my family with Cricket.

My Beta.

Yet only now that he’s following through on the actions of a real Beta — protecting me in the arena and building me this nest — does it feel more than an impossible dream.

Do I truly have a chance with these incredible men, who are prepared to risk as much as I am?

“I’ll ruin Jin’s beautiful clothes. Our Ice Dragon does know how much slick an Omega produces during their heat, right?” I struggle to hold onto my thought, although it’s growing harder as my full-blown heat draws closer. “Do these men really intend to spend my heat with me?”

Cricket cocks his head. “Why wouldn’t they?”

A million reasons.

I’m thirty, a Rej, and not an elite.

Jin is also a celebrity who will be risking everything if he spends tonight with me.

What the hell will the Idol pack do in revenge for such a shameful break from Jin’s public image?

Their PR department must be in serious crisis mode.

And Tor?

Now, he’s a mystery.

Why should he help a stranger out? Even if he does smell dangerously as if he’s my scent match.

I shut the thought down hard.

In thirty years, I’ve never met my scent match. I don’t believe that I will now.

Yet no one has built me a nest before. Heats have always been functional and nothing more.

Yet this sensation of being cared for and having a nest built for me is settling something in my inner Omega that I didn’t know was there.

It makes me feel valued, loved .

When I try to push myself to my elbows, Cricket hurries to shove a pillow behind me to prop me up.

My pheromones are strong. I’m close to tipping into full heat.

This is dangerous.

Why would my heat come early?

Yet it’s far less dangerous for an unbonded Omega, than this happening in the middle of a packed arena.

“How did I get here?” I demand.

Cricket’s expression becomes dreamy. “It was like something out of a fairytale. Charming lived up to his name. He scooped you up into his arms in a bridal carry, when you swooned.”

“I didn’t swoon.” I frown. “I took an unexpected break from consciousness.”

Cricket chuckles. “When you took an unexpected break from consciousness , Charming held you in his arms. Jin jumped from the stage, which made every one of my fantasies come true as well. They seemed to have this silent communication going on, then Jin grabbed me and put me over his shoulder.”

“You’re making that up.”

Cricket looks smug. “I’m not.”

I struggle, unsure what to say.

Tor and Jin know each other. They must do. It’s clear that they’re not simply work colleagues.

“But when these two possessive men made a statement about claiming us in front of the world,” I grit out, “how did they get us out of the Knight Amphitheter? Zoe, Rory, Stapleton and the rest of his security thugs must have been furious. How did they not tear out Tor’s throat and give me and you one way tickets to the Institute? ”

Cricket snuggles closer to me. His thigh nudges against mine.

I’m sensitive with the heat, and even that touch is enough to make me whine.

Cricket pushes the sticky hair behind my ear and whispers, “Because everybody was scared of Charming.”

“Scared of a songwriter? Were they frightened that he was going to write some nasty lyrics about them into his next song? It’s worked for certain rappers.”

I expect Cricket to laugh but instead, he’s serious.

“I know bad Alphas. I grew up surrounded by them. Criminals and psychopaths. Tor does have a darkness in him. But I’ve never felt so safe around an Alpha before.

He spoke to both of us like we weren’t Omegas.

He acted like it mattered to him what we said or wanted, as if he heard us.

I’ve never had that. I don’t want to lose this feeling. ”

My heart clenches.

Reluctantly, I have to admit that I loved the spark between Tor and me. He didn’t either treat me like a weak Omega who needed to be coddled, nor did he bark orders and expect me to drop to my knees.

Alphas like that are rare.

“So, Tor is a liberal,” I say, “but possibly, a villain.”

Cricket nods like he’s comfortable with that. “A scary one but not to Jin or us. He growled a warning at Stapleton that almost made Stapleton piss his pants, when security tried to make a grab for you. When Jin grinned, he looked as dangerous as the Alpha. But in the car on the way to the hotel…”

“What…?” A sense of dread fills me.

Cricket bites his lip. “Charming didn’t speak. He only held onto you and stroked your hair. Jin sat me on his lap but he looked nervous.”

“Of course he did. He’s been seriously reckless. Immortal is fucked now, right?”

Cricket pales.

Why haven’t Chase and Piper broken through the door of this hotel room by now?

Cricket lowers his voice even further. “The hotel has been mobbed by journalists and fans. It’s crazy. That’s why the drapes are pulled. No one can get in or out.”

Not even your brothers goes unsaid.

“Then where are Jin and Tor now?” I ask. “Surely my heat pulled Tor into rut.”

“It did, which is why Jin is helping the Alpha take a cold shower.”

I smirk. “Helping him, huh? Yep, those two are work colleagues all right.”

I glance at the door through to the en suite at the far side of the bedroom.

I can’t hear any water running. When I listen hard, I can make out whispering.

Also, an Alpha’s anger, which in my heat addled state makes me whimper.

“Why did you jump off the stage?” Tor’s voice is as cold as a bottomless iced lake.

I startle because it reminds me shockingly of Jin’s stage act.

Perhaps, as if Jin based Ice Dragon on Tor .

I clench my hands, unable to stop taking in deep breaths from Tor’s t-shirt, which I’m resting on like a pillow. Instantly, I’m wet from his sweet tea scent.

What if the cocky but cool figure that Jin projected, and I’ve been lusting after, has actually been Tor all along?

I’ve been crushing on the blue eyed musician, despite him being a stranger in the shadows.

So has the entire world.

When Jin’s identity was stolen from him, submerged beneath another one, why would he choose Tor’s? The man who wrote his songs for him?