Page 18 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter sixteen

Bailey

Every time I think I have the advantage with her, she manages to flip the situation and leave me on my ass, wondering how I got here.

Somehow, even with my body on hers, the scent of her perfume in the air, the feel of her tongue dueling with mine, I realise that something is wrong, and I’m lost in the web of her making.

I pull back and stare at her, wondering why the air tastes spicy, why there is so much heat. How are we not going up in flames? We need to get somewhere safe.

“Hey, Mael, there is something happening here. Do you know my address?” I gasp out as her hands travel up under my top and over my abs. I flex and press into her, needing more contact.

Mael grunts out an affirmative, and then I hear the sound of a phone ringing faintly.

“You found her?”

“Meet us at Bailey’s.”

The call ends, but it doesn’t change anything. Something is wrong. Her eyes are glazed, and she moans, writhing against me. Her hands are everywhere and keeping mine off her is becoming a task and a half.

She is so beautiful.

Mael opens the back door, and I realise with a tiny bit of clarity that we’ve stopped. Mael pulls my omega away from me, ignoring my threatening growls. I follow because I have to, because I couldn’t stay away, stumbling my way up to my apartment.

When we’re inside, they stop, and they exchange a look between them both. It’s a look that makes me feel left on the outside, and I don’t like that. Not at all.

“What?” I snap, feeling defensive. “What was that?”

“Bailey,” Selene says softly in a purring croon. “Can I please have a drink? I’m so thirsty.”

My cock is still painfully hard in my pants, but her scent is all I can smell. I go and get her drink, and when I return, I stop, almost sweating bullets as I catch Mael’s dark night scent. He takes the glass and hands it to the omega in his arms.

She drinks slowly, her eyes on me.

My head feels thick and slow. I don’t know what’s going on. Is this…her heat?

She’s going into heat.

Yes!

I approach her, but Mael gets in between us, tearing a growl from me.

“We need to wait for the other alphas. We make this place safe. A good safe place for an omega to have a heat.”

I consider his words. He has a very good point. We need the other alphas. My hunger for her intensifies. If it’s bad for me, I can’t imagine how it must feel for Mael.

I prowl around my apartment, getting things ready, desperately trying to ignore her while I fight for control. With a shake of my head, I try to get her scent out of my lungs long enough to think. I shut the curtains and order groceries. I send a message to Lia and my dad, then turn off my phone.

My throat aches when I turn back to her. She’s just standing there watching me, her long blue hair hanging to her mid back. Selene looks eerily unreal, as if I will reach out and she will just dissolve into smoke and slip away.

She doesn’t look frantic, but I can smell the heat pouring off her. Her control must be incredible.

“Can I show you the nest?” My voice is soft, nonthreatening, almost a purr.

She steps towards me, allowing me to take her hand as I lead her into the room. I’ve been reluctantly getting ready.

It’s not a huge room, but it has a skyline view of the city, and it’s got a massive bed. Still, it’s clean, and it doesn’t have many scents. It’s just bland. I’m not happy with it, but it’s the best I can offer.

At least it’s safe.

She walks into the room and looks around with restrained curiosity. I’m disappointed by her reaction and go and sit on the bed, waiting for her to come to me.

She doesn’t. Instead, she turns slowly again and walks to the open door.

“This is a nice nest. A safe, solid nest. Plenty of room to make it a good nest.”

It’s the first thing she’s said in almost twenty minutes. I want to howl; I want to shake some reaction free of her .

I jump up and bear down on her, pressing into her. She doesn’t move, in fact, she barely reacts, but her scent, oh, that scent.

“Tell me you want me,” I plead desperately.

“I want you.”

“Tell me-”

“Bailey.” She turns and pulls my head down, fusing our lips together. The kiss is so potent, so hot that I forget everything. When I pull back, I’ve got her pinned to the door frame. Her legs are wrapped around my hips, and my hand is gripping her breast.

She lets go with her legs, and I allow her to slide down my body. It takes everything I’ve got to step back, to give her space.

“Well, look at this.”

Kingsley walks into my sight and drops a whole heap of cat supplies on the ground.

“Oh, no! No cats!” I bark out.

Shade lets out a vicious hiss that has me wanting to throw it out the window. Lucky for the cat, the windows are sealed up.

Edric puts a bag down and looks at her.

I want to growl out a protest, a warning, but I manage to smother it.

The heat wafting off her is intense. How is she still standing? When she takes a step away, we all take a step towards her.

“I want you to come into the nest now.”

Mael’s voice surprises me. He’s been so quiet. I glance at him.

Why is he looking at me?

I look back at Selene. “Come on, Selene.”

She sighs and tilts her head back as if she’s exasperated. “Bailey, you’re confused.”

“I am, am I?” I smirk at her, but the way she just stares at me flips my stomach.

She nods her head and ties up her hair. “It’s not my heat.”

The words repeat in my head. And again. A third and fourth time. They don’t make sense. Who else’s heat would it be?

Wait.

“No fucking way. You’re wrong. Smell her. It’s hers! It’s not mine!”

Kingsley puts the cat down and comes towards me, hands out. “Bailey, it’s going to be okay, one little heat isn’t going to ruin you-”

“How the fuck would you know?” I shout. “I,” I slam my fist on my chest, “am an alpha! I do not have heats! I do not take knots! I am an alpha!”

I look between them, frantically watching to see, waiting to see the dawning comprehension. The moment they realise it’s not me, it’s her.

It doesn’t come .

Selene climbs up on my island and sits there, watching me.

“Is being an omega so bad?”

“Yes!” I shout at her. “Yes, it is. I’m an alpha! That was the point. It was supposed to settle, and I was supposed to become an alpha, and then I could go home.”

The panic beating in my chest is getting hard to contain.

“You don’t understand- I can’t be in the MC because I’m vulnerable. I can’t run the Raines empire because I’m vulnerable. This is ruining my life, and now, I can’t be with-”

I clamp my mouth shut on the words I almost spewed out. I don’t want them to know that it’s her I want. That she’s the one who haunts me.

She’s not a scent match. We’re not a scent match, not when I’m like this.

But I want her all the same.

She pushes off the island, landing hard, and stalks over to me. I stand still while she reaches up and then yowl loudly when she yanks on my hair.

“What did I tell you?”

I stare at her.

“Being an omega isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength.

Your alphas will kill for you, but you can still attack.

You can be exactly who your father raised you to be, Bailey.

Nothing changes, you’re just more. And, yes, I know you’re Andy’s son.

But it changes nothing. He’s being shortsighted.

There’s nothing wrong with you.” She whispers into my ear, rubbing circles on my chest. “I wish like hell I could take your pain away.”

I stare into those blue eyes that haunt my dreams and try to find calm, fight to find the confidence that she has.

“You will still be Bailey. Nothing changes.”

Her voice is soft, and is that regret? Why regret?

I whisper the truth to her. “I don’t want to be this.”

Her mouth quirks up at the sides. “In a perfect world, I would have you and them, and I wouldn’t be this person that I have to be.

I would just exist as Selene, but life isn’t fair.

You are more than you dreamed you could be, and I…

will do what I do best to survive. You’re still you… incredible, sexy you.”

She steps back, and though I reach for her, she slips away from me.

“What? What are you going to do if you can’t stay with me?”

“I’m going to take care of everyone like I always do,” Selene says as she walks out of the front door and out of sight.

I expect her to come back, I watch for her to come back. Panic beats at me, my mind screams. I want her here. I need her here .

Kingston grabs me before I can stop him, and, as soon as I catch his scent, I lose myself in him completely. Falling into him, drowning in him. But the scent of her remains, a ghostly memory and a tease of life stealing what should be mine.

The heat explodes through me, out of me. So much stronger than I’ve ever felt.

“We’re not going to let you fall, Bailey. We’re going to help you fly.”

Kingston wipes away my tears as he walks me backwards into the nest.

I reach for the door frame, but it slips through my fingers, and then the back of my legs hit the edge of the bed. I sit down, staring up at the huge alpha as he peels his shirt off.

My mouth waters as I look over the cut expanse of his chest. I want to lick, touch, bond, mark it all up, make him mine.

Fear flickers as he reaches for his jeans’ button, but all he does is flick it open and put one knee on the bed beside my thigh. He reaches out slowly, with enough time I can tell him no, but I don’t have a voice, I have heat; I have need, and everything I was a few hours ago seems lost.

“No pain, no promises in the moment. We just want to help you.”

“Selene-”

“Selene isn’t going to stay. She’s not ready, but I will make this one promise- we’re not going to let her go.”

The heat pushes out of me, and I come back lying on my back on the bed. Kingston and Edric are licking over my tattoos. My cock is so fucking hard, I’m covered in cum, and someone’s fingers are curled in my ass, causing me to jerk and more fluid to seep out of the tip of my cock.

My toes curl as I thrust back onto those fingers, my arms wrapped around my alpha’s shoulders, holding them to me as tongues flick over my nipples and trail down my chest.

Edric grins and crawls down my body, kissing and leaving a trail of tingling skin. He sucks my cock into his mouth. All the sex I’ve ever had pales in comparison to this.

Everything. It’s filthy, hot, and raw.

I throw my head back, whining loud as the fingers are pulled from my ass. Before I can complain, I’m rolled onto my stomach, and my cheeks are spread. A hot tongue runs around my rim before pressing into me.

I clench my fingers around the pillows, almost shredding them in an effort not to ride the face that is giving me such delicious fucking pleasure.

“Fuck!”

I open my eyes and find a cock right beside my face. Without thinking, I take the offering, swallowing as much of it as I can.

“Baby, you take cock so damn well,” Kingston purrs. “A natural.”

Edric pulls his face from my ass and grips my hair, yanking my head back and kissing me hard.

Oh, god! I can taste my slick and him, and…I freeze. The head of his cock is pressing against me.

“Relax, Bailey,” Mael whispers as he reaches out and removes Edric’s hand. He starts stroking my hair, soft, soothing touches that have me wanting to arch into him.

I relax, and Edric slips into my ass, pushing past my ring. The feeling, oh, god, the feeling of him inside me. My eyes roll, and I let out a rattling purring that has all the alphas pausing.

“Such a good boy, Omega.”

Edric flexes, and he slips deeper into me. I gasp, arching and shoving back into him.

“That’s it, just like that. See, it feels good, doesn’t it? We’re going to take such good care of you.”

I turn my head and bite the first arm I see, securing a bond with my alphas.

Edric gasps and thrusts so hard into me that I slide up the bed.

“Oh, that was very naughty,” Edric growls into my ear and starts fucking me remorselessly.

With each thrust, I lose control of everything until I’m begging and pleading for the bond. I need it. I need it so I don’t beg for her.

The bite on my shoulder is everything I will never say I dreamed of, but it sends me over the edge and into the oblivion of the heat.