Page 14 of First (After the End #1)

THE PROBLEM

Gabriel

Ivar meets me on our way to the south wing, a cautious, bracing expression on his face. “How bad was it?”

I shrug, struggling to shift my focus from what happened back in my room.

Her words echo through my brain. Is this the part where I take off my dress?

Reckless. And foolish. And much more fuckable than I could have imagined.

That, I might be able to forgive. The fact that she made me laugh… I’m going to make her suffer for that.

“Come on,” my brother continues. “It can’t have been that terrible. I’ve seen her holos.”

“The holos don’t—” I shake my head, still fuzzy from her lingering scent. “I saw her holos, too. It’s not the same.”

“Still. She can’t be that ugly.”

“She’s not ugly at all.”

“Then what… Oh.” For once, he seems at a loss for words.

I press my lips together and nod, finding that I have nothing to add either.

“Well,” he says at last, “that’s not new. You’ve been with lots of beautiful women.”

Not like her, I want to snarl, but then what?

Ivar would ask for an explanation, and I would have to tell him that I had to force myself to sit across from her to stop myself from touching her.

That leaning closer to her was like traveling through space and time.

That I’d never felt as out of control as when her scent was in my nostrils, not even in the throes of a rut.

“Gabe?” Ivar calls. Irritated, like it’s not the first time.

“What?”

“I said you don’t smell like you went through with it.”

Because I didn’t. Because I was fucking interrupted.

Because she was looking up at me with those gorgeous green eyes and daring me to do my worst. Because she smelled better than any Omega in heat I’ve ever had—just on the edge of ripe, but unfinished, interrupted.

Because I despise the noble-born. They’re the scum of the earth, and I have never, not once in my life, experienced anything but contempt toward them.

But now I think of Lennart Larsen, and all I feel is envy. Envy of a Beta, for his cold Omega who doesn’t feel cold at all.

“Gabe?” my brother is asking.

I turn to him, exhale a breathless laugh, and say, “We have a big fucking problem. And I’m going to need more time.”