Page 5 of His Pretty Omega (Sweet Alps Mates #7)

Chapter Four

Seth

What was that annoying buzzing sound?

Had I fallen asleep after coming, and left my vibrator on, lost somewhere in my tangled sheets?

It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened.

The relentless buzzing noise pierced my consciousness again, just enough to wake me from the sound sleep I had been in.

Ugh, was that my cell phone?

Why? It was way too early for someone to bother me.

Reaching out a hand blindly, I groped for it, finding air where my nightstand should be.

Oh, that’s right, I wasn’t home. I was in Hollow Ridge, holed up in a swanky hotel room, ringing in the New Year with the hottie alpha I had picked up in the hotel bar .

Or had he picked me up?

Vaguely, images from the night before started to come back to me. Helping myself to the hot alpha’s drink. Dancing with some randos, who were hella handsy, hoping to catch said hottie’s attention. Some growling and a lot of kissing in the elevator and hallway. Followed by hot as hell knotting sex.

Yeah, it had been a good night and a hell of a fantastic start to the new year.

Something niggled at the back of my brain, something that felt important that I should remember. Something…nope, whatever it was, my brain wasn’t up for braining yet and most certainly not without a boat load of caffeine.

Fuck, my mouth tasted like something had died in it. I had definitely drunk way too much last night. My eyes felt gritty even without me opening them, and when I stretched the tiniest bit, my muscles ached, my well used hole giving a sharp throb.

Oh yeah, I was going to feel that alpha’s deliciously large knot for days and days.

How many times had he knotted me? Three? More?

I think I definitely remembered at least three times, but things were still pretty hazy in areas.

I’d had a lot to drink, and then my mind had sort of…

melted. I had known what I wanted, demanded it, but also, like I hadn’t quite been in control of things.

It was a weird sensation and hard to explain.

Like a heat? My cougar yawned, stretching.

No, not like a heat, I sassed back. My heat isn’t due for months, you know that. It’s way too early for you to start your sasshole shit. Go back to sleep. I don’t even know why I’m awake.

Phone , was his droll response.

My phone buzzed insistently, the sound jarring in the quiet of the room even though the sound was turned down.

Hottie alpha mumbled in his sleep, turning away from me and snuggling into his pillow.

All I could make out of him was the long line of his nicely muscled back, and almost black hair, that fell over his shoulders and hid the side of his bearded face.

Sitting up, I grabbed my head in my hands as pain sliced through it.

Fucking hell, how much had I drunk last night?

A lot, by the marching band that was practicing inside my skull.

Grabbing my phone off the nightstand–when had I put it there?

–I stared at the pink device blearily, trying to make the words focus.

Bennett: Seth!

Bennett: Seth!

Missed call.

Bennett: Seth, answer your mother fucking phone right now!

Bennett: Seth, I swear to the Goddess I will make Wade my new best friend!

What the actual fuck was happening right now?

None of the words he had typed made any sense.

And why the fuck was Bennett threatening to make our friend Wade Sinclair his new bestie.

Not that I didn’t love Wade, we were like two peas in a pod, but over my dead body!

Which, the way I was feeling right about now, wasn’t too far off.

Squinting at the harsh light of my phone because night mode made my eyes go wonky, I slowly–very slowly–typed out an answering text.

Me: B…it’s like way too early

I didn’t even care that I sent it without proper punctuation. Punctuation could wait for coffee. And a shower. And about twelve hours more sleep. Maybe another round with hottie alpha before check out, if I was lucky.

Bennett: Your nephew doesn’t care. I’m in labor!

Labor?

Wait, what?

Bennett was in labor?

Feeling like an icy shower rained down on my head, I nearly got tangled in the sheet when I tried to scramble off the bed too fast. Hissing at the sharp sting my aching, well used hole sent me in protest, I took one wobbly step then another.

Making my way as silently as possible across the room, I grabbed my discarded clothes as I tiptoed to the bathroom.

There were three dots indicating Bennett was typing, but I hit the speed dial to call him instead. This seemed like a conversation not to be had over text messaging. Besides, my head was pounding way too much to try to text anymore.

“Seth, I need you!” Bennett wailed after the first ring. Bennett wasn’t one for much wailing, so that should have been my first clue that this was not a drill.

“B, what the fuck!” I hissed, shutting the bathroom door with a soft click and flipping on the lights.

Shielding my eyes against the harsh lighting, I blinked furiously against the sting in my eyes.

“You said this wouldn’t happen! You said I could go out of town and enjoy New Year’s Eve.

” I felt the need to remind Bennett of his words just… yesterday? Yes, yesterday.

“Well, my water broke, so the party’s over,” he sniped, sounding like he was talking through gritted teeth. The harsh sound of him panting was all that filled the phone line for what felt like a full minute, until finally he let out a relieved sigh.

“Dammit!” I whined, trying to put my foot into the skirt I had been wearing last night while holding my phone against my ear at the same time.

Losing my balance, I banged into the wall and dropped my phone.

It clattered loudly as it hit the hard surface of the tiled floor, bouncing twice and spinning before it came to a slow halt.

Forgetting my clothes, I retrieved my phone from the floor, gulping as a wave of nausea rolled over me when I bent down.

“Fuck! Shit! Damn!”

“Seth,” Bennett’s voice rasped, “I need you!”

“B, I’m coming, but you know I am hours away,” I groaned, holding onto the cool wall and trying not to throw up any of the remaining alcohol still left in my body. “Where’s your boo thang?”

“Please refrain from referring to Shay as my ‘boo thang’ ever again,” Bennett ordered me, his voice tight.

“‘The baby isn’t due for almost three weeks’, he said.” Muttering into the phone, I repeated his words to him. “‘Go to Hollow Ridge and celebrate New Year’s Eve’, he said. ‘I’m not having this baby anytime soon’, he said.”

“Seth!” Bennett’s tone was as sharp as a knife and made me wince.

Because my head was pounding and also because I knew I was being a complete brat.

“My water broke a couple of hours ago, and I’m absolutely, positively in labor.

Lily is out of town and Finn says it is definitely happening.

Today. Finn! And no, it’s not fucking weird as hell that my ex-landlord is delivering my baby and being all up in my private business.

Or that my best friend is hungover in a hotel room, hundreds of miles away, because he had to get some ‘new alpha dick’ .

It’s fine . I’m fine . Everything is fine .

All fine !” His voice rose to an octave I had never heard before, as he tossed my words back at me.

“Anytime you use that many fines in a sentence, you are not fine, Bennett,” I pointed out, unhelpfully.

And yeah, I got that having Dr. Finn Sinclair there to deliver his baby instead of his usual OB/GYN was not ideal.

It wasn’t that Finn wasn’t a great doctor, he was.

He was actually probably one of the best omega OB/GYN’s around.

Fuck, the man was my doctor. But he was also married to our friend Wade, and until just a few months ago, Finn had been Bennett’s landlord.

So yeah, I totally understood Bennett’s ick factor and slight freak out, on the verge of a meltdown, over that situation.

“Did you miss me telling you I-am-having-the-baby? I need you here to hold my hand, dammit!” Bennett snapped.

“Isn’t holding your hand Shay’s job?” I snapped back. “He went all territorial in Lamaze class.”

“Let the Lamaze class go, Seth! I have two hands!” My bestie wailed at the top of his lungs.

“And I need you holding one of them! I don’t care if you get twelve speeding tickets getting here, just do it!

” With that declaration, he hung up on me.

Also not something Bennett usually ever did.

He was really out of sorts, not that I blamed him.

I needed to get myself together, stop acting selfish, and be there for my bestie .

“Well, fuuuccckkkk!!” I hissed through my teeth.

Bennett was always there for me, no matter what, just like I was there for him.

I needed to get back to Sweet Alps as fast as I could and pray to every Goddess out there that I made it before Bennett pushed that baby out.

I had promised him I would be there, holding his hand and helping him breathe like they had taught us in those Lamaze classes he made us go to.

I meant to keep that promise if I could.

Calling him back, I didn’t even wait for him to say hello, before I was speaking softly

“I’m leaving a note for this fine as fuck Latino alpha, getting my stuff from my room, and checking out,” I whispered, because I was trying not to wake up said fine as fuck Latino alpha, even though I had been smashing around the bathroom making enough noise to wake the dead.

I had enough to deal with right now, I didn’t need to deal with explaining what was happening in my life to someone I would never see again.

Nobody had time for that nonsense. Not when my nephew had decided to make an appearance.

“Do not have that baby before I get there, B. First babies take like forever, and I expect this one to abide by the rules. He is not allowed to be born before his Uncle Seth gets there.”