Page 29 of Overeager (Extra Credit #1)

Eli

E li woke up flushed and aching, his lower belly cramping tightly. He was in his underwear only, having kicked off his pajama pants and the covers at some point in the night, but his skin was still damp and hot to the touch.

He moaned weakly . Fuck.

His heat was here. An entire week early.

It was still building to the first real peak, considering Eli was still relatively clearheaded and not writhing for a knot, but based on the feel of things, that would change by the end of the day.

Maybe sooner than that, considering the damn thing had sparked off seven whole days before it was supposed to.

Eli stumbled out of bed, dragging on his discarded pajama bottoms, even though the material itched at his skin. Faith was a disturbingly early riser, and she was already in his kitchen, immaculately dressed with a mug of coffee in hand.

She immediately wrinkled her nose, covering her face with one hand. “Oh my god.” She set her coffee aside with a choked sound. “No wonder you were acting batshit yesterday.”

Eli covered his own nose in a mirror of her actions. Normally he found his sister’s earthy scent soothing, but right now it was … wrong.

Wrong alpha , his instincts were telling him.

“It’s early,” he whined, knowing he sounded like a child but unable to help it. “A week early. I’m screwed. It’s midterms this week.”

“It’ll be fine,” Faith told him, her words muffled by the covering of her hand. “Just call in your heat exemption, and they’ll get a sub for you. Not everyone’s heats cooperate as neat and timely as yours usually do.”

Eli’s anxiety was unappeased. “Noah’s supposed to help me through it.”

Eli didn’t have his usual dose of suppressants from the doctor, and the thought of using toys after planning to have Noah with him all this time …

Faith shrugged. “And?”

“He has class ,” Eli practically wailed. “Exams.”

“Students get heat and heat-partner exemptions same as professors, Eli,” she reminded him, emitting her pheromones in a way that was probably supposed to be comforting but was setting Eli’s hair on end instead.

“He’s an alpha partner of an omega in heat.

You two can get a doctor’s note afterward, if his professors ask for it. The names will be confidential.”

Eli knew all this. He really did. But he couldn’t stop the growing sense of panic.

Everything was all wrong. His alpha wasn’t here. Eli hadn’t even started building a nest. Noah was supposed to bring him clothing over the next week, but they hadn’t had a chance, and now his heat was here, and there was no alpha and no nest and—

“It’s early!” he yelled again, slamming his open palm on the kitchen counter. “Why is it early?”

He couldn’t see Faith smile behind her hand, but he could hear it in her damn voice.

“Jesus. I forgot how you get.” Before he could fly off the handle, she added, “You’ve been spending your days with a compatible alpha, and you just had a big emotional upheaval.

It makes sense for things to have gone offtrack. You just need to call Noah.”

“What if he won’t come?”

Just saying it out loud had the panic rising higher in his throat, Eli’s stomach cramping harder than it had so far. Noah needed to be here. He was Eli’s alpha. Why wouldn’t he be here?

It was stupid. Eli had spent heats alone with medications and toys. But he hadn’t been expecting to spend this one alone.

Why was Noah making him spend his heat alone?

“Eli.” Faith’s voice broke through the fog of his anxiety. “Call him now. I’m going to get Deadly packed up.”

“What?” Faith was taking his cat? “ Why ?! What’s wrong with her?”

To Faith’s credit, she didn’t call Eli out on his losing his mind. “To babysit her,” she said evenly. “You’re going into heat for days … maybe longer, with a new alpha in your life.”

“He’s going to fail all his classes!” Eli cried, forgetting that two seconds ago, he’d been convinced Noah was abandoning him.

“Eli. Call Noah. Now .” Faith added a hint of alpha command into the last word. Eli didn’t technically have to follow it—omega bodies had evolved since the dark ages of real alpha commands—but it did add a little bite that cut through the fog again.

He bolted to his bedroom and grabbed his phone off his bedside table. His room didn’t smell like the wrong alpha, but it didn’t smell like Noah right now either.

That was bad. And wrong. And … bad.

Usually Eli had a bigger vocabulary than this.

“Eli?” Noah picked up on the first ring, but he sounded sleepy, like Eli had woken him. In Eli’s hypersensitive state, he also thought Noah sounded a little wary.

Oh god. He hated Eli now, didn’t he?

“Noah?”

“What’s wrong, baby?” At whatever he’d heard in Eli’s voice, Noah no longer sounded the slightest bit sleepy. “Are you okay?”

Eli sniffled. Jesus. He was a grown man. He wasn’t crying over a heat. “It’s here early. My heat.”

“Oh. Oh . Oh shit.”

Eli bit back more tears. Noah was going to say no. Of course he was. He’d said they needed space, and Eli was asking him to be all up in his business for days on end without air. And Noah had midterms. Midterms .

“Okay, baby,” Noah soothed. “Okay. You stay put. It’s going to take me just a little bit to get everything together. But I promise it won’t be longer than an hour. Okay? Is that— Can you wait that long?”

Eli held the phone away from his face, staring at it like he could somehow make sense of everything that way. “You’re still coming?”

“Of fucking course I’m coming.”

“But … your classes.”

“I’ll get a heat-partner exemption. I’m literally emailing my professors right now. We’ll just get a doctor’s note afterward.”

It was exactly what Faith had said.

“And you don’t … hate me?” Eli asked, unable to help himself.

“Jesus. No, Eli. I’m sorry.” Noah sounded a little breathless, like he was moving around on the other end of the phone. “I was being an asshole, and I needed a breather so I could … Well, so I could not be an asshole anymore.”

“Oh.” Eli wiped at his eyes. “You never responded to my text.”

“Well, um, for the record … an ‘I’m sorry’ text with no context after a fight kind of sounds like you’re breaking up with someone.”

“Why would an apology be a breakup?” Before Noah could answer, another horrible cramp hit Eli, and he moaned in pain.

“Oh fuck.” The panic Eli had been feeling since he’d woken up was reflected in Noah’s voice now. “I’m coming, baby. Okay? Hang on. Just getting some stuff together.”

“Don’t hang up,” Eli said hurriedly, afraid to lose the comfort of Noah on the other end of the line.

“No?” Noah asked. Then, “No, of course I won’t. I’m gonna tell you everything I’m doing. You just sit tight. Right now I’m putting some of my clothes in a bag. Ones I haven’t washed yet …”

Oh. That was good. Clothes for Eli’s nest. Clothes that would smell like Noah.

Eli let out a breath, some of the tension temporarily leaving his body. He sat on the edge of his bed and listened to Noah narrate all his actions. This was all okay. Noah was coming. Eli just had to wait a little longer.

His alpha would be here soon.

By the time Noah pulled into the driveway, Eli was sweating.

Faith had left some time ago, reassured by Noah’s presence on the other end of the phone that Eli wasn’t going to completely fly off the handle. Eli had promptly stripped down and put on his lightest silk robe, usually the one thing he could tolerate as his heat was approaching.

But already it was too much. The stupid thing itched against Eli’s oversensitive skin, clinging to the backs of his thighs, where the first trails of slick were accumulating with every fresh cramp.

Eli wanted to be naked. But he needed to wait. He couldn’t greet Noah at the door naked. Or even better, at his car.

Could he?

No, no, he had neighbors …

“Okay, baby,” Noah said through the phone. “I’m getting out of the car. I’m going to hang up so I can grab everything in one go. But I’m right here, I promise.”

Even though Eli could see through the window that it was true—Noah’s car was in his drive—he still felt momentarily bereft as the line went dead.

Where was his alpha?

But he barely had time for distress before his door was opening and there was Noah, beautiful and bright, his arms full with a giant duffel and assorted shopping bags and other things Eli didn’t care about.

Eli threw himself at him, trusting Noah to drop all that rubbish and catch him. Which Noah did.

Good alpha.

Eli shoved his face into Noah’s neck and moaned.

There it was. Perfect and salty and his . Eli’s tense muscles loosened, some of the cramping in his belly easing already, even as fresh slick dribbled down his thighs.

Noah was saying something, something about “I’m sorry” and “God, you smell fucking amazing,” but Eli was distracted by all the annoying fabric in the way of the skin-to-skin contact he was searching for.

He unwrapped his arms and lowered his legs to the floor, needing better leverage. There was too much clothing here. He tugged at Noah’s shirt.

“You want this off?” Noah asked, like it wasn’t obvious.

Eli only grunted, already working on tugging down Noah’s joggers.

“Okay,” Noah laughed, pulling off his shirt and letting Eli do his thing. “Um, I brought some fruit and protein bars. Easy stuff for mid-heat. But maybe you should eat something more substantial now while you still can? I read it’s important to—”

Eli shook his head with another grunt. No. No food.

Noah lifted his feet one at a time so Eli was able to tug his joggers all the way off, keeping the fabric in his arms afterward. They were soft and smelled strongly of Noah. They would be perfect for the nest.

Eli froze.

His nest. He hadn’t made one yet. Why hadn’t he made one yet? He’d been … distracted. Worried. Worried Noah might not come. That he might not be here for Eli’s heat.

But why wouldn’t Noah be here? Of course he was here. He was good and sweet and smelled like the ocean, and he was going to knot Eli so perfectly as soon as they tumbled into the nest.

The nest that didn’t exist.