Page 103 of Puck My Life

Yeah, yeah we do. Still, when I look at him as he climbs into the car, he looks nervous.

“I know. Let’s go save Hook.”

Mal whoops, scaring the shit out of me. “We’ve got an omega!”

An older woman starts laughing as she crosses the round. She’s wearing a red and white dress with a straw hat and looks sweet as pie. “Don’t fuck it up.”

I decide that’s a quote to live by.

Vae

PAST

I’m shoved hard against the bricks, biting my tongue as I fight to get free. A hard hand grabs my shoulder, pinning me to the wall, while another runs up my side, groping clumsily.

“Beta whore,” he hisses.

“Get off me!”

I struggle, but he grasps my ass through my jeans and squeezes.

“You’ve been giving me saucy looks all night. Fucking tease.”

“No, I haven’t!”

“You have-”

He’s suddenly off me, and I turn around to find Deacon throwing punch after punch, the guy can’t even get up an arm to defend himself. Deacon just drives him back and down until he’s a bleeding, unconscious mess on the ground.

Deacon stands up and scrapes his fingers through his hair and looks at me.

“Vae?”

I throw myself into his arms, and he closes them around me.

“It’s going to be okay, Vae.”

The only room that feels safe is Deacon’s. It was their room when they were kids, before they grew out of it. It’s so saturated with their scents that it relaxes me, but underneath it, I can smell the women who have been here before.

I shift from foot to foot, letting out an unhappy whine.

Raynor reaches past me and pulls the door closed and then guides me to his room and opens it. He leaves me standing in the doorway pondering what to do.

His room has none of the scents of other omegas, just him. I inhale deeply. It doesn’t smell of Mal and Deacon, but it could. I step inside and reach out to the black fabric that he’s hung on all the walls. It’s soft and cool.

But this is Raynor’s space.

I step back, not wanting to ruin it, my eyes filling with tears.

“Deacon and Mal are home,” Raynor says from the front of the house. I sniffle.

Mal rushes up to me and freezes. “Baby girl, why are you crying?” He bundles me into his warm, strong arms and covers me in the scent that’s been missing.

I bury my face in his shoulder. “It aches and burns, and the room smells like other girls.”

Mal picks me up. “We’ll make it better, I promise.”

He carries me back to the lounge and sits down. I snuggle into his chest while he strokes my hair, and then he makes a rattling sound. I freeze, listening to it.