Page 17 of Small Town Shy Omega (Applewood Falls #1)

Burying myself under my blankets never felt so nice.

Josh flipped a buttermilk pancake, smearing it with Nutella. I nursed a mug of hot breakfast tea. “French breakfast?”

“ Oui, mademoiselle, ” Josh said, a twinkle in his eye. The scent of cinnamon washed over me, reminding me of Blake. I moaned as I clenched my thighs.

My pre-heat was so close to being here. Soon, I wouldn’t be able to control myself with all these wonderful scents washing over me.

My perfume was yet to start, but when I did, I knew my Alphas wouldn’t be able to control themselves around me either. No one could resist my pink raspberry.

Josh taught me French, and he got me saying curse words that made me giggle.

Fluffy buttermilk pancakes helped me forget the tortuous night I passed.

I was alone in my nest, no allies in the world. Rain trailed down my windowpanes, and no books comforted me.

Blake stayed out all night.

In the storm.

Not pacing.

Not growling or muttering.

Just… standing.

Rain poured down from the heavens, and thunder shook the ground.

Blake just… stood.

If a tree had fallen, I didn't doubt he would’ve stood through that too.

Risking death…

Just to think about how much he felt for me.

After my breakfast with Josh, we went for a bike ride. Then when we came back Blake was still there.

“Blake?” Josh poked his pack mate’s shoulder.

Blake growled, snapping at Josh as he shoved his hand off.

“Just trying to get a moment alone, man.”

Dreydon, Josh and I ate lunch alone. We had tea sandwiches, coronation chicken salad, and a raspberry salad with limeade.

“I think I’m about to perfume,” I whispered, my pupils widening.

Dreydon touched my hand.

“Little Omega, you’re permitted to do anything you like around us. We started our suppressants after we walked into your poetry room and scented pink raspberries last night. We know is time was starting, and your next heat is soon upon you.”

“Thank you, Dreydon. My heats have been in remission for the better part of six months, but being around you three is making me scent again. One week early, I believe. It sucks that I’m unbonded and may not be able to cope with my usual method, but I will try to control myself.”

Josh looked at me with kindness.

“Shy Omega, you’re permitted to heat however you like.

We are here and we’re safe Alphas—you know that, now.

” Josh’s purr was sweet and soft, and it melted my heart.

Like butter, I thought, melting with sugar and cinnamon.

“If you stay in your nest, locked away from the three of us, that is okay. If you’d like us to assist you, we can do that too. ”

I want to bond, I wished to say.

I couldn’t say that.

How could I?

Did I really even want to bond? Or was that something my Omega was telling me, and when I passed my next heat, I’d regret it?

Josh gave me guitar lessons a little later, and Dreydon tried to braid a bow into my hair.

I kept laughing, squirming and peering at Dreydon in the big mirror I was using to watch.

“Hold still,” he growled, and I liked the pink bow he put in.

“Dreydon,” I called out, my pigtails hurting. “They hurt, Dreydon!”

“Oh baby,” Dreydon growled, tugging at my lock. “Baby, don’t talk like that… Don’t say name like that.”

“Dreydon, Dreydon, Dreydon!”

“Baby…” Josh had to leave the room, and I heard snarling and growling as a fist slammed through drywall. Bam.

Dreydon tugged at my pigtails, hot breath on my neck.

“Baby, can you do Dreydon a favor?” he whispered, using his own name in the sentence. I liked it…

Turning around, I face-planted in his crotch.

“Dreydon,” I muttered, his scent surrounding me.

“Baby,” he groaned.

“Dreydon, I’m about to bite it off. Please take it out.”

I was twenty-seven, but being an Omega surrounded by three scentastic Alphas made me feral.

I sucked Dreydon’s cock as he played with my pigtails.

My little bow was pink and cute.

When I lifted my head I attacked his lips.

“Never keep your cock from me again,” I snarled, my Omega purring… I grabbed at his throat, tears springing from my ears.

“Shy Omega,” he growled, pulling my hands from his throat. “I think it’s time for you to start your suppressants, baby.”

Later that night, after taking my first dose of suppressants, they even serenaded me.

I was in my nest. A book was draped over my face. I’d fallen asleep while reading.

All was quiet. All was still. The last butterfly had long since left my wildflower sanctuary.

I stared anxiously out my cottage window, the notes of Thalia’s latest single, Hot Buttered Heartbreak, on repeat. I enjoyed listening to her music to help me fall asleep. As an Omega, she understood my life experiences better than most indie Alpha singers.

I sipped raspberry tea.

Then, outside—I heard it.

It began with a soft strumming, guitar and ukulele. Then, three voices chimed in.

I was being serenaded, I realized, and I’d never received such an honor in my life. I’d often dreamt of being on the receiving end of the honors the Alphas in my novels bestowed upon their scent matches. I’d never been anyone’s true match—and I didn't wish to be.

An Omega with a pack was an Omega, chained. A life commitment was the last thing I needed, or so I kept telling myself.

My eyes went to my cozy nest, and I blinked back tears as I heard the guitars and gentle singing. I remembered what my Alphas sought to take from me.

My perfect, introverted life.

I lit my homemade apple blossom candles every night, I ate hot-buttered toast for supper, and I read to my heart’s content.

When rain fell, I retreated to my cozy nook, and stepped away from the elements.

Nothing could hurt me in my cottage, and my nest was the safest place in the world.

It radiated protection and warmth, and my solitary life was the one I chose.

A pack disturbing it would bring me great mental strife.

My eyes travelled to my three-thousand book collection, with some books precariously balanced on my nest shelfs.

Last night, a book toppled off my tallest stack, and nearly hit my face.

When I awoke, after switching on my night light I just picked the book up, and started reading where it opened.

The book almost crushed me. I just kept on reading…

Others said I had a small collecting problem, but the truth was I just needed a bigger library. One able to store my three-thousand books. I typically read over five-hundred novels per heat , I thought with tears in my eyes.

Real-life Alphas could not compare to my book boyfriends. Not one iota, and the Alphas serenading me outside my nest nook window only threatened to take me away from my real life. My solitary, literary life: where Alphas were kind and poetic, and never growled or sought to control me.

I walked to my front door, opening it a crack.

“Please go away.”

A sliver of moonlight trickled in through the crack, pooling over my cheek.

The three Alphas sang.

“Layla,” Blake sings out, his voice growly and sincere. “Layla is the prettiest Omega I ever did see.”

“She’s perfect with perfect purple hair,” Josh then hummed, strumming a ukulele, “and I like that. She’s radiant, and so much prettier than all other Omegas.”

“Harmony and Eucalyptus are so much uglier than her,” the last singer, Dreydon with the military tattoos, grumbled. And I got the sense Blake made him sing these lines. “She outshines them all, she’s the prettiest Omega in Applewood Falls.”

Harmony and Eucalyptus were two Omegas in Applewood Falls who were cheerleaders in high school. They frequently made mean comments about me and thought they were better than me.

I opened up about their bullying to Blake, and he listened. He even painted my fingernails while I talked, and he didn't judge… he just, heard. He heard me, he understood what mean girls they were. Mean Omegas.

Never before had an Alpha just… listened. Sat, and heard me talk about my high school bullies. Without offering solutions. Most wrote me off as immature, or stunted.

Blake? He cared… and he heard me. He really heard me, and I didn't feel silly speaking.

Hot tears pooled in my eyes, lathering a dizzying haze over my vision.

“I’m in no mood for a serenade. Please believe me.” A hiccup sounded.

Blake threw back his brown hair, confidently strumming his guitar. “Let us in, fair Layla. We wish to sing to you and bring you these muffins that we baked.”

Josh shot a worried look at Blake.

“We’re not good enough for her, man. We’ll never measure up, and she probably has half of Applewood Falls in her back pocket. It’s time we give it up and admit we’ll be single forever.”

“No,” Blake maintained, a growl slipping out. “I know this is our match, man. Did you smell her perfume earlier today? Pink raspberries.”

“Please don’t discuss my perfume in front of me,” I tried to say as maturely as I could, though I fended off tears. It was unavoidable.

“She wants us, man.” Blake was so confident in his view. And I liked it. “Don’t you see? She’s the one for us, and she really gets and appreciates us. We’re not after an Omega for her scent or her heats. We want the woman inside of her, not just the Omega who is attracted to us.”

“Please.”

I was past the point of being near tears. They streamed down my cheeks, and I couldn’t help but stare up at the moon.

I really felt all the emotions associated with being serenaded. I felt like a woman at a One Direction concert, I thought. Blake was Harry.

Harry Styles was, basically, singing to me.

Blake faced me, and I smelled the most delicious cinnamon and sugar flurries wafting toward my nose. When he strummed on his guitar, I felt seen. Really seen, like I was the girl he actually wanted to be with and date.

I could not believe it.

“May we come in?” Blake waggled his eyebrows. I couldn’t help but blush.

“My nest is off-limits, but the rest of my cottage is open.” My eyes roamed around, as if the Applewood Falls City Council was about to pop out of the bushes and put handcuffs on me.

“Oh boy,” the second Alpha, Josh, shouted boyishly, high-fiving Blake as they both rushed up my stairs. They breezed past me, though not before burying me in a hug. Their guitars and ukulele bumped against me.

My eyes went to the last Alpha.

Anxiety formed a ball in my throat and I struggled to breathe.

His tattoos shimmered in the moonlight.

Dreydon.

Everything about him intimidated me. He was at least two feet taller than me, and when he looked down at me…

Scars.

Scars on his neck, he had even more than I thought. They were unmistakable this close up.

“Pretty Omega,” he growled, and he cupped my jaw. Something electric charged through me, and I gasped I stared into his eyes. “You deserve a thousand songs.”

“D-Dreydon?”

“I haven’t told my pack this yet, but I’m pretty certain you’re the Omega I used to stalk before I went off to join the Army.”

“Y-You stalked me?” Now I remembered.

Years ago, I had a stalker… He crept around in the darkness of the night, following me.

It was Dreydon.

The fact I didn't put two and two together couldn’t be sillier.

“Yes, baby. I came up to Applewood Falls every now and then to visit my brother, who lived here. I saw you and your pretty hair. It was me who followed you around in the moonlight—me who made you so uncomfortable, watching you slip into this cottage.”

“Are you sorry?” Tears pricked.

Dreydon leaned in, his scruffy jaw on my cheek. “No,” he rasped, his hot breath fanning my cheek. “If I had the option, I’d do it all over again.”

In the morning, a single red rose awaited me outside my nest nook room. It was from Dreydon.

I lifted it, and sure enough it was just like the red roses I used to receive back when I sensed someone was following me.

Watching me.

Tracking my every move…

“Dreydon,” I whispered, the rose releasing its perfume. “My Alpha. My stalker.”

Everything about my Alphas was perfect. If Dreydon was a creepy stalker years ago, he’d long since gotten over his predilection.

Now? He served me.

He cared for me, tended to me like I was a precious flower.

While Dreydon carried my on his shoulders, taking me to the river to skip rocks one day, I couldn’t help but smile.

“You shoulda stalked me harder,” I whispered, a glint in my eyes.

Dreydon growled, patting my bum. He really had to stretch his hand around his back to reach my backside, as I was still clinging to his shoulders.

“The way you sucked me off the other night was so perfect, baby. You tell Blake?”

“No.” I shook my head, my purple hair flowing in the wind.

“Good,” Dreydon teased naughtily, and I moaned as I sucked him off again after we reached the creek.