Page 25 of The Runaway
“I’mfine,” Helen said again, through gritted teeth.
“Well, did it go all right or didn’t it?” Henry called after her, as she headed for the door at the far end of the room.
Helen finally stopped, turning to scowl back at them. “All things considered, I’d say that was theworstheat I’ve ever been through in my entire life.” She spun around again and stormed out the door, slamming it shut behind her.
Connor looked back at the door to the mating room… and froze. Gabriel was standing in the doorway, staring after Helen. In the darkness, the look on his face was unreadable. Then his shoulders sagged and he shook his head. He skirted around the edge of the room, while the omegas watched him in silence, and let himself through the door into the kitchen, closing it quietly behind himself.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
At breakfast the following morning, Connor was sitting in his usual chair at the end of the table, still not quite used to the fact that the omegas were fed breakfast and dinner every day. But this morning’s meal was far from the usual friendly planning session in which the omegas discussed the day’s work.
Early this morning, Max had scampered out of bed and disappeared, and where he’d gone had become apparent when Dante had promptly shown up to have breakfast with the omegas. His normal habit was to eat with Antoine, though every now and then he dropped in to eat a meal with the omegas, to fill them in on some news from the main house or listen to their opinions on some issue or other.
Now, he was gently trying to elicit some response from Helen about her apparently disastrous mating the day before.
“If Gabriel hurt you, then I need to talk to Antoine about it,” he said again, for the third time since he’d sat down at the table.
“I’m fine,” Helen said, then promptly filled her mouth with bread so that she couldn’t be expected to say any more.
“Come on, Helen,” Max said, ignoring the food on his plate. “If he did something bad, we need to know about it. Or it’s going to be someone else’s head on the chopping block next time around.”
“Well, she’s not bruised or bleeding,” Nicole pointed out. “So how bad can it be?”
“Fists aren’t the only things that can cause injury,” Adalene said. Connor knew that to be true, but in this case, he didn’t think she meant another kind of physical harm. Words could be just as cutting and could do lasting damage.
“We’ve all been there,” Dante said next. “We all know a heat can be uncomfortable. But you said last night it was the worst one you’d ever had.”
“It was,” Helen said, through her mouthful. “Fucking awful.”
“Why? How? What did he do?”
“It’s not what he did,” Helen said, a blush colouring her face. “It’s more what he didn’t do.”
Dante sat up a fraction straighter. “Did he let you suffer the heat pain? Because Antoine would never stand for that.”
“No, it’s not…” Helen looked down, abandoning her food. “Look, we all have different expectations of a heat. And I know some people here don’t really like going through one, no matter which alpha is with them. But I…” She glanced around, then winced. “Some of you won’t like me saying this, but I actually enjoy them. We only go through a heat once a year, and for me, they’ve always been… well… I enjoy it, okay? I like being filled by an alpha over and over again. It’s liberating, being able to just listen to my body for once and not having to worry about whether the alpha’s enjoying it the whole time. Going through a heat with Antoine was wonderful. No offence, Dante,” she added, glancing up at him nervously. “I’m not trying to rub it in your face that Antoine’s slept with the rest of us. But he was good at it. And once, when I had Niles, he was pretty damn good too, and even Christophe was fairly lively, given his age. But Gabriel…” She trailed off again, and the rest of them waited. “Gabriel was awful at it, but not because he hurt me. Hedidn’thurt me,” she clarified. “Not at all. But he was just…” She sighed. “He was the most unenthusiastic alpha I’ve ever had in my life. He mated me the bare minimum number of times, and he barely touched me, and he… I like being pinned down. I like it when an alpha bites me on the back of the neck. I like feelingwanted. But he spent so bloody long pussy-footing around I may as well have been mating with a rag doll. He was just…boring.”
Max snorted as she finished her tirade. “Flaming hell, Helen, yesterday you were all up in arms about him maybe being too rough and now you’re pissed because he was too gentle? Fuck me, I thought Adalene was a damn princess, but she’s got nothing on you.”
“Well, that’s why I didn’t want to talk about it,” Helen snapped. “I’m not going to go running off to Antoine and complain that Gabriel was too nice about the whole damn thing. Not after the mess I made of things yesterday.”
“Do you think maybe Antoine told him to be extra gentle and that’s why it turned out the way it did?” Henry asked. “And if that’s the case, you’ve got no one to blame for this but yourself.”
“Well, I hardly see you lining up to let him have a go at you.”
Henry snorted. “As far as I’m aware, Gabriel hasn’t mated with anyone since he arrived here. Unless someone’s keeping a secret I don’t know about?” He looked over the rest of the omegas, but they all shook their heads. “So no, I wasn’t first in line to be mated by the new alpha, but it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. Fuck knows how he’s kept it in his pants for that long. It’s not normal.”
Connor’s eyebrows rose at that unexpected news. Since he’d arrived here, no one had attempted to mate with him, and he’d supposed it was because he wasn’t actually owned by the estate. He’d assumed that everyone was just respecting the unwritten rule that if they didn’t own him, they weren’t entitled to mate with him. But if Gabriel hadn’t mated withanyone…
He was the only alpha on the estate that might have been interested to try. Antoine, of course, was bonded, and Niles only slept with Adalene, and Lucas, as young as he was, was currently restricted to mating only with Helen or Max. He’d heard from the other omegas that it was customary here for young alphas to only be allowed to mate with a few select omegas, so that they could learn how to do it properly and without hurting anyone. And as two of the most experienced omegas on the estate, it was up to Max and Helen to show him the ropes.
Connor concentrated on eating his breakfast, his mind a riot of thoughts. His own heat was coming up in another month, and he hadn’t dared to think about what that might mean. His past experiences with heats had been unpleasant, to say the least, and he’d dreaded to think what it would be like on a foreign estate with unknown alphas. But if Gabriel had been only a perfunctory partner… Perhaps that would serve Connor well, when the time came? Assuming he was still here when it did. Someone who would mate him as little as possible and who would avoiding touching him any more than strictly necessary? It sounded like an ideal solution.
“You’re sure he didn’t hurt you?” Dante asked again, and Helen shook her head.
“No. Not at all. And I’m not just saying that because Antoine told me off yesterday. I don’t want Gabriel to get in trouble for something he didn’t do. That’s not the way we do things here.”
“Fair enough,” Dante said. “Let’s finish breakfast and get over to the vegetable garden. We still have a harvest to bring in before winter arrives.”