Bewitched, p.16
Bewitched, page 16
Roan elbowed his mate in the side hard.
“Ow, what?” Holden scowled at his mate and huffed. “All you omega Nashs are weird about your teeth. I meet your alpha sister, and we are best friends two minutes later.”
“Holden,” Roan said with a sigh. “She was trying to kill you.”
“No, she was just being friendly, right Jax?”
“Never know with that one,” Jaxon said, his mouth at Layla’s neck, attempting to soothe her. “I think she just likes the taste of human flesh.”
Kaiser and Roan laughed.
Layla squirmed under Jaxon’s hands, flashes of arousal sparking in her chest and her belly, but now wasn’t the time. She was still tired, hungry, and sore in too many places. She tipped her head up, letting her forehead rub across his chin, feeling the scratch of stubble on her face. Jaxon purred encouragingly.
Layla lowered her eyes back to her brother. “Remember when Mina tried to eat a squirrel? Just pulled it out of a tree and tried to eat it. It was disgusting. She was five!”
“I remember that,” Roan said as he leaned heavily against Holden. “I had to get rid of my pet rats because I was afraid she’d eat them.”
“It’s a right of passage for every alpha to attack something that bites back,” Holden said. “I slayed a cougar.”
“You did not,” Roan said.
Kaiser laughed. “Hera terrorized one of the kitchen staff because he wouldn’t give her extra cookies. Psychological warfare, you know. Hera was never one to get her hands dirty. But in the end, Father caught her exchanging the man’s shoes for a pair that was a size too small. We had to pay that poor man millions.”
Jaxon snorted.
Holden stared at Kaiser in awe. “She hunted man.”
Eris nodded his head and bounced a little. “Raina tried to attack one of my cats. I had to hit her with a broom.”
Kaiser jerked. “That’s why you two were fighting? You nearly gave her a concussion.”
“And she didn’t come near my cats after that, did she?”
Holden laughed. “See, omegas are vicious little creatures too. Roan nearly cut my throat with my own knife when I stole him.”
Layla stilled and glanced at Roan worriedly. She never got to ask him how he felt about being stolen. Having his life upended because an alpha wanted him. Roan had said he loved Holden, but that didn’t make their relationship easy.
“Holden, no,” Roan whispered.
“What?” Holden asked. “Ugh, cityboy. It was goddamn romantic!”
Jaxon cupped her abdomen again, fingers pressing into her belly, distracting her from the tense stand-off between the mates. He could probably still smell his semen in her. No amount of scrubbing could get it off. He would be soaked into her skin forever, even if the breeding didn’t take. It’s what heats were for.
She could be getting fat with his pup within a fortnight. She could feel herself getting wet at the thought. Layla blushed and pushed his hand away.
Jaxon rumbled with a growl but moved his hand to her hip.
Eris’s voice cut into the tense air. “Remember when Daddy Bryson and I visited your place, and we all cuddled in front of the fire? You made Dad read that silly love story like thirteen times.”
Layla smiled. She remembered the warm fire in the hearth and Roan by her side. She remembered Bryson as listless and sad. It was when Hera died. Grief enough to make Bryson take his only omega pup and hide with his best friend.
“I remember,” she said and glanced at Kaiser.
Kaiser was silent, staring at the blankets. It was almost as if she could smell his heartbreak. They had been mates. She couldn’t imagine being ripped from a mate she loved. She could barely manage thinking of what would happen when Jaxon sent her away.
“I miss those puppy piles,” Eris said.
Layla looked down. It was the first and only time she had been in a true puppy pile. Hugging other young omegas close with the scent of a protective alpha close by. It was like that now — soothing and sweet. She had missed out on so much of what it meant to be a young omega. Even living in the omega dorms, she didn’t participate in the bonding parties.
She didn’t need them.
She wasn’t supposed to need them.
Layla brushed tears away. Jaxon made a sound, but she shook her head. At this rate, she was never going to stop crying, and it was best just to ignore it before it got worse.
Holden suddenly grabbed Kaiser, dragging him closer by his leg. “Hey! What are you—“
“None of that depressing shit now, omega,” Holden said as he held Kaiser down on the bed and wiped his wrists over his chest.
Roan chuckled and dragged Eris out of the way.
Layla gasped and tried to climb further into Jaxon’s lap, away from the impending fight. She was sure Holden was going to hurt him, bite him, do something awful. Her mother had said Holden would steal her away, too, if she let him.
Kaiser laughed and batted feebly at him. “Stop! Georgia is going to kill you.”
Holden flopped over Kaiser, holding him to the bed. He held Kaiser’s wrists together in one hand and lightly bit at Kaiser’s arm through his shirt.
Kaiser didn’t seem disturbed or offended by the rough play, and Layla slowly relaxed. Holden wasn’t trying to steal Kaiser. They were playing in that rough, comforting way that alphas always played.
“Lucky me then,” Holden said. “I would love to wrestle that woman.”
Roan laughed and pushed at his mate with his foot. “I would pay to see her mount you.”
Holden sat up. “You think she can beat me?”
“Yes,” Kaiser, Roan, and Jaxon said together.
Layla smiled. This wasn’t quite like the sleepovers and brunches she had with her beta friends, but this was nice.
She liked it. The puppy piles and the bonding and the soothing scents of contented alphas and omegas. She let Jaxon feed her and listened to Eris’s increasingly unlikely stories of how he found each of his cats.
Kaiser lay across the bed and let Holden scratch his belly. Sinking into the bed, Kaiser thrummed out a small purr.
Layla jumped. She had never heard that before, the sweet parental purr of an omega. How? “Omegas can purr?”
“Sure,” Eris said. “It’s deep in the throat, like in your chest.”
Eris gave a stuttering purr. “I’m not very good at it yet.”
Layla crawled across the bed, pushing aside the decimated platter, and laid her head on Kaiser’s chest, listening to the soft rumble. It was quicker than an alpha’s, almost like a constant hum. She melted into the bed and into Kaiser’s body. Jaxon caressed the back of her legs, and she shivered.
It was so good. It felt like a home she never had.
“Kitten,” Jaxon said. “Don’t fall asleep.”
“‘M not,” she mumbled. She opened her eyes enough to look at Roan. “Can you purr?”
“I never figured it out, I guess.” Roan brushed her hair from her eyes and laid his head on the other side of Kaiser’s chest.
“How did I get all the pups?” Kaiser said, and Eris snickered.
Holden reached for her, stroking her hair. She cringed under his hand for a moment, but his hand was light and cautious. Petting a frightened kitten. She could smell his pheromones heavy at his wrist. Rabbit leather and wilderness.
Layla had a fleeting impulse to rub her cheek against his wrist and to lick his fingers. It was a deep instinct that served no purpose in modern life. An instinct that certainly wouldn’t help her.
Layla moved away, retreating to Jaxon’s lap. Omegas were one thing, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about other alphas putting their scent on her when she was sober and present.
Jaxon pulled her close, and she put her arms over his shoulders and around his neck. “Hey there, good girl.”
Layla smiled and pressed their foreheads together. Affection bloomed in her chest and his scent. Life didn’t feel so hard right then, with Jaxon’s hands on her hips and his eyes staring into hers. It was almost like everything could be alright, with just her little pack right here. And maybe Mina.
“Can I?” she asked.
Jaxon grunted and slipped a thumb under her shirt, stroking bare skin. “Whatever you want.”
She pressed her lips against his in front of everyone. Jaxon pulled her in closer, held her against his chest, and opened his mouth. She licked into him, chasing his taste, coffee and cinnamon. She pulled back, and he gazed at her with a soft smile.
Layla slid down into his lap and curled into him, hiding her face in the crook of his arm. She needed this to last just a little bit longer.
Chapter 17
Layla had sputtered and growled while she sat in Jaxon’s lap, but she never managed to purr like Kaiser and Eris. Jaxon eventually grabbed her and pulled her under him, laying over her like a particularly heavy blanket.
She should have been bothered to have him all over her, holding her down with his face in her neck, pressing his half-hard cock against her hip. But she wasn’t, not in the slightest. She didn’t even really remember who was there. Kaiser… Roan… Others. Jaxon and his cinnamon spice pheromones were the only things that mattered.
She relaxed, half-asleep, her head pillowed under Jaxon’s hand in the middle of the bed, the omegas surrounding her, moving, breathing. Jaxon’s nose pressed into her hair, while she listened to Eris chatter and Holden ask every question imaginable about The Omegas of Orange County.
It was good. So good.
It had to end at some point.
The front door creaked open, and Holden was the first to growl and posture to protect the nest of omegas, moving to shield them from the open door.
Layla shuddered and tried to turn to see who was interrupting their fragile peace, but Kaiser put his hand on her chest and kept her down.
“Hello? Anyone home?” a soft voice asked.
“Warren?” Holden said and rushed into the living room.
Jaxon growled and pulled Layla further beneath him, and her face was pressed into his chest, physically protecting her with his body. She pushed against him, keeping her head back so she could watch the door, but he didn’t move. She didn’t want to be caught unaware again, not like with Axel. Jaxon ran his hands down her sides. He snuffled at her neck, but he didn’t lick or bite, his eyes firmly on the door.
“It’s alright,” Holden boomed, returning to the bedroom. “It’s just this dumb fuck.”
A short, round omega in a turtleneck sweater peaked around Holden’s massive frame and waved. His smile was bright and friendly, but his shoulders were down, submissive.
Roan slid off the bed and stood. “Warren?”
“Hi, Roan,” he said with a small blush.
Jaxon’s growl trailed away, but he shifted over Layla to hide her more.
“Oi! Don’t call my mate dumb,” a beta woman said as she walked into the room. She was short, and her brown hair was frizzy. She ignored the tension in the room, like she couldn’t smell it, and set a bag on the floor.
“Nora!” Holden yelled and grabbed the woman by the back of the neck. Layla tensed, but Nora only giggled and batted at his hands as Holden attempted to rub the scent gland on his wrist behind her ears.
“Stop that. I’m working!” she said between giggles.
“Hi, Warren!” Eris said.
“Good morning, Eris,” Warren said sweetly, paternally.
Warren looked over the nest, and when his eyes rested on Layla, she blushed. “I’m Doctor Warren Carter, but you can just call me Warren. You must be Layla.”
“Hello,” she said, and Jaxon growled softly, his chest vibrating.
“Damian Sorreto called me here.” Warren reached for her, scratching her scalp right under Jaxon’s teeth like he wasn’t afraid. Layla sniffed at his scent gland, unmedicated petrichor. “I’m here to ensure you are healthy and see what went wrong with your suppressants.”
Layla nodded. That was good. She needed to know what went wrong. If it could be fixed. If things could go back to like they were before she ever went into heat.
“Are you attached?” Warren asked.
Layla cocked her head, unsure what he meant for a moment, and then it clicked. “Oh my god, no!” She pushed at her alpha, kicking him until he lifted up enough to give her room to sit up. No, no, no. She would never let him knot her with an audience. Well, she liked to think she wouldn’t. Deep in her heat, she wasn’t sure what else she’d let him do.
Jaxon grabbed her arm, not letting her go far. “Stop.”
She didn’t resist him as he held her for a moment longer, but slowly, his grip loosened, and he released her with a disgruntled sigh.
“Alright,” Warren said. “Can I have everyone out except Miss Layla, and if you want an omega support?”
Jaxon growled again. “If you think for one second—”
Warren snorted, utterly uncowed. “Hush. You have taken up quite enough of her time. Go out there and let Nora take your vitals and do your bloodwork.”
He looked like he was going to argue for a moment, but Holden shouldered his way to Jaxon’s side and patted him on the back. “Come on, there. Better do as he says. He gets really annoying when you don’t.”
Jaxon grumbled but finally acquiesced, leaving the bed after another touch to her wrist. Layla moved toward the head of the bed and hugged her knees.
“Who do you want here, Layla?” Kaiser asked.
She glanced between Kaiser and Roan. She didn’t want to hurt Roan’s feelings, but this had happened to Kaiser, too. He understood what she felt.
She bit her lip. “Kaiser.”
Roan smiled and rubbed their wrists together before leaving the room. Jaxon grumbled and growled the whole way out, but Holden had him in hand.
The bedroom finally emptied, leaving only Layla, Kaiser, and Warren.
“There,” Warren said soothingly. “All those alpha hormones out of here.”
Layla felt cold and lonely. She could sense Jaxon’s agitation even from the other side of the door. Part of her wanted to comfort her alpha, but the other part of her wanted Warren to help fix things so she could go back to not having one at all.
Warren smiled at her, but she curled closer to Kaiser. “I need to take your vitals. Would that be okay?”
Layla nodded and let Warren check her over. He took her blood pressure and pulse and looked at the cuts on her hands and legs. He palpitated her neck and her abdomen with a clinical efficiency that she appreciated.
“Thank you,” he said. “You’re a little dehydrated, but that’s normal. Can I do a pelvic exam?”
Layla sucked in a breath and shook her head. No more touching. No more hands. She couldn’t take the embarrassment. The shame.
“Okay, you should get one with a doctor in the next two weeks to ensure everything is healing properly.”
Layla glanced miserably at Kaiser, but he was no help. “Okay.”
Warren smiled encouragingly. “Good. Thank you. Now, this might be distressing, but we need to discuss the beginning of your heat and how you got here, okay?”
Layla whimpered and curled into Kaiser’s side. She wanted the body beside her to be bigger, meatier. She wanted Alpha. “Why?”
“So we can track down how this started.”
She glanced at Kaiser, and he nodded. “Okay.”
Warren sat down on the end of the bed with a notebook. “Had you met Alpha Harlow prior to your heat?”
“Years ago,” she whispered.
Layla was twelve when she met Ryan Bartlet. He was handsome and charming, and he smelled of delicious cinnamon. She thought herself in love as soon as she saw him. Arrogant smile and all.
Then Layla saw him, the biggest man she had ever met, standing right behind Ryan as his head of security. He was supposed to blend in, probably, but Layla couldn’t not pay attention to him. His face was scarred and scowling, but she hardly noticed. She could only take in his scent, his whole presence. He was so big in her mind. She couldn’t pay attention to anyone else when he was there in the same room as her. Alpha, a voice inside her head screamed.
Layla vibrated inside and out. Him. Everything about him. Her teeth itched.
Alpha glared down at her, and she squeaked.
“Get a good look, girl?” he asked with such disdain that Layla collapsed.
Alpha hated her.
Alpha was angry with her.
Layla cried, sobbing so hard she threw up.
Jaxon had immediately fled from her presence, and Layla was left a mess on the floor. She couldn’t even explain what was wrong.
She had cried for three days straight, wouldn’t eat, and hid under her bed. Her father finally took her to an omega emergency clinic, where they sedated her. She didn’t remember much after that.
No one ever explained what happened. No one ever talked about it. Her little mental breakdown was shoved out of everyone’s memories, never to be spoken of again. Another mystery of herself that she’d never understand. “He always hated me.”
Layla told Warren everything, from the first time she met Jaxon to the last disastrous meeting outside the cafe. She told him how he frightened her — how he became a background nuisance in her life — how he found her and took her. As she got further into the story, tears started falling from her eyes, no matter how hard she tried to bite them back. But she kept talking. She closed her eyes and told Warren about how fuzzy everything felt — she wasn’t real.
She choked as the story came to Axel and how he pounded on the door. She glanced at Kaiser through blurry eyes, and he nodded.
“I killed him,” she said.
Warren looked up from where he was taking notes in his book. “Your alpha killed him.”
Layla shook her head, staring at the blank television. The darkened screen reflected a negative image of the room. “I stabbed him in the back. I think I got his liver. He would have died anyway. Just slower.”
Warren raised his eyebrows; his scent was agitated and excited. He had discovered something new, and Layla cringed. She didn’t want to be something new.
“When did Harlow bite you?” Warren eventually asked.
Layla tried to focus. “Here. After the fight with… We were here… He was…”
