Knot Your Damn Omega (Slate City Omegaverse)

My phone buzzed on the bedside table, and I almost ignored it when I saw mom’s name, but I didn’t. Something caught my eye.

Please call me, Esme. Please.

With a sigh, I dialed her number, putting it on speaker.

“Esme?”

“Hi, Mom.”

She took a hitching breath, and I covered my face with my hands at the shame which hit me. “I thought you weren’t going to speak to me anymore.”

“Of course not. I just needed some time. And I didn’t want to talk to you about the photo.”

“Yes, well, I may not agree with what you’re doing, but I understand it’s what you feel you need to do. You’re an adult, you can make your own choices.”

“You’re right,” I said with a sigh. “And I’m not making those choices to hurt you.”

“I know. And I want to try. Can you bring your… I’m not sure what to call them, over for dinner tomorrow?”

Tomorrow would work perfectly in the schedule, as far as things went. But I wasn’t going to sign them up to meet my mother without at least talking to them first. “I’ll ask them, but I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Excellent. I’m looking forward to it.”

“You are?”

She sighed. “Esme, I’m trying. Do I love that you’re being courted by a pack of tattoo artists? No. I don’t like it any more than I liked Eva being courted by a rock band. But there wasn’t much I could do about it then, and it seems like this is the same. So I will meet them, but it’s all I can promise.”

Pressing my lips together, I tried not to beg or ask for more. I’d already hurt her. Without dad, Eva and I were all Mom had left, and she felt like she was losing us. Change was hard for her, and though the change was necessary, it didn’t make it easy.

“I’ll ask them about dinner and text you.”

“Thank you. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow.”

The line went dead and I groaned. “What’s the matter?” Avery asked. He stood in the doorway to my bedroom, a soda in one hand.

“My mother wants you to come over for dinner tomorrow so she can meet you.”

He shrugged. “Done.”

“I have to ask everyone first! I can’t just throw everyone to the big bad wolf without preparation.”

“Sure you can. We knew we’d have to meet your family at some point, and we have the night off, so we’ll meet her.”

“You realize she’s only inviting you over so she can find out what’s wrong with you?”

“No worse than anyone else has done.” He took a sip of soda. “We’ll be fine, baby girl. Promise.”

I left my phone on the bed and went into my closet. I’d brought over more and more things whenever I went to my house to work, so most of my clothes were here now. Kade had said ones I didn’t mind ruining. So I grabbed a pair of old leggings which were hanging on by a thread and a t-shirt I was pretty sure I’d had since high school and was so faded you couldn’t even make out what the image was.

Avery stepped into the closet with me. “I’m guessing wearing underwear beneath these is probably pointless?”

He laughed. “Unless you want to lose them, commando is the way to go.”

“Got it.”

I started to change, not at all bothered Avery was still in here with me. He was the first one of them to see me naked, and though we hadn’t had our date in the rotation yet, I was looking forward to it.

“Baby girl, you need to warn an Alpha before you start stripping.”

“Do I?” I raised an eyebrow.

He smirked. “Careful, or you won’t make it to Kade’s plans.”

I shivered in response. Kade had told me nothing except for what time to be ready, and we were almost there. The sun was already setting, and we were going out of the city. That was all I knew. That, and Luke was coming with us just as a back-up.

“It’s okay to be nervous, right?”

“As long as there’s excitement.”

Prey.

Just the thought of Kade at my back, invisible and chasing me, ready to pin me down and have his way with me…

“Yup. You could say that.”

“Don’t have to tell me, baby girl. You just let out enough perfume to get everyone’s engines running. You’ll be just fine.”

I pulled on the leggings and let the t-shirt fall over my head. “You’ll tell everyone about dinner?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.” I sent a text to Mom telling her dinner was on before dropping the phone back on the bed. I wouldn’t need it tonight. The only thing I would need tonight was speed.

I grabbed the cheap shoes I’d picked up earlier today. I didn’t have any running shoes I wanted to ruin, and running barefoot the whole time wasn’t a good idea. It would probably end up that way, but I didn’t know for sure. This was all new to me.

“Don’t be late,” Avery said gently.

“We can’t have that.” I shoved my heel into the second shoe. “See you later?”

“Depends on how long you run.”

My breath picked up in my chest. He had a point. I didn’t know how long this would last.

“Okay. Well. I’m gonna go.”

“Good luck.” His tone told me I would need it.

I couldn’t believe I was doing this. At the same time, it was absolutely everything. It felt like my whole body was electrified.

Kade waited near the front door, and he looked me up and down when I approached. “Ready?”

“I think so.” I reached out for him, and he held me. His arms were comforting and warm around me. Later they wouldn’t be, and I loved the dichotomy. “I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

“I have a couple of questions and then I’ll tell you.”

All my attention zeroed in on his voice. “I’m listening.”

“How far do you want to go, baby? How rough? How deep are we going?”

Shaking my head, I looked up at him. “I’m not sure. Doesn’t mean I want to pull back, it just means I’ve never done it before and I don’t know. But I imagine you chasing me, ready to take what you want and I—” I swallowed and took a breath. “I like that.”

“Okay, first, I need you to pick a word. One you won’t forget in case you need to stop. And it can’t be ‘stop.’”

I thought about it. What did I want to stop most? For most of my life, it was the press. “Camera.”

A small growl, and he pulled me closer. “That makes sense. And now, baby, I’ll tell you what I have planned. If it’s too much, you tell me. This isn’t about scaring you. It’s supposed to be fun for both of us.”

“Okay.”

One hand behind my neck, he leaned down so his lips brushed the shell of my ear, raising goosebumps on my entire body. “When you’re ready, I’m going to blindfold you. And tie your hands behind your back. I’m going to carry you out of this house and put you in the trunk. You’re not going to know where you’re going. And when we get there, I’ll let you out. Free your hands and take the blindfold. Then I’m going to drive away.”

I gasped, and he grabbed my wrist, wrapping something around it. “The watch has GPS. You won’t be lost for a second. I’ll always know where you are, but it’s just in case. Because I’m going to hunt you, baby. You’re not going to know where I am.”

There was no denying the hot, honeyed arousal which flowed through me, making me wet and releasing a cloud of perfume around the two of us.

“But I’ll find you. Run all you want, but I’ll find you, and when I do…”

Kade let the words hang in the air, tantalizing. And nothing more. “I’ll let you think about what happens when I do.”

I’d already told him there was nowhere he couldn’t fuck me, and he’d warned me about ruining my clothes.

“But you say ‘Camera,’ everything stops. And I need you to hear me, princess. I will not be disappointed if that happens.”

I nodded. There wasn’t a situation I could imagine being afraid of him enough to tell him to stop, but it was good we had a way to do it. Just in case.

“Does any of it sound like too much?”

“No.”

He smiled, and it had an edge. “Then let’s do this.” He kissed me and lifted a piece of black cloth I hadn’t noticed before. It blocked any light that might have gotten through my closed lids, and there was no moving it. It was solid.

I sucked in a breath when he took my hands, pulling them behind my back and wrapping more fabric around them. They wouldn’t move apart, and my heart started to pound, adrenaline already kicking in.

It was disorienting to be picked up when you were blindfolded. I heard the door close behind us, and the gravel of the drive under his feet before he laid me down. I was in the trunk of a car. The trunk.

“See you soon, baby.”

The lid closed, and the car started.

Oh god, we were really doing this. There was no trying to figure out where we were going. I was already turned around being on my side. Instead I curled around myself and calmed my breathing. I would need it.

How long had we been driving? Time seemed to stretch. It could have been twenty minutes, or it could have been an hour. There was no way to know.

Finally, the car slowed. I faintly heard twigs snapping under the tires and the crunch of dirt. The passenger door slammed, and heavy footsteps circled the car. The lid opened, and I smelled him. Darkness and oaky smoke deeper than the woods we were in.

Heaving me out of the trunk, he set me on my feet, and the blade of a knife sliced through the fabric binding my hands. I rubbed them, warming them back up.

Kade’s hand fisted in my ponytail, and he groaned, licking up the side of my neck. “Your scent is already making me hard.”

The blindfold came off, and for a second it felt like there wasn’t any difference. The woods were nearly pitch black.

“Run, baby.”

Footsteps retreating, and the door slamming again. The car left me, and I didn’t move until I could no longer hear it. I didn’t look to see where it went. I stayed frozen as a statue, committing to what we’d agreed until I was entirely alone.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness, picking out the faint glow of the moon that let me distinguish between the black trees and navy sky. There was nothing else I could do to get ready.

I took a deep breath, and ran.