Knot Your Damn Omega (Slate City Omegaverse)

The night air was cool, fresh, and a hell of a lot easier to breathe. Even with the occasional cloud of cigarette smoke floating around, this was still better. Clearer. I wasn’t being driven out of my mind by non-existent cupcakes.

What the hell was that?

And why did I want to go back inside, haul him close by his shirt and bury my nose in it?

I shook my head, leaning my back against the railing. Just more proof coming to this party had been a bad idea. Not even ten minutes inside and I’d already made a fool of myself. They’d all probably burst into fits of laughter after I left.

“Stupid,” I muttered, ignoring the heat of embarrassment I now felt. In the cool, scentless air it was easy to see how I’d been reacting to the scent of an Alpha. Who the fuck hallucinated about the scent of cupcakes? And never mind that, the universe could have at least given me the saving grace of having him be a troll. Or a monster. Not a tattooed god who looked like he could bench press me with one hand.

“There you are.” Eva crossed to me from the door. “You disappeared so quickly I thought you might have ditched me and gone home.”

“You know I wouldn’t do that,” I said quietly. Now that the high of pheromones and hunger was fading, all I felt was embarrassment. “I’m sorry about back there. I didn’t realize it was a scent. I should have.”

“Why are you sorry?”

“Because that didn’t make you look good. Who knows how many people saw me charging across the room in search of non-existent cupcakes?”

Eva stepped to the side, leaning against the railing with me. “Esme, do you think I’m angry with you for it?”

Angry? No, I didn’t think that. Disappointed maybe. Probably frustrated I’d once again be the center of a news story if the official photographer caught any of it. Just Esme Williams, the fuck-up half of the twins.

“Because I’m not. At all. His scent may not have hit me as strongly, but do you have any idea what it means that it hit you?”

I glanced over at her.

“When I was backstage at the award show? The first one I scented was Tyler. Fucking cinnamon and apples. I didn’t think it was pie, but it was like the best candle I’d ever smelled. All I wanted to do was roll around in the scent until I was covered in it, and then I wanted to do it all over again.

“And then I met the rest of them. I don’t have to tell you a story you already know. But when a scent hits you like that, it means something. Don’t be embarrassed because you reacted the way you were supposed to.”

I tilted my head back, spotting the couple of stars which were still visible with the city’s light pollution. “I called the man a cupcake, Eva.”

“And I said he had a nice ass. So?”

He won’t want me.

I cringed at the automatic thought, but it was true. It’s where the fear had come from. The realization that my body reacted to him on a visceral level, and there I was standing next to Eva. Cupcake scent aside, I’d done this song and dance too many times for it to be unfamiliar.

“Bennett Gray is a phenomenal tattoo artist,” she said. “And I’ve wanted to get a piece done by him for a long time. He gave me the card to their studio, and I’m going to go for a consultation. You can come with me, and we’ll see what happens.”

I turned away long enough to roll my eyes. I already knew what would happen, but I just nodded.

“Come on,” she pulled one arm out from where I had it crossed and tugged me back towards the party. “Dance with me, eat some real food, and then we can go home. Okay?”

“Okay.”

I supposed I was still hungry, though I was disappointed my brain didn’t get what it wanted. I tried to briefly satisfy the hankering for sugar with some fruit and chocolate from the fountain.

While I did it, I glanced around the room, looking for a tall Alpha in black with gorgeous tattoos. The table where he’d been tattooing was empty, all his equipment gone. My stomach did a disappointed tumble, but it was probably for the best. Nothing had changed on the walk from the balcony to the food table.

The fruit took the edge off, and Eva reached for my hand again. “Let’s dance.”

Halfway there, Dante ran into us, and we kept going to the dance floor together. Here it was a lot louder, which was just fine. If I wanted to say something I would have to yell, so I just closed my eyes and danced.

The photographer Jasmine mentioned took pictures of the two of us for a few minutes before Dante finally chased the guy away and I could dance the way I wanted without having to half-pose for the camera. This was way more fun, and some of my self-conscious anxiety fell away.

Eva spun me under her arm, and then I saw her face, eyes wide, looking behind me. A second later I was enveloped by the smell of warmth and sugar. The Alpha. I turned, finding him standing so close we were almost touching.

Oh.

I started to move aside so he could move past toward Eva, and he caught me lightly by the upper arm, releasing me immediately. The brief touch was simply to stop me from moving—nothing more—and still his fingerprints felt like pure heat now branded on my skin.

He leaned in, and I was immediately proven wrong about needing to yell to be heard. The deep baritone of his voice cut under the music and made me shiver. “I came for you.”

Goosebumps rippled across my skin, and with him so close, I was absolutely drowning in the scent of vanilla. I could close my eyes and see those fucking cupcakes coming out of the oven, and my mouth was practically watering.

He spoke again, mouth even closer this time. “Dance with me?”

How could I say no to that? Well, I couldn’t, because my tongue had decided this was the perfect moment to resign her job indefinitely, but I nodded. I glanced back once at Eva—who was smiling so widely it almost looked fake—and she gave me a thumbs up. Dante winked too, looking Bennett up and down with approval.

The music changed to a slower, more rhythmic beat, and suddenly we were dancing together. It didn’t feel awkward or like we were trying too hard. It was entirely the opposite. Everything else in the world fell away. My instincts surged to the surface, and this time I didn’t fight them.

One of my hands in his, he spun me the way Eva had, and I was aware of every fucking movement. Bennett leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Even with the scent dampeners in here, if I touch you, you’re going to have my scent on you. Are you okay with that?”

I should assure him I had scent canceling body wash at home and I would take care of it later. Instead, all I managed was a strangled “Yes,” because the last thing I wanted to think about was washing his scent off my body.

His hands brushed down my bare arms, raising more goosebumps on my skin. He briefly skimmed over the bracelet on my bicep before turning me again, pulling my back against his chest and locking us together. One arm slipped around my waist, and the other laced with my fingers, crossing our arms around my chest as we swayed. That’s what it was now. Swaying. We were no longer dancing, and I didn’t give a single Beta’s ass.

I sank deeper into the layers of his scent—the sharpness of fresh vanilla and the sweetness of icing. It was factually impossible for someone to smell this good—I was sure of it.

He moved, and I moved with him, our swaying deepening to a little more, moving with the music. Somewhere out there, there were other people. But it didn’t feel like that. We were all alone here in this place where the music wrapped us up and wove us together and fuck, I could stay here forever.

Safety. It was the sensation my mind was desperately trying to identify, and it was heady, strong, and addictive. Which was absurd. I was one of the most protected people in this city, and there was no time in my life I’d ever been unsafe.

I shoved aside the thoughts stubbornly pointing out there were different kinds of safety, and spun in Bennett’s arms so we were face to face. He was so much taller than me, I had to crane my neck to see him. I wanted to look everywhere—examine the intricate details of his tattoos and find out if the body underneath this shirt was as perfect as the portions of it I could see. I wanted to see if his breath tasted as sweet as his scent.

Maybe other things tasted that sweet, too.

So many thoughts ran through my mind, I wasn’t entirely sure how I suddenly ended up wrapping my arms around his neck, pressing my nose to his skin and inhaling like I was an addict needing a fix.

But here I was.

Reality slid into focus once more.

My knees were around his hips, and his hands were firmly—firmly—on my ass, keeping me in place. I pulled back so quickly I nearly knocked him into next week only find him smirking, green eyes sparkling with amusement and a darker shade of desire.

Oh, fuck.

I’d climbed the man.

I’d literally climbed him like a tree.

And beneath all of that, I realized the intensity of the scent surrounding us wasn’t just him. It was me. I was perfuming. In a crowded room full of people, I was perfuming while practically humping an Alpha I didn’t know. And there were photographers.

Mortification dropped through me so fast it left me dizzy and cold. I pushed away, and he set me gently on my feet, making sure I was steady on my heels before releasing me. He looked like he was about to say something, but I couldn’t bear to think about what kind of remark he would make. My cheeks burned, and I turned, finding Eva through the crowd dancing with Dante. I pushed through the dancers to her, trying to ignore the smug looks and blatant stares.

I grabbed her arm. “Eva.”

She startled, eyes going wide when she saw me. “Are you okay?”

“We need to go right now. Please? I need to go.”

“Okay,” she frowned but didn’t argue. “Dante, can you take her over to the door? I need to find Jasmine.”

“Sure.” Dante was watching me warily too, searching the crowd behind me for the culprit of whoever he thought had upset me. But he didn’t need to look behind me. It was me. I upset me.

I beelined for the door, slipping out of the curtains to wait near the elevators, Dante practically sprinting to keep up. “Woah, Esme. You’re about to set the ground on fire you’re moving so fast.”

“I just needed to get out of there.”

“What on earth hap—” He froze. Out here, where there weren’t air filters purging everyone’s scent and supplying dampeners, he could smell it. My perfume hung in the air, filling the small hallway, and I turned a thousand shades of red. “Is that why you want to leave?”

“Yes.”

“But… why?”

It was too hard to explain. This didn’t happen to me. I was the one no one wanted, and I’d never—never—perfumed for anyone. The only time I perfumed at all was during the occasional heat I couldn’t avoid where I locked myself in my house until it was over. This wasn’t heat perfume, but it didn’t matter. It was too real.

How did I tell Dante I was too scared of what could be good? I wanted things too badly for them to fall apart, so it was easier not to have them in the first place. If I had to see one more Alpha suddenly look at me like I was broken or damaged because I wasn’t what they expected, I would shatter. I couldn’t take it.

And I especially couldn’t take it from an Alpha who attracted me so much it overrode every bit of common sense I had. No, I needed to go home, wash off every bit of his scent, and pretend this never happened. If I was extremely lucky, there wouldn’t be any pictures of me climbing him.

“Okay, I’m ready.” Eva brushed out of the party entrance with Neil in tow and handed me my clutch. She stopped in her tracks, realizing exactly what Dante had only a minute ago. “You sure you want to go?”

“Yes,” I said quietly.

She turned and quickly kissed Dante on both cheeks. “See you soon?”

“You bet,” he grinned. “Hopefully you, too, Esme.”

“Sure.” My voice sounded strangled, like a dying cat, but I somehow managed a bit of a smile.

The paparazzi were still outside, but this time it was easy to ignore them. Security pushed us past the crowd into the car, and finally we were wrapped in glorious, blissful silence.

Eva pressed a button on the console. “Jeremy, please go to Esme’s first.”

“Of course, Miss Williams.”

“Okay,” she said when she released the button. “What the fuck was that?”

“What the fuck was what?”

She rolled her eyes. “One second you were dancing with Bennett-fucking-Gray looking like you’re in nine kinds of paradise, and the next you’re begging me to leave like you’re running from the law.”

“Yeah.” I wasn’t going to explain it. She’d heard everything a million times and if she hadn’t seen the climbing incident, as it was forevermore going to be referred to in my head, I wasn’t going to enlighten her.

Eva sighed and looked out the window before looking back. “Did he hurt you? Did he try something?”

“No,” I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. I just… I couldn’t be there anymore.”

We rode in silence, pools of light passing over us as we wove under streetlights away from downtown and into the older neighborhoods of the city. The further we got from the scene of my humiliation, the more relaxed I became.

“It’s okay to perfume for someone, May-may.”

“I know.” I leaned my head back against the seat. Of course it was okay. It was everything that came after. “I just can’t—” my breath hiccuped, and by some miracle, kept my voice even. “I just can’t get my hopes up about something and then have them think I’m going to be you. Not when I reacted like that. I’m sorry.”

“Esme.” She slid across the seat and pulled me into a hug, and I let her. “I’m sorry.”

“I know.”

Despite all the ways her life made mine harder, there was no animosity between us as sisters. Eva only wanted the best for me, and she would be over the fucking moon to see me settled down and happy. It was everyone else who made it impossible when they looked at two people but only saw one. Like somehow the fact that we shared a womb and a face meant we shared everything down to preference, when we couldn’t be more different.

Even our scents were opposites.

I leaned my head on her shoulder until the limo pulled up in front of my house and studio.

“You going to be okay tonight?”

“I’ll be fine,” I said with a sigh. I was always fine. “I’m done perfuming, and I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”

“Okay.” She squeezed my hand. “Love you, May-may.”

Stepping out of the car, I leaned back inside and smiled. “Love you, Va-va.”

I watched until the limo turned the corner before I went inside, sadly and completely alone.