He was doing the right thing, he told himself. He couldn’t let Urim live his life like this. He was such a good omega. He deserved to be happy, not to live a half life with him. He just had to find a way to make Urim see that he deserved better. He hoped Urim got over him soon, because it was never going to happen between them. Or with any other omega. He wasn’t interested in bringing another person into his mess of a life. And besides, his dream of becoming a UA champion still lived within him. He thought of nothing else. He couldn’t make another omega wait for him like he had Urim. He should have let him live his life a long time ago. It was selfish of him to make him wait for years. Now, that his career was on the verge of ending, he could see that he’d never wanted anything else.
Being a UA fighter had been his life… his everything. He’d lived for nothing else, not even Urim. He’d trained hard for years to be at the very top of the game, to get his title shot. He had been so close. Could he get back there again? He wasn’t sure. His body was wrecked. He could barely get himself out of the WAB without breaking a sweat.
Adew flexed his toes, digging his heels into the mattress as doubt crept into his mind. Calla chose that moment to walk into the room and jumped on the bed, jostling him from the dark place he was slowly crawling into. The okie sniffed and licked his face before lying next to him. Adew wrapped his arm around his massive body and leaned into him. Calla started to hum. A deep throated rumbling sound that vibrated all around him in soothing waves that tingled along his limbs and down his spine. A lot of people didn’t know this about okies. That they hummed to soothe members of their pack or individuals they liked. Their caring and soothing side was overshadowed by their wild and vicious nature that made them hard to tame.
“Thanks, buddy,” he said, closing his eyes.
Chapter 3
Nylune
“Nylune!”
Why was he so loud? Nylune groaned as Hazi’s voice bounded up the stairs and penetrated the walls to echo all around him. He rammed a pillow against his ear and closed his eyes, hoping to get a few more hours of sleep. Last night had been one of his worst nights because of the alpha next door. The alpha had nothing to do with him, but his arrival had rattled him to the core and had shaken his world off its axis. His mind fixated on the alpha; he’d tried to think of ways to avoid him. If he caught a whiff of his scent, he was doomed. He’d spent the whole night searching for ways to clean the surrounding air. The sites he landed on had a few suggestions and Nylune purchased each item the sites listed. He ordered a few gas masks, two air purifiers because he couldn’t find a big one to cover his entire backyard, and scent patches that they claimed were powerful enough to mask any unwanted scents. He bought a dozen boxes of those. He planned to stick them around the wall. Hopefully it would work.
The whole thing stressed him out. Last night, he’d walked around the house for hours until early morning when he couldn’t keep his eyes straight. That’s when everything in his body shut down, and he fell into bed, knocked out of his mind.
“Are you awake up there?”
“I am now,” Nylune shouted back. He hissed, turning over to his side to stare at the door. Hazi didn’t disappoint. He opened the door a few seconds later, a box in one hand.
“Did you buy the whole planet last night? You have boxes stacked up against the door. I could barely get over the mountain of stuff out there.” He shook the box in the air. “What’s this?”
“You should have stayed out then, and let me sleep,” Nylune grumbled, sitting up.
Hazi walked to the bed and stared at him. “Was it bad last night?” he sat beside him and touched his cheek. “You should have connected with me.”
“What would you have done?” Nylune removed his hand from his cheek and got out of bed. He walked to the washroom and splashed some water on his face. He didn’t have to look to know that Hazi followed him there. He caught his eyes in the full-length mirror. Shit. He hated it when his cousin looked at him like that. The pity in his eyes always got to him, reminded him of the abnormal life he was living. Nylune looked away and reached for the drying cloth.
“Dr Micha hasn’t found a cure yet?”
Damn that question, Nylune sighed.
“You asked me that the last time you were here. The answer is still, no.” And Nylune didn’t think he would. Five years had gone by and there was nothing. The pills he formulated were as good as it was going to get for him. There was no cure for his prolonged heat. He was going to have to live with it for the rest of his life. He just wished he could have done a little more before the incident. Lived a little, fallen in love and maybe had a cub or two. Nylune hung the cloth and turned to face Hazi.
He plastered a bright smile on his face. “He will. We shouldn’t lose faith,” Hazi said enthusiastically. “What’s in here anyway?” he asked, changing the subject. Nylune was grateful for that, though he snatched the box from him.
“I told you not to touch my boxes. You never listen to me,” he said, making his way out of the room.
“I would still be outside if I listened to your little rule, and your food would have gone cold and soggy,” Hazi said, following him. Nylune stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stared at the mountain of boxes packed at the side of the door, his eyes going a little wide. He must have gone crazy last night.
Were these all the purchases he made? He thought he’d bought a few gas masks and a dozen scent patches. A few must have been a lot. Shit.
“Are all these for your work?” Hazi asked, coming to stand next to him. “There must be at least forty boxes here. I thought Ludiin sent you a few pleasuring bots at a time. This is…” Hazi trailed off, turning to face him. “I know you have your…” he gestured to his entire body as he searched for words.
“Prolonged heat,” Nylune offered absentmindedly as he continued to stare at the mountain of boxes. He must have been affected by the alpha next door more than he’d thought. He got easily emotional since the incident. Sometimes he felt like he was being turned inside out from everything he felt inside, but he’d never blacked out before. Nylune tilted his head to the side, confused by what happened. It was strange.
“Yes, that. And I know it makes it easier for you to do your work, but this is too much. You can’t go through all of these. That’s too much sex,” Hazi said, sounding horrified. “It can’t be healthy.”
Nylune laughed because he did have too much sex. His body demanded it. It was ironic that they were talking about sex when everything inside the boxes were meant to prevent that from happening.
“You laugh?”
“It’s kind of funny, because I need sex to survive. I’m an addict at this point,” he said with a shrug. “Too much sex is never enough for me.”
“Don’t say that about yourself. You’re sick. Dr Micha will find a cure soon and you’ll go back to normal,” Hazi said, slinging an arm across his shoulder. He stirred him towards the cooking station where shopping bags sat on the counter. Nylune stopped in his tracks as he stared at them.
“Did you bully your alpha to take you grocery shopping for me, because I know you didn’t go there by yourself,” Nylune said, feeling overly touched by his cousin’s kind gesture. Tears prickled his eyes.