No Reservations, Part One by Viola Grace
Chapter Two
Argus stood with his pride members and chatted with other guests. The rehearsal party was going full swing, and when Paul came over, he shook his friend’s hand. “Argus, glad you could make it. Where did you end up?”
“A bed and breakfast down the road? Very tidy. Big beds.” He chuckled. “The boys are in love with the innkeeper.”
“Lara? Really?” Paul shrugged. “That’s new.”
“No. Olivia.”
Paul blinked. “Oh, that makes sense. She’s probably near one of those false heats her sister mentioned. That would get their attention.”
Ambrose raised his brows. “False heat?”
“Yeah, I mean. Everyone around here knows she isn’t a real omega. Her family was embarrassed but sent her off to the Omega Centre, and she came back, and they announced she was defective.”
Dexter scowled. “Do you have any details of the defect?”
Paul shrugged. “No. Olivia was pulled from school and stayed on the property after that. Not many folks see her, but I hear she makes a mean waffle.” He chuckled.
Argus asked, “Were you friends with her?”
“Yeah, she was super smart, very sweet, and good with animals. Her sister is a cast-iron bitch.”
Dexter raised his tawny brows. “Alpha?”
“No, just a bitchy beta. Why?”
Argus smiled. “I have some questions about the B&B. Can you point her out?”
Paul turned and pointed to a woman who looked like a washed-out version of Olivia’s rich brown hair, full lips, and soft grey eyes. Her figure had been harder to determine, but the lithe athleticism in Lara’s body was not the compact softness of her sister.
Argus waited until Lara had consumed two more glasses of champagne.
Dexter asked, “What did you want to ask her?”
“Things about the local wildlife.”
Ambrose murmured, “Why are you waiting?”
“I want to make sure she is hydrated.” He chuckled grimly.
When she was swaying and yelling about her ungrateful cow of a sister, he and his pride moved around her, and her fuzzy eyes blinked, and she said, “Whoa.”
Argus smiled slightly. There weren’t many alphas in this county, so he understood her surprise. “You are Lara? From the bed and breakfast?”
She nodded. “I am the owner, the manager, and the maintenance personnel. I can do it all.” She looked him up and down then at the others and licked her lips.
He cocked his head. “Ah, I thought that Olivia did maintenance.”
She paled. “You met her? Wait. You are an alpha? Huh. Guess the stories are wrong.”
He leaned against the bar and got her another drink. “What stories?”
“That an alpha meeting an omega in heat would go crazy. Huh. Lots of fuss for nothing. Good.”
“Your sister is in heat?”
She shrugged. “She said it’s coming soon, but she will just scream it out like she did the other ones.”
Ambrose asked, keeping his voice conversational, “Screaming?”
“Yeah. She screams for two days straight. Dad used to douse her with ice water when it got too loud. It stopped it for a while.” She giggled and nearly fell. “Can’t do that this time.”
Dexter’s tone was warm. “Why is that?”
“I filled the soundproofed shed with fishing stuff. She has nowhere to hide now.” There was dark smugness in her tone.
Argus nodded, his fist tight. “Thank you. That was very interesting; enjoy the party.”
He turned to his pride, and they walked out onto a balcony. “Does anyone else feel like rescuing a damsel in distress?”
“Let’s wish the happy couple good luck and then go.”
They stalked through the party, and Argus spoke to his mother’s cousin Derek Henwell while the other two mentioned having to leave on pride business.
“Do you know a young omega called Olivia?”
Derek nodded, looking at his daughter and fiancé. “Sure. She does the work at the B&B down the road.”
“What do you know about her omega status?”
“She has some kind of defect. Her father was mortified that his bloodline had generated an incomplete creature like that.”
“So I am gathering. Is there anyplace near here to keep an omega safe?”
“The Winger house is empty. But, I told you, she’s defective.”
Argus looked at him and spoke clearly. “There. Is. No. Such. Thing. As. A. Defective. Omega. They are either in heat or not. There isn’t anything else, and her sister has admitted that the family has confined the omega during heats because they didn’t like her screaming.”
Derek was shocked. “That... that can’t be. Russell told me. He prayed with me that god would take the stain of... oh god.”
“Yeah. We are going to collect her and try and get her to a centre before her heat kicks in.”
Dexter brought up his phone. “Nearest centre is two hours north.”
Derek spluttered. “You’ll miss the wedding!”
Argus gave him a disgusted look. “The other option is that the three of us bring an unmated omega to the wedding and start fucking her when her heat kicks in.”
“Why can’t you just leave her where she is?”
“Because now that we know, her sister might try to either kill or move her.”
“Lara wouldn’t...” Derek looked over at the very drunk young woman who was flirting with the bartender. “Go and get her. From what I remember, the girl was sweet.”
Argus nodded and muttered. “Peaches.”
“What?”
He looked the man in the eye. “She smells like fresh peaches, and my cats like her.”
Dexter touched his arm. “Let’s go.”
Ambrose looked at them. “My car?”
Argus shook his head. “My truck. We would be cramped, and she will be in a vehicle with three alphas. She’s going to be disoriented, and we don’t want to accelerate her heat.”
They continued to make plans as they left the party, ignoring the stares as they left.
“So, you didn’t notice anything when you met her?” Ambrose asked the logical question.
Argus shook his head. “No, but if she was conditioned to stop her responses or minimize them, and she was in early stages, it might have been subtle.” He had another thought. “She also had cold hands. I think she was refrigerating herself before she came out to meet me and mowing the lawn. Damn, I am amazed that I smelled peaches at all.”
Dexter grinned. “Peaches, really?”
Ambrose muttered, “I love peaches.”
Dexter chuckled. “Me, too. This I have to see... smell... whatever.”
The drive was mercifully short. They got out, and Argus ran inside to check for her in his room. The boys were in distress, and the moment the door opened, they bolted. Argus knew a giant neon sign when he saw one and whistled sharply for his pride mates to follow him.
They crossed the property and found their target being nudged by the big cats; her hands clawed and dug into the wood of a shed that smelled like fish.
Argus walked up to her and still didn’t smell what was setting his buddies off. “Hey, Olivia. We are going to take you someplace safe.”
She glanced over her shoulder, her pupils wide and breathing shallow but still no scent. She took in Argus, Ambrose, and Dexter. Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened on a silent scream. Slick coursed down her thighs, and Argus had one thought. “How the fuck could I have missed that?”
He carefully unhooked her bloody fingers from the wood of the shed and picked her up. He wanted to rub against her, stroke her, and let her get used to his scent. She needed the Omega Centre so they could find out why it hurt so bad. Producing slick wasn’t supposed to hurt.
“Hey, kitten. Up for a road trip?”
She looked at him in a pain-filled daze. “Where?”
“The Omega Centre. You have been, right? Your dad took you when you were young?”
She shook her head slowly. “No. I was just told to tell people that he did.”
One of the men cursed, and she flinched.
“Oh, that’s just Dexter. He is normally fun.”
One of the men growled. “That is Ambrose, he is not normally fun, but he likes to think he’s in charge.”
She blinked and looked to Argus as he walked with her. “I fed the boys.”
He smiled. “Thank you. That must have been hard, considering.”
“It was fine until I let them back into your room and was tidying up.” She put her chin on her chest and mumbled something.
“What was that, kitten?”
She whispered as if it was the most shameful thing in the world. “I sniffed your shirt.”
He blinked. “And it set you off?”
She nodded and swallowed. “I tried to get into the shed, but she changed the lock.”
Ambrose asked, “What’s in the shed, baby?”
She blinked. “It’s soundproofed. It stops guests from hearing if I am screaming.”
The youngest one asked, “Why do you scream?”
“I have to hold the slick in so there isn’t a scent; it hurts after a while, and when the pressure forces it out...”
Argus kept his voice conversational while he seethed with rage. “And you scream.”
She nodded. “I am sorry that I am dripping on you.”
If she had said it in a teasing way, he would have described in detail how he wanted to make it worse, but she was genuinely contrite. This omega was in desperate need of therapy.
He opened the back of the king cab and settled her with a blanket around her. He was shocked when the boys bounded in and pressed next to her, purring. They were doing what he couldn’t.
The other two piled into the truck. “We’ll take turns driving,” Ambrose commented.
They buckled up; he put the truck into gear while he went as fast as the law allowed and a little bit more.
The boys took good care of Olivia, purring and nudging her to keep her awake. Dexter called the centre and explained the situation, handing the phone over to Olivia when she needed to talk. She answered all the questions frankly, and Argus really wanted to kill a dead man. Every omega instinct had been quashed or turned into pain. Beatings stalled her sex drive and any emission of scent. They knew how he dealt with her heats.
She spoke in low tones and said, “Three of them. No. Nothing. No touch aside for carrying me to the truck. Mean? I mean... some country music, but they changed the station.”
Argus grinned at that.
“Uh. Two big cats. Yeah. They are purring and in contact. It’s nice. I am not supposed to touch people.”
Argus’s grin died. Omegas were incredibly tactile. They loved to touch things, people. They liked soft things, warm things, fuzzy things... geez. The boys were a walking nest for her.
She handed the phone back to Dexter. “They want to talk to you.”
“No, we don’t have a pack alpha. We have the feline aspect. Right. Miracle we all get along.” Dexter chuckled. “Uh, I don’t know. We just found her. She has a bit of work ahead of her.”
Ambrose held his hand out. “This is Ambrose Wells. Yes, that is understood. We would like to be presented when it comes time to choose. Yes, we are registered. Can she be transferred to a centre closer to us? We would like to visit.”
Argus heard her voice, thin and sleepy. “Can the boys visit?”
“It might be too far for me to bring them to you, kitten.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Her simple acceptance at being denied something that soothed her set Argus’s teeth on edge. “I will try, but we don’t know how long you will be there.”
Olivia nodded. “Right. They have to find out what is wrong with me.”
Ambrose nodded. “Yeah, baby. When you feel better, if you want, we will come and take you home with us. You can cuddle with the boys and us.”
She perked up. “I can touch you?”
Dexter chuckled, and it was a strained sound. “Yes, please. Your scent is... very nice.”
Olivia buried her face in Remus’s neck, and she mumbled, “It isn’t disgusting?”
The entire truck groaned. Argus muttered, “No, kitten. It’s the nicest thing we have smelled in a very long time.”
Dexter nodded. “Like... ever.”
Ambrose looked back at her. “We are just trying very hard not to show you how much we like it because we don’t want to scare you.”
“Oh. Well, that’s nice then.”
They chuckled, and she buried her face in the big cats.
