OLIVER

 

The fatigue of my heat hit me harder than I ever imagined it would. Despite being in the company of a stranger and a rainstorm raging just outside of the caverns, my sleep was heavy.

I laid groggy on the cavern ground when I awoke. I blinked my eyes open. My muscles ached. I could still feel the imprints of the places Knight had squeezed his hands on me. But more than anything else, there was a subtle rumbling in my stomach.

I sat up and put my hand to my gut to calm the quelling. I sighed a deep breath to try and compose myself.

The memories of last night returned to me. I was in a frenzy. My body was desperate to have an Alpha inside of me. I remembered vividly how Knight took me.

I looked around but the Alpha I spent the night with was nowhere to be found. His bag was leaning against the wall, so I knew he hadn’t left me.

I worked my way up to my feet and stumbled out of the cavern.

The woods smelled of the rainwater from last night’s storm. The ground was muddy. The dew on the leaves was still fresh. The sun was out without a cloud in the sky.

I didn’t have to look far to find him. I moved a few steps through the trees and came upon a forest clearing where Knight was sitting on a tree stump.

His shirt was off, so I could see the designs on his upper torso near his shoulder. But the tattoos he had weren’t enough to distract me from his physique.

He was so muscular. Broad shoulders. A tapered waist with a six-pack in the center. Arms that bulged with veins. The striations of his body were more apparent than any Alpha I’d ever seen before. The sunlight shining down on him only made his skin seem to glow. It was hard to believe that I’d been with an Alpha like him but the memories were clear in my thoughts.

He was staring off into the distance as I approached him. I was hesitant about disturbing him but as I got closer, a friendly smile appeared on his face when he looked at me.

“Hello,” he said with a nod. “How are you feeling?”

I ran my hand over my stomach and sheepishly looked away from him.

“I feel fine,” I said.

“I’ve never seen an Omega in heat before. I can’t imagine what it was like for you.”

“It… It was nothing like I imagined. I have seen others in my skulk. I have seen what they went through when they had to go through their heats.”

“What was it like?”

“I don’t know…”

I shook my head, trying to find the words to describe it but unable to.

“…It was like losing control of my body. My thoughts were scattered. Everything was clear but I could do nothing. It was as if my focus and energy were put into one thing.”

Knight was staring intently at me. The way he listened to me with a straight face wasn’t like anybody I’d ever met before. I almost thought he cared about what I was saying.

“You don’t regret it, do you?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“I can’t imagine what would have happened if you weren’t there,” I said. “To be stuck out here in the middle of the Timberlands, suffering through my heat… I don’t want to think about the Alphas I would have attracted if I’d remained in that state. Thank you… Knight…”

He nodded with a polite smile on his face before looking off into the distance. I took another step toward him, curious as to what he was thinking.

“How about you?” I asked. “What was it like for you?”

“I’d never been around an Omega in heat before. I knew what it meant. I was told that I would lose control to my desires. Experiencing it for myself, now I understand why they talk about it so much. I’d lost control just as much as you did. I wanted nothing more than to satisfy myself with you. It was like I had a need that I couldn’t fight.”

“You were quite… vigorous…”

He turned and raised an eyebrow at me. The smirk on his lips made me blush like he’d made me do so many times before. I bit my lip to avoid smiling back at him before he turned back to stare into the distance.

“I can’t imagine it was good for your knee…”

He ran his hand along his right leg.

“No,” he sighed. “It’s still quite sore. Last night wasn’t exactly the rest I needed. But it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse. It’s just a discomfort I will have to deal with.”

“What will you do?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“What can I do? My options are to either look for the rest of the expedition and hope they somehow survived or I can try to make the journey back to the city by myself.”

“You can’t possibly make it all the way to the city. Not with the condition your leg is in. You’ll never make it.”

“I will run out of supplies. But if I keep moving, I should make it back to Dirge by the end of the week.”

“You don’t have until the end of the week. The snow is coming.”

“The snow?”

He raised an eyebrow at me. I thought he already knew but the confusion on his face told me he seriously had no idea what I was talking about.

“The snowstorm,” I said. “The snow is coming. You won’t be able to move through the snow, not in your condition. And even if you were able to, you would freeze to death. Not to mention the beasts that come out to prey on those unfortunate to get caught up in the cold.”

The confusion on his face was replaced with concern. His eyes widened as he stared at me.

“You’re joking,” he said. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“Why would I joke about something like that?”

“You’re telling me there’s a snowstorm coming? The Timberlands will be covered in snow?”

“It will be a brief snow. Not like in the winters. But the snow will be harsh.”

He looked up into the sky and shook his head. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but I had suddenly grown worried for him.

“There’s no indication that it will snow,” Knight said. “There’s not a cloud in the sky. The mountains in the distance have no white on their peaks.”

“The rain came,” I said. “The rain is a prelude to the snow. The elders back at camp spoke of it. That is why my skulk has been gathering so much food every day. We are preparing for it.”

“How long will the snow last?”

“A few days,” I said with a shrug. “Not long but long enough that we need to find shelter to stay safe. I welcome the snow but the bitter cold is not something I’m fond of…”

Knight looked away from me. His jaw tensed as he stared at the ground. I stood there and waited for him to say something but he didn’t.

I felt helpless. I wanted to do something for him but from what I could tell, he was in a difficult spot. He was out here, alone, injured and with nowhere to go.

“What if I weren’t here?” he said. “What would you do when the snowstorm comes?”

“I would head back to camp with the rest of my skulk. I would wait for the snow to pass with them.”

“Then that’s what you need to do. Go back to your camp and wait for the snow to pass.”

“But what about you? What will you do?”

He didn’t have an answer. Neither did I. Me heading back to my camp was one thing but there was nowhere for him to go.

For a reason I couldn’t figure out, I didn’t want to leave him. I wanted him to tell me he had a plan for himself. I was worried about him more than I was worried about myself.

But he remained silent. It looked like the gears were grinding in his head but coming up with no solution.

I knew there was only one thing I could do. The inexplicable feeling I had burning in my gut could only be dealt with in one way.

“You have to come with me,” I said. “Come with me to my skulk and brace yourself from the snow.”

“…How far are you from your camp now?”

“It is a day’s journey.”

“A day… I wouldn’t be able to move as fast as you. Not with my leg. I would only slow you down.”

“There are still a few days before the snow comes. We might be able to make it.”

“Might? We might be able to make it. Oliver…”

He pushed himself up to his feet. He slowly walked toward me, favoring one of his legs. He towered over me as he stood right in front of me. His hands on my shoulders, Knight looked into my eyes.

“I can’t ask you to put yourself at risk,” he said. “Not for me. You need to head back to your skulk before it’s too late.”

“But—”

“I can’t ask you to do this for me. Please.”

“You’re not asking me to do anything for you. I’m choosing to do this myself…”

I looked away from him and chuckled softly.

“…This is the first time that’s ever happened,” I sighed.

“What do you mean?”

“This is the first time I’ve ever been able to make my own choice. Everything I’ve ever done was for the good of the skulk. I had to put the others before me.”

I turned my head back up to him. Knight had these blue eyes that were so striking it was easy to get hypnotized by them.

I knew I wasn’t making a mistake. This had to be the right decision. I could feel it in my heart.

“Come with me,” I said. “Come with me back to camp. We will make the journey together.”

“Oliver…”

“What other choice do you have?”

He took his hands away from me. He looked off to the side, contemplating my offer. I knew it wasn’t an easy decision for him.

“I can’t let you stay out here in your condition and endure the snow by yourself. It wouldn’t be right.”

“It wouldn’t be right… You’re just trying to do the right thing.”

“Yes…”

He looked at me with a tender smile on his lips.

Knight wasn’t like any Alpha I’d ever met before. It wasn’t just the way he looked or the way he acted. He was so strong and handsome he could dismiss me if he wanted to. But more than anything else I noticed, the way he spoke to me almost made me think he admired me. I’d never gotten that kind of respect from anybody before, let alone an Alpha.

“Okay,” he said with a nod. “I will gather my things and we will begin the journey to your skulk.”

“We will move slow. You don’t have to push yourself. If we keep moving, we might be able—”

“You will make it back to your camp before the snow falls. I promise you, Oliver.”

The sound of his voice was so reassuring. I nodded to him and watched as he started walking back through the trees toward the cavern where we’d slept that night.

“Come on,” he said. “We’ve got a long journey ahead of us. Let’s not waste any time.”