Daniel

I woke up to a bright light filtering in through a tall wall of windows. I lay there for a long moment, trying to figure out what position the sun was in. It suddenly struck me that it was morning light coming in.

I tried to sit up but was so weak that I could only stay up if I kept an arm underneath me. And even then, I was barely a foot off the pillow.

I couldn’t believe I’d spent the entire day and night passed out in this room. I looked around and none of it was familiar. I remembered falling onto the soft bed, and I remembered the face of the woman who brought me in here, but that was all.

Then I sucked my breath in sharply. That wasn’t all I remembered. Those eyes, and the way they made my entire body tremble. The alpha’s scent too. And I could still smell it, so I knew I was still surrounded by that alpha’s possessions.

Everything around me had been touched by him at some point and was permeated with his essence. Just the thought of it made me hard, and I moaned at the idea of having to relieve myself again. I was raw from all the times I’d already made myself come.

I heard a soft knock at the door and tried to speak but my throat was dry. I grabbed the bottle of water on the nightstand and just as I took a big swig, the door opened a little.

“Daniel?” a woman’s voice asked. “Can I come in?”

I swallowed, trying to push myself further up on my elbow but promptly falling onto my back. I didn’t even have the strength to sit up part way. “Y-yes,” I croaked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “You can come in.”

The door opened all the way and the woman I remembered from the office came in with a tray. She smiled and set it down on a long dresser that stood against the wall across from the foot of the bed. “How are you doing?” she asked. “You really had us worried.”

I pushed myself backward so that my head was propped up against the pillow and the headboard. “I’m so sorry. I have no idea why I ... What I mean is … nothing like that has ever happened before. I’m so embarrassed—”

“Please," the woman said as she approached the bed. “There’s no need to apologize. And you have nothing to be embarrassed about. These things happen,” she said, gesturing vaguely to the room. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant by that. Intense heats might happen to other people, like my mother. But they didn’t happen to me.

“I can’t believe I slept all day and night,” I said, looking out the window. “I’ll get out of your hair soon.” I continued to try to push myself up, but the muscles in my body were incredibly fatigued. My arms flopped around at my sides like a rag doll.

The woman looked at me with a puzzled smile. “You’ve been here longer then one day, Daniel.”

“Really? How long have I been here?"

“Well, you’ve been in this bed for two days and two nights. You slept for a lot of that time, but I know you’ve been awake off and on. I brought you water and food, and although you haven’t touched any of the food, you did drink all the water, which, I’m sure your body is thankful for right about now.”

“I’ve been in this room for two days? I can’t believe it." I tried to think back and I did remember drinking water, but it hadn’t even occurred to me that all those sips happened over the span of two days.

In my mind I’d taken a drink every couple of hours, sometimes guzzling over half the bottle. But it hadn’t even occurred to me that somehow the water bottle was always full each time I grabbed it. And I’d completely forgotten all the times I downed the entire thing, completely finishing it off before passing out again.

I looked back up at the woman and she was still smiling in a kind way that made me feel a little bit better.

“I brought you some food. I hope you’re ready to eat something this morning.”

“I’m ravenous.”

“I can imagine,” she said with a laugh. “And I also imagine you’d really like to take a bath and have the sheets changed.”

I pushed myself up a little further as the woman brought the tray of food and set it down across my lap. “Oh, no. I really have to go. I couldn’t possibly impose on you or …” I paused for a moment, remembering the alpha and his eyes. “… Mr. Styles any longer. I need to call the company I work for. I’m sure they think I’ve completely jumped ship."

“You still look awfully weak to me, Daniel. I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to go out while you’re still in this condition. In fact, I’m sure Mr. Styles would insist that you stay here for at least another day."

“He knows I’m …”

Yes,” the woman said as she walked into a bathroom and turned on the light. “He is fully aware of your predicament, and he knows how dangerous it would be for you to leave with your scent as intensified as it is right now."

I sat there for a moment, staring at the tray of food. The utter humiliation of how the heat slammed into me in front of Cameron Styles came flooding back and I could feel my entire body burning up in embarrassment. “Can you smell … what I mean is … do you …” I stammered incoherently, then stopped myself. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name.”

“It’s Janine. And no, I can’t register the scent of an omega. I’m a beta. I’m Mr. Styles assistant. He prefers to be surrounded by people who he can trust to be predictable. People who won’t catch him off guard or give him any surprises. I think you really knocked him for a loop."

While I listened to Janine talk about Cameron Styles and how I ‘knocked him for a loop,’ I shoveled a giant mouth full of eggs and sausage into my mouth, then washed it down with the most amazing orange juice I’d ever tasted. Everything Janine brought me tasted amazing. I closed my eyes as I took a gulp of sweet, milky coffee. It was perfect.

“Let me draw you a bath while you finish eating, then while you’re getting yourself cleaned up I’ll change the sheets. I’m sure they could use it."

“Okay,” I said, sheepishly. It felt odd discussing such an intimate event so candidly. But this woman didn’t seem phased at all by the fact that I had just gone through two days of full-blown heat.

I heard Janine start the bath as I continued to eat. When she came back out into the room, she picked up the clothes that I’d kicked off me at some point in the last two days and put them in a wicker basket. “I’ll get these washed too.”

I gave her a weak smile and finished my juice. I felt odd asking about her employer, but I was dying to know more about that tall man with the piercing eyes. “So, you’re Mr. Styles assistant?”

“Yes.”

“Do you live here?”

“No,” she said, sitting down on a huge chair. “I have my own place not far away.”

“Does Mr. Styles live here?”

“Yes. This is his home and his office.”

“Yeah, I thought it was weird that I was delivering to a residential tower. This place seems pretty huge.”

“It is a rather large condo. It takes up the entire top floor of the building.”

“Wow,” I said, trying to imagine an apartment that big. I pushed the tray away and sat up a bit more. “Thank you so much. I feel a lot better.”

“Are you ready for your bath?” she asked. “Go ahead and get in and I’ll take care of this.” She picked up the tray and I slid out from under the sheets.

Sinking into the hot bath water was amazing. I wasn’t sure if it was the heat or what, but all my senses seemed to be overexcited. The food and the hot water and even the faint scent of Cameron Styles in everything, it all made me woozy and giddy. I lay back in the water and closed my eyes, wishing this could be my life.

“So, this is your first time having an intense heat like this?” Janine asked from the other room.

“Yeah. I’ve never had one like this before. I thought maybe I was sick at first.”

Not having my mom around to talk to ever since I started going into heat made me feel like I was missing out on some vital piece of information, especially now that I knew that I was experiencing the same thing she had. And as odd as it felt asking a complete stranger questions of this nature, I couldn’t help myself. I’d wanted someone to talk to for a long time.

“How do you know so much about intense heats if you’re a beta?” I asked, relaxing a little more and letting the heat from the water soak into my sore muscles.

“I have omegas in my family. My omega father, of course, and a sister. Sometimes it was painful to hear what they had to go through. Although I’m sure it sounded worse than it really was.”

“Yeah, my mom was the same way. Sometimes her heats would really scare me when I was a kid.”

“Didn’t she talk to you about them when you got older or explain why some omegas can have a particularly intense heat?”

“No, my parents kicked me out of the house when we found out I was an omega. I think it was mostly my dad who couldn’t stand the idea of an omega son, but my mom didn’t do much to stop him. I guess he’d always fantasized about having a big strong alpha son that took after him by playing football and going into the army. But instead, he wound up with this skinny little omega that liked to dance around the house and jump off the furniture. I can imagine how angry that made him.”

“I’m so sorry, Daniel. That’s terrible. Your status shouldn’t have made a bit of difference to your parents. Are you okay now?" Janine was standing in the doorway. She was careful to keep her distance and give me my privacy, but she seemed to be drawn closer by the conversation. I could see the reflection of her profile in the bathroom mirror as she rested against the doorjamb.

“Yeah, I’m doing pretty good. I’ve got a job and a place to live. It’s not the best, but it’s okay for now. I just hope I still have a job when I get back.”

“Well, I’ll give them a call and explain everything. It wasn’t your fault, you know that don’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “But if it wasn’t me, then what could it have been?”

“Daniel, there are some things that can influence a heat. The presence of particularly compatible alpha pheromones is one of them. They can cause the heats to be incredibly short and intense and knock you for a loop, like this one did.”

I looked at the side of Janine’s face in the mirror. “Really?” I asked, not entirely sure if she meant what I thought she meant. Me and Cameron Styles? Compatible?

“Yes, really. But as far as your employer is concerned we can tell them that your heat was overwhelming due to the intensity of the moment.”

“I don’t know if they’re going to consider that a good enough excuse,” I said chuckling to myself. I made my voice lower and spoke through my hands to make it sound like it was coming through a loud speaker. “Daniel Jacobs needs to be excused from work due to an intense moment.”

We both laughed for a long time, then Janine set a pile of clothes on the counter. “Here are some pajamas for you to wear. I’ve changed your sheets, and I’ll take these dishes away. Oh, and I left another bottle of water on the nightstand. I’ll be in a little later with lunch. If there’s anything else you need at all, please buzz me. I’m more than happy to run anything in for you.”

“Thank you very much, Janine. You’ve been so kind."

“Think nothing of it.”

I heard Janine walk across the bedroom and close the door behind her. I sat in silence in the warm water until it started to cool, then washed myself and rinsed off. After I dried myself, I picked up the pajamas Janine had left on the counter. They were crisp cotton and had green and blue vertical stripes on both the tops and bottoms. I held them to my face and inhaled that same alpha scent the permeated everything else in the room. I wondered if these were his pajamas. I figured they had to have been, unless he kept a spare pair around for guests, which didn’t seem likely.

Before I held Cameron Styles pajamas to my face, I’d pretty much convinced myself that I was going to leave. But as I continued to inhale his scent, all I wanted to do is curl up inside them and keep breathing him in. Besides, Janine had taken all my clothes away to be washed.

I decided I’d look pretty ridiculous walking down the street in striped pjs, so I put them on and crawled back into bed. I smiled as I snuggled in between the clean sheets and got cozy. As awkward as it felt to be in someone else’s house while I was going through an intense heat, I also felt like the luckiest guy in the world. I had two complete strangers who were looking out for me and taking care of me. I hadn’t felt anything like this since I was a little kid and I drifted to sleep with a smile on my face.

The next morning, even with Janine’s protests, I insisted that I had to go. I knew I was going to be in trouble at work and I at least wanted to make sure I could get a good reference if they canned me.

I was still a little wiped out after I ate and got dressed, and I sat on the bed for a while to get up the energy to leave. Janine had left the door slightly ajar and told me she’d be back in a moment to show me out. But suddenly a small eye appeared in the open space. One that was only about three and a half feet off the ground.

The door pushed open and a beautiful little girl stood there with a doll in her hand. “Hi,” she said as she walked right in. “I’m Maggie.” She clearly wasn’t the shy type.

“Hi, Maggie. I’m Daniel. And who’s this?” I asked, gesturing to her doll.

“This is Catherine. She’s my best friend in the whole world.”

“She’s very pretty.”

“Do you want to hold her?” she asked, thrusting her doll toward me.

I smiled and held out my hands and Maggie handed me her doll. I put her next to my chest and cradled her in one of my arms. “What a sweet little girl. And she has blue eyes, just like you.” I wondered if Maggie’s eyes were the same color as Cameron Styles because he was her father. But I didn’t want to ask.

“Catherine likes you,” Maggie said, leaning against my leg and resting her head on my knee. “She’s very happy right now.”

“Awww, I’m glad. I’m really happy right now too.” I brushed Maggie’s bangs out of her eyes and she looked up at me. Those were the same sea blue eyes. She had to be his daughter.

“Maggie,” Janine said as she came into the room. “You should be in the kitchen eating breakfast.”

“Okay,” Maggie said. “I guess we have to go now. Will you be here later? We could play with my other dolls!” she said, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

“I’m afraid not. I’ve got to get home.” I handed Maggie her doll and she turned to leave the room.

“Oh,” Maggie said, unable to hide her disappointment. “Will you come back again, Daniel?”

“I’m not sure,” I said, glancing up at Janine, then back down at Maggie as she headed for the door.

“Oh. I hope you can.”

“Me too,” I said under my breath.

“Bye, Daniel,” she said, holding her doll in one hand and waving at me with the other.

“Bye.”