Turned out, really hard.

About a week in, I was ready to throw in the towel and give up my dreams of being an omega of worth. I was exhausted at the end of every shift from trying to convince both myself and the client that they aroused me, while my body wanted nothing to do with them, and everything to do with David. Because as far as it was concerned, he was the only one for us now.

The only thing that saved me was that my clients were more interested in the swell of my belly than whether my passionate noises sounded faked or not. I didn’t think there was even one of them who noticed my complete lack of arousal.

Ma did what she could, digging deep into her bag of tricks to help me get through this. And the whole time, the offer to stay with them until I could go back to work—the kind I was good at—floated between us like a safety net of the worst sort, because it was so, so tempting, especially on nights like tonight.

I showed my current date to the door of the room, too tired to even protest when he grabbed my ass and squeezed, trying to undo the tie of my robe at the same time so he could get another eyeful of my cranky pup as he or she pummeled my internal organs. I took a step to the side and waved brightly at him, reminding him he only had six more weeks before I’d be finished at the Mink if he wanted a second round, and then closed the door behind him with a sigh of relief.

My next date wasn’t for an hour. I could shower, maybe grab something to eat. They didn’t stint us here, those of us working through our pregnancies. Not that we would have cost them much, I could have counted us on one hand and there were never more than two of us at a time on shift. I was busier than most, I thought, because I was male and therefore something strange and bizarre. While I wasn’t the first male omega to do this, I thought the last one had been at least five years ago. Maybe ten.

Some of the clients didn’t even want to fuck, just sit there and stare at me with a puzzled look on their faces while I jerked them off so we had something to charge them for. After too many of those, I spoke to management and now they paid for my time, regardless of what we did. And I made sure they paid a premium, because I was starting to get touchy about being touched and the next person, human or shifter, who grabbed for my belly without asking was going to get bit.

I let the robe fall and hit the switch that turned on the little light in the floor staff’s room to let them know to come refresh the room. Shower first, then maybe something to eat, though my appetite wasn’t keeping pace with the growth of the baby. Too tired, I guessed. But I had a day off tomorrow; maybe I’d skip the sewing session and just nap all day.

The showers here weren’t as nice as in Silver, but Silver was the newest house, less than ten years old. I didn’t mind the Mink, though. It was nice, in some ways nicer than Silver. The upstairs rooms, the really expensive ones, had real marble I’d heard. And full sized bathtubs with jets in them, to slowly seduce someone who was paying ridiculous money for the privilege.

Even in the lower rooms, like the one I was working in tonight, the floors were burnished hardwood and the beds heavy and solid. But there wasn’t a middle ground with Mink, you were either a dove gray or a blue bracelet here. I didn’t want to take the pay cut the dove gray bracelet meant, and I didn’t want to do the things the blue bracelets did here for their credits.

But the water was hot and I was able to scrub away at the vaguely dirty feeling that coated my skin. I’d never felt it at Silver, but there I was totally in charge. Here, I felt like little more than an object to the clients, and I didn’t like it at all.

My alarm binged and I sighed and turned off the water. Time to go get ready to add a bit more to the house fund.