6. Apollo

"Seriously though, did you see the way she squirted when you shoved her face on your cock? Fucking omegas, man."

The young alphas' laughs were sharp in the wide corridor, the plush carpet hiding their steps as three of them shoved each other out of the door of Candy's heat suite. They were too fucked up on booze, drugs, and slick to be able to sense the pure storm beating from me and Odin.

Their suits fell off their shoulders, and they stumbled everywhere, their faces glazed with bliss—these were the young bastards who had bought Candy for her first heat.

"Just keep it together," Bones said under his breath. He was another alpha guarding Candy's room for her heat. The three of us stood against the wall to their right as the young alphas passed.

Four days of listening to them. Four days of non-stop sex as Zeus, Odin, and I grew more exhausted, constantly fighting the urge to burst in there and tear them apart. Though the walls were sound-proofed, it didn't stop their voices from travelling through the thick door my pack guarded religiously.

It was hell.

Two weeks after her meeting with Michael, her blood work showed she was close, and so we drove over three hours out of London into the countryside where Knottinghill Spa lay nestled in the hills. Though Odin and I were silent for the journey, Zeus and Candy chatted away like she wasn't about to be trapped in a room with four alphas for four days with no real breaks.

The Spa was a luxury resort filled with everything packs could need, especially heat suites, which were huge apartments designed specifically for omegas to go through heat and to accommodate the alphas who bought them.

One of the young alphas turned, calling back into the room, "Hey! Hurry up!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just finishing," another shouted from within.

I closed my eyes, swallowing the aching blend of deep, cutting pain and unbearable rage. I was barely holding on. I could easily reach out and snap their necks, or simply fire four bullets and be done with it. We weren't meant to carry guns on site, but I'd find a way. I'd hunt them down if she asked.

Her scent rolled through the open door, thick, cloying, and tinged with despair. Rather than her sweet bubblegum that always set my body alight whenever she was near, this seeped out of her room like gunge, creeping along the corridor.

I'd been on the door for at least eighty of the ninety-six hours that had passed since her heat had first started, listening to them fuck her, her cries muffled behind the door, along with the same laughter I heard now.

We were meant to work switch shifts. One of us on with another member of the security team, two of us off, changing every eight hours. With a single whiff of her heat scent, Zeus went into rut. We nearly had to lock him in one of the underground rooms they kept for out-of-control alphas until he calmed down. Thank God she hadn't started in the car.

We refused to let any other alphas guard her without us, and we couldn't keep Zeus away. Odin and I worked back-to-back to make sure Zeus didn't lose control.

And we were the ones who saved Zeus from seeing those alphas' faces as they left, drenched in the scent of bubblegum.

The young alpha finally emerged from the room, hurriedly pulling up his fly as he grinned goofily at the others, and they all turned and left without a single care for what had happened. I was sure Candy was already forgotten, and they'd go on to spend their money on newer, shinier toys.

I shared a look with Odin as they passed, the wound of our loss growing. Even the idea of our scent match fucking someone else burned. And to know she had gone through a heat—her first heat, no less—with a pack other than ours forced me to embrace the serene, empty calm that only came when I had no control, when my fury was so intense I had to submit to it and let it tear through my body without showing anything on the outside. I could hide my feelings from my mates through the bond so they didn't have to bear my pain as well. I had to focus on Zeus and Odin to make sure nothing happened to them.

Clenching my fists, I stilled my trembling breaths, forcing air through my nose, hopelessly watching their backs as they turned left to go down the stairs, away from my grasp. The biggest danger had passed. If I killed them, we would never see Candy again.

Feet on the ground, chest burning, I kept myself down, but my mate had been pushed too far.

"Odin!" Bones snapped, but it was too late.

Odin swung around, roaring as he slammed his fist into the wall next to Bones, who didn't even flinch, despite the spray of plaster as the wall gave way. He'd been working for Michael longer than we had, so things like this didn't surprise him anymore.

My mate's giant chest heaved, rasping through his teeth, his energy spiked, going haywire through the bond. If I didn't steady him, he might tip over the edge and go rogue, and then I'd never be able to stop him.

"Hey," I said quietly, stepping in beside him, trying to work through the rage beating off him. It would be easy to join him, to explode and shout out how stupidly unfair this situation was, but I was their pack leader and I had to protect them.

Odin pressed his palms flat against the wall, thumping his forehead on it, his shoulders up to his ears as his back convulsed.

Bones opened his mouth to speak, but I shook my head. Even though I was sure Bones could take Odin if he really tried, it wasn't what my mate needed right now.

Odin flinched as I placed my hand on his shoulder, his gaze fixed on the floor. "It's okay," I murmured.

"It's not fucking okay," he whispered hoarsely. "How can this be okay?"

"Apollo," Bones's sharp voice cut through us. "The cleanup team is here."

"We have to move." I nudged Odin with my shoulder, trying to bring him away from the wall.

His jaw hardened as he let loose a deep breath, and finally opened himself up enough to let my energy wash over him, and I pushed my calm down the bond.

"We can lose our shit later, but we can't let them see this," I said softly, my thumb outlining the firm line of his shoulder that swelled under his suit.

We weren't supposed to get emotional about our charges. We were here to do a job, that was it.

I wanted to take her away, to hide her from all of this. I'd already planned the places we would visit, how we would spoil her, and do everything we could to erase this place from our minds. But not yet.

"I'm right here." I reached out, squeezing what little I could of Odin's hard bicep, his muscles so tense there was nothing to hold on to. "Just stay focused on me, okay?"

Odin straightened, pain creasing his brow as he turned, resignation flowing from him. He pressed his back to the wall next to me, and I gripped his arm again, craning my neck as I stood below him.

He needed contact. He needed me. I shifted in front of him, my other hand on his hip, holding his gaze, breathing with him.

"Shall I stay?" Bones asked from behind me. He didn't have an omega, but he knew how crazy alphas could be. This wasn't the first time hosts had scent-matched with staff. He and his mate, Arrow, were the only people who knew about us.

"Yes," Odin said coarsely. "I don't think I'm much use now."

Bones gave him a sharp nod before he moved back to the door, taking my original position.

Candy was meant to stay inside, to wash up with the attendants while the team cleaned the room. After that, they'd begin post-heat treatment, and we'd have to endure another pack entering her room and wait for her moans to start all over again.

There was a group of four betas in pink dresses hovering by the open door with their trolleys and hoovers, frustrated looks on their faces as they moved around us. Even if they wanted to get on with their job, they had to be used to the fact that omegas needed time between guests leaving and the post-treatment pack arriving.

Another beta finally emerged from the room, wearing the navy blues of the attendants that stood inside the suite when the clients were with the hosts. "She's rejected post-heat treatment," she said, biting her lip and looking back at the door. "We're letting her stay for a bit longer. She doesn't want to leave yet."

The head maid sighed as she adjusted her hoover. "Well, can we at least start cleaning?"

The attendant twisted her lips, her gaze landing on Odin and I pressed against the wall. She stepped away to let them through, and another brush of Candy's cloying scent wafted from the room before the door clicked shut.

"Maybe she doesn't know what to do next?" Odin said as I paced myself, trying to keep us level. Though I hated to see him stressed, it was better than his anger, and I nodded, my thumb stroking his hip. He didn't need me to point out that they'd been prepping her for weeks. He already knew that.

It was an ironclad rule that we shouldn't interfere with the hosts, though we were growing more tense with every second that dragged by.

All we heard for the next hour was the occasional whirring of hoovers.

By the time the cleaning crew was done, the two of us were complete messes, jumping at even the tiniest creak from behind the door.

Bones stayed with us, though I suspected it was to make sure we didn't do anything stupid, like barge into the room while she was in there.

The cleaners exited the room along with the attendants, almost exactly like those alphas had done, chatting away like nothing was wrong. "How is she?" I asked as I pushed myself off from the wall.

"She's fine," one answered. "She's had a shower."

"She's just resting." Another scowled at us for blocking her way.

But they were betas, and they didn't know what it was like. We'd seen what happened in the past when omegas rejected the treatment—it could throw them off for months. Some of them became balls of anxiety, endlessly touch-starved, no matter how attentive their clients were, and some collapsed whenever anyone came near them.

She needed someone there with her. Post-heat omegas were most vulnerable like this. Even if it was a beta attendant, she needed someone to hold her, to help her relax, to make her purr.

Fierce tension still vibrated in our bond, and the deep pool of calm that forced down my rage was faltering. Even though I'd practised for years to hold us together, there was only so much I could take.

"It should be us," Odin said, his quiet words powerful in the empty corridor.

I stared at the closed door, hands curled, nails digging into my palms as I drew in a ragged breath.

"We should be in there with her." His voice grew deeper, tinged with longing.

After days of standing guard and sleepless nights, I was fighting a losing battle. Trying to calm a rut-fuelled Zeus from afar and keep Odin placid had taken all my energy, and now the only thing left to do was give in.

"Apollo! Wait!" Bones called out, but it was too late.

I leapt toward the room, my swallowed anger bursting to the surface as a growl ripped from me, and I tore open the door.