19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

BLAKE

" Y ou two are great company this evening," Dad groused, glaring at me then Leo in turn.

Leo looked up from his phone, face still a medley of colours from an assortment of bruises, seemingly surprised that there was anything amiss.

"What's your problem?" he asked me gruffly.

"I don't have a problem," I shot back, briefly contemplating suggesting that we go to that new club Leo had found. This time, I was the one with some aggression I needed to work out. It wouldn't help, though.

It might in the moment, but ultimately, I'd just end up feeling worse.

We all started as my phone buzzed, lighting up offensively where I'd abandoned it on the arm of the chair.

Unknown Number.

"Who's calling you?" Leo asked at the same time Dad said, "Bit late for a client to be calling, isn't it?"

"Hello?" I said, holding the phone up to my ear and ignoring both of them.

" Hi. Is this Blake Alwis? " a nervous, feminine voice replied.

"It is."

" This is Maia Gallagher. Inika's assistant. "

Fuck. I stood immediately, ready to… I wasn't sure what. Something. Anything. Whatever was required.

"What's going on? Is Inika okay?"

" Yes and no. " Maia cleared her throat. " Her heat seems to have come early. Possibly from being involved with an alpha in the lead-up ," she added, and I absolutely heard the censure in her voice.

"I can't…" I exhaled heavily, fingers flexing at my side. I wanted nothing more than to go to her. At the same time, I selfishly wished that Maia hadn't told me what was going on. Ignorance was bliss, and now I had to think about Inika in heat and I doubted I'd be able to think about anything else. "She asked me if I could go into her nest and I already explained that I couldn't. Have you called that… agency?" I asked, forcing the word out.

" Inika told me not to. She only wants you. But she's also respectful of the fact that you said no, and gave me her phone with strict instructions not to let her have it back until her heat is over. Look, I shouldn't be calling you at all, but I don't know… I had to check. I had to try. She's in pain, and she's going through it alone. I know this is normal for omegas or whatever, but I've never seen it before and it looks fucking horrible ."

Maia had been a fucking pain to deal with when she was hunting me down to work on Inika's house, but I was suddenly very grateful that she had such a compassionate assistant.

"I can't—" Leo snatched the phone out of my hand before I could finish my sentence, holding it to his ear and shoving me back when I went to grab it.

"Let me talk some sense into him. He'll call you right back," he said before hanging up and tossing my phone to Dad, who clumsily caught it and shoved it underneath him on the seat.

"Very mature," I snarled.

"What's going on?" Leo demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. "Who asked you into her nest? Does someone want you as a mate?"

"You never said she'd invited you into her nest," Dad said accusingly.

Leo looked between us. " Who ? Who is this omega?"

It felt a little jarring to be on this side of the interrogation.

"His client," Dad supplied. "Inika Dara. Jasper's heard of her, you know. The Om-Guard heiress."

Leo's eyes went wide. "Bit out of your league, isn't she?"

"Obviously," I snapped. "She wasn't asking me to be her mate. She was asking me to service her through her heat."

Dad and Leo exchanged looks like they were debating which one of them would have to give me the birds and the bees talk again.

"I know that usually ends in a mating bite," I added, exasperated. "I may not have ever had a mate, but I do understand how it works. It's different for rich people. There are services they can hire. Alphas they can borrow for heats."

Dad choked on the sip of beer he'd just taken. "How does that work then?"

"Do we need to talk about this?" I groused. "There are muzzles involved. And a support crew outside the nest. Birth control shots. Probably a bunch of other stuff that I'm forgetting."

"And your client just asked you out of nowhere to be her knot-for-hire?" Leo asked in disbelief.

"Well, he was already shagging her."

I glared at Dad. "Thanks for that."

"I just don't really get what you're doing here then," Leo sighed. "You must have liked her enough for that—"

"I like her a lot more than that."

"—and if you can use these muzzle things, you're not going to commit to a mating you're not ready for."

"Which is wise," Dad added. "I want you to find a mate, Blake. But it's not a decision that should be entered into lightly, and you haven't known this bird very long."

"Right," Leo agreed. "So he could just spend this heat with her—which I'm sure she'd appreciate, poor thing must be miserable—and then date her afterwards. And then maybe go into her next heat muzzle-free. Or breakup if it doesn't work out. What's the problem here?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I snarled. "I can't just up and leave for five days. I've got responsibilities here. And what would I do with a mate? What have I got to offer her? What kind of life would I provide an omega—let alone one like Inika?"

"A great life," Dad replied, affronted. "A little unconventional, sure. But omegas are generally very sociable—that you're close with your family probably wouldn't be a deal breaker for the vast majority of them. You've got a good career. You're a very caring, responsible alpha—"

"A little too responsible," Leo interjected, though he'd lost some of his ire. "Did you really intend on never taking a mate because of us?"

An awkward silence filled the room, the two of them watching me expectantly for an answer.

"It hasn't been high on my priority list." That was an understatement, but I didn't want them to feel responsible for my decision. Neither of them had ever outright said that I shouldn't take a mate—I'd made that choice on my own.

"I swear—I swear— that I will do every school drop off and pickup this week. I'll stay home every night. No fights, no going out. I'll be one hundred percent there for Freya, okay? Now, will you go?" Leo asked. "I'm not saying you have to make any other decisions right now, but the heat one should be easy."

"Should it?"

"Fuck yeah." He gave me a sidelong look. "She must have trusted you to ask you. And you must care about her to have considered it."

I grunted in agreement.

"Well, then, it's a no-brainer, isn't it? Unless you're fine with the idea of her in excruciating pain for five days, I guess."

I growled immediately, annoyed by how smug they both suddenly looked.

Dad pulled the phone out from under his ass, holding it out to me. "Call whoever you were talking to. Get it arranged. Leo, drive him up there—he's in no state to do it himself."

It was either going to be the best decision I'd ever made, or the worst. Maia answered on the first ring, her voice thick with relief when I said I was on my way as she assured me she'd call the agency and arrange for the support crew to meet me at the house.

Presumably, in normal circumstances, this would have all been set up with more notice, but I doubted they were going to say no to Inika Dara. There were definitely perks to her privilege.

Leo was more calm and focused than I'd seen him in years as he drove me to Mayfair. He didn't push me to talk about anything I didn't want to talk about, which I appreciated, but he did offer me some surprisingly insightful tips about omegas in heat that I shouldn't have been surprised by—he'd once been a mated alpha, after all—but I was.

It helped my brain stay on track. I could get Inika through these next five days—it would be a fucking honour to do so—but what happened on the other side of it was still very much a mystery. It sounded like my family was on board with me taking a mate, which I honestly hadn't expected them to be for some reason.

But that didn't clear all of the obstacles in our way. We still were who we were. The dire distance between our social classes still existed. We were two people from very different worlds who had a fucking incredible amount of sexual chemistry. But was that enough in real life? To actually build something together?

And then there'd been that conversation with her dad that I'd tried not to overhear, but had caught every word of anyway. It almost sounded like Inika was ready to give up some aspects of her lifestyle, if it meant that she had both freedom and privacy.

Those things I could offer her.

Maybe all hope wasn't lost then?

Focus, Blake. Just get her through her heat .

"Alright," Leo said, yanking up the hand brake as we stopped outside of Inika's home. "This is all you. Don't worry about anything else—we've got it taken care of. Just… well, be a good alpha."

I nodded once. "Thank you for the pep talk, I guess."

Leo smiled wryly. "I owe you a few. Go on. Good luck."

The moment I approached the front door, it was all a whirlwind. Stern-faced, mated alphas in dark scrubs frog-marched me into the reception room, grilling me on my willingness to be there.

A tired, nervous-looking beta who I assumed was Maia would occasionally appear in the doorway, watching for a while before vanishing somewhere else—presumably to check on Inika.

"What do I have to do to get this moving?" I barked. "I want to see Inika."

"Nearly done," Gerardo—who seemed to be the team leader said. "Do you understand that the muzzle can only be unlocked by one of us? When you need food or a break, you can leave the nest and one of us will remove it for you. It will be secured in place again before you return to the nest. Understood?"

"I understand," I replied impatiently. "Is someone asking Inika all these questions? I don't know for certain that she actually wants me here."

I thought I might die if she didn't.

"You'll know," Gerardo said drily, setting a leather case on the table and opening it up. "She is… instinct-driven at this point. A conversation wouldn't be productive, but she will certainly be able to let you know her opinion of you."

"Is she in her nest?"

Gerardo shook his head, pulling out an elaborate leather contraption that had to be the muzzle. "Generally, we wouldn't have agreed to providing assistance to an unknown alpha that the client hadn't even mentioned with basically no notice. However, Ms Dara is… well, she's showing signs of distress. She won't enter the nest at all."

Two of the alphas grabbed me by the arms, yanking me back as I made to head for the hallway.

"Muzzle on first," Gerardo said patiently, holding it out as he approached, careful not to trigger an aggressive response in me.

It was black, and made of a thick leather that I didn't particularly want wrapped around my face, but I'd do whatever I needed to do to get to Inika. A padded bit went between my teeth, while straps were secured in three spots behind my head—above the ears, below the ears, and behind the neck. It clicked into place as they locked it, and I supposed that I could take comfort in the fact that it definitely wasn't going to slip off by accident in the heat of the moment.

The leather bit between my teeth had a faintly bitter taste—just enough to discourage me from chomping down on it whenever the urge to bite struck. It was a primitive design in some ways, but it was incredibly effective.

"Come on, then. Let's see if you pass the omega's inspection."