Page 24 of The First Alpha on the Planet
I glanced at Roan, thoughts racing through my mind. I’d done so many stupid things in my life and this would be the tip of the iceberg. As I stared Roan down, the omega he’d become, the beauty of him and the shape. “And what about the beta you slept with?”
“Robard.” Roan glanced at Fel, who took the cue to look something up in the system. The codes and search he did, listed second arrival, beta, forty-percent, middling Tal, and recently changed. Silver scales. Funnily enough, they thought he might present alpha as he had a secondary color in his scales, but it was only scarring in his old flesh. Blood tests confirmed beta, though.
Fel scrolled through notes. “I’ll send him a message informing him of the fertilization impending. He’s become infatuated with an omega that reciprocates, and they’re going to nest together. It looks like the Affa wishes to bond after the season so he can ensure hisduty.”
I wanted to stop him, to keep the male away, but Fel was remarkably fast at what he did. Roan, for his part, migrated toward me and lowered his head, resting his forehead against my chest with a short huff. “I like you.”
“Yeah. Me too.” I rested a hand on his back, hand rubbing slowly. “What do you want to do, Roan?”
He hesitated for a moment. I nudged him to respond, and he slapped at my chest and huffed, turning to storm out.
Fel gave me a look swimming with hurt before following after him. He hesitated in the doorway before glancing over at me. “What doyouwant to do,friendWallace?”
Fel waited for my response, fingers gripping the doorway.
I met his gaze and shrugged. “Whatever my omega wishes.”
“The only correct answer.” Fel nodded once and left, following after him.
Not knowing what else to do, I sat in a nearby chair, slouching over my knees as I let myself have that cry I wanted.
Chapter Ten
Roan
Why I had stormed out, I wasn’t certain. Why I wanted to have children was another mystery. I’d resigned myself to a life unable to spread my genes. I’d toyed with adoption, but that had only gone so far, and my philandering had been mostly unfulfilling.
But the first great sex I’d ever had, had ended in forever. Forever with an alpha. Forever of bottoming. Forever as a submissive.
I mean, it was forever with great orgasms, but I’d trapped him as much as he’d trapped me. And the thing he’d done, trapping me against my will in the office with just a word. Anger flew all over me, and my tail flicked and wiggled, doing the dance of the extraordinarily confused.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted, or where I was going, but I set off down a street lined with moss-patched buildings bearing loads of flora and fauna, strange scaled and fuzzy beasts rooting around from one plant to the next as if they belonged there. Hell, if it was up to humans, we’d have made sure every one of them curled up and died to ensure our barren peace. As I stormed away, some sort of bird flitted by me, the feathers more like long ruby scales and face a little bit like the old pterosaurs that had gone extinct. But the tail, how elaborately the scales curled and draped, came off somewhat exotic, like a thing a human would have caged.
I halted in my steps as it fluttered into a cluster of leaves above my head, nestling into a hole on an overgrown mass of dried twigs and reeds that it had formed into a home. The rattling hiss and chirp within told me it had little ones inside, and something about that seemed sweet. And as I watched, Ifound myself migrating to what appeared to be a bench or seat of some sort while I pondered what it would be like to have my own nest.
“Roan?” The omega who’d dropped the bombshell on me not a few minutes before caught up with me, green scales glittering like flakes of emerald in the evening sun. His pale skin moved over his frame so elegantly, the transition to scales in places on his body in such a pretty pattern.
My tail answered for me as my focus stayed on the little bird thing that popped its head out to give me a sharp rattling hiss. I assumed it was the most insulting offuck offsI could have received.
“Callyura are some of my favorite strix.” He seated himself next to me as I puzzled through those creatures.
“Strix?”
“The small flying creatures that are all about.” He gestured, and I nodded. “And those are callyura.”
“They are pretty enough to keep as pets.” I smiled and Fel’s tail did something that had my muscles tensing.
“We do not keep creatures aspets. They are not something we subjugate for our amusement.” Fel reached a hand over to rest on mine, and the gesture was oddly comforting.
“Like omegas?” I glanced over and he nodded once.
“Is that what you think you’ll be?” Fel closed his fingers around mine and let his tail mirror the action around my ankle for a quick gesture rather like a hug that had my stress levels reducing.
“I have no idea. He’s going to break the bond and—”
“Is that what you want?” Fel swung his feet in the air in front of him in a childish gesture. It was funny how such things were similar among sentient species.
“Not really.” I flinched as Fel reached a hand out, finger curled. He made asstsstnoise with his tongue and thestrix,birdlike creature, focused on him and climbed out, flying down to land on his finger with a preen.
