Page 45 of Omega’s Forward

Whatever soured him happened out there and I have no way of knowing what it was.

A phone call, probably. His agent perhaps, or his lawyer. The upcoming hearing is enough to sour anyone.

Not my business and I’m not going to make it mine.

That’s alphas for you. If he’s in a mood, then his gym is the right place for him, not by my side. Give an alpha something heavy to lift or something hard to punch, and all their aggression has a place to go.

I certainly don’t want to be its target.

I half expect him back up within the hour anyway. That is what the last five days have done to me.

I finish the latte. It really is very good. Then I strip and remake the bed, open a window, and go to put myself back in order.

I take a good long hot shower, then get dressed for the first time in almost a week. I do the buttons on my shirt up slowly in front of the mirror, and somewhere around the collar I start to look human again, instead of a man who spent five days begging on his back and enjoying it.

The marks on my shoulder have gone a deep, settled purple. I button the shirt over them and stop looking.

Quiet settles around me for the first time in five days.

For five days he was either wrapped around me or audibly fetching something in the next room. His scent lay so thick on the air that I stopped being able to tell where it ended and I began.

Now the window is open, the sheets are clean, and the air is fresh. I keep catching myself listening for the stairs, but he doesn’t come up.

Lunchtime comes and goes and the door to the downstairs gym stays shut.

I make myself something to eat and eat it standing at the counter. He cut the crusts off. I never asked him to.

The bike starts up again beneath my feet while I’m rinsing the plate.

Okay, it’s been a heavy few days. He’s owed an afternoon.

I go back to my room, open my laptop and catch up on work instead. It’s the first time in a week that my brain has been entirely my own, and it’s a pleasure to use it.

London did not slow down because I was otherwise occupied.

For the rest of the afternoon, the only sounds in the house are my keyboard and the sounds of him in the gym beneath me, just two adults getting back to normal.

Whatever that is.

At seven, I hear noise from the kitchen and by the time I have closed the laptop and thought of something ordinary to say, I hear the gym door close again.

What the hell has got into him?

I am not going to start tonight by begging. He is forty feet away. If he wanted to tell me, he could walk up a flight of stairs.

Tomorrow he’ll be over it.

He’s not.

I take the opportunity to sleep in. I’ve had five days of heat. Five days of physical activity. I need the rest. Still, I can’t help but reach for him when I wake in the night and feel annoyed with myself when I do.

The man owes me nothing.

It’s supposed to be omegas who are the hormonal ones. Omegas are volatile. Omegas are too emotional. Omegas require supervision for their own protection.

And I can state with some confidence that anyone saying that has never shared a house with an alpha in a grump.

An omega in a bad mood will talk about it. At length.