Chapter 1 A sudden heat

Liam felt as if he was dying from heated arousal. He adjusted his pants and tried to hold back the moan that felt more inevitable than ever. What the hell was wrong with him? He feared he was coming down with something, but the timing stunk. The deadline was in two days, and he didn’t have time to get sick until after he’d delivered his report. As a shifter, he was so rarely ill he couldn’t even remember the last time. Besides, a fever hadn’t felt anything like this.

“What’s wrong with you?” his co-worker Toby asked.

“Nothing,” Liam replied quickly.

“You’re fidgeting like your pants are full of ants. You never do that.”

“I’m sweating. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Toby didn’t look convinced. “If you say so. But you don’t look well.”

Liam felt another heat wave run across his body. He needed air. Now. He got up and stumbled toward the door.

“Liam? Where are you going? Oh crap,” Toby shouted from behind him.

Outside the small building, Liam stood heaving for breath. He opened the buttons on his shirt, feeling desperate for cold air on his skin. Would it help if he shifted? Liam feared he wouldn’t be able to. He sensed Toby standing beside him, fiddling with his cell phone.

“Alpha,” Toby said into his phone. “Please come quickly. Liam is sick, and I don’t know what to do.”

Liam leaned over, barely avoiding the nausea threatening. Why did this happen now? He had eaten nothing out of the ordinary. Or had the meat been too old? His nose should have warned him if it was. All he could focus on was his breathing. Taking in small amounts of air and forcing his pulse to slow down.

‘Take control. Remain calm,’ Liam urged himself.

But his blood kept pumping. Kept warming him up from the inside. He sat on a bench, feeling something wet stick to his bottom. Why were his pants wet at the back? And why did the wetness come from inside him? Then, an alarming thought entered his mind.

‘Fuck no. Not now. Not while he was working.’

Liam had thought he would never go into heat. It should have started when he was 16, so after he’d turned 22, he’d thought he’d become the beta he was pretending to be.

‘Now what?’

Liam registered a musky scent. An alpha. He looked up and saw their pack leader, Alpha Devin, come toward them. Liam shivered as the Alpha looked just as stern as he always did. Liam had stayed clear of the large and muscular shifter, avoiding his gaze and trying to keep a low profile so he didn’t draw any attention to himself. His wolf whimpered in distress, fearing what the Alpha would do when he realised Liam had lied to him. Lied to them all when he’d asked to join their pack.

“Oh fuck,” Alpha Devin cursed as he sniffed the air. He stopped abruptly and covered his nose. “He’s going into heat.”

‘Damn. He knew,’ Liam thought, realising that it was too late to hide his heat. They would fire him for hiding something like that from them. And once his heat passed, the rumours would have spread far and wide, making sure no one would give him a job when they knew he was an omega. He had managed to hide for so long.

“Heat?” Toby gawked at Liam and the Alpha. “But he can’t have any heats. Liam’s a beta.”

“Apparently not,” Alpha Devin said coldly, looking as if he considered how to punish Liam for lying to them.

Liam shivered and bent over as another heat wave moved through his body. The pain from his crotch was so sharp that he could do nothing but breathe, wishing for death to come quickly. Then darkness overturned him.

* * * * *

Liam tried to open his eyes. Something bright hit his face, but his eyelids felt as if they were glued shut. Had they drugged him? Or was he already dead? Liam couldn’t remember anything except the scowl on his Alpha’s face. Liam must have passed out right after. Everything was a blur. He moved his body and registered that he was lying on something soft. A bed? His bed wasn’t this soft. He knew every bump after sleeping on it for the last six months. But even a bumpy mattress was better than sleeping outside during winter. Finally, Liam opened his eyes. He didn’t recognise the room. Where had they taken him? They were so far from the nearest city that it couldn’t be a hospital. Or was it?

“An omega,” Liam heard his Alpha’s rasping voice. He didn’t sound angry, but his pack leader was a hard man to get a read on. He towered above all the rest of the pack members. Liam had only recently joined them after travelling for a long time. Since he’d never had a heat, it had been easy to convince the others that he was a beta, just like most pack members.

“Why hide what you are?” Alpha Devin asked.

“I don’t have heats,” Liam said quietly, hoping the Alpha wouldn’t bite his head off. He knew the Alpha could smell the lies as his body warmed again. He felt a drop of warm liquid slip from his ass. Being this close to an alpha didn’t help at all.

Devin laughed bitterly. “You do now. What else are you hiding?”

“Nothing,” Liam said quickly, fearing the Alpha would kill him before he could explain. “I’ve never had a heat before.”

“Never?” Devin stared at him. “How old are you?”

“22, Alpha,” Liam said, embarrassed to admit that his body didn’t work as it should. It never had. He’d never felt the attraction to alphas like a typical omega should. Liam had never been good at cooking or any other household tasks expected of him when he matured. He didn’t want to spend his life being constantly pregnant and living the picket fence dream with his alpha. It was almost a relief when his lack of heat forced him to follow another path for his life. His own pack members shunned him, fearing his abnormality would infect the other young omegas. Eventually, he ran away, trying his luck with another pack without explaining what he was. It had been too easy. They had automatically assumed he was a beta despite his slender figure.

Alpha Devin drew in a sharp breath before he got up and moved as far away from him as he could. It was obvious he could smell him. Smell his need. The arousal kept building inside Liam, making him squirm as he tried to prevent more slick from leaving his ass.

Devin growled before he looked as if he controlled himself. His fists tightened. “Do you know how to deal with a heat?”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked.

“There are remedies that can help you. I’ll get the betas to bring them to you. Just remember to eat and drink enough water.” The Alpha grabbed the door handle and opened it. “We will talk later. It should take about a week since it’s your first heat.”

Liam was surprised. Apparently, his Alpha knew more about heats than Liam did. He felt scared. He didn’t know how to go through a heat. Nothing except that he would have to masturbate a lot. Or ask an alpha to help him. According to what Liam had learned, he would need an alpha. No beta would be strong enough to keep up with him. The only problem was that many of the pack’s alphas were already mated except for a few enforcers and the man about to leave him. Liam felt his wolf start to panic.

“Alpha, can you please help me?” Liam heard himself plead. He hated to sound so needy, so desperate. But Devin was leaving. He had no choice but to suffer this alone or ask for help, no matter how embarrassed he felt.

The Alpha stiffened as if he didn’t want to hear Liam’s plea. He probably preferred females.

Liam swallowed hard, fearing he’d just made a big mistake. He didn’t know his Alpha’s preferences. Keeping a low profile also meant that the gossip rarely reached him. Liam mentally prepared himself to feel the anger from the Alpha. Hoping it would be enough to show his throat and beg for forgiveness. Anything would be better than getting kicked out of the pack for lying and giving sexual invitations where it was unwanted. It had been stupid to ask. Alpha Devin could kill a man for much less than Liam had already done.

“You don’t know what you’re asking,” Devin said hoarsely.

“I do. I know what to expect,” Liam assured him quickly, relieved that his pack leader didn’t seem insulted.

His Alpha turned. He looked fiercer than Liam had ever seen him before. “I might take more than you’re offering, Omega.”

“Take whatever you want, Alpha. Just help me get through this. I’m scared.” Liam knew he was showing his underbelly. Giving his Alpha all the truths he could have kept hidden but refused to. He already felt embarrassed after going into heat and wetting his trunks. How bad could it be? Alpha Devin was a formidable man. The strongest fighter he’d ever seen. If anyone had the strength and knowledge to get him through this, it was him.

“Alright. I’ll do it,” the Alpha said. “But you would be better off with the sex toys, Omega.”

“I doubt that,” Liam said and let his eyes run down his Alpha’s muscular body. He’d seen him naked before, but he’d never seen his cock erect. His eyes widened as he took in the prominent bulge in Devin’s crotch. Just how large was an alpha? He would fit, wouldn’t he? Or had he asked for something that would cause mortal injuries?