The Forbidden Omega

Chapter Thirteen: An Unexpected Misfortune

I sigh, compulsively cleaning the work top under Gabriel's ceaseless stream of questions, biting my younger on how badly I needed this day to work out. I *needed* Soren to be pleased with the cakes, needed my mate to appreciate the work I put into them. I needed him to see how much better for him I was, than that bastard, Jason.

The last of the five tester cakes lay cooling on the bench, steam wafting from its multicolored top, and I could smell the artisan vanilla beans I'd baked into it, imported from a distant spice market that I longed to return to after this mess was finished. That place had some of the greatest flavors I had ever tasted, even the smell of the spices was beyond anything this land locked city could produce.

Gabe uneasily opens his mouth for yet another question, before he could utter the thought, however, he seems to have a second opinion, and closes his mouth. He seemed plainly uncomfortable within his own skin, shifting anxiously, and looking at me with an unfamiliar air about him.

I remembered all too well what his bastard of a father had done to the poor Beta, far, far too often in his drunken rages. I loathed that miserable excuse for an Alpha, loathed that man with every fiber of my being for putting this boy through those terrible things. So, naturally when Gabe looks at me with fear in his eyes, my stomach instantly turns to lead, that I had caused a flashback of his abuse.

Not to mention the fact that I would never, *ever* lay a finger on a small Beta, who is not only a decade younger, but a whole thirteen inches shorter than I was. I mean, by hands height and shape, he could pass for an Omega, especially with his facial features and his softness.

"Gabe, you know that I would never hurt you, right?" I ask, as I pull out a tooth pick, chewing on it as I thought. There was a sickly sweet scent pertaining the air, something besides the strong scents of the baked goods and the frosting for them. It made my inner wolf, the inner Alpha in me prick up his ears and begin to sniff about. We hadn't ever smelled this scent before, but we might enjoy it.

"Yeah, I know, I know." Gabe hops down from the counter and leans backwards into it, resting his elbows on the butcher block surface. Almost immediately, he shifts, squirming if I truly had to place the correct verb. "I know you wouldn't, but there's a lot of Alphas who just go picking on measly back Betas like me. And my gods dude, you're six and a half feet tall!" Gabe scratches behind his ear, shrugging defensively. "It's enough to set any guy on edge."

"Yeah, but you don't need to worry." I go back to my idle chores, knowing I had plenty of time to frost and decorate the testers, before the dreaded doomsday with my Omega and his fiance. I fully expected that to go down like a lead balloon, like a train running off of an unfinished bridge, it was bound to be disastrous.

Gabe shifts again, and rubs his neck beneath his soft tee as if the material bothered him."Hey, boss, is it a little warm in here to you?" He wrinkles his button nose, unconsciously adjusting himself in his typical skinny jeans. "I just don't feel too good all of a sudden…"

The syrupy sweet scent of an Omega's slick hits me like a sack of bricks, and gods, Gabe was softly panting in the room, his pupils blown like black holes, sweat beading on his brow as I grip the edge of the sink behind me, grounding myself as my palms dig into the sharp metal edge. I reel in every instinct I have, my muscles tensing as I feel overwhelmed by Gabriel's need. He's in Heat.

"Gabe. Get home, *now.* Don't stop on the way there. *You're presenting.*" I feel my fangs come out, and I know without a doubt that my eyes are the fiercest golden there had ever been when I look up at the Omega. "Go." I infuse my voice with pure Alpha command, every single drop of control I had going to keeping myself exactly where I was.

Gabe squeaks, as he dashes out of the store, and I hear his footsteps echo in the short alley between my shop and his mother's house, until the slamming of their front door gives me a modicum of relief.

I breathe through my mouth as I battle my wolf for control, his instincts telling me that the boy wasn't our mate, but he was willing. "No." I growl under my breath as I turn on every exhaust fan I had in the small kitchen, emptying the room of every atom of the polluted air. "He's just a *pup,*" I remind myself, that there was a better, much better scent than that one. Our Omega's, our Soren's, scent, even without the needy essence of Heat driving it up, called to us deeper than the lust of a Rut.

I was better than those Alphas who never truly cared beyond satisfying the s****l desire. I cared about Gabe, he was like my little brother, A little brother who would never forgive me if I laid with him like this. I didn't even want to.

I focused on the reminder that Soren was due to arrive at six, his appointment wouldn't be able to be rescheduled, and I turn to the now cool cakes waiting for my decorations.

The thoughts of Soren left alone with Jason at a time like Gabe was going through made my blood boil, because Rut or no, Jason would take advantage of the situation. I couldn't imagine Soren's wolf ever consenting to bear that man's pups, and I would never be able to protect him from that.

I could hardly bear the thought.