Page 6 of Salt and Knot

“I’m going to carry you, okay?” I gather her carefully, so she’s cradled in my arms, and the moment I touch her body, she moans, as though with relief. And I’m the same. Her skin against mine is like removing heavy armour I’ve been wearing for centuries, stiff and rusty, uncompromising. I’m about to pick her up, when she burrows into me.

“Please. You smell so good. I need…” Her hands reach for me, and she searches until she finds the hem of my T-shirt, then lets out a whine as she manages to push it up and touch my skin. She’s delirious, her eyes are hardly open, but my cock responds anyway.

She’s rubbing herself against me.

I’m fully hard within half a second.

I groan.

The temptation to pin her down and take her right here on the beach is almost unbearable. I like to think I’m better than my beastly monster side, but I’m not sure I am. I can just imagine sinking into her little pussy, next to the sea, on the sun warmed sand.

“You need to come with me,” I say, more harshly than I intend.

“It hurts… Too hot,” she mewls.

And I realise. My omega mate has gone into heat.

Chapter 4

Isla

One week earlier

I lean against the counter and glance over at Elaina, who is at the till next to me in the little corner shop.

“What’s it like to go to a heat clinic?” I ask.

“What?” My colleague raises her eyebrows.

I flush with embarrassment. This is why I’ve never dared to ask before. “You know. An omega heat clinic.”

Elaina glances around the shop. There are a few betas in the back, but otherwise it’s quiet.

“It’s pretty good. Better than having to put up with a rude, obnoxious alpha as a boyfriend the whole time just to get through heat. And I reacted really badly to suppressants, did I tell you about that?”

“Yeah.” We’ve discussed being an omega, and all it entails, many times before. Elaina is one of the few people who even knows I’m not a beta.

“There are normies available to help you. In case you need extra blankets or whatever for your nest.”

“You shouldn’t call betas normies. It’s rude and discriminatory.” I’m a bit protective of my adopted, though not real, identity.

Elaina rolls her eyes. “It’s also true. They’re not orcs, they’re not witches, vampires or shifters, they’re not omegas or alphas, they’re just basic humans. Anyway, because of the risk from the alphas, there’s usually like, plexiglass or something between you and him. In case they get their rut suddenly. But otherwise, it’s not dissimilar to having your heat with an alpha boyfriend, I guess. Except the beta you’re allocated to does the touchy-feely stuff, that alphas hate. Taking care of you after the mating, feeding you, helping with building the nest, talking you down when you’re insane. The alpha only does the sex and knotting bit.”

I nod, and I continue not to tell her that I’ve never had a heat.

Not even one. My foster-mother put me on suppressants as soon as I showed the first signs of being an omega. She was paranoid about it. Just like she was obsessed that the sea would be bad for me.

After all this time, working with Elaina in this little store is partly the reason I’m finally questioning what my foster-mother told me, and doing something about it. If omegas like Elaina manage their heats by going to heat clinics, and don’t have to be bonded to a violent alpha, are the suppressants I take really necessary? And if millions of people go to the coast every year, can it really be as bad and dangerous as she said?

An orc walks in, braid swishing at the back of her head, and I smile politely at her. The female orcs are okay. The males are almost always grumpy.

“And the best bit,” Elaina continues more softly, “Is that the beta who is allocated to care for you will get you all the scented blankets you want. So you know that thing where your alpha gets angry at you for stealing his clothes for your nest? No issue.” She spreads her hands, as though this is a revelation. Which it is, to me. I knew omegas like to make nests during their heats, but I didn’t know alphas were difficult about it. So much stuff they don’t teach you at school, assuming if you’re an alpha or omega that your parents will inform you.

Not so much for me.

“It’s such a relief, you know?” Elaina continues. “The alphas have to scent a load of blankets as part of their contract of being there. Even though they have to pay as well, often even more than we have to pay.”

“How do you afford it?” I jump in to ask.