But they couldn’t leave the locker rooms that way, so Ryder washed them both off lazily. Spencer gave him a dazed, goofy grin, looking as cum-drunk as they came. “You’re really committed to this heat situation, huh?”
Ryder contained his eye roll, but only barely. “I’m a very committed person in general,” he deadpanned.
Spencer yelped as the cubicle curtain slid open, revealing a towel-clad Ash. Ryder just shut the water off. He was surprised Ash had waited this long to begin with.
“Are you two done yet?” Ash asked with a scowl. “I’m starving.”
Impatient little fuck. Ryder knew exactly what Ash was doing, too, with hisgo, go, goenergy this week.
Ash was avoiding. Not Ryder or Spencer, clearly, but the act of processing the major changes his body was going through. He was doing anything he could to stop from thinking about his new designation and what it meant for himself and his future.
That was fine. It would catch up to him eventually—maybe after the next heat, or maybe when his pheromones started showing up for good—and Ryder would be there for him when it did. Ash could get pissed off or melt down or whatever he needed, and Ryder would pick up whatever pieces got fractured in the aftermath.
Ryder looked to Spencer, and Ash followed suit. Ash’s scowl immediately transformed into a wicked grin. “Look at you. Fucked stupid. Ryder’s got nice hands, doesn’t he?”
Spencer blinked at him. “This is the alpha locker room, isn’t it?”
Ash shrugged. “I’m undesignated. No one gives a shit. If they do, Ryder glares at them for me. What are we having for lunch?”
Spencer scratched at his chest. “Um, tacos?”
“Shit, yeah. Tacos.” Ash stepped forward and tugged Spencer into a filthy, open-mouthed kiss. Spencer barely got his hands on Ash’s hips before Ash was pushing him away again just as abruptly. “Get dressed fast, then. And leave your hair alone. We don’t have time for your vanity.”
And then he was gone, leaving the curtain wide open in his wake.
The confusion in Spencer’s pleasure-flushed face was a beautiful thing. Ryder couldn’t help his low chuckle as he tossed a towel Spencer’s way.
See? Steamrolled.
10
ASH
This wasbullshit.
“This is bullshit,” Ash said.
The beta doctor blinked at him, but her mild, professional smile stayed firmly in place. Her name was Dr. Turner, it turned out. She was nice. Polite. Ash shouldn’t swear at her.
“Suchbullshit.”
Well, fuck. He couldn’t help it though. Ash was already grumpy just about being here. He’d managed to forget that he was supposed to check in at the clinic weekly, and he hadn’t taken Ryder’s reminder well. And it was a lunch appointment, too, so Ash was hungry. Any second he was going to start chomping down on tongue depressors.
Dr. Turner uncrossed and recrossed her legs, the only sign that his bad attitude might be getting to her. “Well, Asher, can you tell me what part specifically has you so frustrated?”
Ash clamped his hands down on his seat so he didn’t start adding rude gestures to the mix. “You said this would be shortbut intense. It’s been a week since my last heat. No pheromones, no nothing. I don’t seem to be any closer to presenting than before.”
Dr. Turner shook her head. “I said the heats themselves would be short and intense. The length of presentation this late in life is variable. It could take a few weeks, or it could take up to a year.”
The unexpected spike of panic left Ash gasping for air. “Ayear?”
He shot a look to Ryder, who was sprawled stoically in the chair next to him. He’d known, hadn’t he? Ryder was the one who’d actually been paying attention last time.
But a whole fuckingyear?
Before this past week, if someone had told Ash he was going to present as an omega, he probably would have said the longer it took the fucking better. But it turned out that the waiting—not knowing when the next heat was going to hit, not knowing when his pheromones were going to stick around and his life was going to change irrevocably—was worse. Way worse. He didn’t have the patience for this shit.
“There are a few things that can be done to help speed the process,” Dr. Turner told him placidly. “Regular and thorough scent marking with alpha pheromones, for one.” She gave a nod to Ryder, like she was commending him for making Ash smell like a goddamn cedar grove that morning. “Knotting as frequently as possible when the heats hit, for another.”
