Page 11 of Heat Lightning

Craning my neck around, I couldn’t help the pulse of desire in my belly. Alphas and omegas were all packed together in a pit of sweat and skin, with more bare asses on display than I’d ever seen before. A few couples, throuples, and even larger groups were having full-on sex on the fringes of the crowd.

But it didn’t just smell like sex and desire. Omega heat pheromones were so pungent you could cut the scent of slick and cum with a knife.

Surely, if someone had gone into heat, they wouldn’t be here, would they?

I peered around again, realization dawning. The ecstasy on both the omegas’ and alphas’ faces was unmistakable. This wasn’t just a club for a certain kind of crowd.

It was a heat club.

I was certain my cheeks were beet red. What the fuck had I gotten myself into? Why had Joey brought me here?

While I wasn’t opposed to having a good time with a date, we did not know each other even remotely well enough for me to be comfortable here.

I wasn’t sheltered. Okay maybe I was, but I’d had boyfriends before; just no one I was ever with long enough to trust with sharing a heat, and I certainly wouldn’t be doing that for the first time in a place like this. My heat wasn’t due for another month and a half, anyway.

We passed a string of five, six, seven guys all pressed together, front to back against the wall, moaning and grinding into each other’s cocks. One omega gasped, eyes squeezed shut as he rocked into the alpha behind him. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his knot, swollen and nearly purple under the flashing strobe light. They both shuddered when it popped inside, locking them together.

Fuck, that was hot.

My own cock pulsed in my pants, and I craved to feel that close to someone. There may not be anyone here I was comfortable with, but I still wanted.

Maybe with one person at a time first, though. Baby steps.

Out of the corner of my eye, a large, dark shape moved through the crowd parallel to us. I glanced over, heart skipping a beat, but there was nothing there; only more couples gyrating to the beat of the throbbing music.

Something midnight blue and velvet-soft brushed up against my baser instincts, sending shivers down my spine. He’s not here, I told myself. You’re just afraid he’ll find you. Loosen up.

Fear wasn’t the only thing that dark presence made me feel, but I chalked it up to our surroundings.

I also tried to console myself with the knowledge that at least the scent of my stalker had finally disappeared, but at what cost? The deeper into the crush of bodies we went, the stronger the scent of heat and bodily fluids grew, until it was stifling and made my head pound.

Joey’s fingers, clammy and unforgiving, slipped along my arm and all my desire dried up. Setting aside the fact that he’d been an ass all night, he didn’t smell right. We were clearly not scent compatible.

Shaking off the fog of the rutting couples around us, I frowned. “Look,” I yelled over the music, “I’m not into this. I’m gonna go wait outside and call an⁠—”

He stopped abruptly, and I smacked right into the back of him, cutting me off.

“Eric!” he called.

Who the fuck was Eric?

Someone bumped into me from behind, knocking me forward so I stumbled into Joey again. “You’ve outdone yourself this time.”

I whipped around to find an unfamiliar alpha leering at me. “Back up,” I said, shoving him away. He clearly thought I was someone else.

His leer turned into a grin that sent chills down my spine.

“Where’s Dain?” Joey asked.

Now sandwiched between them, I turned to him. “Who?”

Except, he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to the alpha behind me.

“Right over there,” the stranger, Eric, said, motioning to his left. He lifted his hand above the crowd and waved someone over. “He’s got the stuff.”

Joey nodded. “Good. Let’s find a room.”

Confused as fuck, I tried to figure out who they were talking about, but my head was really starting to hurt. The vein in my temple throbbed with each beat of the music.