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Nothing at all like this current outburst of industriousness.
“Della?” he asked gently.
The blanket fell from her face, revealing his Omega, her eyes shining and cheeks flushed. She frowned and held up a palm. “Don’t move!”
“What?”
Tossing the blanket to the floor, she scurried over and made a grab for the firewood load. “Here, let me take that.”
“Hell no.” He swiveled his shoulders, keeping it out of her grasping hands. “I’m going to set it down over there.” He jerked his chin to where he’d tossed the small pile of branches and logs he’d collected over the past day. Except, an empty space existed where the pile had once sat. His head swung around the cave. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“Oh!” Della smiled brightly. “I relocated it over behind that pile of rocks, see? You can stack it over there, and it won’t be so messy spilling out everywhere.” She folded her arms over her chest and, tapping her pointed chin with an index finger, surveyed the cave with critical regard. “Now, I think the best place for the bedding is actually over there.” Moving her finger away from her chin, she dropped it to point toward the far side of the fire ring and, with a decisive nod, hustled around, bending to scoop up the bedding she’d scattered. “Some of this needs to be aired out, but I’m going to get it all set up for now and see if I like it. Are you sure this is everything you brought?” She glanced over her shoulder with a suspicious gleam. “You don’t have any other blankets or anything packed away, do you?”
Cal eyed the flaccid assortment of his emptied-out bags. “Uh... no. Looks like you got it all.” He crossed the space, stacking the firewood as directed in the newly relocated spot. A spot which, to be clear, he didn’t judge as any more convenient or preferable to the old one, but Della’s thinking about this had far surpassed his.
Task finished, he turned around to find Della sitting on her haunches, folding and stacking the bedding, patting it down and arranging it in some highly specific yet completely impenetrable pattern.
Nesting, his brain supplied.
Oh, shit.
He had an Omega nesting in the makeshift home he’d brought her to. An Omega who’d spent the better part of the last three days denying her Omega nature. An Omega who was about to go into Heat. Go into Heat in a cold, echoey cave, he clarified with a wince, not a soft, cozy nest like she deserved. Twin strikes of guilt and desire shot through him, desire winning out as he fixed on the way her rounded bottom wiggled as she worked. Tension built in his groin, the thrumming of his pulse loud and heading due south.
“Della...” His voice grated like gravel. They’d only returned from setting up the fishing net a few hours earlier, but already his body activated and declared it was ready to go. Making love to his adorable, nesting Omega in her Omega nest?Hell yes. And if it distracted her from any more discussion about returning to Morris Hill? Even better.
They’d danced around the sore subject all morning, but if he studied her face, the trouble oozed out from behind her calm exterior. He had no answer to give her, though. Because, no matter what, claiming mark or not, giving her up was no longer an option.
“This one.” She rose to her feet, pinching a thin blanket between her forefinger and thumb. “This one needs to be hung outside. It reeks of another Alpha.” Screwing her mouth up in a disgusted grimace, she strode toward the opening.
“Here.” In two steps, Cal caught her up, wrapping his arm around her waist and plucking the offensive blanket from her fingertips. Beads of sweat pearled on her hairline, her cheeks ruddy. She’d complained of feeling warm and crampy on the walk back to the cave, but he’d chalked it up to resolving symptoms of the concussion and encouraged her to take a nap.
She hadn’t, choosing instead to rearrange his hastily set-up campsite. With an affectionate squeeze to her bare bottom (he decided right then he’d burn those pants), he tossed the blanket toward the entrance, freeing his other hand to provide similar attention to the other half of her ass. The juicy curves overflowed his palms in a deeply satisfying way, even more so when she wiggled into his hold. No, he had not spent enough time with this particular feature.
A slow grin slid onto his face. “Can’t argue about being an Omega now, can you?”
Della glanced up from where she’d been rubbing her nose into his shirtfront, scenting him as naturally as any Omega he’d ever met. “Huh?”
Cal tipped his chin lower, dusting her nose with his. “You’re going into Heat, darlin’.”
“Is that why I’m so warm?” She rubbed at her sweat-glossed forehead. “I know it’s chilly in here, but I feel… hot and… weird.”
Slowly and seductively, her gaze raked down the front of his body. Black currant and juniper, laced with a sweet hint of slick, filled his nose. He cupped his palm along the silken swell of her hip and tucked into her waist, drawing her close. A smirk brewed on his lips. “Any other feelings you’d like to share?”
Her focus drifted to the newly-assembled single sleeping pallet, and her cheeks flushed a deeper shade. Wild energy stormed in his veins, and Cal shuffled forward, directing Della’s backward steps toward the makeshift bed. “You gonna invite me into your nest, Omega?”
She glanced over her shoulder at the destination. “Is that the standard protocol?”
The laugh spilled out of him, charmed beyond words at her formalized phrasing. He loved this loosened up, lusty version of Della but adored the way she retained her unique formality even in a rapidly escalating moment. He’d never known an Omega like her. There’d neverbeenan Omega like her, of that he was absolutely sure.
“Typically.” He added a little rumble to the word and was rewarded when her eyelashes fluttered prettily on the high arches of her cheekbones.
“And then what happens?” she breathed, her fingers restlessly clenching and tugging his shirt fabric like she wanted to rip it off and eliminate that small barrier between them.
He wouldn’t be upset if she did.
Once her heels touched the edge of the bedding, he paused their forward momentum. A nest boundary demanded respect, and hesitancy from deep inside halted his steps. They teetered on the threshold of not only the nest but also something profound and singular. While he’d never personally serviced an Omega in a Heat, he’d been a bystander to enough to know people and relationships were changed no matter the participants’ initial intent. Omega Heats were varied in length but almost always boundless and overwhelming for everyone involved. Alphas and Omegas alike lost their heads and made decisions they’d later reconsider or even regret.
He didn’t want that for himself or for Della, yet the persistent beat of desire throbbed in his pelvis like a fist wrapped around his spine, dragging him away from his more sober considerations. Cock swelling, his stomach drew taut, and his teeth gnashed with harnessed desire to bite and claim. But Della didn’t want that. That final brink she refused to traverse when she was in her right mind, and he’d be damned if he crossed it when she wasn’t. He might be Alpha, and Alphas claimed, but in his soul, he knew if he proceeded without her consent, without laying down her willing tribute to their bond, she’d never forgive him.
