Even when growls in Blake's throat became words, he still sounded gravelly. "If you go into heat, I'll kill anyone who tries to come between us."

Murder lurked in his voice, but I sagged in relief. His anger wasn't directed toward me for asking the pointed questions. It was all focused on that wolf who would try to steal his Alpha's mate. I was sure Blake saw Harold in his mind's eyes when he had uttered his threat, and I almost felt pity for the flippant Beta. "Even if they don't know you want me for yourself? It sounds unfair."

"They don't have to," Blake said with a lopsided grin that promised cruel fate to anyone stupid enough to cross him. "I wouldn't stand for anyone pinning an unwilling she-wolf who can't defend herself. And if you go in heat, Celeste, they will all know who you want."

"Goddess," I whispered, pressing the cool palms of my hands to my burning cheeks. If they—the girl in lavender and her cronies—mocked me when they only suspected I liked Blake, mocked me when I was down, the humiliation awaiting me when they knew for sure... "Goddess..."

"It would probably be for the best if I pin you before anyone smells the slick on you," Blake went with the same grin on his face, "because when in heat, you wouldn't think of anything else, wouldn't find consolation in anything until I'm inside you, giving you what you want. Again and again, until your heat-lust is sated."

"It sounds awful." And wonderful in its own way, if...

Picking on my hesitation, Blake whispered, "There is no shame in it. Shame is on those who stand in the way of nature or make crude jokes about she-wolves. So, yes, you can come to me, and I would give you everything you want—"

"In secret?"

He nodded. "Unless we can mate with the consent of the pack and the blessing of the Moon Goddess, a Luna to her Alpha, then, yes, it will be in secret."

If I discarded everything the human society drilled into me about a woman's sexuality, where modesty and restraint equaled self-respect...maybe then there will be no shame in the secret sex marathon Blake was describing. "No."

"Then you'd better lock yourself in your room, don't lay your eyes on me or come near enough to catch my scent while the heat spell is upon you."

I trembled, half from the strange thrill of the conversation, half from indignity. "I'm sure I can restrain myself from humping you without becoming a hermit!"

"You won't," he said. No judgment, just stating a fact.

Great. "And you know this first-hand, don't you?" I murmured.

"I had seen a she-wolf in heat, yes."

Scarlett, it had to be Scarlett.

My shoulders dropped in defeat. Whatever I wanted, Scarlett had gotten it before me. Way before me, way before I even knew I wanted it.

She had her wolf forever and Luna's Mark. She'd even wormed herself under Blake.

About the only thing I had before Scarlett was a fated mate, and how much was it worth?

My fated mate, Blake, had already resigned himself to mate Scarlett over me. And why shouldn't it be so, if she'd finished first? By all signs, she was the rightful Luna, and I was a bumbling idiot.

"Celeste, you are very quiet." Blake stroked my hair.

I lifted my gaze at him, not even trying to bite back a sob. "Blake, I'm so confused. One moment, I love the pack, and I hope that one day I will belong among you."

He nodded. "You will."

My lips shook. "But what if... what if I don't feel like I can accept the place that was given to me?"

The Omega's place. I could see it clearly: when Scarlett ruled the pack with Blake, sauntering around in her designer outfits, and gave birth to pure-Alpha children, I... I wouldn't even have a contented life with a lesser wolf. Wouldn't even rebel like Beas.

Because when heat comes upon me, I would hide in my room, and Blake only had to scale the balcony to pity-fuck me. And I would be willing...which hurt the most. I would want him, because who argued with nature?

Blake stepped back from me and glanced down the well. He looked into it for stretching seconds, filled with tense silence. Then he sighed, turned back to me and smiled.

"Remember the Moon Goddess' words, Celeste. Your fate won't be determined today."

He seemed to gain lots of insight from glancing down the Moon-at-Noon Well, so I brushed past him and looked.

The well went deep. On the bottom, far below us, groundwater surfaced, reflecting the Moon. While the Lake acted as a perfect mirror, the well was an amplifier, for this reflection was far brighter than the one in the paling sky, perfect like a silver coin. I knew why, but I didn't feel like explaining the phenomenon.

I was just glad it charged Blake with optimism, but it didn't hearten me. Fatigue came on suddenly, and I nearly swayed on my feet. I gripped the sides of the well. "I need to go home and sleep."

"Bad idea," Blake said. "The pack will bathe at the hot springs at dawn. You should come and mingle. Belong..."

"Are you going?" My heart twinged. To come with Blake, slip into the hot water next to him and relax...it sounded more than pleasant.

"Yes," he said, but before my heart swelled with any more anticipation, he added, "just wait a few minutes after I leave, then follow my wolf. He would lead you to the gathering."

A bitter chuckle escaped my lips. Goddess forbid we showed up at the hot springs together, because what would the wolves think...nothing good. My joy evaporated as fast as it came.

"No thanks," I said. If I needed extra humiliation in my life, I would totally come, but I'm all set for now."

He shook his head, instead of saying I was making a mistake.

It was easy for him to shake his big, handsome head. He was an Alpha... "They all hate me!" I cried out. "Hate me!"

"Mie will be there. She likes you."

"Mie is loyal to the Alpha who accepts her despite her not being a wolf. Her family is all she cares about, and I am not her family."

"Celeste, you are being unfair."

So wise, so controlled...and I was falling in love with him, dooming myself by doing so.

I dipped my head into the well's opening and yelled. "You want to go? Then go!"

Go, go, go! the well echoed.

"It's not what I want, Celeste, but what I must do that matters."

Sure, because Blake was an Alpha, and a great one at that.

This was precisely why he couldn't waste his time consoling one measly Omega, when more important wolves needed him.

He had to be with his pack, including a certain Luna who undoubtedly looked stunning in a swimsuit. Or, if they were skinny dipping, since they were so close to nature, she looked good naked...and Blake had first-hand knowledge of it.

"If you must, it's even more important that you go," I told him, studying the Moon in the well. Misery gnawed at my heart. "Goddess, it's not like I'm not holding you here!"

It's not like I can.

"Okay." I heard him rub his chin. "If you don't want to go to the springs, my wolf will lead you back home. Follow him and...just follow him. Be careful. Promise?"

I straightened slowly. "Keep your wolf, Blake. I have an ability with maps. I read them at one glance, I can make sense of any directions, and I can walk back the way I came on far more complicated trails than this one."

Even when I was crying...which I couldn't help. But standing there and crying before him, when Scarlett was woven of spunk and confidence...nooo!

I marched toward the hotel, trying to hold my chin as high as possible, while not stumbling. My feet were dry enough to put my shoes back on. It would make hiking so much easier, but I thought of it too late, and I wouldn't stop now.

Blake exhaled behind my back with a stormy force, but there was zero frustration in his voice when he called after me.

"Be careful, Celeste. Do not turn off the trail."

I didn't want to listen to his voice any more, because if I did, obeying him would be too easy. I would surrender to his will and follow him to the hot springs...after I had waited for a few minutes. Once there, I would accept without a word of complaint every humiliation the pack would throw at me just for the sake of being near Blake and the intoxicating feeling that he's pleased with me.

Would it be so bad?

He was used to being obeyed. It could be sweet to yield to him, an Omega to an Alpha. I bet it wouldn't hurt as much as fighting Blake's powerful pull over me. Perhaps, once I gave in, I would even come to enjoy submitting to him, in small things, and in big things, and in all things...

I was still struggling internally with this, when I sensed someone stalking me. Rogues! How could I have been so stupid?

As soon as the trail had a bit of a bend, I stopped and twisted in one spot. "Come out, you fucking cowards!"

A black shadow crossed the periphery of my vision. I froze in place, while my heart slowed down from a thousand miles per hour it had reached when I noticed the pursuit.

Not rogues. Rogues don't have wolf allies. So, Blake and his stubborn desire to protect me nearly gave me a heart attack!

"Look, Wolf. You can go back to your friend," I waved my hand in the Lake's direction. "I don't need to be guarded."

The wolf I was talking to weaved round a fir-tree and onto the pathway, light as smoke. It was large and black, with rusty-red undercoat and the edging of his mane. My heart started pounding again.

"You...you," I was too scared to talk coherently. "Not Blake's wolf."

"Nah," said Harold's voice behind my back and I jumped up in the air. "That's mine."

My hand flew to my chest, to press on the rib cage and keep my heart from breaking through it. "Harold! You, you..."

"I know," he said with a smirk. "I am bad."

I could only nod.

The Beta sniffed the air. "Where is our honorable Alpha? I thought surely, he took you to the woods at his leisure, and his own rules be damned."

I was so outraged, my voice returned. "No! Blake...he isn't like that."

"And you're barefoot and not wearing your bra because it's too hot?"

He paid little attention to my toes, but his gaze lingered at my chest. I always thought my breasts were tiny, but the thin cotton of my summer hoodie somehow exaggerated them into two mounds. I fought with the desire to cover myself.

"I came to the Lake to pray to the Moon Goddess. Alone. Then my skin was too wet to dress—" I realized I was justifying myself to the Beta despite not really wanting to. I forced myself to stop despite the sweat beading my forehead with an effort to resist.

"Hm, wet and naked," Harold mused and licked his lips. "Are you sure Blake had nothing to do with either?"

I blushed, remembering how Blake made my vagina ooze before. "Everything is a joke to you."

He leaned in and took a deeper sniff of me, then he tossed his head back and laughed. "He's still waiting for you to go into heat. Damn! I'm on the brink of respecting his integrity, but then again..."

I could only describe his smile as cruel. It pinned me in place, despite my mind screaming at me to run away from the Beta.

Then it was too late to run away, because Harold spoke again. Actually, he didn't speak. He drama-whispered to me, like a gossip.

"Scarlett tells me, Blake likes it when they beg him for it."

My eyeballs nearly exploded in my eye sockets. I saw stars. "You...you..."

"Funny, I keep thinking you're smart, but your diction is really limited. Good thing Omegas don't need to say much. Even in bed."

That insult finally broke the dam of outrage and shame that blocked my speech. "Stay away from me with your toxic accusations. Just leave me alone!"

Finally, I pushed past him, but he caught my hand and held my wrist in a vice grip. "Listen carefully, Omega, because I'm going to tell you what nobody is going to tell you. Not our high-minded Alpha, nor any of the she-wolves, nor the old bags Beas."

I trembled in his grasp.

"Once Blake pins you—" he raised his voice when I tried to protest, "oh, pardon me. You lived among the humans, so I have to put it all in their words..."

"I know what pinning means! Rutting without being mates..."

The only sign that he had heard me was a twist in his smile. "After Blake fucks the brain out of you, in heat or not, every wolf would see you as desirable. Alphas mate Lunas. When they pin an Omega, it's a given that everyone would fight over his Alpha's scraps."

I squirmed, unable to process that the Beta was looking me in the eye and telling me these horrid things.

"You don't like the idea. I thought you wouldn't, given that you are practically a human."

I struggled harder, and without a result. His would snarled at me in derision...yes, even to him I was pathetic.

"What you should do is come to me, Celeste. Right after Blake pins you, even if all you want is more of him, even if your brain is clouded by whatever nonsense he feeds you, you come to me."

I wanted to spit into his face, but what came out was merely a whisper. "Why?"

"Because I am different from Scarlett." Harold's free hand found a strand of my hair and tickled my cheek with it. Or maybe he was sopping up a tear. "Ask me how."

His wolf shifted in his place, but didn't interrupt. So, he didn't think Harold was putting a move at a she-wolf who wasn't in heat. This gave me a slim bit of reassurance. "How are you different, Harold?"

"Scarlett wants Blake. I want to take everything that's Blake's."

He squeezed my wrist so hard I was sure it would bruise. I bit my lips to not cry out in pain.

"And unlike Blake, I know who I am and I'm not ashamed of owning prized possessions, even when I find them on the bottom of a barrel."

With a scream, I yanked away from him as hard as I could, almost freeing myself. "Blake will kill you if you touch me! He will kill anyone who tries to claim me!"

Harold laughed for a very long second before releasing me. "Thought so."

My bundled shoes, socks and bra fell out of my arms, but I didn't care. I gave out some vital piece of information to the pack's sinister Beta...socks and shoes where nothing next to it. I left them laying under Harold's feet and ran.

I scraped my feet and ankles. A stitch in my side nearly killed me. My vision was veiled with tears and messed up hair. But fear drove me on.

I was afraid of the Beta. I was afraid of everything he threatened me with. Most of all, I was afraid that Harold had told me the truth of Blake liking she-wolves to beg him for sexual favors.

If Blake made Scarlett beg, what would he do to me? What?

Mercifully, I dodged the party growers, burst into my room and burrowed into my bed, shivering and gasping for air. I even hid my head under the pillow.

It didn't help. My imagination still ran wild, thinking of what my reality would be. I would be, here, alone in the room too fancy for an Omega...

Cozy under the luxurious blankets, but uncomfortable, I'm unable to sleep. I've been crying because Blake is with Scarlett, right above my head.

Instead of the sounds of their bounding mattress, there's a scrape of a man's foot on the wall outside my window, he jumps in. Blake. He smells like the wind, snow and cedar. He smells like everything I want but shouldn't.

His chilly hand slips under the blanket, freshly calloused from gripping the stone. It runs up and down my bare back and shoulder, until I flip to my back for his convenience. On my belly, his fingers send tingles across my skin. On my nipples, their slightly rough touch brings a moan out of me. Suddenly, the bits of my anatomy that I knew I had...theoretically...become real. I'm slick, clit tingling, and my G-spot begs to be touched by that finger.

"Celeste," Blake groans. He is hard against my hip. So hard. "I'm starved."

I try to resist and wind my legs together, which only makes the throbbing inside me unbearable.

I give into my hunger with a sigh. "Just your finger."

His hands pry my thighs apart, stretching me.

"My love," he murmurs, "you're trying to control the uncontrollable."

The tightness in between my legs melts as his touch becomes familiar. They fall apart, and the palm of his hand strokes me from the knee and up, on the inner thigh, until his fingertips kneed me like dough where no other hand had touched me before.

I can't speak any more, just gasp and moan, my head whipping around the pillow. It's just his finger, only his finger that thrusts in and up, sending waves of heat through me. Desire mounts, heavy and urgent.

I can't do this anymore, can't let him continue or I will scream, so I grasp his hand in both of mine, and pull it out of my core...then, howling softly, I curl my fingers around his dick. He throbs in my hand, warm and solid. I follow the shaft to its end, and I can't imagine his entire length sinking into me.

Actually, I can imagine it. "Is there enough me to sheath this?"

"Aye," he says hoarsely. Yes is probably too hard to say right now, when his desire to pin me is peaking.

We shouldn't...

I can't...

And...I bend my legs. My knees fall apart gently.

He smells the air and arches back, with my name a tortured sound. His skin is as hot as mine by now...

I answer him with a wordless moan, and that's all the invitation he needs as he throws himself over me. The headboard bangs against the wall, and then the sounds drift away from me, overwhelmed by the fresh sensation of a man on top and inside me.

Blake thrusts into me. Filling me deeper and deeper with every stroke. And every time, there is a sharper twang of pleasure.

"You're holding back," Blake growls. "Let go of it and come. I want you to come on me. I want it."

The reverberations of his growl reach his dick, and it tips me into the sweet abyss of pure animal pleasure. I climax with no thought or worry in my head. I love this guilt-free, humiliation-free, breathless happiness state...while it lasts.

I sat up in bed and pulled the covers tightly around me, shattering the vision.

I was alone in the pretty room.

Alone and untouched.

But if Blake walked in right now, I wouldn't say no to him, just like I didn't want to refuse him in my fantasy. If he wasn't an honorable man—and despite what that cur Harold insinuated, Blake was an honorable man—I would be his little fuck-stray already.

For a while, I rocked back and forth, trying to find a way out of this. To spare myself the worst pain in a life full of hurt. Be it surrendering to Blake, be it pinned by another wolf wanting his Alpha's scraps, be it Harold's patronage...there was only one thing that would help me.

I had to shift before I went into heat, even if it meant using the werewolf curse Blake had warned me about.

He said it was too dangerous to pursue, but what else could I do! No curse could be more damaging than being an unshifted Omega.

And, at any rate, it would be easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission, particularly if I remained an Omega.

We were good at begging for mercy, and little else.