Page 75 of Bubblegum Pop
“Of course,” Apollo said quietly. Even with resentment bubbling in me, I knew we had to play by the rules.
I was amazed they were letting Apollo come. Though they had popped his shoulder back into place and gave him painkillers, I felt how deeply it ached. Like Zeus, they wouldn’t have been able to stop him coming, anyway.
None of them had drawn attention to the fact we were found in Candy’s rooms in the middle of the night, but I knew it would come up when we returned. At the moment, it didn’t matter. Candy was our only priority.
“Right. Good.” Arrow nodded. “We leave in ten. Same formation, same structure,” he said to the betas behind us. “And please, for fuck’s sake, follow my orders. I know you’re all pumped up, but we can’t risk making any mistakes.” He glared at the three of us. “You fuck up, and we lose her, that’s all on you. Clear?”
Another low growl rumbled, this time from Apollo. Pride mixed with desire and all my other fucked-up emotions as I watched him bristle. His rumble was lost as Zeus snapped. “We’re not going to fucking fuck this up. Let’s fucking move,” he said, jumping to his feet, breaking free of Apollo’s grasp.
Zeus could complain and snarl all he wanted, but when it came to Candy’s life, he’d do anything he could to get her back.
We all would.
Candy
Itried to keep myself as still as possible as I came round. Slow breathing, relaxed muscles, closed eyes, my head slumped forward.
A rush of heat flared through me, and I held back my hiss at the pain. Slick was already leaking between my thighs, my skin burning.
The tight bands around my ankles and legs had shifted, now binding me to a wooden chair. My wrists were secured on the arms of the chair, my ankles fixed to the legs, my knees open with full access to my pussy. I was still naked—no blindfold, no gag; just the sharp tang of alcohol, bubblegum, and sour lemons.
The warmth of the room was nothing compared to the raw fire within me. I needed a cock and a knot, or at least something filling me.
I could smell an alpha emanating harsh curls of lemon, which was foul compared to Odin’s sharp scent. There were at least three other betas in the room.
I could only focus on the alpha when I was in heat. My instincts were determined to find a knot, no matter how rancid the alpha’s scent or how dangerous he was. The betas faded into the background as my body responded to him.
My scent was attractive to almost everyone. I say almost, because every scent has a particular brand to it, a particular flavour, along with the person’s pheromones that made it unique. I wanted to luxuriate in Odin’s scent, spend forever snuggled against his chest, every breath pure heaven as his lemon vodka surrounded me. Because it was him, his biology, his unique scent that matched mine perfectly.
Whereas the scent surrounding me was like a lemon fallen from a tree, left to rot on the ground, trampled and dirty, pecked away by birds and insects.
There were scents that matched, and scents that clashed. And the alpha in front of me was a total clash for me. Because I was close to puking from just a whiff of him.
“I know you’re awake.” A deep voice came from the alpha. Powerful, dominant, confident, but something else shook there, and it wasn’t because I was in heat.
Tilting my chin, I opened my eyes to meet his hard stare. A quick scan of the room showed me exactly what he was like.
Antique furniture, rich sculptures of marble and gold resting on pedestals. Persian carpets, a four-poster bed, black silk sheets, two guards at the elaborately carved door behind him. I couldn’t see the windows that shone light into the room, but I bet anything they led to a balcony that looked out onto a shitty landscaped garden. Probably hung with lavish curtains as well.
I knew the type.
Moaning, I fluttered my lashes, trembling as I hunched my shoulders. I needed to appear as weak as possible, like a poor little omega in heat.
I gasped as my head shot up, my wide-eyed gaze flying around the room. “Wh-Who are you?” I asked breathlessly, my high-pitched all scared and weak.
He was large—meaty, not muscular. He stood in front of me, leering, close enough that I could have kicked him if I’d been free.
“Your new mate,” he replied. I caught a brief twitch of his jaw before his fat lips split into a grin. He spread his arms out to display himself, as if the sight of an overweight business-class alpha twice my age was going to do it for me. But, to be honest, I would love Apollo, Zeus, and Odin no matter what they looked like.
The problem with scent clashes was they only worked one way. Scent matches needs two people to complete a match, but only one person could be repulsed by another scent. Which was why he was looking at me with horny eyes instead of recoiling.
He wore a pressed dark slate suit, a pale pink shirt, his blonde hair styled back, looking like seventy-five percent of the guests who bought me—the ones who seemed too rich for their own good. But no amount of money was going to fix that face.
I quivered underneath him, letting the full force of my heat free. My slick was already thickening simply by being in the presence of an alpha. I dropped my bottom lip, letting my instincts free.
“How did you find me?” I asked, my voice hushed, as if we were sharing a special secret. I’d spent most of my life acting, and I could do it here, too.
Shifting my body, I rolled my hips, splitting my knees so he could smell my slick. I moaned again, arching my back and holding his gaze. “I thought I didn’t have a scent match,” I whispered, as if his sour lemon tang was the most addictive thing I had scented.