Page 10 of The Sad Omega

“Oh.” Irian's cheeks went an even deeper pink, if that were possible. He looked embarrassed. He finally stopped moving for a few seconds and leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially, “My heat’s about to start.”

He smirked and looked as pleased as punch.

WTF? How could he be pleased about that? My heats were my worst nightmare and the only good thing about them was that I only seemed to get them every six or nine months. With a mate who was a sadist, thought an omega's only value was for sex, and who was more than willing to share, heats meant I endured days of abuse that left me wishing for death. Only the fact that Zarbius was a sadist meant he stopped the activities with me on this side of eternity. And that wasn’t even a mercy. There'd been plenty of times I'd wished for... well, for it all to end, permanently.

As I stared at Irian incredulously, a crestfallen look wiped out the joyful expression he’d had a moment ago.

“You don’t… enjoy your heats? But…”

The look of disgust I gave him, was purely reflex. I couldn’t help it. If he enjoyed the sorts of things that happened to me during my heat, I couldn’t imagine how we could even be friends. It was disgusting.

Or. Maybe not.

Maybe not every alpha was as shitty as mine. Come to think of it, I couldn’t recall one time Irian had let slip anything bad about his mate. He seemed to be free to come and go as he pleased, to do as he chose. And he seemed positively delighted at the prospect of his heat. Could it be that heats didn’t have to be the nightmare that mine inevitably were? I’d thought all omegas had to put up with the shit I did, but maybe I was wrong. And that hurt a hell of a lot. It made me feel more alone than ever.

Chapter 04

IRIAN

Over the next five months, Isca and I saw a lot of each other. There was the weekly shopping of course, but in addition we found lots of plausible reasons why Isca needed to go into town and I would meet him, of course. Anything that broke down on their property, Isca volunteered to sort out, which usually meant going into town, talking to people who actually knew what they were doing (apparently his betas blustered a lot, but were actually pretty useless at anything practical or maybe they were just bone lazy), and purchasing the appropriate parts (sometimes it took us a long time to source them and necessitated a stop at the bakery. Of course.Because I was involved).

Zarbius went away a lot.

"He's always going on business trips," Isca told me one day, when we met up in town.

"What does he do?"

"I have no idea. He doesn't really talk to me, not about anything important. He just goes off and leaves the betas in charge." Isca shuddered.

"Not great?" I asked him.

"No." He hesitated, and seemed to change his mind about what he wanted to say. "When he's not around, they do nothing at all.I mean, it works for me, because they're happy to let me do all the work and I use that excuse to come into town."

"And we catch up," I added.

"Yeah, that," he smiled.

"But you don't drive, do you? They don't mind driving you in? And picking you up?"

Isca scoffed. "Not at all. They go to the club. They're in there right now, gambling or what not. They'll be there all day. Even if I finished early, I'd have to wait around the rest of the day."

I humphed. I wondered what the betas were like after a day in the club but Isca didn’t volunteer information and I didn’t ask.At least shifters weren't really affected by alcohol, so driving wasn't going to be an issue. Attitude might be.

Over the time I’d known Isca, he’d become… well, I couldn’t say happier, but a lot less unhappy. I began to wonder if maybe he’d just been lonely when I first met him. He certainly didn’t seem to have anything in common with the rest of his pack, and country life could be lonely if you weren’t used to it.

"How long is Zarbius going to be away this time?" I wondered aloud.

"He'll only be gone a few days," Isca replied. "He'll be back by the weekend."

"Do you want to come to the farm tomorrow?"

"Um... is that gonna be okay with your alpha?"

"Yes, of course, he said you could come anytime, remember?"

"Yes but... I thought he was just being polite."

"He meant it. I know he worries about me getting lonely out here in the country, so he's really pleased we're friends. So, wanna come?"