Page 6 of For What It's Worth

“Betas can’t take knots.” I managed to croak the statement out, but there was no strength behind the words. My grip on my textbook was tight as I pushed it against my lap, simultaneously hoping it would cover any scent of my slick but also giving me a modicum of pain to balance out the threat of intense pleasure.

“Knot or not,” Aidan said with a chuckle, “sex always feels good. Now, tell me when your birthday is and then about your project.”

I chose to ignore the first two things before giving him the basic speech Jenson told us about the project and then abruptly shoved the book in his direction. “Why don’t you just look this over? The rubric is on the table. I’m going to the bathroom. Excuse me.”

Since I managed to keep my wits about me, I didn’t sprint to the bathroom like I really wanted. Instead, I calmly walked there, locked the door, and then wiped the slick off my thighs, tossing my underwear in the trash bin.

Chapter Six

I’d lost more pairs of underwear since being at college than in the four years of high school when I started noticing alpha pheromones. Alphas never paid me much attention as a beta and when they did, they always assumed I would jump at the chance to fuck them. They assumed a beta would feel lucky at being picked by an alpha. What they hadn’t counted on was my inner omega side, which was completely unimpressed. Plus, none of the alphas had half as delicious a scent as Jenson. Or even Aidan. There wasn’t anything similar about Jenson’s clean laundry scent and Aidan’s desert-after-a-big-rainstorm scent, but both had my body craving more.

Maybe it was a good thing all three males broke up with their betas. If they were going to be in close proximity to me, at least they wouldn’t smell like the gossipy betas. That should calm down my omega’s territorial instincts. Although, I had to admit, I was curious as to what Lorenzo smelled like. Would his scent call to me like a perfect match for this pack? Or would his scent be enough to turn my omega’s interests to another pack?

Alphas and betas tended to sit with their own designation which meant most of the time the scents of betas were the only thing I inhaled. Of course, that didn’t matter the first time Professor Jenson was running late, partly sweaty from his jog to make it to class. I could smell him from the back of the room, and I had to fake being sick, leaving the class almost as soon as he had arrived because there was no way I could have restrained myself for two hours in an enclosed space with my inner omega demanding I claim the alpha.

At least the lack of underwear wasn’t as uncomfortable in sweatpants. The pants were basically a size too big, which meant I had to tie the strings as tight as they went and roll the top a few times so they wouldn’t fall. But it also meant the inseam didn’t bug me.

I wished I had brought my headphones in the bathroom with me. There was something less vulnerable about leaving the sanctuary of a public bathroom to head back to my seat where a minimum of one, but potentially three alphas, were waiting for me. Or maybe I’d gotten lucky and they’d left.

Ha, yeah right. This pack of alphas had taken a certain interest in me. And I was apparently a masochist because I hadn’t told them to leave me the hell alone.

Taking a deep breath, mostly to calm my nerves, but also to inhale the lemony tang of the bathroom cleaner, I hoped to calm my inner omega before dealing with whatever feminine scents were attached to the males.

I walked with all the confidence of one of those girls in a teenage drama show after she took off her glasses and was suddenly hot—but without subconsciously insulting people who wore glasses—and found three alphas sitting around the table I had occupied with my classwork.

Bypassing Aidan without a glance, I sat down in my chair and looked up to three set of eyes staring at me. I was used to staring at Jenson’s brown eyes, but Lorenzo’s blue ones and Aidan’s green eyes were giving my body the wrong ideas. The undivided attention of three alphas was heady for an omega.

“Can I have my book back?” I was pretending my voice came out confident and unaffected by lust.

Aidan leaned over and set the book in my lap. The backs of his fingers brushed the tops of my thighs and—dammit—I couldn’t hold back the gasp of pleasure that came from the simple touch. I hide my embarrassment by refusing to look up and throwing myself into restarting my playlist—again—and then trying to refamiliarize myself with my notes. Losing sight of the males, however, caused my other instincts to kick in, and I found myself sniffing the air for their scents.

Jenson’s scent had the most beta interference, which meant Eloise had likely touched him several times. Luckily, I was able to hold back the territorial growl, though the strain of pushing my instincts away had my back molars grinding together. Before I could push my omega instincts to the back, I caught a whiff of Lorenzo—floral beta with an alpha’s wild pine scent—and that pushed my inner omega over the limit. She had a crush on these males and wanted to make her interest known. That meant sending a whole lot of slick to my pussy so the alphas could scent it and choose me.

And that was my cue to start packing shit up. I closed books, not caring where papers were, and started shoving them into my backpack.

Brown fingers wrapped around my wrist, stopping me from my shoving escapade. Not even the desperate beta scent could block the refreshing pine tree scent that was Lorenzo.

“You want to tell us what has you panicking right now?” His voice had a slight accent to it that didn’t help in cooling my growing desire.

I refused to look up into the owner of brown finger’s eyes or use my voice that I knew would be more lust than intelligible, so I just shook my head. The fingers didn’t let go, and I didn’t look up, effectively forcing us into a stalemate. However, I had the short end of the stick because Lorenzo’s grip affected me more than I affected him.

I could feel the calluses on his fingers, and I wanted to feel his hands in more sensitive spots. I knew his grip would feel amazing squeezing my breasts. Maybe he would slide then down my stomach until—

No.

I was making this whole situation worse. I couldn’t seem to be around these males without my thoughts turning sexual and making me wet. The worst part was, I couldn’t even blame them. Maybe if I kept them talking, they wouldn’t inhale deeply enough to notice my obvious arousal, and I could pull my wrist away from Lorenzo’s grip.

“Don’t you guys have somewhere to be on a Friday night?” Good, that sounded normal.

“I think we pretty much finished our plans for tonight,” Aidan said.

“You planned to break up with those betas?”

“The females always knew they wouldn’t last,” Jenson said. But the way he said it left it open for me to ask questions. Like he wanted me to.

I stopped trying to pull my wrist from Lorenzo’s grip, hoping it came off like I was simply calming down instead of being fully committed to the answer, as I asked, “And how did they know that?”

“We told them,” Lorenzo said.