Page 128 of Alpha Awakened

Hazard pulled back. “You have a headache?” he asked in concern.

“No. I haven’t had them for a while.” He frowned. “I didn’t notice until now, but I haven’t had them since I started scenting you.”

“Wow. That’s...” Hazard went quiet for a moment before he spoke again. “Remember what I said that night we sat on the couch until your headache subsided? That our scent glands are part of our bodies for a reason and that scenting helps to soothe and calm us?”

Ice nodded. “Yeah.”

“I think your headaches were an example of that. You’d gone so long without scenting that your body learned to compensate without it. It was probably easy to do since you were around mostly humans. But once I started to scent Ortiz and Jax, your instinctual urge couldn’t be denied any longer. Your body was reacting, letting you know it was missing something with the headaches. And when you got what you needed, the headaches stopped.”

Logically, what Hazard said made sense. The timing matched up too well for it not to. There could be another reason, but he was okay with the theory that being close with Hazard had taken away his pain. “Is that your official diagnosis, Dr. Mitchell?”

Hazard laughed, soft and quiet. “Yes.”

“Hmmm.” Ice breathed in Hazard’s scent once more. “Who needs Excedrin when I have you around?”

They kissed once more before settling back down. It grew quiet. Hazard gently stroked up and down his arm and Ice let the rhythmic caress lull him into closing his eyes. Tucked into bedwith his lover, Ice began to drift into sleep. Right before a black wave of exhaustion swept him under, a thought whispered in the back of his mind: Hazard wasn’t just his lover. He washis mate.

Chapter 47

The next morning, their squad all went for their usual run. Ice insisted on joining them, so Ortiz set an easy pace. She ignored his grumbling that he didn’t need coddling and chose a shorter route. Hazard couldn’t help but keep an eye on Ice, checking to make sure that he was okay and not in pain. He seemed to be fine, so Hazard released the tension in his shoulders as they neared the end of the run.

After they finished and cooled down, they headed to the mess hall for breakfast. They arrived at the height of the morning rush and the hall was packed with soldiers having their first meal of the day. Once they had trays in hand, Hazard expected Ice to go and eat on his own as he usually did. But today he stayed with the group, walking with them to their usual table.

The soldiers sitting at the other end of the long table watched their approach with wide eyes. When Ice sat down, they went silent, some freezing with their mouths open and forks raised mid-air.

Hazard held back a grin. Honestly, he was just as surprised that Ice was joining them as they were, but he was better at hiding his reaction.

“Gonna catch flys, soldiers,” Ortiz said dryly.

Faces red with embarrassment, they went back to talking and eating. Ice seemed unbothered by the shock he’d caused, calmly digging into his eggs, bacon, and toast as if he ate with them in the mess every day.

Ryder Boone, the support team member who’d given them their drink chits the night of the Legion celebration, leaned forward to get his attention.

“We were just talking about you, Hazard. And you, Ice.”

Hazard raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak since he had a mouthful of scrambled eggs.

“Is that right?” Ice asked.

Boone nodded. “Yes, sir. We were saying that we think it’s great that you two are together.”

Hazard drew in a shocked breath and choked on his eggs. Laughing, Jax clapped him on the back to help clear his airway.

“Guess the word is out,” he said after he swallowed.

“What did you expect when you leaped into the man’s arms as naked as the day you were born?” Jax asked.

“Yeah, Baker spilled the beans on that as soon as he got back to base,” Chin said as he looked down the table at the young corporal.

Baker was suddenly busy cutting his breakfast sausage up into tiny little pieces.

Ortiz rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. Baker is a sweet kid, but he loves to gossip.”

“This time he gossiped about something good,” Chin continued. “I know if I had a partner here, or even a pack, I’d feel a lot more settled.”

“Hell, I’d be happy being in a unit that had a more natural distribution of secondary genders. Too many alphas without betas and omegas around leads to a bunch of agitated alphas posturing all over the place,” Boone added.

Ortiz gestured at Hazard with her fork. “This omega here got our pack scenting. It’s helped a lot.”