watching my mate as he spoke to Wade, and when I turned back to the two omegas, I was stunned to see six more, all with the stack of towels next to them, the bucket of lube.
“This is actually happening,” Wade gasped before Graeme flipped him around again.
“When an omega goes into real heat, not the mock heat Remy perpetrated, they are calling for an alpha to bond with. The small amount of pheromones produced during les fausses chaleurs is nothing in comparison to what an omega in a full, real heat is capable of. Only an alpha who’s truly mated can withstand the call.”
Which meant that all the alphas bonded to omegas would succumb, as none of those were true.
Graeme turned to make eye contact with me. “Your brother, your father, my brother, your brother-in-law, hell, my grandfather, all of them could be here, just as I am now, and not feel the pull to go over there and get in line.”
I couldn’t find my voice. Before he and I, I’d never heard of a mating between an alpha and an omega. And if it wasn’t real, if he wanted what he could get from me but didn’t want me, then everything I’d been, even for such a short time, building on and counting on, could be taken away. But that was crazy. My family had kissed my mark, ours was a true mating, and I knew that, my wolf knew that, and I felt it when we’d been in bed together, that it was a true joining, like we were one thing. But now, faced with what I’d never even credited as being real, the doubt was gutting me.
“Wade, I need you to excuse us for just a moment,” Graeme announced before he released him and grabbed me, pulling me after him through the crowd and out the other side where it was quiet and cooler, near the windows that looked out on the city.
Manhandling me roughly, he spun me around to face him, both his hands on my hips as he stared down into my eyes. “Listen now.”
I couldn’t do anything else.
“Your mind is reeling, but even if you question everything else, you can never question the promise between us, our union.”
I nodded, trying to swallow around the lump in my throat.
“It’s human to doubt, to worry and wonder, but the truth lies with your wolf.”
Yes, it did. My wolf knew I belonged to Graeme. I was given a mark, and that was forever and always. It was a vow, made in flesh, irrevocable.
“You are mine, I am yours, and that’s all.”
My eyes filled before I was even aware the tears were welling up. As quickly as I tried to brush them away, they returned.
“You didn’t believe omegas went into heat like this,” he told me.
“No,” I choked out, shaking my head.
“And now you’re thinking to yourself, that could’ve been me, because I’ve slept with a lot of alphas and none of them gave me their mark, so why didn’t I succumb to the heat?”
“Yes,” I whispered the confession. “How did I—why didn’t I…do that?”
“Some of it, I believe,” he replied, grinning with a huff of resignation, “is your mother, actually.”
“My mother?”
He nodded. “Yes. She told me that first night she didn’t raise an omega, she only raised alphas.”
“Yes, but nature is––”
“You, my mate, were raised with the same confidence that your mother instilled in both your brother and sister. You wanted to be a police officer, and you became one. You know who you are, and that sense of self is not defined by someone else, so how could any alpha you didn’t choose possibly make a claim on you?”
I couldn’t help myself and leaned into him, wrapping my arms around his waist, pressing my face into his chest.
“Your mother assured me that you would not, under any circumstances, go into heat. I thought her naïve, and she is, a bit, as she based her belief solely on how you were raised when the other reason, the most important part, in my estimation, is that you are not a bonded omega.”
Leaning back but not letting go, I lifted my head to meet his gaze. “I’m sorry—what?”
He took my face in his hands. “I’ve seen hundreds of omegas in heat in my lifetime, which was why I was so worried about you being alone that first night, as I thought you would succumb. Now I realize, of course, that you were never going to go into heat,