The Scent of Love: Chapter 1

That night can never happen again.

Sean spends a year keeping to himself. He’s careful with Beth— not that he sees her that often, but when he does, he tries to keep the physical contact to a minimum. Not to mention keeping her at a nice safe distance, where he can’t catch her scent. He already made the mistake of giving her his number— and his Snapchat, and his other social media— and he’s seen her at a couple of his shows. Seeing her is bad enough.

The thing is, he has a life plan. He’s still young, not quite thirty yet, and he hasn’t accomplished everything he’s wanted to yet. Settling down isn’t in the cards for him yet. He’d rather stick with Betas than tumble headfirst into an accidental mating with an Omega.

Especially Beth.

Sean keeps telling himself the same thing, every time he sees Beth, right up to the moment he almost bowls over her at a Halloween cast and crew costume party.

He didn’t even know she was here. If he did, he’d have ducked out ages ago, or at least kept an eye out for her to try to avoid her. Not that he’d have a chance anyway, because— costume party. Nobody looks like themselves. He can barely hear himself think over the music, let alone if someone was trying to ask him to move for them, and he already had to use his Alpha-voice on someone to get them to clear a path so he could get to the bar. So, really, running into someone is an inevitability. It may as well be Beth, since Fate apparently has it in for him.

“Whoa—” they both stumble away from each other, Beth’s steps dangerously unsteady. Sean catches her waist to keep her from falling, and then—

Oh, no. This is so unfair. No Omega should be allowed to smell like this. Like something sweet and succulent he can’t quite place. Especially through his blockers.

Plan, he reminds himself. He has a plan.

“Oh—” Beth blinks up at him, and then smiles sweetly when she recognizes him. “Sean! Hi.”

She’s blonde, which is new, since she was definitely a redhead earlier today, when he checked her Snapchat story. Which he doesn’t do more than once a day. Usually. Often. She’s also coated in glitter, which is rapidly transferring onto his own costume.

“Hi,” he says, carefully stepping away once he’s certain she’s stable on her own feet again. “Happy Halloween.”

Beth bounces on her feet, her white-blonde ringlets dancing across her bare, glimmering shoulders. “You too! It’s good to see you.” She looks him over with a slightly furrowed brow, taking in his tried-and-true Captain America suit. “Cap! Nice.”

“Thank you.” He tries, and fails, not to check her out, in the dangerously revealing green dress she’s wearing. It barely covers anything, the sides gaping and laced like a corset. The phoenix tattoo on her left thigh is fully visible under the hem of the skirt, but obscured by fishnets decorated with tiny gems that make her legs sparkle. Every inch of skin on her sparkles. She’s showing so much of it she’s practically naked, which— not really something he wants to think about in public.

Anyway. He should say something back. A compliment. A nice one.

“Nice dress.” Sean catches sight of the wings on her back. “Tinkerbell?”

“Thanks!” She spins. “Yeah, Tink. I made my dress!”

Yeah, he’s seen the other things she’s made herself, some of them in person. She’s pretty crafty with a sewing machine. “It looks great. And you make a great blonde.”

Beth laughs, the sound like bells, and it staggers him for a moment, replacing his thoughts with white noise. “It’s a wig. Thanks, though!” She gestures toward the bar behind her. “I’m getting another drink, which I definitely don’t need, but intend to enjoy, since I’m not driving tonight.” She gives him a little wave and turns on her heel, curls swinging.

Sean’s mouth responds before his brain does. “I could use a refill.”

She looks up at him when he falls into step with her, her eyes bright, and– he can’t believe he didn’t notice before– her face a little flushed. Definitely tipsy. “How’s everything? I feel like we never really talk to each other.”

That’s because we don’t, Sean thinks to himself, but shrugs. “Same old, same old.” There are about half a billion people in this club, he thinks, even with two floors and a whole outdoor area for them to go to. The sweat and colognes and perfumes all mix with any scents he might pick up, from other Alphas and Omegas, and yet, he can still pick Beth’s out from the rest.

Maybe he needs to up his blockers?

Right, they were having a conversation. “How’s your roommate?”

Beth’s expression goes completely blank as they reach the bar. She shrugs, staring directly ahead of herself. “Kirsti? I’m sure she’s fine, but we’re not roommates anymore. We don’t talk now.”

Oof. Sounds like something she doesn’t want to talk about in depth. Sean tells himself he doesn’t want to know and nods at her. “Got it.”

Beth sighs, and he pretends not to notice. Just like he pretends not to look at the rough, pink patch of skin on the side of her neck while she smiles at the bartender. “Vodka and cranberries, please.”

Sean places his beer order, barely sparing the bartender a glance. Already, he can feel his control slipping. He slips into the small space left between her and the person next to her, effectively caging her in. Damn Alpha posturing. “So, do you have a new roommate now?”

Beth’s smile returns, excitement seeping back into her expression. “Actually, I got my own place!” She takes her drink and immediately starts to sip on it, swinging her hips a bit. She’s damn cute. “A few of my friends and I loaded up a truck last week and hauled me down the street. It was a time.”

“Sounds fun.” Except he’s not entirely sure he actually heard her, because all he can focus on is her scent glands, and the movement of her lips, and the way her dress would be so easy to pull off of her—

Christ. He has got to get it together, and fast.

“It’s nice to have my own space,” she continues, as he receives his beer and takes a long pull from it. “I’ve still got a few things around the apartment that need fixing.” And, like that she has his attention. Some alpha part of his brain perks up at the prospect of being useful, of providing for her. “I really should just call maintenance, but they make me kind of nervous, so I keep putting it off.”

Her light chuckle, even though it’s virtually nothing, barely even a real sound, does him in. “I’d be happy to help.”

Stupid, stupid—god, his life plan is going up in smoke the longer he stands here talking to her. He really needs to go find someone else to talk to. Maybe he can talk someone else into coming home with him, to erase her from his mind.

“What?” Beth looks sharply up at him, the straw falling from her perfectly shaped lips. “Really?”

No, no, no— “Sure, what do you need fixed?” Idiot.

“Um.” She just stares at him for a second, as though not entirely convinced he’s actually just offered to help her. Hell, Sean isn’t convinced, and the offer came from his own mouth. He should back out now, while he still can. “I, uh… the chain on my ceiling fan broke, and I’m too short to fix it. I don’t have a ladder, either, just a step stool, so…” Beth actually dabs, one hand coming up across her face. “That’s a thing. And I have a mirror that weighs more than I do—“

“So, nothing,” Sean smirks at her, and then sips at his beer when she gives him a droll look.

“Ha,” she says dryly. “Well, it’s too heavy for me to hang, so it’s just leaning against my bedroom wall.”

“That seems easy enough,” Sean says, and really, this is already going too far. He needs to make up some excuse and then go back to his rock solid, foolproof plan of being detached and mildly friendly with her. Instead, he says, “Shoot me a text whenever you’re free, and we’ll work something out.”

Lord above, he’s going directly to Hell, and he’s not even trying to stop himself.

“Okay!” Beth bounces on her heels, and Sean can feel his resolve slipping away into nothingness. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Sean swallows. “Happy to help.”

Beth opens her mouth, probably to say something else that will rust through is iron will, but before she can speak, someone else squeezes their way partially in between them. Sean immediately tenses up, the Alpha part of him gearing up to scare the other Alpha away, but he grits his teeth, and grips his beer glass like a lifeline. The woman is wearing a pink dress nearly identical to Beth’s, showing off some serious curves, and has an identical set of wings on her back.

“Hey, Court wants us to get pictures before we’re all too trashed,” she says. She spares Sean a glance, and he recognizes her vaguely as one of the costume girls from the show where he met Beth. “Hey, Sean.”

He has no idea what this woman’s name is, but he lifts a hand, and forces a smile. “Hey. Nice dress.”

“Thanks. Beth made it.” Her eyes flick back to Beth, and she slides a hand around Beth’s arm, the motion almost possessive, but without any sort of marking scent coming from her. “Ready?”

Actually, it looks as though Beth is not ready, considering the frown that crosses her face as she looks at her friend. It fades when they make eye contact, and she smiles, though it doesn’t reach her pretty, crystal blue eyes. “Sure. Okay.” She turns that smile onto Sean, and it brightens minutely. “It was great to see you. I’ll text you soon!”

“Bye!” He waves at her, and watches as she and her friend vanish into the crowd. He doesn’t even realize how tense he was until her scent fades away, and he feels himself relax.

The Scent of Love: Prologue

When Beth initially meets Sean, she thinks she’s cracked.

It’s the summer after her Grandmother has died— and perhaps that’s the crux of the problem, that she’s sad and lonely and busy dealing with all the after things that she wasn’t even supposed to be a part of. Maybe she skipped a dose of her suppressants without realizing it, or maybe it’s that he wasn’t taking his. Anything is possible.

At any rate, she certainly doesn’t expect him, when she presets his costume. He’s a sub at the theater she works at, hardly ever there, literally only stepping in for the day since he’s contracted elsewhere. It’s been so long since he showed up, though, that his garment bag only smells of cleaning chemicals and the musty, stale air of the costume trailer.

She didn’t expect, when she sat on the green room couch with her sketchpad to pass the time before show, that she’d catch his scent before he even reached the door. She didn’t expect to look up at the sound of a rich, deep voice, and feel the world recede around her.

In hindsight, maybe she should have had some suspicions. His costumes were made for someone downright enormous. Which, as it turned out, Sean was. Enormous, in an Alpha way, all broad shoulders and muscles, sharp angles and smooth skin, gelled blonde hair and striking green eyes, and—

God, his scent. Musky and a little spicy. Like autumn, like something she would gladly live in.

Beth’s pencil creaks in her hand.

You, her brain says when she sees him. You. And then, Oh, no.

It’s not like she hasn’t worked with alphas before. Performers run the gamut; it’s like a catch-all for everyone who isn’t entirely comfortable in their designation, plus all the people who are so comfortable with their designations that they use them to get type-cast, and—  well, it really is just a catch-all. Which means she’s certainly smelled other Alphas who have had pleasant, even attractive scents, beyond just the part where her brain is hardwired to find them relaxing.

Then again, her suppressants are so high, she shouldn’t be able to smell anyone much at all.

Fascinating. And terrifying.

Sean smiles at her when he comes in, and Beth returns it on autopilot, while trying to backtrack through her morning routine. She remembers taking her pills. She remembers the little green circle leaving her hand and going into her mouth. So she’s on her suppressant. Though it’s always iffy, according to the package, since it isn’t technically meant to be used as a blocker, but it always worked out for her in the past.

Sean walks past on his way to warm up in just jeans and a cutoff, deeply V-necked tee, cut so low that Beth can see… basically every inch of his torso.

Her pencil snaps in half.

“You good?” From his seat by the “community” tech desk, the audio guy, Josh, turns his head, frowning.

“Yeah,” she says, already pulling another pencil from her bag. “Just… may need to up my suppressants.”

“Ah.” Josh nods his head in understanding. “I have to, around some of the Crew Chiefs. No biggie.”

Kind of a biggie, Beth thinks, since she’s on the highest dosage of her current suppressants. Even Josh, an omega like her, smells bland. Clearly, she’s starting to slip into madness. Maybe she needs to change her meds entirely.

Beth— she can’t stand alphas. She can’t bear them, with their aggression and power plays, and that tone they get, that alpha push that makes her want to give in and be obedient and submissive and good. Stupid omega lizard hindbrain.

Watching the show from backstage is torture. Being in the green room is worse. Beth curls in on herself during intermission with her sketchbook, her circles and spirals rapidly taking shape into something she doesn’t want to recognize. Sean’s scent is everywhere, now, and if she focuses on it for too long, all she can think of is—

“Whatcha drawing?”

“No idea,” Beth shrugs without looking up at Sean, already covering the vaguely humanoid shapes with more spirals, until it clouds out. “Just warming up right now.”

“Ah.” Sean smiles at her again, and then vanishes into the men’s dressing room.

When Beth leaves that night, she feels like she can breathe again.

 

The second time she sees Sean, she knows she’s cracked.

She’s not sure what happened, honestly. She went to the local video game bar for their Halloween party, with her roommate, and caught his scent instantly. Moments later, he was handing her ass to her at MarioKart, then Brawl, and then something else she didn’t recognize, despite her valiantly putting up a fight for each game. They both had… probably a little more alcohol than they should have, and somewhere in the darkness of the bar and the drunken haze, he catches her scent.

Or maybe he just forgets to filter it out. Hard to say.

It doesn’t  matter now, really. One thing led to another, and, well. Here she is. In his apartment.

Naked.

Her suppressants may as well have taken a vacation. Sean’s scent soaks into her, pulling her deeper and deeper into that omega sub-space she detests, and she honestly can’t be bothered to care. It’s been years since she’s slept with an alpha; a decade, almost. It’s been months since she’s even had sex. Her inner omega is begging for attention.

Sean’s more than happy to give it to her. He gets bored with the movie he turned on (probably only to relax her), and he shifts beside her, a rolling of Alpha muscles that has her immediate attention. His lips meet hers from out of nowhere, and has her naked and over his shoulder moments later. Beth laughs, her mind fuzzy from the alcohol still lingering in her system.

They tumble to a bed as a unit, and Sean takes to kissing down her throat in a hot, wet blaze. Beth arches up to meet his lips, keening. She must seem so ready, so embarrassingly eager, and yet, she’s already so far gone, she can’t care enough to stop herself. She can barely stay still beneath him, her hands fumbling with the fly of his jeans.

“Steady, Omega,” Sean purrs.

Beth jolts back to lucidity, only managing not to actually cringe by sheer force of will. She hates being— being called that. She won’t call him Alpha, even if he smells like heaven and uses his mouth on her skin in ways that should be illegal. Even if the omega side of her screams for it.

His hand distracts her from her thoughts, drifting down over her hip and thigh. It reminds her of why she’s here, of what she wants from this.

A little more grounded, now, she reaches up, pulling his face down to hers for a kiss. She could honestly kiss this man forever. He’s damn good at it, all gentle nips and sweeping tongue.

His hand finally settles where she wants it, and she moans into his mouth.

“Fuck,” he murmurs against her lips. “You’re so wet for me.”

God, yes. Yes. She is. And it’s wonderful.

She’s wet enough that he can already push two fingers into her. Beth gasps at the sensation, the delicious pressure, not quite enough but amping her up nonetheless. Sean groans and adds another finger mere moments later, his lips brushing over the scent gland on her neck. Beth can only hold onto him for dear life, quickly falling back into that dizzying, distant sub space.

“God, I…” he doesn’t finish his sentence. He just pulls his hand from her, to her dismay, and tries to undo his fly with one hand. “Could you…”

It’s hard to track his words, when they ghost over her gland like this. Beth manages to catch on after a minute of staring dazedly at him.

Oh, god, she thinks, when she shoves his jeans down. Clearly, she’d forgotten how very large alphas were.

Will he even fit?

She’s panting, when she wraps her tiny fist around him. Her fingers don’t even close all the way. It should terrify her, and yet, she feels the rush of heat between her legs, and finds herself stroking him slowly, watching for his reaction.

Sean’s face is drawn and tight, his breathing heavy. It only takes a few strokes for him to pull her hand into his own, brushing his lips over hers. “Condom,” he announces, before leaning away from her.

Bless, she thinks mildly; at least one of them is being safe.

He rolls it on with practiced precision, and then bends down to kiss her again. She get so caught up in what his lips are doing, she doesn’t even notice himself lining up at her entrance, until—

“Fuck.”

There’s a split second of panic as she goes from empty, yearning, almost desperate, to completely full. Her mind stutters in that second, until the full force of Sean’s scent hits her.

Beth can feel her body go pliant, allowing him millimetres of give. Sean pulls her wrist to his lips and kisses the gland there, and she sighs, wrapping her legs around his waist. This is so much better than being with a Beta or another Omega.This is something right, something good, something she was made for.

“I wasn’t sure it was you,” Sean murmurs, guiding her arm around his neck and kissing the gland in the crook of her elbow. “The day we met. I thought I’d lost it.” He kisses her shoulder, her collarbone. “I thought about going home early. I thought about dragging you into the dressing room to find out if it was really you.”

Beth whimpers. Sean bites down softly on her neck, around her scent gland without actually biting it. The sensation is staggering. Her entire body tenses.

With a groan, Sean begins to move. Beth feels the air leave her lungs in a rush. This is incredible. This is better than any sex she’d ever had, bar none. In seconds, her omega is running the show, her mind going hazy from the pleasure.

Sean leans forward as he moves, pressing a kiss to her temple. Beth is too far gone to register it, to do more than arch her back and tighten her legs around his waist.

“I don’t have to knot you,” He says, his lips still against her skin.

Beth’s eyes snap open. “What?” Her omega is screaming under her skin, her glands pounding. “Why not?”

He leans back again, eyebrow arched. “Oh? You want me to—” he thrusts again, harder, and she whimpers— “knot you? To fill you up and—”

Beth’s mind whites out from the intensity of her orgasm.

“God— fuck—“ Beth doesn’t have time to ground herself before another wave of pleasure washes over her, and Sean— who was big in the first place— seems to get bigger inside her, his knot swelling up until— until—

There’s another split second of panic. He’s impossibly large, and something in her screams that no, no, it’s too much, you won’t be able to get away. It’s there, and then gone again, washed away by the waves of pleasure.

She can feel Sean’s lips by her ear, slipping down to her gland, bringing her right to the edge again. “One more. Can you give me one more?”

She doesn’t think she can. This is already more than she can usually manage during a hookup. Though this doesn’t feel like a standard hookup, anymore.

Sean drags the flat of his tongue over her gland. The noise she makes is mortifying. She clings to him as her thoughts scatter, incoherent, and her nails dig into the solid muscles of his shoulders.

“Just one more, Sweetheart,” he begs, and isn’t that interesting? Beth hadn’t known she could get amped up any further. And yet.

“Please,” she whimpers. “Please, I— I can’t, —”

“I’ve got you,” he purrs. “You’re okay. I’ve got you.”

It’s too much. He’s filled her beyond sense, locked tight and throbbing. Beth can barely breathe, she’s going to die like this, she’s— she’s—

Sean scrapes his teeth over her gland.

Her entire body just dissolves into pleasure. There’s an overwhelming sense of rightness, and then— nothing. Just empty sound as her thoughts shatter before they can even form.

“God,” Sean grunts. “Good Omega.” He kisses her cheek, her temple. Even her lips, parted and slack underneath his. “Good girl.”

She would love to kiss him back, but her body goes limp at his words, something age-old and bone-deep inside her going silent and sated.

He rolls them both over, cradling her on top of him, where she sprawls out. Her body hasn’t been this relaxed in ages. She’s never had an alpha hookup, and rarely repeat hookups, but damn. She’d love for this to happen again.