by Hannah Haze
His scent spirals around her, content and blissful, and she smells the way hers mixes with it, complementing it, as if their aromas were somehow always meant to belong together, entwined in this way.
The boat rocks gently and she stares up at the vast open sky, free at last.
Yes, this is what it is to be loved.
Epilogue
Two years later
The stadium rumbles with the hoards of fans chanting and singing, the structure vibrating beneath her feet as Cora squeezes along the row, Zach and Rose trailing behind her. She spots Noah’s dad waving at her, and weaves her way towards him.
“It’s so big,” Zach yells over the noise. “I had no idea the stadium would be this big, or this noisy.” He grimaces and Cora smiles, taking his hand and leading them to their seats. They are bigger and more comfortable than the fold-up ones the majority of fans have, but nobody is sitting.
Robert greets her with a peck on the cheek and the squeeze of her shoulders, then shakes hands with the others. He has a huge grin plastered across his face like an excited schoolboy.
“Full stadium,” he says, jerking his thumb above them. She turns her head and looks up, instantly dizzy from the thousands and thousands of rows of faces, and she snaps back around, snuggling into her thick coat and burying her nose in Noah's scarf. She'd pinched it this morning, knowing his scent would calm her later. She inhales it now, closing her eyes as the clock counts down and stirring music blasts out over the speakers.
“You will explain the rules, won’t you?” Rose says, leaning across Zach to get to Cora.
“It’s just like American football,” Zach tells her.
Cora shakes her head. “It’s not,” she says, but her voice comes out in a squeak.
"You okay, Cora?" Noah's dad asks, leaning into her.
"Yes," she says. "I just wish they'd start already — this build-up is driving me mad."
Robert nods his head as a roar erupts around the crowd. "Here they come now."
She scans quickly along the line of players snaking out onto the grass. There he is, in his freshly pressed kit, one of the tallest of the squad, his long hair scraped back in a bun. He looks neither nervous or excited but focused, and she knows in that moment it will be a good game for him. He's been on the bench the whole season, making the odd sub appearance, but this is his first start and they'd jumped around the kitchenette together when the manager had called to tell him.
Living together has been full of little moments like that — ones she wants to file away in her mind. Memories she knows she wants to keep and relive. A mixture of shared leaps around the kitchen — when she was offered a permanent position at Organised Omegas of the World, when they got the keys to their own flat — and the everyday routine of being together.
They make a good team. They both know it, and so does everyone else. He is her support, she is his comfort. They make each other happy.
“There he is!” says Rose, pointing towards him, and bouncing up and down on the spot. “Quick, get a photo Zach.”
Down on the grass, she sees Noah scan the box where the players' families sit until he spots her and catches her eye. Then it's as if every other person in the stadium melts away. It's just the two of them; he could almost be stood right there in front of her.
Good luck, sweetheart, she mouths. Go get them.
He places his hand over his heart.
I love you, he says, and she smiles. He smiles back, his eyes alight, hesitates, then fixes her eyes. Marry me?
Her face breaks with emotion, her whole body flooding with it, and she nods.
THE END
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The Alpha Escort Agency
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The Alpha Escort Agency
Chapter One
"Fuck it," Alice mutters, slamming the front door behind the quickly retreating back of the Alpha and closing her eyes in relief. Thank god he's gone. She stands there thinking for a moment, then rushes to the kitchen, flips open her laptop, and fires it up.
She needs to take a shower, really badly, change the sheets and clear up all this mess in the kitchen. I mean, what the hell has that dude done in here. It looks like he pulled open every cupboard door and helped himself to just about everything inside — including the very expensive chocolates her boss gave her for Christmas, which she'd been saving. He'd obviously been busy stuffing his face while she slept between their... yes, well... and yet he'd not once bothered to bring her a snack. In fact, she's bloody starving. She dashes to the cupboard and drags out the biscuit tin, cradling it onto her lap while the computer stirs into life and chomping on one, then a second and a third custard cream.
The clearing up can wait, she thinks, as she brushes biscuit crumbs off her chest and onto the floor. First, she is sorting this out once and for all, because there is no way, no way in hell, she is ending up stuck in heat with yet another deadbeat, arsehole Alpa. No way! And nor is she going to endure it alone with only a pathetically inadequate Alpha dildo to see her through the gut-searing cramps that always hit an Omega in heat without a good dose of Alpha cock.
No, next time she is going to be prepared and ready with a decent Alpha lined up, who will take care of her needs and, if what she's heard is true, her laundry too.
Alice types in her password and opens the web browser. She can't remember the name of the company — she'd only been half listening to the conversation at lunch that day when her boss, a fellow Omega, had whispered to them about how she'd hired an Alpha escort to help her through her heat. Maria had been full of questions, but Alice had dismissed it all. Yes, she'd heard of such services before, but really who needed to pay for such things when there was always a queue of Alphas more than happy to help an Omega in heat. Escorts were only for desperate Omegas. Why waste her money?
Except her boss, Lisa, is anything but desperate. Beautiful, successful and sassy, she is the type of woman in charge of her life and choices. The type of woman that makes people fall desperately in love with her.
The type of woman Alice is now determined to be.
No more last-minute dashes to a bar to pick up some random Alpha at the start of a heat, no more hurried scrolling through the Alpha/Omega heat matching app at three in the morning when she can't take it anymore. Nope, those things only land her locked in bed with some guy who stinks of liquor, or has the IQ of a banana, or can't tell the difference between a clitoris and an anus.
Occasionally it's been even worse than that. There had been one guy who'd been a little too rough for her liking despite her protestations, and another who'd cleared out her emergency stash of cash.
Google throws up a surprising number of Alpha Omega Escort agencies, although the majority, surprise, surprise, are for men seeking women or other men. There are only a handful for women. She scrolls down, chugging back a bottle of water at the same time, still thirsty from her heat. The Alpha hadn't gone once to fetch her something to drink, despite that being one of the necessities for an Omega in heat. The increased body temperature and vigorous, erm, sex means it’s easy for an Omega to become dangerously dehydrated.
When she replaces her glass and focuses back on the screen, she spots a name she thinks she recognises: The Alpha Escort Agency. Taking a deep breath in, she clicks on the link. The website is sleek and beautiful looking, with her marketing eye she can see it's been designed to appeal to a female clientele and is an expensive job. Somehow that reassures her — this isn't some fly by night, two bit outfit.
To her surprise, there are no photos of the Alpha escorts on the front page. It's like the classy sex shops she's been to in Soho: invit
ing but discrete. Although she wonders if the Alphas aren't pretty enough to put on the landing page. They are almost always hot - taller and more muscular than your average Beta and Omega, but sometimes Alice has to admit that they can look a little harsh, intimidating even.
Her brain spirals away down a rabbit hole. What kind of Alpha would want to be an escort? Sure, Alphas outnumber Omegas these days, which means there's lots of single Alphas out there. Some have resorted to hooking up with other Alphas or Betas. But she's pretty sure most Alphas have no problem with getting laid, so they wouldn't be doing this job for the sex. No, these men must do it for the money. They must be strapped for cash. Although working for a classy agency, rather than hanging about street corners or working in a brothel, must mean they earn decent wages.
The first doubts crawl in. These men must be creeps, right? There has to be something wrong with them?
She shakes her head. No! Lisa, much to her unease, had gushed about what a gentleman the Alpha who had seen to her had been. Handsome, well educated, good manners and an excellent cook.
She scans over the homepage text. There are promises of a discrete service, personalised to the needs of each individual client and differing packages with a range of prices.
‘Here at the Alpha Escort Agency, we understand the sensitive and intimate situation a heat can present. You want security, comfort and companionship. Whether you're looking for a regular companion to see you through your monthly heat or are in search of one off help, all our experienced Alpha escorts are trained to ensure you are well cared for. All personal preferences and desires catered for. Our escorts will even launder your bedding and cook your dinner.’
Alice peers around at her trashed kitchen and thinks that sounds like a winning idea.
She clicks through onto the different packages. Now there are pictures of the Alphas. All soft focus, nicely lit. They are dressed in fluffy boyfriend sweaters, smiling and laughing, or peering into the camera with a wistful longing that gives her butterflies in her stomach. The photographs are certainly a contrast to the ones the alphas usually post on their profiles — all topless, strained muscles and fierce faces — sometimes even a dick pic. Yuck! This agency has a much better idea of what women want — well, women like her anyway.
The premium, platinum, all singing, all dancing package doesn't even have a price listed, so she's pretty sure that is out of her budget. The next one down is pretty bank breaking. But after that it's not so bad. After all, she's a single woman with a good job, fast approaching her thirties who owns her own apartment, has company gym membership, no pets, no kids and no hobbies. In other words, she has plenty of disposable income. What is she going to spend it on if not this? Another singles holiday to a yoga retreat in Bali where she'll end up with a sore back and a bad case of the runs?
Yes, this is a much better investment. She pulls up the application form and fills it out. For a moment she considers using a false name, but, what the hell, she has nothing to be ashamed of. There's quite a bit of small print, but again she finds that reassuring. It's stuff about the need to vet clients in advance, including testing for STDs, and for clients and escorts to use protection. No communicating with the employees is permitted outside the arrangement, no recording equipment allowed during the shared heats and no requests for photographs of genitalia. Heats are to be shared at the client's home or one of the pre-approved hotels. Certain acts are banned, but she isn't even sure what half of those are. Finally, there's a promise to be in touch within twenty-four hours.
Alice hits send and heads for the shower, feeling pleased she's finally taking control of this mess that is her sex life.
◆◆◆
On Monday morning, Maria slides into her office between meetings and drags her out to get a coffee. Maria used to be the person Alice went out drinking and dancing with on a weekend but Maria has been happily cocooned in a relationship for the last eighteen months and now she lives vicariously through Alice, although Alice seems to spend more and more time working late or home alone.
"So?" Maria asks, bumping her shoulder into Alice's as they stand in queue.
"So what?" Alice says, suddenly keen to search her handbag for her purse.
"Oh, no! No no no!" Maria wags her finger at Alice wildly. "Don't give me that — details now please or I won't be your back up next time."
Maria and Alice used to have an arrangement. When either was in heat, they'd send details of the Alpha they were spending it with. It was a safety net, just in case things went wrong. However, Alice is the only one that's been making use of this arrangement since Maria hooked up with Ed and unfortunately that means she's the only one supplying all the gory details of hopeless Alphas and forgettable heats.
"I don't want to talk about it," says Alice with a mixture of a blush and a frown.
"That bad, huh?"
"Worse."
The tall man in front of them steps aside and they reach the counter.
"Hello ladies, what will it be?" asks the enthusiastic barista.
"Two frappuccinos." Maria glances at Alice and squeezes her arm. "And you'd better add extra cream and chocolate syrup in hers."
"Bad day?" the server asks sympathetically.
"Something like that," Alice grimaces, pinning a stray lock of her black curled hair back into her French plait.
When they're seated on one of the low walls in the courtyard between the tall tower blocks, Maria restarts her inquisition.
"Was it the sex?" she says, peering across the rim of her paper cup.
Alice dips her finger into the whipped cream, scooping some onto her finger and then sucking it into her mouth.
"No," she licks her lips, "just the usual jerk. Ate me out of house and home, yet failed to feed me once or even bring me a goddamn glass of water. I had to keep dragging myself to the bathroom."
"Bloody hell!" Maria shakes her head, her shiny red hair cut about her chin, shimmering as she does. "Who raised these Alphas? Why do none of them seem to know the first thing about heat etiquette? It's not that hard — especially considering what they're getting in return."
"I'm thinking of giving up on them altogether," Alice says, scooping up more cream.
"What, Alphas?" Maria stares at her, shock written across her face. "But going through a heat alone would be…" she shivers, "hell."
"Oh God, no!" Alice's brow crinkles with deep lines. "I mean random Alphas. No more hookups. I've signed up to the Alpha Escort Agency."
Maria nearly drops her coffee. "What?!"
"I looked it up and it actually seems the perfect solution for me." Maria examines her face, her mouth still hanging open. Alice turns her head to glance at her. "What?" She reaches out and shakes her friend. "Maria!"
"Well...I mean…"
"It worked for Lisa."
"Lisa is not a romantic."
"Neither am I."
Maria snorts. "Oh, yes you are. You just pretend not to be. I know you, Alice Turner." She reaches out and pinches Alice on the arm.
"Ow!" Rubbing her arm, she scowls at her friend. Her best friend, actually. They have been since they hit it off on Alice's first day of work, Maria assigned to show her round and kindly filling her in on all the office gossip.
"At all costs stay out of the path of Mrs Clackeridge." she'd advised wisely.
"Mrs?"
"Oh yeah. I don't even know what her first name is but she hates all of us young ones. Especially if you touch her precious stationery supplies without asking."
"Okay."
"And that's Pete. He seems friendly and sweet and will probably offer to help at some point over the next few days, but he's a mega creepy slime ball. Just tell him to go away. Oh, and that's Janet who is having an affair with Tanya. It's been going on for like a year and everybody knows about it but for some reason they insist on keeping it secret." Maria had shrugged after that, hooked her arm through Alice's and dragged her to lunch.
Now Maria rolls her brown eyes at Alice. "I don't
know why you don't try dating like everyone else."
"Because you know I'm not interested in finding anyone right now, Maria. The life plan."
"I know, the life plan," Maria mutters.
Alice ignores her and holds up her fingers. "Step one: Get marketing degree — tick. Step two: Secure position in one of the top three marketing agencies — tick. Step three: purchase own property — tick. Step four: land promotion and become an account director — yet to be accomplished. All this by the time I'm thirty and then I might think about dating." She wants her own life, her own security. She doesn't want to build her entire existence around another person, not like her mum had, because when that person is gone she’d have nothing left.
Maria rolls her eyes again. "Where's the fun in it, though? The spontaneity?"
"We aren't all lucky enough to have a flourishing career and find Mr Perfect, you know. So some of us have to take matters into our own hands and find other arrangements."
"Hmmm." Maria shifts on the wall and looks out towards the fountain.
"What?" Alice examines her. "What's up?"
"I don't know. Maybe Ed isn't Mr Perfect after all."
"What?" A slosh of coffee lands by Alice's feet as she flings her arms into the air. "He is."
"I don't know; things have felt a bit off lately."
Alice waits, but Maria says nothing more and she knows not to push her friend. She'll tell her when she's good and ready. Trying to force things out of Maria only results in her clamming up.
Alice sips her coffee. "So anyway. They've already matched me to a suitable escort."
This tugs Maria out of her reverie. "They have?"
"Yes. They've offered an introductory meeting before my actual heat to check I'm happy. Do you think I should meet him or just wait for my heat?"