by Kathryn Moon
Baby + the Late Night Howlers
A Sweet Omegaverse
Kathryn Moon
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright @ 2019 Kathryn Moon
Baby + the Late Night Howlers, A Sweet Omegaverse
First publication: December 17th, 2019
Cover art by KellieArts
Font art by Lana Kole
Editing by Meghan Leigh Daigle
Formatting by Kathryn Moon
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Kathryn Moon
[email protected]
Kathrynmoon.com
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Contents
Trigger Warning
1. Baby
2. Baby
3. Scorch
4. Baby
5. Baby
6. Scorch
7. Baby
8. Baby
9. Bomber
10. Baby
11. Baby
12. Scorch
13. Baby
14. Baby
15. Baby
16. Baby
17. Baby
18. Scorch
19. Baby
20. Baby
21. Baby
22. Baby
23. Baby
24. Scorch
25. Baby
26. Baby
27. Baby
28. Bullet
29. Baby
30. Baby
31. Baby
32. Baby
33. Baby
34. Baby
35. Baby
36. Bomber
37. Baby
38. Green
39. Baby
40. Baby
41. Baby
42. Baby
Epilogue
Looking for more Sweet Omegaverse?
Character Glossary
Chapter 39 Summary
Also by Kathryn Moon
Acknowledgments
About the Author
For Kathryn, my Kathryn
Enabler supreme.
Trigger Warning
All in all, this book is deliciously sweet and sexy. Absolutely no harm comes to Baby from her wonderful men. That said there is some light triggering content in Chapter 39 such as violence and attempted sexual assault. If you find this content troubling, I recommend skipping Chapter 39 and referring to the summary you’ll find at the end, in the table of contents under “Chapter 39 Summary” at that point.
Happy reading and take care of yourself!
A note on Omegaverse: Aside from the unusual human biology, this Omegaverse is not a paranormal romance. These alphas, betas, and omegas are not shifters. This is an alternate universe to ours, with an alternate human biology that includes animalistic (particularly wolf-like) traits.
1
Baby
It’s not like this makes you a fucking unicorn, Baby, I told myself, careful to breathe through my teeth as my fingernail dug anxiously down the beer bottle label, shredding damp paper into ribbons.
The bar Lola had chosen for the night was a little rough for my tastes, clearly belonging to one of the city’s MC packs, and it absolutely reeked of alpha. The lighting was dim, the music was loud, the beer was flat, and alpha pheromones were flying through the air as the betas in attendance for the night did their best to satisfy urges. Lola had promised I’d find a beta I could mess around with when I’d called her up about going out for drinks. Generally, those were the kinds of places we went together, friendly neighborhood beta bars where everyone was there to scratch a quiet itch. It wasn’t until she pulled us into the parking lot that I realized she was in the mood for something a little…more assertive.
Here at the Devil’s Noose, the itches were loud, and they smelled like sex and gasoline.
Somewhere between the door and my second beer, I was discovering a very serious issue with being surrounded by all these alphas looking to get their rocks off.
Seventy-five percent of omegas start to perfume at puberty. Another twenty hit their scent in the next five years. And the last five percent? Almost every single one of them discovers their designation before reaching their twenties. It’s less than 0.01 percent who make it this far.
So, like I said. This doesn’t make me a fucking unicorn. I’m not the first twenty-something woman to suddenly find herself panting at the presence of alphas, and unexpectedly emitting an omega’s signature perfume in the biological hope of finding a mate.
I’m just extremely unlucky that way. Unlucky, and rare.
Of course, all omegas are rare.
“Damn girl, look at you,” Lola purred in my ear as she returned to the bar. She was leaning heavily against me, cheek nudging against mine, unconsciously scent-marking herself with my newly acquired perfume. Our hair mixed together over my shoulder, her bottle purple, my dark copper, the colors clashing. “You are getting so many looks right now.”
My heels on the barstool slipped, and I gripped at the edge of the bar, refusing to look up and make eye contact with whoever those looks might be coming from. I needed to get myself safely out of this bar, but I was so afraid of moving—of creating an omega perfume trail through the room on my way out—that I couldn’t bring myself to move an inch. Why couldn’t my perfume appear somewhere safe, like at a grocery store? Or a damn library? Why did it have to be a pack bar?
And not just a fancy, upscale, pack bar that served martinis and played light jazz. A grimey, rough, MC pack bar.
“What’s your plan?” Lola whispered, nuzzling in. Betas were cuddly. Betas were especially cuddly with omegas whose perfume they could adopt and grab a little extra attention from. Not that that was what Lola was thinking. She was just riding the high of what my biology had suddenly decided to offer, unconsciously stealing the scent that made an omega precious and imperative to alphas. “Just gonna stay here and wait for some handsome beta to come to you?”
“That’s the gist of it,” I lied, and behind us an alpha passed, leaving a sticky sweet flavor on my tongue that made me squeeze my thighs together and swallow a whimper.
I’d never minded alpha scents before. They were heavy and aggressive, and sometimes you just wanted to open a window and let the damn room breathe a little, but they’d never felt like this before. Like blankets of scent wrapping themselves around my skin, touching me intimately, even when they were in flavors I didn’t especially like. Like the passing alpha’s. His was too much like cough syrup.
“Well, good luck to you,” Lola hummed, dropping a kiss on my cheek. “I’m gonna go grab a dance partner and see if I can convince someone to get fresh with me.”
She left after another squeeze around my middle, carrying my scent with her. I had no doubt she’d find everything she was hoping for. Now, how was I going to avoid all of that?
“You alright, pr
ecious?”
I stiffened on the bar stool as a tawny, muscled arm propped itself on the ledge next to me. One twitch of my head in the man’s direction and I saw the leather vest out of the corner of my eye. Shit. A biker. And ooohhhh fuuuuck, he smelled like fucking apple pie, right down to the mouth-watering buttery pastry crust. All of a sudden, I wanted to plant my hands on the counter, throw my ass in the air, and whine for mercy until he filled me up with his—
“Holy shit,” he whispered, taking a step closer as I filled the air with needy perfume. “Precious, what are you doing here alone? Are you… is this your pack?”
I tried to swallow my own tongue and shook my head once, barely lifting my gaze to look at him. Oooh, he was pretty. Some wonderful mix of heritages with yellowy-green eyes and brown skin and dark hair that had whispers of red tones peeking through under the bar lights. He was a good height for me, I thought, and broad enough to prop me up against a wall and…
“Okaaayy,” he said, nostrils flaring and coming close enough to touch.
This was it then, I was about to get fucked by an alpha for real. Probably knotted. Maybe even mated. Just ‘wham, bam, welcome to being an omega’ all in the span of an hour or less?
“Hey,” he murmured, blocking out the room with his shoulders, his fingertips ever so slightly turning me on the stool to face him. “Hey, precious. You’re all right. Come here, take a whiff.”
My eyes flicked around the room, over his throat and leather vest, searching for an escape route that wouldn’t land me in more trouble. I knew the look he must have been seeing on my face, the utter horror, the terror, the unbearable need of being close to him. My knees spread for him, and he took the invitation, stepping in closer and bowing over me until his neck was just in front of my nose, tempting tart apple making my mouth water. Oh screw it, I’d take the knot and the bite and seal my fate. I moaned and pressed my face to his skin, sucking down a deep breath of that apple—
Oh.
Slowly, the building anxiety and desire and biological insanity of alpha-meets-omega settled, and the fog of craving cleared in my head. Yes, he had that perfect alpha scent on him, decadent and warm and comforting, but beneath that was the pure, clean bite of beta. With a hint of lemon.
“That’s right. You’re safe, okay?”
I sighed and leaned into him as his arms circled me. Now, I didn’t even mind the dizzy cloud of that alpha scent he was borrowing as it drowned me. I didn’t care if I was horny as all hell around him. As long as I wasn’t going to be spontaneously knotted and mated on my first night as an omega.
“I didn’t know,” I said against his neck. “It just… hit me.”
“Shit,” he whispered, and his hands stroked up my spine with such gentle care that I snuggled in deeper.
“This is your pack?” I asked. Because if this place was his, then that meant that alpha scent was around and maybe I could…
No, bad Baby, I snapped at myself.
“No, ma’am,” he said, and I smiled into the dark safety of his throat as he remained wrapped around me. “Had a little business here and now it’s done. You need an escort to your car? I should be coated enough to keep any trouble off your back long enough to get you out of here.”
Just as Lola had borrowed my scent, this beta had grabbed some from an alpha. Disguising your designation intentionally was illegal, but alphas tended to mark their betas and omegas pretty heavily. This guy was probably claimed and protected by that pastry dream alpha of his.
Without thinking, my fingers slid beneath the leather vest he wore, clutching to his side. “My friend drove and I…”
I didn’t want to tell Lola yet. I was an omega, and I’d only just discovered it, and that was a lot and… and Lola was one of those beta women who dreamed of just this very thing happening to them. Waking up one morning and discovering they were the rarest fraction of the rarest designation. I suspected it might break her heart to hear the news. I also suspected she might try to dress herself in my perfume just to get the fucking of a lifetime. She probably managed as much with what she’d already unknowingly grabbed.
“You… need a ride?” the beta asked.
I bit my lip, and he loosened his hold ever so slightly. I wasn’t stupid. Just because he was a beta, didn’t make this man harmless to me. He had an alpha’s scent on him. For all I knew, his alpha had sent him over to soothe me into a trap. I leaned back and tilted my head back to stare up into those green eyes.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
His smile was crooked with a dimple in the left cheek. “Seth. My brothers call me Bomber.” I raised an eyebrow at that, and he grinned. He had a crooked tooth in the middle of his bottom row, that tilted slightly over another. Even then, his smile was perfect. “After the jacket. Not a tendency towards explosives, promise.”
“Are you going to kidnap me and take me back to your alpha?” I whispered.
His face sobered, but he didn’t look surprised by the question. “Not even if he ordered me to, precious. Which he wouldn’t.”
I took in a deep breath and then looked around the room. With ‘Bomber’ still guarding me, I was less afraid at what I might see. It still wasn’t good. I was getting looks. This wasn’t Seth's pack, and even if he smelled like an alpha, he wasn’t one. The more time we spent here together, the more likely someone would figure out what was going on between us. As handsome and muscular as Seth was, my money was on a pack of alphas beating a single beta over an unclaimed omega.
“Left back pocket. Grab my keys and you can drive,” Seth said before I opened my mouth, ready to agree to go with him.
“A motorcycle?” I asked, eyebrows raised.
He grinned. “Pretty as you are, no one runs my bike but me, precious. No, it’s the dead of winter. My car’s in the lot. You drive. You go wherever you want to. And I promise to be a gentleman at the door.”
I slid my hand down from Seth's back to the ass of his jeans, blushing as my hand dipped into his pocket. Hmm. This definitely felt like a good ass. Seth smirked as if he could tell what I was thinking, and then my fingers caught on the loop of a key ring and I pulled them from the pocket, sliding off the stool. My body pressed against his and for a moment, Seth squeezed us together tighter, and the alpha scent lingering on him went to my head, making me want things I’d only really daydreamed of before. Things he couldn’t actually offer as a beta.
“Let’s get you out of here before someone takes a bite out of you, precious.”
His arm wrapped around my shoulder as he fitted me to his side, close enough to help distract from my scent. I kept up with his pace, my legs long enough to meet his stride.
“That’s not my name, you know,” I said as Seth's fingers dug slightly into my upper arm while we walked briskly through the bar, towards the security by the doors. They were alphas and we would have to pass close. As nervous as I still was, it was reassuring to feel that same tension in my escort. It mattered to him that I make it out safely. I gripped the car keys tightly in my hand and prayed that it mattered to him I make it home safe too.
“I guessed as much,” he said, crooked smile returning, even as creases of tension formed around his eyes. He glanced at me as we stepped between the two bouncers, into the hall leading to the exit. There was a couple fucking in the hall, the alpha filling the confined space with the scent of burning marshmallow as he pinned a beta to the wall. My knees wobbled as I walked. “What is it then?” Seth asked, holding my stare.
The woman against the wall whined, and my cheeks flared with heat as I realized it was Lola. She’d gotten her wish. And whoever had her pinned was smelling me on her.
“Baby,” I whispered, my voice tight in my throat. “My name is Baby.”
Seth's eyes went huge and he made sure to block me as we squeezed past the rutting couple. A short laugh escaped his throat. “You’re kidding?” I shook my head and he grinned. “Well… well.”
“I know,” I agreed, a giggle escaping. “My par
ents took one look at me and said to themselves, ‘Gosh, she looks like a-‘“
“Baby,” Seth finished for me, biting at his smile. He shouldered the door open and a gust of winter wind hit me, clearing my senses and making me shiver in my thin cardigan. Even as I braced myself against the cold, I grinned with chattering teeth at Seth who looked like he was about two seconds from busting out laughing. His smile relaxed as the door shut behind us, and the wind that cut between our bodies left me feeling like myself again, nothing in the air but winter.
“You are, you know,” he said softly, the hand around my shoulders drawing back and skimming his fingers against my cheek.
“A baby?” I asked, snorting.
“Precious,” he said.
He leaned forward and his lips brushed in the same place his fingertips had touched, teasing me briefly with that apple pie deliciousness clinging to him. His own lemony sharpness was clearer out in the fresh air, and I realized I liked the combination. More than that, I liked him. He was exactly the kind of beta I would’ve gone home with. If I hadn’t just discovered my designation. If he didn’t have alpha scent marks covering him head to toe.
“Car’s just there. Where we headed?”
I followed the point of his finger to a black Jeep with tinted windows at the end of the row of cars we stood in front of. Seth's hand surrounded mine and with a push of a button, the Jeep flared to life.