Paired With Fate

Chapter Seven

It was a strange sort of atmosphere that descended over the two men and one woman in the small, dilapidated hall, it was sort of heavy and thick with tension and mingling scents as the pheromones that could have easily been mistaken for cologne weaved through the air.  Olivia glanced curiously at both men.  It was well known that Omega's emit alluring scents while in lust, more so when they fell into heat, Olivia had experienced the former phenomenon a few times when she was the object of Ichiro's affections.  However, this was denser, not sickeningly so, but it wasn't affecting her libido in the slightest.  She suspected that was due to the other scent within the air.  That one made her feel suppressed; it was expressing both dominance and a warning.  It caused her to shiver with nervousness.  But she noticed its effect upon the Omega was far greater.

"Ichi, are you alright?" She asked of the man, who appeared to have turned to stone.

The Omega blinked and glanced at her with a slither of a nervous smile.  "Ah, Livvie... Oh let me just clean up this mess."  He fled towards the kitchenette and the cupboard where he stored the cleaning supplies.  From it, he grabbed a dustpan and brush and the mop and bucket.  He knelt before the shattered fragments of china and the pool of warm liquid, opposite Olivia, who was picking out the larger pieces.  All the while, he refused point blank to glance towards the Alpha man, who he was very much aware of.

Zee was not pleased about being ignored, but before he could shatter the shield that the Omega had thrown in between them, a resounding yelp pierced the air.   "Don't worry," Ichiro attempted to reassure Olivia, who had leapt up to retrieve the first aid kit.  "It's just a scratch."  Blood oozed down from a small slice in his finger.  Zee frowned, moving towards the Omega without thought, before squatting beside him and reaching to claim his wounded hand. 

"Let me see," Zee demanded, allowing for no refusal.  The red bead was not large, the wound not deep enough to cause much blood loss.  It would likely not bleed for long, but it marred the long jade fingers captured in Zee's firm grip. The Alpha brought the finger to his lips. Perhaps he thought to kiss the wound, like a parent did with a child or blow away the pain. Perhaps he just couldn't bare for the red essence leaking from the Omega to be wasted this way. But whatever his notion, neither Olivia nor Ichiro imagined that he would suck that finger between his plush lips and lick the wound within the cavity of his mouth. Ichiro felt as if he had been poisoned by the saliva upon Zee's tongue, for the blood in his body decidedly acted against the laws of nature, flowing in whichever way it will and finally descending to a specific spot attached to his lower body. A wave of dizziness followed the loss of blood in his brain; that was his excuse anyway.

"When you two have stopped flirting..."

"We are not flirting!" Ichiro claimed loudly as those words woke him from his stupor. He snatched away his tingling hand and leapt to his feet. Olivia's eye rolled heavenward as she wryly thought;  I think ye protesteth too much! Still, she passed him the first aid box without a word.

"What brings you here, Livvie," Ichiro asked, trying to ignore the man now standing behind him, despite it being impossible.  He told himself that he was not glancing at that man using peripheral vision because he was attractive, but because he was keeping an eye on him. He didn't want to be caught unawares by the man yet again.

"Mr Kotze, here, believes you are his fated pair," Olivia said, almost nonchalantly as she resumed to clear up the spilled mess upon the floor.

"Zandre Kotze, call me Zee," the man said, that deep voice causing a shudder to run down Ichiro's spine.

"Ichiro and I'm not your fated pair," Ichiro declared, firmly. He didn't turn to face Zee, didn't turn to meet the knowing gaze in his molten eyes, he wanted to say his piece without distraction. "If I was to have a fated person, that person would be a woman, not a man."