An Alpha's Bond

twenty-one

   Fox wasn't adjusting as well as he could have been. He'd been with the pack for just a few weeks, but he hadn't been able to get used to anything that happened within the pack. Too much freedom and too little abuse. For the first couple of nights, he'd stayed in my bed and barely left my side— not even to stay with Onyx, who had been nothing but understanding and doting. It was adorable and made me jealous of what Fox already had, even if I knew my envy was selfish and immature. He didn't have to work for it like I did, he was already loved. It was stupid, and I should have been happy about it. I was, somewhere at the back of my mind.  Eventually, I would be even happier for him.
  "Can I stay in here again? Please?" Fox whispered, coming out from Onyx's bedroom for the first time in days. I sat up, reaching to turn on my bedroom light and looking at the other side of my room, Cova snoring. "I won't be loud I swear."
  "Come on," he grinned and came over to my bed like he was excited he got told he could do something. Almost like he had never been told yes before. "I thought you were starting to like him? Did he do something?"
  "I do... but he told me to leave his room and he smelled a little weird. Like the boys do every now and then at my old home." he shrugged, but I grinned and knew exactly what was going on. It hadn't happened with Hunter yet; I had been in heat but he hadn't had his version of it. "What's funny?"
  "He doesn't want to have sex yet. You know what heat and rut are, right?" he looked at me and nodded slowly, though he looked unsure about it. "Have you had your heat yet?"
  "Yeah... I had to hide for ages 'coz the boys could smell it."
  "Well, a lot of betas and alphas have something like that. Not as often, but something that makes them all horny and needy for sexual attention," he nodded, pulling the blanket up to his chest. "Some of them, usually alphas, have the urge to get their mates pregnant. Obviously, a lot of omegas can get pregnant too. They're pretty obsessed with the idea of pups in that state."
  "If they want it, why didn't he seem that interested?"
  "Probably doesn't want to scare you, and is only just starting his. Takes quite a bit to have that much self-control around your mate." he nodded, staring at the wall next to us. He did that a lot. "He doesn't want you to feel like you have to do that for him, which is why he told you to leave. The smell of it can trigger a lot of Omega's sense of smell, but you're probably not ready for that." he nodded again, not saying a word. I let him hug my side, not knowing exactly what the was or wasn't taught.
  "How long will he be like that?" he whispered after a long time.
  "Around the same time, we get heat for. Maybe a week. They don't really have tablets that help their side effects, but the symptoms come and go through the day. He will probably come and say hi every now and then, but might leave really fast because he will be able to smell you and it will flip that switch again."
  When he closed his eyes, I assumed he was trying to sleep, and went to turn off my tv to give him some quiet. His eyes weren't closed for much longer.
  "No... the quiet isn't right. Please don't turn it off." I nodded, scrolling down to the music channels as he shifted under the blankets. "It's never quiet at night. It should be like that."
  "Okay, I won't turn it off. It won't be too quiet, promise."
  "We slept with a lot of noise. It's only quiet if something's wrong."