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Desert Flower - Part I
🕑 Added 2022-07-27 23:51:56 +0000 UTCRating: ABO, Explicit, Alpha Kara, Omega Lena.
Description: Part one of the poll winner / the Old West AU. I had to split this in to two parts because it's long and I'm still adding to the other part. Going to post Part II tomorrow.
Tags: Lex is a horrible human being just as the prompt dictates, Gun fighting/ Smitten and innocent Lena who is very curious about her sexuality - leading to not so innocent exploration. Protective and chivalrous Kara.
This goes from sweet to filthy in Part 2, and the second part includes a very jealous Kara.
Word count: 9,831
From the cracked dry plains to the red-faced bluffs, the west was no place for soft people—just swindlers and coarse folks, the kind with guns strapped to their hips.
It took a train of ten wagons to carry Lena Luthor far into the desert, and she was the only omega in the company of the working alphas and cowboys that saw to her safe passage. They wore bandanas to protect their faces from the dusty wind and to hide their identities, and Lena was forbidden to speak to them during the trip. The tender, quivering throat of an unclaimed omega was too much of a temptation, and Lena was no ordinary omega. She lived in the shadow of the Luthor Company, run by her brother Lex, and his working alphas were to deliver her to his home.
Lena had spent the first eighteen years of her life in Europe under the tutelage of a well-known governess before her ambitious older brother moved to the Americas. At nineteen, Lena had taken a ship to join him in the ports of New York, and Lex provided a home for her there until she reached marriageable age. She entertained many suitors, but none were worthy of her throat and the Luthor bloodline. Lex assured her of that. He kept her in fine clothes—the prettiest dresses from Paris, hats made of furs from the north, petticoats, and buttoned boots, and all of the things her heart might desire. She appreciated his taste, though lurking under his generous spirit was a violent and critical nature. Over the years, Lena learned not to cross him, and that she should speak meekly, lest his eyes turn hateful and his rage boil into the veins on his face. He turned red whenever he shouted at her, and she had the habit of softening her voice to a whisper around most people.
The only person Lena had to talk to was Alexandra Danvers, a beta that her brother hired to ensure she would arrive unharmed. Alexandra had all the skills of a governess, but could also stitch a man up. She acted like an alpha, wore pants, and carried guns.
On the sweltering hot nights when Lena slept in nothing but her slip, Alexandra perched on a stool at the end of her caravan and worked at polishing her six-shooter or cleaning her boots.
Prairies stretched on ahead of them and Lena marked down their days of travel in a little diary she kept close. She once filled the pages with innocent love stories. Every tale featured a hero, and one afternoon, she heard Alexandra scoff upon picking up the book and noticing her hand-written romances.
“Why are you laughing?” Lena naively asked and tore the diary from Alexandra’s hand to press it against the side of her skirts. “Don’t you believe in love?”
Alexandra pulled an apple from her back pocket, shined it, and passed it over to Lena. “Not in the slightest, and you won’t believe in it for long, either. We’re headed to a place where little flowers can’t survive. Be a cactus.”
Lena repeated that advice to herself throughout the afternoon, and much later when one of the working alphas snatched a piece of bread right out of her hand.
He growled at her with a turned-up lip and walked off with her food before she could recover.
“I’m capable of being prickly,” Lena whispered and pulled a shawl tighter around her shoulders as the wind picked up. “I shall learn to be like a cactus.”
Part of her upbringing involved following the habits of a lady, but Lena knew that those habits didn’t always serve her best when dealing with people who were scoundrels. She tended to be the compassionate sort and others often mistook that for weakness.
The subject of her traits came up in conversation between the workers and Alexandra at a time of the night when she was segregated from the rest. Lena eavesdropped from the bed of the wagon, curled up beside a barrel of water.
James Olsen was the first to mention her over a pot of gruel he shared with the others. “Miss Luthor is a soft thing—not like that brother of hers.”
“Betcha she can’t even fire a gun,” remarked one of the scrappier alphas called Michael. “If she got separated from us, she would be left for dead. Probably just sit in one spot waiting for someone to rescue her.”
Lena viewed those comments as an insult on her nature, and the next morning, she borrowed Alexandra’s hunting rifle without asking. In her fine leather boots and her frilly skirted dress, Lena walked around their camp with a rifle pressed to her shoulder and shot at a grazing buffalo from a distance of eight hundred yards.
The large animal dropped on the dusty plain and Lena glanced other her shoulder at all of the open-mouthed workers.
Several of them removed their hats, and Lena for once addressed them directly, breaking all of the rules. “The camp has been without meat for days now because your hunting efforts failed. I thought I would be of help.”
The scent of alpha shock was rather pleasing to Lena’s senses. She smiled to herself as she moved through the camp to return Alexandra’s rifle.
Alexandra looked at her differently from then on, and even told her stories of her new home in California. The place was bustling with life, unlike the stretches of land they covered to arrive on the golden coast. The working alphas spoke of plans for a railroad to carry people farther out west, and she wished it would have been built before her trip.
The final leg of their journey was much more fraught with danger, and Alexandra spoke of bandits nearby — but the hired hands managed to deliver Lena to her brother’s home without any trouble.
On the afternoon that they reached their destination, the sun was shining high. Lena ran into her brother’s arms as their wagons came to a stop, and Lex wrapped her in a heavily possessive scent.
“My dear Lena, I’ve been waiting for this moment.” The bizarre twinkle of warning in Lex’s eye was just as unsettling as his firm hand on her back.
Alexandra was the only one of the workers admitted into Lex’s house, and Lena could sense her wariness as they moved inside from the veranda. Lex led them into a lounge and took off Lena’s shawl, drawing it first from one shoulder and then plucking it off as he spun her around. He pushed two fingers under her chin to raise it up, inspecting her untouched throat with approval.
Lex caressed her cheek, disturbing her with his sickening pheromones that informed her of his intentions before he even spoke. “Miss Danvers, I will pay you the amount we agreed upon for delivering my mate without a single mark or blemish on her throat.”
Had they been alone together, Lena feared that his hand on her neck would become tighter. She must have smelled like terror and despair.
Any sensible person would have taken their pay and left her—but Alexandra did not. She cleared her throat and drew up alongside Lena with the most aggressive pheromones a beta could muster.
“What do mean by mate?” Alexandra intoned severely, her hand poised on her gun holster. “Miss Luthor told me that she’s your sister.”
“I am your sister,” Lena muttered and wriggled free of her brother’s grasp, ashamed by how he grabbed her again, this time much harder.
“No one knows of our relation through our father, and even that is just a speculation rather than fact,” Lex disclosed as he lorded his strength over her and glared at Alexandra. “There isn’t another omega around with Lena’s superior intellect. Not even a single alpha in this town could match her toe for toe in a competition of wits. I decided long ago that she would share my house, which is why I invested so much money in her. You would do well not to mention this to anyone and tell your workers to keep their mouths shut, or I will retaliate by bringing a duel against their households. That Mr. Olsen has a pretty sister, doesn’t he?”
Alexandra pulled her gun at that and pointed it at Lex, unflinching and ready to shoot.
Lena was in the way, and she let out a soft cry as Lex also raised his pistol. She struck her brother squarely between the eyes and rushed off into the streets to the sound of gunshots.
Dust kicked up with the swish of her skirts as she ran blindly, almost falling over a man who lay drunken by the wayside of a saloon. It was hardly the kind of place a lady ought to enter, and for that reason Lena pushed through the swing doors in a state of anguished shock.
“Please, I require help–”
Lena’s voice was too soft to carry in the ruckus of the saloon and her attention shifted onto a stout man who played the piano. The notes he struck were fast and precise, but the jaunty tune seemed discordant with such violence happening outside the walls.
She turned on her heel as a few alphas who were playing cards began to cuss at their table. Skittishly, she fled to the bar where a grizzled old beta peered at her with suspicious eyes. His moustache twitched when he noted her pristine throat and Lena snatched a bandana off a stool to tie around her neck.
“Hey, that don’t belong to you!” a gruff voice snarled by her side.
Apologies and excuses stuck in her throat, and Lena gasped as an alpha punched a man off his seat.
She staggered back as a brawl broke out due to her quick thievery, and then darted to a staircase that she dared not venture up. A lustful alpha ran up the stairs with a pretty little harlot, who winked at Lena as she passed.
The scent of cigar smoke and whisky was a noxious combination with such rowdy and aggressive pheromones in the air. She hunched over with a quiet sob as she thought of Alexandra and the fate she was about to face at the hands of her own brother.
A fainting spell almost took the legs from her, and she clutched the rail with all her might.
“Where is she?” Alexandra yelled, her frantic cry announcing her presence before she barrelled into the saloon. Blood soaked through her sleeve, drawing the attention of everyone in the establishment.
A moment of silence passed, and then the commotion kicked up with music and chatter, as if this was a usual occurrence.
“Right here! Golly, you’re a sight for sore eyes.” A tall, blonde alpha stood up from a table in the back. She greeted Alexandra with the kind of smile that could dazzle an omega and strode over to pull her into a hug.
Lena watched the happiness drain out of the alpha as concern knitted her brows together. She held Alexandra by the shoulders to inspect her for injury, then grabbed a glass of liquor and a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe away the thick blood that seeped from Alexandra’s arm. “What happened? Did the bandits finally get you?”
“It was Lex,” Alexandra hissed and snatched the shot glass out of the alpha’s hand to knock it back with a grimace. “Listen to me, Kara. We have to leave. We need to pack up everything and get the hell out of town with his–”
“That man has plagued us all since he rode in here, and now he’s threatening our family? I told you he was bad news,” Kara lectured, her jaw working as she chewed the words before finally spitting them out.
“You don’t understand–”
“The hell I don’t. He’s dueled six alphas since you’ve been gone. You think anyone is going to be left if we just run out of here?” Kara’s agitation brought her hand to her pistol, and she unlatched the holster like she planned to finish whatever trouble Lex had started.
Lena raised herself off the staircase to scurry after the heroic alpha. She made it six paces, but no further as Alexandra caught her about the waist.
“If he sees you, he’ll burn this place to the ground,” Alexandra spat.
“And if he doesn’t, he’ll kill you both, and I won’t have that,” Lena hissed, unable to do little else except stand by the window, where others began to drift to watch the chaos outside.
The scoundrels Lex paid to keep in his pocket were tearing up the town in search of her, and Lena was sickened to see the monster he had become. The power he accumulated over the years must have corrupted his mind, and he lorded it over everyone mercilessly.
From her safe point, Lena could see Kara’s proud strut, and the defiance in her stance when she came to stop in the middle of the street. The alpha held her head high and fixed her hat with the tip of her finger as Lex sneered at her from fifty yards away.
“Mr. Luthor, it seems the time for being cordial has finally come to end.” Kara’s words were easily heard now that the saloon was eerily silent. She kept her hand hovering above her holster and never took her eyes off of Lex as he postured.
Lex dusted off the cuffs of his jacket and flashed his teeth in a smile that conveyed nothing but disdain. “Right you are, and I look forward to dealing with you in the morning. Why don’t you spend your last night enjoying yourself while I handle far more important business?”
“I don’t need the light of a blistering sun to cut you down where you stand. You and I can settle this right now.” Kara stood her ground without so much as flinching, and some of the alphas paused in their mission to find Lena to observe the altercation.
“Only a keen strategist or a fool would be willing to rush into a duel to the death, and you, Miss Danvers, are frankly outmatched, “Lex scoffed, his sharp eyes falling to some of his men that dutifully laughed along with him.
His mirth was snuffed out the second Kara remarked, “All I hear is that you’re too coward to face me.”
Lena expected the gunshot, and yet she still screamed as Lex fired off a round without first dignifying it with a warning. She shook in Alexandra’s arms, her tears blurring the sight of Kara still very much alive as she dove behind a wagon and fired back.
The only law that seemed to matter in the west was that of the duel, and Lena understood that no help could be had by any party. She could scarcely breathe as her brother stalked forward with his pistol raised and shot several rounds in Kara’s direction.
“Alexandra will make such fine company for my men. I’m certain they’ll break her in before you’ve gone cold in the dirt,” Lex bragged, hoping to lure Kara out of her position with cruel and disgusting taunts.
“Nobody is going to cry for you when this is over. All you brought to this town was corruption and fear,” Kara snarled, popping off a shot by Lex’s feet. She had him dancing backwards as she advanced and switched out her pistol with more finesse than Lex himself possessed.
He growled at Kara’s audacity and lurched for the revolver strapped to one of his guard's hips. The heavy weight of it meant his aim was off by a fraction, and he unloaded all six bullets with a deranged and grotesque smile. “I brought prosperity. You’re not even worth the money to bury.”
“Good thing that grave was meant for you,” Kara grunted, the whole street covered in gun smoke as they continued to fire at one another.
The deafening sound finally stopped a few moments later, and Lena fled out of the saloon without a single thought of self-preservation in her head. She heard the raspy gurgle of her brother trying to speak as he bled out in the dirt, and she turned to find Kara on her back with a blossoming stain taking over her shirt.
“Get back indoors!” Alexandra demanded and shoved Lena towards the safety of the saloon. She fell to Kara’s side, her usually steady hands trembling as she cupped the alpha’s face.
“I think I saw an angel,” Kara groaned, her eyes rolling back as she slipped into unconsciousness.
“You’re not dying, you hear me? I’ve lost enough. I’m not losing my sister, too,” Alexandra shouted as several of the townsfolk ran out to help drag Kara inside.
They shoved all of the glasses off a large wooden table and laid Kara out on her back. Lena pushed through several people to watch Alexandra pour whiskey over Kara’s open wound and sterilize a needle with a candle flame. With neat handiwork, Alexandra cleaned and stitched the wound.
Kara remained still and ashen, her lips parting in a weak breath that she drew in more sharply as she opened her eyes. “I missed you so much.”
Alexandra lurched over and hugged her sister without getting too close to any of the wounds. “I missed you, too. We shouldn’t move you just yet. Relax here and I’ll take care of everything.”
Lena gaped at the commotion around them, and how Lex’s henchmen gathered around to offer their service to the Danvers sisters. Her brother’s estate and all of his possessions belonged to Kara now, and apart from laying him to rest, the townspeople seemed willing to do little else for him.
“What should we do with Miss Luthor?” James asked, sweeping his hat off as he glanced to Alexandra for leadership.
“Get her settled in next door, and then come back to help me lift Kara over,” Alexandra directed, handling all of the arrangements for transporting her sister to Lex’s home, which was the finest in town.
Lena stayed out the way, knowing she could trust Alexandra, but not fully certain what her future would hold.
James escorted her back to the house she fled earlier, and Lena retreated to the rooms that were decorated like an omega’s boudoir. Much later, around dusk, a servant came to call on her. She bathed in a proper tub with soap and water and slipped into a whispery light dress with little cap sleeves. The summer heat was oppressive that night, and Lena headed down to the front of the house to breathe in the cooler night air. She came upon Kara in the sitting room, sprawled on one of the divans with her legs up and her torso half bared.
“Oh, hello,” Lena muttered, surprised to meet her savior in the near dark. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“It’s no trouble at all,” Kara replied and moved comfortably into an upright position. “My sister just went to the kitchens to get my supper. She won’t stop fussing over me. I told her I’m fine.”
Lena eyed the cloths wrapped tightly about the wound and stepped closer as she peered at Kara’s defined abdomen. “Those bandages prove otherwise.”
Though they didn’t address it, Lena assumed that her claim would pass naturally into Kara’s hands—but she had no knowledge of Kara outside of the few tales she heard from Alexandra during the trip.
Kara exuded a relaxed strength, and Lena paused to look over every feature—from the loose pair of boots Kara wore to the casual way she crossed her muscular arms.
“Don’t go siding with her now,” Kara quipped and kicked her feet over the side of the divan to place them on the floor.
“No, my loyalty will always be to you from this day on,” Lena insisted with a scrunch of her brows as she wandered closer to sit near Kara. “You saved me, and you haven’t tossed me out yet. Do you mean to keep me?”
Kara blushed as they shared breathing space and glanced down at the skin that peeked out at the top of Lena’s dress. “Of course I will. I would never remove you from your own home.”
Lena folded her hands primly over her lap and nodded. She wondered if they would be married, or if Kara would be satisfied to claim her without following any polite customs.
It baffled her when Kara stood up without discussing it and grabbed a crumbly bit of cake that rested on a cloth. “How about I take you for a ride? I always find it makes the burdens of the day easier to bear.”
“Oh, no, you mustn’t,” Lena protested and hurried to take Kara’s hand. The toughened alpha apparently had no sense when it came to her well-being. “The farthest I will let you go is the little seat on the porch.”
Kara surprised her with a laugh instead of an argument and grumbled just enough to keep up appearances. “Now how am I supposed to show you around if I can’t leave this darn property?”
“I’ve heard enough about this town from Alexandra to have a rather clear image in my mind. There’s no sense in pulling a stitch over it.” Lena helped her through the front door and into the wooden seat out front.
There was plenty of space upon the oak, though she hesitated until Kara extended an invitation by patting the space beside her.
“You see that spire over yonder?” Kara pointed, her smile growing as she turned to Lena. “Just beyond is a little place I liked to call home. Built it with my own two hands when this town wasn’t really much of anything yet. Folks from all over started to show up when Lex did.”
The mention of her brother brought a sickness to Lena’s stomach, and she clasped her hands about her waist as the nausea persisted. “His ambition robbed him of his decency along the way. I hardly recognized him when I arrived. If not for Alexandra, and you–”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that,” Kara insisted with a deliberate inflection as she changed the subject to spare Lena any trauma. “But don’t go thinking we’re all like him out here. We’re more than just gunslingers and cowboys.”
It was noble to refuse any praise, though it baffled Lena as she stared at Kara with curiously wandering eyes.
Alphas were known for their pride and posturing, and here one was that had taken a bullet and freed Lena all in one swoop.
“I have no doubt,” Lena whispered as she slipped her slim hand into Kara’s once again.
“What did I tell you about resting? You want that wound to tear open and fester?” Alexandra griped as she swung open the door. The tension on her brow lessened as she noted Lena was with her sister.
Kara snatched her hand back so abruptly that Lena almost gasped in offense.
Kara looked positively spooked and blinked up at Alexandra as she muttered, “I’m only sitting on the porch.”
“Well, you had best get your ass inside if you want your supper,” Alexandra sassed, offering no help to her sister as she slid her gaze to Lena and stepped back indoors.
Lena delicately placed her hand on Kara’s forearm and assisted her in standing up.
She could feel the stirrings of a mutual attraction in those first touches, and it was one that they both cultivated over their evening meal. She took up the seat beside Kara’s at the dinner table and remembered all that she had been taught about the etiquette of romantic courtship.
For the next week, whenever any reasonable need presented it, Lena tended to her future mate. She fawned and laughed and considered herself fortunate for making so wholesome a match. Had her brother sparred against another kind of alpha, she would have either been dispossessed of her property or otherwise stripped.
Kara made her intentions clear with friendly little gestures, like pulling Lena’s chair back or tipping her hat when Lena entered a room.
Decorum forbade an omega from bringing up the subject of her claim. Lena suspected they would converse about all of that in private once Kara had healed—but the days passed into months, and Kara resumed all kinds of physical labor without ever mentioning the secretive acts they would share once they mated.
It was not Lena’s place to interfere, though she did begin to feel anxiety about her status in Kara’s eyes. She arose one morning and instructed a servant to lace her into a corset. Underneath her lightest prairie dress, the garment pushed at her bosom most immodestly, and she neglected the ruffled shorts that should have been part of a respectable wardrobe. She snatched one of Kara’s hats from its resting spot by the door and went out to the fields where their horses grazed.
“Kara!” Lena waved and held her breath until the precise moment.
Kara whipped her head around, dropping the saddle in her hand as Lena exhaled and flaunted her breasts.
The other alphas who were helping Kara at work had a similar reaction. They looked more stunned than when Lena surprised them with her good aim and shot a buffalo. Every one of the alphas took off their hats to wipe the sweat from their faces as Lena ran by.
“I must have your opinion on a new dress,” Lena insisted and grabbed for both of Kara’s vacant hands. She lowered her voice and pressed closer still with the concern that everyone was still gawking and listening. “I also hoped you could assist me with a more discreet matter. Won’t you accompany me across town?”
Kara started to nod, and Lena stooped to lift the saddle, demurely holding onto her mate’s leg and peering straight up at her. She was practically on her knees with her breasts out, and she blushed as she handed back the heavy leather for Kara’s mount.
“Luck would have it that I have an errand near the tailor’s shop.” Kara placed the saddle over her bronze horse and climbed up to pull Lena into the space in front of her.
Lena leaned forward to pat the horse’s neck as if naïve of how it would look. She cooed at Streaky, the large mustang, and fed him an apple that she had tucked into her dress. Her pampering of the animal was a distraction from all of the attention she was receiving.
“I do so appreciate the chance to spend time with you,” Lena intoned, and then sat upright, startling herself when she went too far and pushed her bottom against the seat of Kara’s britches.
It felt like backing into a fence post, confusing and solid and just as wide. She couldn’t resist her eyebrows pulling inward in distress, or how her face turned pink and she glanced behind her just to be sure that she was in fact colliding with Kara. It would have pacified her if she been looking down at Kara’s thigh, but that was not what prodded her. She turned sharply and didn’t move or breathe again until Kara seized the reins and the horse galloped onto the road.
Her life in Europe should have better prepared her for the occasion of accidentally rubbing up against an alpha’s erection. She had learned much about it from omegas in Corrèze, who giggled about their marriage prospects and how they seduced their mates with sweet kisses—not upon the lips.
“Kara, have you ever had a sweetheart?” Lena asked, wondering if she could ease them into a discussion of mates and romance.
“There was an omega I liked a long while back, but nothing ever came of it.” Kara shrugged as she rode along the dirt road headed to town. She kept them at a gentle pace, her hands poised on the reins and forearms tucked against Lena’s to steady her.
“Really?” Lena asked with an unsurpassable amount of jealousy in her voice. She swallowed her pride in favor of prying and kept her hands on the saddle as she squeezed the leather in vexation. “Why ever not?”
“Well, her paw didn’t like me, on account of how I handled a situation where her pigtail got caught in the clasp of her dress. Apparently cutting her hair to get her free wasn’t the right move. Her mother wasn’t pleased with me, either, come to think of it.”
It was a good thing Lena faced away from the alpha, because her features surely would have shown her confusion. She puzzled over the facts she had been given and then pressed her lips together as a smile began to form at the corners of them. “Kara, what age were you when this happened?”
“Oh, we couldn’t have been more than twelve. Last I heard, her family moved up North,” Kara muttered, oblivious to how endearing Lena found that information.
With proof that Kara was not accustomed to wooing omegas, Lena experienced a passing sense of relief. At least she had done nothing to upset her future mate.
It still troubled her mind that Kara was so careful when it came to touching her. If they were to make any progress at all, Lena would have to ensure Kara could get closer to her. She would concoct some excuse to sit in Kara’s lap, wear fewer articles of clothing in her mate’s presence, and perhaps even visit her bed.
She had yet to go into heat, though her body was giving plenty of suggestions of sexual readiness, and she sensed she should prepare. Most of the time, Lena was restless with want of a mate’s touch, and she noticed a change in the sensitivity between her thighs when she began living with Kara. She should have worn riding trousers or her ruffled underthings, but none of the seductresses in her stories would have gotten far if they wore as many layers as she often did.
“You must be awfully lonesome,” Lena remarked at a delay and sulked that her pheromones were still a little too soft to entice Kara. “You have the room nearest to mine and I can tell you’ve had some sleepless nights as of late. Is it the summer heat that bothers you or is it a lack of companionship?”
“The heat,” Kara sighed and wiped her brow with a cloth she took from her pocket. “Now that you and Alexandra are in town, I never feel lonesome.”
Lena hated to be grouped in with Kara’s sister and wondered if she had wildly misunderstood her situation.
Kara swung down from the saddle before she could inquire, and Lena provided some temptation by ensuring that Kara’s hand came in contact with her bottom while helping her down.
“Speaking of Alexandra, it was she who insisted I have new clothes.” Lena gestured to the tailoring shop and put out her arm for Kara to accompany her inside.
“I’m in need of new britches myself,” Kara disclosed more to her own chest than Lena’s face, as though embarrassed to speak of such things in front of her. She held the door open for Lena to pass through first and followed her inside.
The seamstress that ran the shop appeared from the back room in a dress that drew Lena’s eye. The bodice was cinched about her waist and the flow of the gown was far less restrictive than her own.
“Oh, Miss Danvers, have you finally brought me this beautiful girl to dress?” asked the seamstress, her smile appraising as she stepped forward to take in the sight of Lena. She ushered her forward with expectation and cast her eyes to Kara when she coughed rather abruptly.
“I’m merely a chaperone that requires a pair of new pants, but please, do tend to Miss Luthor first. I won’t have her waiting on me.” Kara waved them off with her hat and then woodenly stood by the shirts that hung alongside waistcoats and suit jackets.
Lena pouted at how Kara tried to distance herself as a mate, but she hid it well as she dipped her chin to her chest. She wouldn’t disgrace herself by saying anything untoward, though her breaths were certainly sharper as she was walked towards the finer items in the shop.
The seamstress introduced herself as Mercy Graves and tried to comfort her as they moved out of Kara’s earshot. “Don’t you go taking her foolishness to heart. Everyone in this town can see how she longs for you. Why don’t we give her another reason for that?”
Miss Graves took the liberty of lifting up one of the prettiest corsets and raised a questioning brow as Lena blushed.
“Are you certain the right garments will work?” Lena wondered, and put her trust in the seamstress, who coaxed her into the back room to begin unlacing her dress.
“Darlin’, if alphas were half as smart as they are strong, I’d be out of business. The right dress is all it takes to make them realize what’s been in front of them the whole time.” Miss Graves laughed and began the process of fitting Lena for beautiful bodices and gowns.
Lena paraded around the shop in a sweet floral dress with sleeves that hung off the arm. Miss Graves loaned her a delicate choker that would bring Kara’s eyes to her unclaimed neck. She sashayed and twirled in each gown and hoped that Kara would like the look of her.
It hurt her feelings when Kara instead sat near the door and occasionally wandered out of it.
Lena interpreted the behavior as disinterest and boredom, and decided to force a little participation out of the alpha who had won the rights to her.
“This seems like a dress for dancing. Won’t you try it out with me?” Lena beckoned with an outstretched hand and smiled when Kara joined her at the center of the room.
Kara placed her arms awkwardly around Lena, and she did her best to re-arrange them in a configuration that was more intimate.
“There is a dance comin’ up,” Miss Graves called from the next room, smiling at the terrible shuffling of their feet and the two foot separation that Kara maintained between them. “Might want to get a little closer, Danvers. No need to leave all that extra room.”
“I don’t want to step on the lady’s toes,” Kara argued, though she moved in and clutched Lena more tightly to lead their dance.
Lena became a useless, fluff-headed omega in the cowboy’s capable hands. She pressed as close as she dared and stared at Kara’s lips in distraction.
It so happened that Alexandra was in town paying a visit to someone, and she entered the shop around the time that Lena grew bold enough to lay her head on Kara’s shoulder.
Alexandra stayed back and observed them with a smile. “I see you’re finding everything you’ve been needin’ in here.”
Lena made the dance last for as long as Kara would humor her. She breathed in a musk unlike those possessed by any of her former suitors. The aroma reminded her of rain on parched earth, natural and soothing.
She took refuge in Kara’s strong posture and muscular build, comparing between their statures to find herself at no more than chin height. It would be a source of frustration to her, because it meant she would have to pull Kara’s face down to hers if she ever hoped to kiss it. She contemplated the improprieties of bringing their lips together in the shop and nearly fell forward as Kara stepped back.
“We‘ll take all of the dresses you showed us, and we would like to order those other corsets you mentioned to Miss Luthor when you were measuring her.” Kara pointed to the boning that would tighten around Lena’s figure.
It seemed that the rascal had been paying attention to her, after all.
Lena narrowed her eyes as Kara gathered up the boxes with the dresses.
“Did you buy new britches?” Alexandra inquired as she browsed around at the hats and jackets.
“Oh, I’ll come back for that another day,” Kara insisted, and made her way out with the large boxes that suspiciously covered her from the waist down. “Are we ready to head on home now?”
“Can we visit the General Store?” Lena whispered and took care to lower her voice even more as she confided her needs in Kara. “It’s just that I should enter my heat soon. I’ve never been in heat before, but I’ve seen it happen with other dear friends. I should have certain supplies to make it bearable.”
Kara reacted jumpily to her requests and gritted her teeth together as she looked around in panic. “I’ll get Alexandra. She can take you. She understands all of that — um — omega stuff.”
Alexandra was still inside the shop with Miss Graves, and Lena adamantly shook her head. “No. I would prefer you to accompany me.”
Kara looked ready to mount up and ride off. She glanced towards her horse and back to Lena with an uncanny redness to her face. “Sure thing. What is it you need?”
Lena slipped her arm into Kara’s and headed towards the busy General Store with the feeling that she should share in detail. “There is a powder, and herbs that should be soaked in cloth and placed beneath the omega’s underthings—”
Kara halted on the steps to the store and opened her satchel of coins. “This should cover it. Go ahead and stock up for this time and next.”
Lena’s affronted scent was too feeble to be detected, and she huffed petulantly as Kara coaxed her through the door without any inclination to follow her. She cradled the satchel of coins to her breast and tried to appear more at ease than she was while shopping for such intimate things.
It was a matter of pride not to glance Kara’s way, but she made the mistake of faltering by a shelf with a lost look about her. There were tinctures, powders, and special teas that boasted wellness for an omega, but Lena’s eye was drawn to the shapely jars that housed a collection of herbs that could make her heat more delectable.
They were intended for claimed omegas, though Lena was naive enough to believe it may help Kara finally come to her senses. She picked up one of the larger jars with a shameful amount of hope and nearly dropped it as she noticed she was no longer alone.
An alpha must have smelled her distress. Lena no sooner lifted her eyes to find a roguish cowboy peering down her dress with interest.
“Is there something I can help you with, sweetheart?” The man had all the charm of a snake oil salesman. His thin moustache barely covered his top lip and Lena could see tobacco stains on his teeth when he smiled.
She recoiled from his presence with a startled gasp and knocked several vials to the floor. “No, thank you, I’m—”
“Here with me,” Kara cut in with the kind of firm tone that most alphas would find threatening. She postured like any mate would, with her thumbs hooked into her belt and her chest puffed up in a show of strength.
Not that Kara needed to throw her weight around when the townsfolk knew not to mess with the only alpha capable of taking down Lex Luthor.
The man got the hint and hightailed it out of the store without so much as a tip of his hat, and Lena fanned herself with a slim box of tea. “I thought you were content to wait outside?”
“I changed my mind,” Kara murmured to Lena’s chest and swung around to glance at the tall shelf at her back. “Have you found what you were looking for?”
“No,” Lena lied and sidled up to Kara as she seized her chance to talk intimately about such private matters. “Will you do me the kindness of picking out what you think will be best? I would be so grateful for your assistance, and whenever your rut approaches, I’ll be happy to return the favor.”
Kara looked flummoxed by her proposition and blindly began to lift things off the shelf with a line of concentration forming across her forehead. “Perhaps it’s best if we just take one of each.”
“And will you administer the tonics and help me apply the herbs?” Lena asked with a sultry rasp to her voice. She knew it was a tone that alphas liked, and bit at her lip as Kara inhaled sharply.
“I can’t say I’d be of any use to you with that,” Kara remarked, though it was clear from the way her pheromones thickened that she must have been entertaining the thought of it.
“Nonsense, you’re more than capable of tending to my needs,” Lena coquettishly insisted and looped her arm through Kara’s before she could retreat from her presence.
She took her time selecting many of the items, and only became bashful as the old beta behind the counter smiled at them.
Kara did her the courtesy of paying for the items, and then they headed outside arm-in-arm.
A small crowd of omegas gathered by the saloon, fanning themselves and gossiping. Lena overheard their talk while Kara walked off to see to their horse.
The omegas spoke about Kara’s marriage prospects, and Lena paled from listening to their lustful banter. One of them mentioned an illegitimate pup and someone named Kelly Olsen.
Lena remembered James Olsen from her time on the trail westward, and she figured that Kelly must be a relation. She convinced herself that Kara had lied to her about having a sweetheart on the ride into town. The only conclusion she could draw was that Kara had seduced the young woman.
Her chest felt tighter in her corset as Kelly Olsen rounded the corner and the omegas pointed her out.
Kelly took her time crossing the road on account of her swollen belly, which was prominent in her dull blue dress. She carried low, which meant that the pup would soon be due. Draped over her arm was a basket with ears of corn, and Alexandra Danvers hurried over to take it from it her. It removed all doubt from Lena’s mind when Kara approached and planted a hand on top of Kelly’s bump.
By the time Kara glanced up and saw her watching, Lena resigned herself to life as a spinster. She pouted childishly and hung back to watch how Kara carefully extended help to Kelly.
“Lena, come and join us!”
Alexandra ushered her over with a glare at the gossiping omegas on the saloon step. “I would like you to meet Kelly, the omega who will one day be my mate.”
“Your mate?” Lena intoned jealously. “But isn’t the pup Kara’s?”
“Heavens no,” Kelly laughed as Alexandra pursed her lips and squinted at Lena as if unnerved she would even suggest such a thing.
Kara sputtered and wheezed like one of the locomotives that Lena had traveled on in Europe. She tugged her hat down on her forehead and puffed out her cheeks with all the breath in her lungs. “Now why would you think that? Miss Olsen is my sister’s sweetheart. I looked out for her, of course, but only because Alexandra asked me to keep an eye on her while she was gone.”
“Oh,” Lena muttered, a sudden tinge of shame coloring her cheeks as she sought out the gossiping group who still whispered about them. “I’m sorry. Those omegas—”
“Like to spin tales to entertain themselves,” Kelly politely informed her and took Lena’s hand as if she held no hard feelings towards her for speaking out of turn.
“I accepted the job from Lex because I needed the money to buy this fine lady a ring worthy of her finger,” Alexandra bragged, her entire face filled with the kind of joy that Lena hoped she would see light up Kara’s one day.
“I told her I don’t require such things to know that she’s mine, but Alexandra has such a soft heart,” Kelly explained with pure adoration in her eyes. She took Alexandra’s hand to place it upon her swollen middle and the sweet scent of their love carried in the warm summer breeze.
“I beg your pardon,” Lena scoffed in mocking accusation and turned to Alexandra. “What happened to the grim-faced gun slinger who instructed me to be a cactus?”
“Tell me she didn’t,” Kelly gasped, her smile diminishing as she sided with Lena and raised an expectant brow for her to divulge more secrets.
“Oh, she most certainly did! Little flowers can’t survive, my backside! You teased me for my private writings about love and had me believe you were as toughened as the old leather of your boots.” Lena stole the hat off of Kara’s head in order to smack Alexandra on the arm with it.
The attack was playful, and Lena held no ill will towards the beta, though she did smirk at how terribly embarrassed she was under Kelly’s scrutiny.
“We were traveling with a whole pack of alphas and no sign of civilization for weeks,” Alexandra hissed quietly, as if too ashamed to speak louder than that. “It was the best advice I could give you to keep you safe.”
“I think Lena would have been just fine without you filling her head with nonsense,” Kara insisted as she gently pried her hat out of Lena’s grasp.
Lena preened from the compliment and grinned as Kara clutched at her arm. “Thank you kindly.”
She remained in a jovial mood for the rest of the afternoon, between forming a friendship with Miss Olsen and catching Kara’s eye with greater frequency.
By evening time, the sweltering heat began to die down and Lena retired to her bedroom to change into her nightclothes. Once comfortable, she decided to shuffle down to the sitting room in case Kara was still awake. Her hair hung in loose ringlets about her pale neck, and she dressed in her thinnest garments for sleeping.
Kara reclined in a chair next to the empty hearth and whittled at a piece of wood with a carving knife.
“What is it you’re making?” Lena asked inquisitively and hurried over to sit on Kara’s knee. “Will you give me a lesson?”
In the quiet privacy of their own home, Kara was relaxed, if not accustomed to Lena perching on her lap in her nightly visits. She showed no outward signs of resistance to Lena’s flirtatious manner and looped her arms comfortably about Lena’s waist. Kara held the crude wooden carving in one hand and a pocketknife in the other, and raised them both for Lena to observe.
“This won’t look like much for now, but when we’re done it’ll be a pretty little bird like that one on the mantle.” Kara nodded towards the plump figure of a wooden bird that sat between a few whittled dogs.
“Take hold of the blade,” Kara instructed, and pressed the warm handle into Lena’s palm before she clasped her hand over Lena’s to guide her first stroke. “Now we push firmly but hold gently. We don’t want our grip to be too rigid.”
“Like this?” Lena asked, sliding the blade at an angle that appeared flat. She shaved off the smallest sliver of wood with a delighted smile and found confidence to repeat the motion.
“Don’t go too fast,” Kara warned, but it wasn’t the speed of Lena’s hand that brought them trouble.
It happened to be their way of talking as they worked.
“Grip a little tighter at the base,” Kara urged and positioned Lena’s fingers where they should be on the wood. “Don’t be shy now. Give it a go.”
“Should I use a little more force? Is this satisfactory?” Lena attempted several methods and mimicked her mate’s artistry and way of handling the task.
Neither of them had noticed that more than one servant entered the room or the scandalized expressions on their faces as they departed without interrupting the lesson.
By the next morn, a new little bird sat on the mantle, and the whole household believed that Kara had spent the night instructing Lena on how to complete a much more salacious activity. Lena discovered the servants’ suspicions when she went to the kitchen to request tea from one of the jars they purchased the day prior.
“Miss Luthor is going to end up with child if this kind of tomfoolery continues,” complained one of the sweet house matrons. “The young missus was sitting there and doing just what Kara Danvers told her to do. Stroking the wood—"
“It will be another situation like Miss Olsen if they’re not careful,” agreed a softer-spoken maid that was peeling potatoes. “Miss Danvers is a good person. I believe she will do the honorable thing and stake claim.”
Lena tiptoed away before she could be noticed and went to the door of Kara’s study, which was newly re-furnished and full of parts and ropes for cattle. She stepped around the clutter to find Kara asleep under the brim of her hat.
“My heat has begun,” Lena announced, startling the alpha out of sound rest.
She couldn’t say with certainty that her pheromones had become more seductive after the passing of one night, but Kara’s entranced look did much to attest to it.
With an innocent flutter of her eyelashes, Lena slipped around some of the stuff on the floor and made herself comfortable in Kara’s lap. She had become habituated to feeling the muscle between Kara’s thighs, and although that was her sole intent in sitting down, she pretended to be interested in the work strewn on the desk.
“It would be soothing for my heat if you permitted me to sleep in your bed tonight.” Lena sensed that Kara would be more receptive if she acted as though she required a bed mate for rest.
Kara adjusted the positioning of her legs and sat rigid in the chair as her pants began to tighten. “I would be willing to give up my bed. I suppose you’re wanting the sheets to smell like an alpha, but I can change them out for if you like.”
Lena squinted at the dullard she was beginning to love. She laughed as she stared dreamily into Kara’s affectionate eyes and moved just a hint to the left.
Earlier, she had decided to leave off her bloomers and the light shift she normally wore as underclothes. She liked the feeling of going without her ruffled shorts the day before.
Lacking any fabric beneath her skirts would allow her intimate lips to spread open, and she rubbed herself on the stiffest part of Kara’s trousers.
“There is much I wish to know as an omega in heat. I had hopes that you would be willing to see me through this time as the head of the household.”
Lena worried her brow and moaned at the gentlest of caresses between their bodies. She shimmied her hips, deepening the connection of her soft mound with the large protuberance of Kara’s cock.
“How would you like me to help?” Kara asked, gruff and distracted by the smallest little pelvic motions that Lena accomplished.
“I know you must have a lot to do, but if I could just close the door, I might remove my dress and lie on the divan for a little while.” Lena glanced over at the cushioned sofa before rising from Kara’s lap to shut them into the room.
The sun came in from an eastern window and Lena slipped off her flowery dress. She lowered it down from her breasts to see her nipples straining and red from desire. Her navel tightened from the weight of Kara’s interested stare as she removed the garment the rest of the way.
The small rise between her thighs was as ivory as the rest of her skin, apart from the tiniest ripple of warm color that divided her pussy sensuously. She arranged herself on the divan with her legs curled over a soft cushion and looked calmly to Kara.
Kara’s eyes burned into her as much as the heat from the sun. “Does this relax you?”
“Not nearly as much as I’d hoped. There’s a tension that resides within me, Kara,” Lena sighed, her dark lashes fluttering as she peered up at the alpha, who sat forward with unmistakable curiosity.
It was unbecoming of a young lady to be so bold as to flaunt herself while unclaimed, and yet Lena felt it necessary to be as naked as the day she was born in Kara’s presence. Even without the soft cloth of her garments, her skin prickled with approaching fever, and she pouted slightly for Kara to take notice of her discomfort.
“Where do you feel it most, Lena?” Kara rasped after a pause, her eyes finally finding Lena’s at a delay. She rested her hands on either side of her chair and appeared quite parched as she licked at her lips.
“Some of it is here,” Lena confided and brushed her fingertips upon her breasts while Kara’s eyes followed their path covetously. She was too shy to touch the swell of her nipples, though they stiffened considerably to beg for her caress. “The rest I feel lower, between my thighs.”
Kara audibly swallowed and nodded as if she understood Lena’s plight. It took her a moment to find her tongue and she scooted forward on her chair to marvel at Lena’s beauty. “That’s to be expected as you enter heat. Why don’t you take some deep breaths? Let yourself sink into the seat a little more for comfort.”
Lena presumed it wasn’t comfort that Kara was necessarily trying to achieve. For every lungful of air she took, the higher her breasts rose, and Kara’s own exhales grew heavier. They locked eyes for a spell, and the intensity of that moment brought a flush of desire to Lena’s alabaster skin.
“Some find it helpful to rock themselves gently while in this state. Would you care to try it?” Kara suggested, her own hips moving subtly where she sat, as if she were unable to sit still while Lena lounged in the sun. The fabric of her pants had no hope of concealing her hard member, and Lena stared at the outline with growing fixation.
She could hardly refuse, given how her pelvis lifted upwards as if on command. She wasn’t entirely sure of her own movements, only that she enjoyed the rise and fall of her hips and how it pleased her omega to feel the motion of them.
“Is this right?”
Kara observed her methods of relaxation for a moment longer before snapping her attention back to her work. “Ye-uh-yes. You’ve got the hang of it.”
Lena languished on the sofa and stared at the desk as Kara flipped through a stack of papers. She laid out with her head back, her throat trembling from the scents of Kara’s sexual intrigue.
The palpating ache in her nipples inspired her to give them an occasional tweak. If Kara noticed, she never said or offered any advice. The longer that Lena stretched on the divan to sun herself, the more Kara hunched and attempted not to look.
By evening, Lena was combusting from heat and unable to attend dinner. She requested to retire early and settled down in Kara’s bed. The sheets were light and cool against her naked back and she glanced around at the charming furnishings in the room. Kara had crafted her own chair and a bench fitted with a velvet seat. A large armoire attracted Lena’s curiosity, and she peeked at Kara’s simple clothes with a mind to how she would dress her mate in the future.
Hours went by, and Lena had nothing to occupy her but the soft tick of the clock and a book that she dusted off from their home library. She paged through hand-drawn illustrations of the gods, some of them in the nude and depicted as alphas. It inflamed her desire to see Kara like that, and she clothed herself to sneak downstairs.
Their dinner guests had gone away, Mr. Olsen and his sister, and several of the alphas who worked with Alexandra. The oil lamps still burned in the sitting room, and Lena would have entered, but she heard her name on Kara’s tongue and held back.
“Why must you constantly berate me when it comes to Lena?”
“That poor girl has been waitin’ for you to finally court her and you damn well know it,” Alex gibed from a seat by the largest front window. “The whole town can see you’re attracted to her, and yet you dally when it comes to announcing your feelings.”
Kara scraped her boots on the floor as she walked closer and sighed over her predicament. “Now how am I meant to pursue her in good conscience when it’s stated on paper that she’s my property? The choice ought to be hers, but I can’t be sure she will see it that way. She might wonder what would happen if she rejected my advances.”
“You ought to tell her all of these worries you have in that head of yours,” Alex advised and lifted her chin to stare up at her sister. “I share every thought I have with Kelly, and she’s just as forthcoming with me.”
That information rolled off Kara’s slumped shoulders and she sagged into the frame of the window to stare into the darkness beyond. Whatever burden weighed her down, Lena didn’t expect it to be related to her brother, and she tensed as Kara spoke quietly of her own discoveries.
“Lex planned to sell Lena to some alpha in Europe, then chose to keep her for himself. I found a contract in his desk drawer a while back and it sickens me now just as it did then. I’d be no better than him if I trapped Lena here on account of my own feelings. She deserves the freedom to choose the life she wishes—and without any of my interference.”
For a long moment Alexandra remained quiet. She stood as the silence dragged on and somberly placed a comforting hand on Kara’s shoulder. “Sometimes I fear your chivalry will leave you on your own.”
The tension in Kara’s back refused to abate and she hung her head as if defeated. “I reckon I can live with that, as long as Lena finds a mate worthy of her mind and beauty.”
“I already have,” Lena whispered to herself as she backed away from the door before either of them spotted her.
