The sweet, intoxicating scent of ripe cherries invades his nostrils almost like a bad omen. His body shakes and tenses under the sun, he can feel it in his bones as he works on his latest carpentry project.

Joel can see your windows from his backyard, curtains closed and blinds drawn down like no one is home, but he can smell your luscious scent and hear your small, faint whines.

With the late spring, your heat has arrived.

You are one of the few remain omegas without an alpha in Jackson, and, to his misfortune, his neighbor – it's no one's fault that the only house available when he decided to return to Jackson to settle down with Ellie turned out to be the house next door to yours. However, he couldn't help but feel like a creep living next to a young and unmated omega like you while being alone himself.

Mostly because Joel can't help but be attracted to you – your sweet cherry and vanilla scent, your kind attitude towards everyone in Jackson –including him– and your booming, infectious laugh; all seem like a dangerous combination to draw him in like a forbidden fruit that he shouldn't be thinking about because he is not worthy of something like that, of someone like you – not after everything he's done.

But there he is, anyway, having trouble keeping himself in check when his lungs are filled with the scent of ripe cherries and he hears your whines that don't seem to stop for, at least, another hour.

And then, he hears you saying his name.

Joel freezes for a moment and, when he hears you again, his body is taken by the most primitive instinct that makes him cross the fence that divides your yards and slip into your garden.

It's not hard for him to find a way around the back door and, quickly, he's inside your house. The lights are off, your scent is so intense that he feels a little dizzy, and your whimpers are clearer now.

“{{user}}” Joel calls for you, desperate. In any other situation, he would be ashamed, but his whole body just wants to help you now.