Page 38

SKYE

I woke to movement. Rowan was pulling free from my embrace.

My eyes fluttered open and I looked at his naked back, gilded by the sun.

Maybe it was my imagination but his bruises already looked lighter.

I lifted a hand and tenderly raked my nails down his spine.

He gasped and looked over his shoulder at me.

“I tried not to wake you,” he told me apologetically.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Better. It doesn’t hurt so much.”

“Come back to bed,” I whispered.

“It’s time for Tracker’s morning run,” he said. “I take him out every morning. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Are you okay to run?”

“I’ll be fine,” Rowan stood up, and looked down at me. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

I smiled. “Of course.”

“Uh. Can I use your shower?”

A giggle escaped me. “Be my guest.”

I lay back down as Rowan disappeared into the bathroom.

I looked at Crux, still sleeping, movement under his eyelids.

He looked at peace, an expression that always brought me joy.

I brushed some rogue strands of blue hair from his forehead, then placed a kiss on his brow.

Crux was dead to the world and lost in his dreamscape.

A part of me marveled that I had the power to soothe the pain and agitation of two alphas with just my aura, just my presence.

It made me feel connected to myself. Comfortable in my own skin. Dare I say empowered.

I slipped from Crux’s hold, though he put up a small unconscious fight.

I managed to free myself and stretched my body, arms up, hands reaching for the sky above.

I left my nest room and headed for the master bathroom for my morning shower.

I scrubbed and exfoliated, and shampooed and moisturized with unscented products, washing away any aggressive hints of the alphas I had spent the night with.

I took great care cleansing the crescent spaces under my breasts, and the whispery folds between my thighs and between my cheeks.

I made sure every part of my body smelled only of me.

When I got out, I gently patted myself dry with a fluffy towel, before wrapping it around my body.

I blow dried my hair and added a twist or a curl here and there to give subtle, beachy waves.

My hair shone like satin as it fell down my back.

Gathering my hair over my shoulder, I angled myself so I could see the three bite marks that ran down my neck, now permanent fixtures of my body.

Halo’s prim dash, Crux’s deep teeth marks, and Severen’s jaws that surrounded the other two, keeping them safe and defended.

Facing forward again, I couldn’t help but notice the top of the heart surgery scar peeking out from my towel, alien and obtrusive, but at the same time, a reminder of a gift, of sacrifice.

I had to make a sacrifice, too.

Still in a towel, I spotted Rowan stepping out the front door with Tracker at his heels. Quickly, I tiptoed back into my nest room, where Crux was snoring softly, still lost in his dreams. His arms were wrapped around my pillow.

As quiet as I could, I opened my closet and pulled a silky men’s button up off a hanger.

I gathered it in my hands and held it to my face, closing my eyes as I inhaled the faint trace of Severen’s scent.

I dropped the towel into my hamper and slipped into the shirt.

I paid attention to each button as I did them up, and ran my palms over the soft, flowy fabric.

The shirt was big on me and came down just past my ass, hiding anything from prying eyes as long as I was careful.

I undid the top buttons and let the collar slide off my left shoulder.

Steeling all my courage, and giving myself one final look in the mirror, I walked to Severen’s office. His door was open a crack and I peered inside. Severen was at his laptop, staring at a blank page and a blinking cursor.

“Have you slept at all?” I asked.

His rolling chair was a big, black suede desk chair with a quilted backrest. The kind of chair a rich CEO might have. It moved slowly when it turned, which it did now, just a little as Severen glanced at me.

“I don’t think so.”

The rasp in his voice confirmed that he hadn’t.

“I know he was here. All night. In your nest.”

“He was,” I agreed. “Crux, too.” On bare feet I padded over to him. “You also know through the bond that nothing happened.”

Gripping the arm of the office chair, I hauled it around so Severen faced me.

“Is that my shirt?”

“Shhh,” I purred, spidering myself onto his thighs. “Just hold me.”

I curled up in his lap, small and defenceless, but comfortable and confident, like a cat might. I cuddled the crown of my head under his jaw and teased his Adam’s apple with the very tip of my tongue, tracing his throat from the hollow of his collar bones to the curve of his chin.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple shifting against the slide of my tongue. Then I nuzzled him.

I wasn’t going to apologize. I had nothing to apologize for. I wasn’t the one that pulled away. But in order for us to move past this ridiculous angst, I needed to relent and offer Severen grace.

My fingers drifted to the buttons on the shirt. “I’ve been with Crux,” I said as the buttons came undone. “And I’ve been with Halo. And I want to be with you, if you’ll finally have me. There’s something I need you to know.” One by one the buttons came apart and the shirt fell open.

I was exposed.

“Even though I’ve made love to them, I couldn’t help but hide my scars. I couldn’t stand for them to see me.”

I sat there, on Severen’s lap, breathing, the scar a pink fissure between my pert breasts, also allowed to breathe. I took Severen’s hand, and brought it close to my chest, just near enough that his ring finger drifted down the rippled, lacy surface of my scar.

“I know what I asked you in the hospital was difficult. I didn’t realize how much it hurt you. In my mind, you’re strong enough to handle anything. And you do what needs to be done, always.”

Peering up at my pack lead, my alpha, I placed my hands on his chest. “But you can’t tell me that life would still be worth living if we couldn’t be together like this.”

Severen inhaled and it felt like he consumed all the air in the room, like he needed every little wisp of it just to stay upright, otherwise he’d collapse.

He crushed me to his body and wrapped his arms around me tight. Such possessive, commanding love set me purring like an expensive sportscar.

“I’m sorry,” Severen gasped. “I’m so sorry. I hated the man I was becoming but I couldn’t stop myself.”

“It’s not too late to change things,” I whispered, the tips of my fingers stroking the nape of his neck to calm him.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he confessed. “Not to your heart. And not to him.”

“The only way you’ll ever lose me is if you hold too tight.” My lips brushed the shell of his ear as I spoke. “So please, Severen, don’t break me.”

He turned his face towards mine and touched my lips with his own.

Feeling his kiss was like a splash of water after a heat wave.

His coffee and wine scent filled my senses.

He tore his shirt off and I took that as permission to escalate things.

My hands worked at his jeans zipper, my slick darkening the thighs of his already dark denim.

He held me bridal style, one arm cradling my back and my knees draped over the other. I felt small and vulnerable like this, something skittish and untamed, to be controlled and domesticated. Mastered.

Severen lifted me up and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

He lowered me down and I was all at once filled with him.

I gasped as he sank into me, my body singing with how much it had longed for his touch.

He just held me, his bride with no threshold, and pumped into me over and over, lifting and lowering me like I was no more than a bundle of feathers.

I bit his lip, I tugged, I whimpered wordlessly and panted and squeaked.

My breasts bounced with each thrust, each lowering of my small body on his sizable cock.

I let go of his neck and tucked my arms to my chest, coquettishly teasing my lips with the pad of my thumb, conveying innocence and submissiveness, a desire to be used.

I wanted to be the omega that my alpha wanted.

Severen curled over me, tightening his embrace so that I was all wrapped up in him, my knees squishing into my breasts, as he took me with long, powerful strokes, divining the slick out of me and onto his faithful office chair.

“Do whatever you want to me,” I said from the cavern of his arms. “I’m yours. I’ve always been yours. I always will be.”

Because that was what it meant to be an omega, to bring clarity and focus to their alpha. To keep them sane in an insane world, to be that thing they can nurture and care for and protect.

And to be a little troublemaker sometimes.

“Knot,” I panted.

“I don’t think you’re ready–” Severen began.

“Knot,” I said again, then kissed him. Reaching down between my legs, I grabbed Severen by the base, behind his swelling knot. He tensed in pleasure-pain as I rocked my hips and dropped onto him, taking his knot in me and refusing to let go.

No one could fill me like he could. All my mates satisfied me, but in different ways.

Severen, when he was inside me and knotted up, locked in, it was like there was no space between us left for even shadows.

He pressed up against every bit of me, like we were one body with nothing between us that kept us separate and individual.

I knew from the feeling of his aura that he felt it too.

“Wait,” I gasped. “Don’t move.” I met his gaze.

“Just feel me for a moment. Stay with me. Right here.” I took a breath, inhaling his scent.

I meditated on every slight sensation, and committed it to memory.

There were times that I feared, we both feared, that we’d never be like this again and I needed it to be immortalized and eternal in my mind.

I carved a tiny piece of now off from reality, and preserved it in my soul.