Page 10 of Bewitched

L ayla was asleep, but then she wasn’t. She still felt asleep, but it was somehow less. Someone was above her, touching her. She wasn’t afraid. She knew him. He smelled good. Like cinnamon and anger. Did anger have a flavor? Alpha. That was a name she knew.

Alpha was purring, a deep, insistent rumble that made Layla gooey in all the nicest places. Slick and yearning. She was dreaming. She had to be. Nothing felt that incandescent in real life. He was touching her everywhere, not just his hands but his body. He was bare, and so was she. Hot skin against hot skin.

She kept her eyes closed, lolling in the quiet space between waking and dreaming. It was a nice place to be. No worries. Just warmth.

Alpha pinched her nipple, rolling it between his fingers, and the sharp ache traveled down to her center and back out to her fingers and toes. Layla moaned and arched into him.

“Shh,” Alpha said, “go back to sleep.”

Layla nodded and let her head fall back. Sleep sounded good. Alpha would keep her warm and keep touching her. He ran his thumb over her hardened nipple. She whined, and Alpha shifted above her, his thigh pressing between her legs. Oh, that was nice. She rocked against him.

“Sleep,” Alpha whispered close to her ear.

“I am sleep,” Layla said drowsily. She tried to pat his arm, but her uncoordinated flailing hit the wall with an unpleasant thud instead.

Alpha chuckled. “None of that now, relax.”

Layla huffed. He couldn’t tell her what to do. She turned her head into his chest, searching for more of his delicious scent. He was hairy, not like those smooth beta boys at school. Why did she ever think a beta was good enough? Layla flicked her tongue out, finding salty sweat and skin. Mmmmm. Delicious.

Alpha hummed. “Want something, kitten?”

Yes. Layla opened her mouth and sank her teeth into the meat of his chest. Alpha’s yelp turned into a groan, and he pushed his thigh harder into her core.

“Not a cat,” she said primly, even as she humped against his leg, leaving behind a patch of fresh slick.

Alpha’s hand slipped under her head, wrapping his fingers into her hair. God, he was massive. She shuddered.

“No, you’re not,” he agreed.

Layla smiled. No kittens here, just darkness and sleep and one very big alpha.

Alpha pressed her face against his neck, and Layla tongued at the skin below her mouth. Cinnamon and something muskier burst across her tongue. It was delicious. Better than salt and pumpkin spice and caramel all together. She suckled and moaned, flexing her hips against his thigh.

“Alpha,” she whispered.

“Good girl,” Alpha said.

Layla shivered. She was a good girl. It was expected . Good, perfect Layla. It was practically tattooed on her forehead, and everyone was just waiting for her to screw up. No one ever told her she was a good girl.

That wasn’t quite true. Jaxon called her a good girl, but he was a rude alpha, not like her Alpha.

Her Alpha was sweet and purring and knew just how to touch her. Touch her. That’s what she needed. His thigh wasn’t enough anymore. She needed more. She slipped her hand between her legs to her clit. With his taste on her tongue, her first touch was ecstasy. She moaned into his neck.

Alpha moved his leg, much to her disappointment, but it was quickly replaced with his hand, his fingers at her core.

“Do you want something inside you?” Alpha asked in a deep rumble.

Layla nodded frantically. She had never wanted something inside her so badly. She ached. She craved. She obsessed. If she could see, she would have been embarrassed, but the darkness hid her sins well enough.

He touched her core, not quite pressing inside. “Go ahead. I’m right there. Show me how much you want it.”

Layla opened her eyes, but the dark was too complete to see him. She moved, positioning herself to sink down on his fingers.

Alpha groaned. “Good girl.”

He was inside of her. It was a nice stretch. It satisfied the itch, for now. Alpha was still, but she was moving, letting his fingers pump in and out. So good.

Alpha pressed his whole body down on hers, making her work to move on his fingers. She grumbled in frustration. She couldn’t move as much as she wanted. He couldn’t get as deep.

Suddenly, his teeth were on her shoulder. It wasn’t a mating bite, but it felt so good, the twinge of pain combined with the stimulation of his fingers. Oh, yes. She wanted to bite him too, but she couldn’t reach him with his hand in her hair holding her down.

“Alpha,” she whined.

Alpha groaned and rocked against her. She could feel the heat of his cock against her thigh, too far away from her core. She wanted him there.

“Alpha,” she panted with more urgency.

“Omega,” he whispered. “Good omega. Keep moving, pretty girl.”

Layla groaned. Her body was alive with need. She sank her fingernails into his shoulder as she worked her clit with her other hand. She needed to hold on to him before she burst and flew away into a thousand pieces.

“Alpha,” she said.

“Yes, kitten,” he said. Alpha kissed her neck, licking across her scent gland.

He pulled her head to his neck again, and she searched out his scent gland, found the gland at the crook of his neck and shoulder. She tentatively pressed her teeth into the gland, and cinnamon burst across her tongue.

Alpha groaned, interrupting his steady purr. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Oh, he liked that. She pressed her teeth harder into the patch of skin, and Alpha cursed colorfully again. Layla giggled.

Alpha pulled his fingers from her as he lifted off of her. Layla slumped back into her blankets and whined. She had been so close. She needed him back inside.

“Alpha, please,” she begged.

Alpha shushed her, pushing her legs further apart until she cradled his hips between her thighs. She brought her knees up, squeezing against him. She needed him inside her again, chasing the itch away.

His cock lay against her entrance, threatening to press inside. Slick poured from her. Making her want . Layla groaned, grabbing at his hips to pull him closer. She needed to be full.

Alpha inched forward, pushing inside. It was a strange feeling, larger than his fingers, less pliant. She whimpered tearfully, and Alpha shushed her. His cock was big. Bigger than she expected. She had never attempted anything so large, even by herself.

She hissed and pushed at him to slow, and Alpha moved his hand to the back of her neck. He massaged his thumb over her mating gland. Layla groaned and fell limp. Her whole body relaxed without her permission. It frightened her as much as it aroused her. Alpha was taking care of her. Alpha knew best.

He continued to break her open, forcing her to make room. He pushed his cock deep inside, so deep she thought she would gag. She was impaled. She couldn’t move. It was just Alpha telling her what she needed.

Alpha touched her as he rocked inside, stroking down her hip and over her ribs. Petting her like he would gentle a frightened dog.

“Layla,” he groaned.

She smiled. That was her name. Alpha liked her.

Alpha moved slowly, inching out and then back. Layla raised her hips to meet his stroke. It was better now. Good even. Alpha knew what he was doing.

Sex had never felt this good, but she had never slept with an alpha before, either. Too dominant and scary, but not her Alpha. He wasn’t taking from her. She was giving. Happily. Willingly. He was a good alpha.

He pulled out completely and pushed back in with one long stroke. Layla moaned. So good. The pressure coming and going. Stretching her and retreating.

Alpha purred at her whimpers and stroked her hair. It was nice. Sweet.

She opened her eyes, her head turned to the side. She focused on the light leaking through the edges of the closet. Right. That’s where she was. She was in her little nest in the dark — like her favorite spot under her bed.

Alpha panted over her, his breath close to the top of her head. His thrusts became harder, rougher. She tried to meet his thrusts, but he grabbed her hips, holding her in place.

“Omega,” Alpha moaned. “I’m going to knot.”

It was a warning of a sort. Something new was about to happen. The knot at the base of his penis would swell, causing reciprocal swelling in her vagina. She would be knotted. Tied. Trapped. She had seen it in porn. Not a good look; she had always hit the cancel button before it was over.

Now, it would happen to her, and she couldn’t stop him. She didn’t want to. She needed him deep inside her, fucking her full until she couldn’t breathe.

Layla shivered.

Alpha’s thrusts became shorter, faster, his knot swelling and hampering his movements. Layla pushed against sweat-slick skin. He was naked, and so was she, and he was inside her. It felt so good and so right.

He shoved in hard, knot forced between the spasming muscles of her core. He already filled every space inside her. How was there supposed to be more?

Layla groaned, clawing at his back. Her insides spasmed, grabbing and locking on to his knot. Everything went fuzzy just before her whole body seized.

She gasped, clamping her thighs around his waist as wave after wave of ecstasy flowed through her. It seemed to go on forever, her body tense and pulsing to her heartbeat. Alpha held her through it all as everything became dizzy, and the air was sucked from the room.

Layla fell limp to her nest of pillows and blankets. She was dizzy and confused, sort of drunk, where everything wasn’t connecting in a straight line. The alpha continued to rock against her, and she didn’t have the strength or coordination to fight him.

Where was she? It was really dark. The smell of virile alpha was all around her.

The alpha’s lips were at her neck, sucking and pressing his teeth into her mating gland, forcing another small orgasm to ripple through her. Slick poured from her, working its way past the knot and over the blankets.

“Oh, fuck,” he whispered into her skin.

She knew that voice. Jaxon? Where was she?

She pushed his face away from her neck and forced herself to focus. Black hair. Scarred face.

She shoved at Jaxon in a panic. He was touching her. He was inside her. Knotted. Stuck. It wasn’t supposed to be him! There was another alpha. Where did her nice alpha go?

“Alpha?” she called out. She had to find her Alpha.

Layla tried to shove him off, tugging on the knot clamped deep inside. It hurt, oh it hurt, but she had to escape. Surely, if she just pulled hard enough.

Jaxon growled, shoving her back down into the blankets. “Stop that,” he snapped.

Layla cringed. She wanted to get away, hide in her corner. But there was no corner now, no safe retreat. She never wanted to be with an alpha. “Let me go,” she begged.

“No, I can’t.”

She knew that. She had to wait. She had covered her ears in health class when the topic came up, but she still knew. It was never supposed to be something she needed to know. Knotting was for omegas, never for her. But she could feel him inside, his spend soaking into her channel and finding its way north. It was a strange sensation that she didn’t particularly like.

“Why?” she begged. There had to be a way. “Please, where did Alpha go?”

Jaxon wrapped his arms around her and pressed her into the blankets. “Shh, kitten. Your alpha is right here.”

“Where?” she wailed. He wasn’t anywhere. He had left. Disappeared like he never was.

Jaxon scowled at her, a terrible angry visage.

Layla shrank away, but he didn’t let her go far.

Jaxon ran his fingers through her hair, combing it back from her face. She let him. Panic tore at her insides. She could feel her heart beat in a rapid staccato. Should she be able to feel her heart? Could Jaxon hear her mind screaming?

“Do you know where you are?” Jaxon asked.

Layla glanced around at the piles of blankets and pillows, at the hanging shirts that brushed Jaxon’s back. “My nest.”

She hated it. Something was really wrong with her nest. Oh no. That’s why Alpha left. Her nest wasn’t good enough. She knew it was bad. Why didn’t she work harder? She pawed at the closest pillows, but Jaxon wouldn’t get off of her to let her fix it.

She sobbed in frustration. “Let go. I have to fix it.”

Jaxon grabbed her neck and rubbed her scent gland, trying to force her into submission, but her anxiety was too high, too potent in her blood. “It’s fine. Your nest is very nice.”

Layla shook her head. She tugged against the flesh where they were joined. If she just worked hard enough. She could get him out. She could leave, hide, wait for Alpha to come back.

“Layla, stop.”

She bared her teeth at him. Omegas didn’t growl at alphas. It was dangerous, but she couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t make her.

“Let me go. Let me go. Let me go!” Layla screamed.

Jaxon cursed and reached for her neck again, but Layla was quicker, sinking her teeth into his palm. He yelped and jerked his hand away from her. Layla growled a pathetic and incomplete sound.

“ Be still, now, ” Jaxon snapped, his voice deep and uncompromising.

Layla stilled, every muscle stiff and unmoving. It was a Command. A real Command from an alpha. She had never been Commanded. It was forbidden. It was illegal. Alphas went to prison for using Commands. Not that it mattered. No one was there to stop him.

Every muscle hurt, straining to hold position. She wasn’t breathing. Why couldn’t she? Why? Why? Why? Please stop. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. The Command had stopped everything. He was killing her. She was going to suffocate because he told her to. Was that how Summer died?

“Fuck.” Jaxon shifted, tugging at her. “ Relax, ” he Commanded.

Layla slumped into the pillows, her strings cut, and she sucked in a tremulous breath. She was suddenly cold, and she couldn’t even tremble to warm her skin. She couldn’t even produce that involuntary movement.

Jaxon continued to curse to himself as he tugged them onto their sides, and he pulled her close to him, cradling her head on his arm.

“Shh,” he whispered close to the top of her head. “Don’t try to hurt yourself, and I won’t do that again. Fucking, stupid girl. You said I could take care of you. I was taking care of you, and now you worked yourself up.”

She was a bad omega. Just like he said. She felt shame, for her nakedness and her nest and her outburst and the fuzziness of her memory.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It was the most she could say because the Command would still not allow her to scream.

He put his hand on her neck, using his thumb to push her chin up until she met his eyes. “You are safe. I will keep you that way, even if I have to make you.” His tone allowed no argument.

Jaxon, an alpha. Her Alpha… She had agreed, right? It was sort of a hazy memory, standing in his bedroom… standing in a forest.

Her eyes slid away from the intensity of his gaze, and he shook her slightly. Her eyes snapped back. His frown was deeper.

Her lip trembled. Tears in her throat. He was still inside her. Deep and pulsing and unforgiving.

Jaxon touched her face, wiping tears away and tracing over her lips. He watched her intently and touched her mating gland, making her core clench around him. He hummed appreciatively, a small smile on his face.

She lay quietly, and Jaxon purred soothingly as a growing discomfort in her insides made itself known. It wasn’t his cock or his knot that had been a constant minor ache. This was climbing and nauseating, producing soft cramping.

“I don’t feel good,” Layla said. She tried to cross her arms over her breasts and found she could move, albeit slowly.

Jaxon frowned and ran his hands over her. “Where?”

“My stomach. I think.”

He rubbed her belly, massaging over the nauseating fullness, and another sharper cramp seized her. “Hmm. You don’t know?”

She shook her head and looked down. Her belly may have looked a little swollen, with… him. Oh. His spend. His semen. She glanced up at him, horrified. Oh, God. It was filthy, embarrassing. Worse, he was watching her while she worked through her panic and disgust. Layla began to shiver and couldn’t stop.

Jaxon pulled a blanket over her and continued to pet her stomach. “The pain is probably your cervix dilating.”

Layla stared at him, uncomprehending.

Jaxon grunted unhappily. “To let in sperm. For pups.”

“Pups,” she whispered. She was going to be sick. She didn’t want pups. She didn’t want to be pregnant. She was in college. She wasn’t married. Her hips gave an involuntary jerk.

Jaxon grabbed her thigh, pulling her back into place. “Layla,” he said warningly.

She shook her head. Dizzy blackness on the edges of her vision. “I want my mom,” she moaned pitifully.

Jaxon pulled her close to him again, her chest pressed against his. “What can she do for you?”

Shera Nash could do nothing except be disappointed, but that didn’t stop Layla from wanting her. To curl up in her lap like when she was little, and her mom could drive back the scary world. Her mom promised. She promised Layla wouldn’t be like Roan.

“She promised.”

Jaxon hummed, displeased. “Ah, she’s the one that fucked you up. Filled your head with beta stories and lied about how the world works for people like us.”

Layla tried to withdraw, look away, but Jaxon didn’t let her.

“You’re in good company, kitten. You’re not the only one that’s been betrayed by their family.”

Layla shook her head. Her mom wouldn’t hurt her. “She didn’t—“

“No? Letting you run around like a beta is one thing. You don’t know a damn thing about being an omega. So deep down terrified of your own body. Afraid of your own fucking heat. I can smell it. Your parents failed you. And here I am, the worst person in the world to pick up your broken pieces.” He laughed, an unpleasant bitter sound. “You’re fucked, kitten.”

Layla let the tears fall. He wasn’t right, not completely, but he was right enough to hurt. “Please stop.”

Jaxon sighed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “You’re too kind a girl for a bitter old dog like me. If I was a better man…”

Layla stared, waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t. He rubbed her stomach soothingly. Layla burrowed in close. She had nowhere else to go with them being attached so intimately. She closed her eyes and took in his scent. Cinnamon and sweat. Alpha and masculine. She hated herself a little for wanting him. She hated him for being right.

Jaxon wrapped her in his arms, and Layla let herself cry.