Page 20 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter eighteen

Kingston

She killed to keep us safe. That thought goes round and round in my brain, screaming, roaring, cheering.

This incredible, stunning, awe-inspiring omega killed to protect us. Because she loves us. She cares.

All right, calm down, get the details first.

“You called the MC in?”

She turns and tries to sit up, but I pull her back and push her flat on the bed, leaning over her so I have an unobstructed view of her face.

“Did you?”

She huffs. “Yes.”

I close my eyes, wishing everything was different. Fuck Anderson and his asshole need to keep everything secret. “Selene, we need to tell you something.”

The door opens, and Mael walks in without ever breaking stride. He walks up to the bed, grips her hair, leans down, and kisses her so completely that she can’t do anything to resist.

I wonder if she would.

Everything has changed now. I can feel it in the bonds, and I can feel it in the air around us. Selene is scared, but she’s not running anymore.

Mael sits back and rolls her. He smacks her ass hard.

“What was that for?” she shrieks.

“For attempting to take on four guys on your own!”

He walks out, disappearing as quickly as he appeared, but now she’s staring at me with caution in her eyes. I tangle our legs together and roll so she’s laying on top of me.

“What did you want to tell me?”

I don’t want to ruin this moment, but she needs to know.

“We bonded with Bailey. We’re taking him into our pack.”

She stiffens and tries to pull away, but I lock my arms around her and hold her still.

“So what! What does it have to do with me? Damn it, Kingston, let me go.”

“Just talk to me first, and I’ll let you go.” I try for calm but end up sounding exasperated.

“You have an omega, so let me go.”

“Ah, see, but we’re greedy, and we’ve decided we need two.”

She stills, her cheeks turn red, her eyes spark with fury, and she leans down so we’re nose-to-nose.

“I am not someone you decide to have.”

“I know,” I admit softly.

“You don’t deserve me.”

“I know that, too.”

She opens her mouth, but I lift up, brushing our lips together. She freezes, her eyes going wide, confused and staring at me like she’s afraid I’m going to hurt her.

Most people never, ever see Selene this vulnerable, but I have. So many times. When her father beat her, I was the one who found her hiding under the porch of my house, too scared to come out.

When some guys chased her, intending on teaching the new omega how to fuck, she came straight to me, her whole body shaking with terror.

When she had nightmares or her dad was drunk and raging, smashing their house up, it was here and to me that she came to when she needed to be safe.

I remember when she started to realise that things might change and that we would leave, and she’d crawled into my bed and, in the moonlight, I’d held her just like this. How could there ever, for one second, be anyone else but her?

“Please, don’t leave me.”

The echo of her cry in this soon-to-be almost eight years ago haunts me.

I was an ass.

Selene could always be vulnerable with me, and it appears even time and all my mistakes haven’t changed that.

It is a relief that it is still true. Though that whisper has haunted me for years.

I brush a thumb across her cheek. “We should have never fallen for such an obvious trick. ”

Her eyes widen, the vulnerability gets deeper. She surprises me and rolls us, her lips firming in a line of anger I’m recognising is fear.

“It was always you. We realised it as soon as we stopped for breath. We were going to come back.”

Her face goes through a flash of emotions, but, before she can tell me to get off or stop, I lean in and kiss her, this time deeper, really tasting her in ways I know would wake up from intense erotic dreams about.

I pull her closer, pressing her weight on me, and, to my surprise, she encircles my waist, holding me to her.

The kiss goes on forever.

When she pulls away, I stare up at her.

“I’m not deciding that I want to have you, Selene. This is how it was always supposed to be. I simply can’t let you go. No matter how selfish or wrong I am, how can I possibly be without you?”

She growls but leans down. “Use your pretty words on other omegas. I’m not going to be fooled twice.”

My frustration is only a little flare. Can I blame her?

“You always were stubborn. What is it going to take to show you that I mean it?”

She hesitates, her eyes squeeze closed. “Have sex with me.”

What?

I am lost for words, completely and utterly.

“Selene? Sex isn’t going to prove anything.”

“No, if you really care and if it’s not an issue, have sex with me right now. I want it over and done with before someone else can do it.”

My instincts surge to the fore, and I have to stop the fierce need to pin her to the mattress and get the names of everyone who is even looking sideways at her.

“This is just a sex thing. I don’t want to be your omega. I don’t trust you not to hurt me, but, in this, for this small thing, I think maybe you would make it less painful.”

Oh, my god, we have done an absolute number on this omega. How do I even begin to fix this? With a thrust of my hips, I roll us, pinning her to the bed again, she huffs and fights me, but I refuse to shift.

“I need the others here.”

She shakes her head. “Nope, no way. The last thing I need is the others here convincing you a bite is necessary.”

I snicker and lean down, ghosting my lips over her throat. “I don’t need them to convince me.”

“You aren’t doing that, Kingston. I would never, ever forgive you.”

“You aren’t going to forgive me, anyway.” My anger takes on a seductive edge .

Her eyes widen, and she struggles a bit. I lay more of my weight down on her and nuzzle that spot. Her perfume gets stronger, and my mouth waters.

I can’t think straight. I remember the feel of Mael’s pain through the bonds. The way it was the only way to find him. I remember seeing Selene curled up in her bed, crying while I watched from a window, unable to come home because Mael was too dangerous.

Yes, this is the safest way. To keep her safe.

I taste blood in my mouth and hear her moaning cry. I remove my teeth and lap at the bond mark. All I can think about is her. Having her, tasting her. I move up, putting my shoulder against her mouth.

It’s a compulsion, a drive.

“Bite.”

She shakes her head.

“Bite!” I order.

Her teeth sink deep. The intention of the bonding snapping it up between us. The relief I feel is short-lived. Once the bond is there, reality returns, and I realise what I’ve done. I crawl off her, sitting back on my heels.

She lays there staring up at the ceiling.

“Selene?”

Her movement is faster than I could ever expect. She’s up and with a knife to my throat before I can think.

“I should just kill you and watch this fucking thing inside me shrivel up and die like the parasite it is.”

Her words are cruel, but her eyes are terrified.

“I can’t leave you,” I gasp out. “I can never leave you now.”

I understand her now. Deep in the heart of her, she is still convinced we’re going to leave her.

I reach up and touch my bond mark. “I’ve made it so I can’t leave you, Selene.”

“No, you’ve made it so that when you do, it destroys me.”

She turns, but I grab her and charge off the bed, flinging us both at the wall.

“Stop fucking running for five seconds and listen to me. Hear what we say. You’re so determined to believe the worst of us that you aren’t even being rational.”

“Oh? I’m not being rational, and why would that be? When you left-” She stops, her head tilting to the side. “What was that?”

“What?” My thoughts jerk to a stop because that voice is danger, that voice means I’m in trouble .

“What…” she pauses, and I can feel the bond pressing as she sorts through the nuances of it. She’s a damn natural. Is there anything this omega can’t do? “Why are you afraid for Mael? What happened when you left?”

I back away from her, alarmed by how fast she’s unravelling our secrets.

“Hurt, betrayal, fear, rage, guilt.” She lists them off and looks up. A gleam of pure hunter shines in her eyes. “What did she do?”

“I, uh-” I look at the door, expecting Mael to come storming in any second now.

“And Mael, when you think about him, you’re terrified. What is that? What happened?”

I shake my head, aware that, though I might have had the upper hand a few minutes ago, I don’t any longer. I step back, putting space between us, but she follows.

“Tell me what happened to you when you left?”

I open and close my mouth. What can I possibly say? The truth? I don’t think so-

She slams into me, taking us both to the bed. Her lips find mine, and I’m lost in her. She reaches down and cups me. I moan and thrust against her.

God, her hands are clumsy, but it’s Selene. I’ll die happy with just this touch.

“Tell me.”

I shake my head. She undoes my jeans and slips her hand inside, stroking me with the softest fingers I’ve ever felt. I’m going to die. Is this really happening?

The realisation that she’s trying to manipulate an answer out of me flares and disappears with a distinct lack of care.

“Just tell me what happened, and I’ll let you come.”

My eyes bulge, what, but, she-

She trails down, lifting my shirt up and pressing kisses to my stomach, then up to my nipples. She scrapes her teeth over them and then sucks briefly before returning to her downwards exploration.

“I just need one little story.”

I shake my head, but I’m sweating now. It’s not if, it’s when. She’s good, and I know I can’t withstand this torture. Not from her. My dreams pale in comparison to her.

“Selene, please, I can’t,” I pant as her mouth touches down on my hip bone. I almost lose my damn mind.

“You can, though, you can just say the words. I mean, after all, you took much more from me-”

“No, I-” I wheeze, almost sitting up as she takes the head of my dick into her mouth, sucking lightly.

Her hands grip the root of my cock, squeezing.

“How are you so good at this?” I gasp out.

“Imagination,” she says and grazes her teeth over the head of my cock.

I almost convulse.

“I need words.”

“I can’t!” I plead. “Please, I can’t.”

“Tell me, or this won’t stop.”

I hiss and get really, really close to coming when she backs off and watches me with shadowed eyes.

She’s determined. She’s not going to stop.

“I could push you off me.”

She nods. “You could. We both know the only reason you are letting me do this is because you actually want it. Just like the only reason I’m actually doing it is because I've been dreaming of doing this forever, but it doesn’t change facts.

If you’re going to be shady, I will use whatever I have to to get it out of you. ”

“Selene, please, honestly, I can’t tell you.”

“You can.” She protests and scowls down at me. The mood in the room charges with her sour pain. “I don’t want to do it like this,” she says and backs off me.

I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed.

I sit up and watch her back to the window. She wraps her arms around herself and bites her bottom lip.

The door opens, and Edric glares at us. “For fuck’s sake! I’ll tell you everything. Get dressed and come out here.”

She follows him immediately while I tuck myself away with a groan and trail after them.

Edric passes me a glass with clear liquid. It’s not water. I drink it down, frustrated at his interruption. If she’d have kept going, I would have given it to her, anything she wanted.

Edric guides Selene to the couch and then sits opposite her.

“You remember Octavia and how it was?”

She glowers. “She came in and stole my scent, convinced you three idiots she was yours, and off you all went.”

Edric grimaces. “It’s a little bit more complicated than that, but, yes, that’s essentially right. However, it’s there that the story gets ugly.”

Any desire for sex vanishes as I recall those awful days.

The betrayal. The pain.

The fear, guilt, and shame.

It all comes back, and I want to stop him from telling her because I don’t want her to look at us differently .

But instead, I keep my mouth shut as Edric leans forwards and takes her hands in his, holding them lightly as he struggles to find the words to tell the sordid tale.

She might hate us.

I don’t think I’d blame her if she did, but at least she’d know the truth.

At least she’d know why we didn’t come back.