Page 29 of First (After the End #1)

“Because I wish it weren’t true. Because none of them ever had me questioning my sanity the way you do.

Because now that I’ve found you, I regret every second I spent not searching for you.

” My skirt is a puddle on the floor, soon joined by my underwear.

“Look at you,” he murmurs once I’m naked, hushed enough to be only for me and not for Lennart’s benefit.

He turns me around between his legs, studies my breasts and my ass, traces my hips and even the curve of my knees, and hums approvingly.

“Out of this world. All the men I killed today? I’d kill them again, and then twice more.

Just for this. Just to look.” And then, louder, but never averting his eyes from my body: “Lennart, is she not the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen? ”

Silence. My breath is so loud, I can’t even make out the sound of the environmental controls.

“Lennart,” Gabriel repeats. The back of his finger brushes against the side of my breast, and a shudder rolls up my spine. “Do I have to teach you another lesson about the timeliness of your responses?”

“No! No, please, I— Yes. Yes, she is!”

A pleased smile. “And no one else has seen her this way, except for me.”

“You know he’s seeing me now, right?” I ask, but it’s hard to sound sullen when Gabriel can tell how slick the insides of my thighs are. The heat whites out my head, addles me. I find myself hiding my face in his neck despite my best judgment, and he laughs.

I want the floor to open and swallow me. This may be the most mortifying moment of my life, and Gabriel is the one who’s putting me through it. I shouldn’t seek comfort in him, but…

“There’s a difference between Lennart seeing you naked and Lennart watching me fuck his mate. Don’t you think so?”

I close my eyes. Scalding, humiliating, aroused tears slip down the sides of my cheeks.

I wonder what Gabriel would do if I asked him to stop.

Then I wonder why I’m not asking.

And then all I want is to know one thing: “Why?”

Gabriel pulls back. His head tilts, questioning.

“Lennart,” I whisper. “The suppressants, all these years. We were friends for so long, and I thought he cared and… Why did he do something so vile?”

It’s ludicrous that I’m asking Gabriel when Lennart is right behind me—when Lady Larsen already told me.

But I cannot wrap my mind around the cruelty of it, and Gabriel…

Gabriel has yet to tell me a lie. “Because he was smart enough to recognize what he had on his hands. Because he wanted you, and he decided to have you. Because this is what nobles do. They take with no regard for others’ wishes. ”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “What about you, Gabriel?”

“What about me?”

“You did the same. You wanted me, and so you’re taking me.”

I expect a denial, or for him to twist the events that led to this, but neither comes. “Yes,” he admits with simplicity. “But that’s not the end of it.”

“Why?”

He shakes his head. “Because I am going to give you anything you want, Sofia. I am going to put you before anything and anyone else. I am going to live and die by your hand, and you will dictate the tides of my life. You already own me.” I can smell the sincerity in everything he’s saying.

“All I ask in return is for you to be kind to my bound heart. Will you?”

More tears flow down my cheeks. But I’m nodding eagerly, even as I sniffle, and his elated, widening smile short-circuits my brain.

I cannot think, but it doesn’t matter because he kisses my breasts and licks and bites my tender nipples until large shivers shake my body.

Then he’s taking my wrist and putting my hand on his erection. “Take my cock out,” he orders.

I don’t have much experience with unbuttoning men’s undergarments, and I fumble a little, feeling him pulsate in my hand. He’s hard and hot. Too big, but I already knew that.

“Now let me turn you around. Yes, like that.”

He flips me until I’m giving him my back, and I’m almost surprised to find that Lennart is still there.

Still staring at us with a mix of hatred and misery and pain.

It’s just hard to keep track of him when Gabriel is pressing me into him, forcing me to sit in his lap until his cock is nestled between my ass cheeks.

I should be trembling in terror, but all I can feel is anticipation.

“It’s okay, love,” he whispers into my ear. His thumb swipes back and forth against the gland between my shoulder blades, and I nearly convulse. “It’ll be okay. From now on, I’ll take care of you. You just have to keep your legs spread open.”

I tell myself that it’s disgraceful how easily and quickly I comply.

My head falls back into his chest. I let my thighs slide wider as he touches up and down my slit, letting out shameless moans, ignoring Lennart’s pitiful muted sobs.

I don’t even have to make an effort to shut him out because my brain and my body can focus on only one thing.

Gabriel.

“You think you’re ready to be fucked?” he asks.

“Yes,” I beg.

“Yes, what?”

“Yes…sir?”

“Good guess. Not that one, though.”

“Yes… Yes, Alpha.”

“Oh, no. I mean, that’s nice, don’t get me wrong. Very hot, and it makes me want to fuck you even more. But I don’t want you to call me Alpha. There are plenty of Alphas in this stronghold, and I’d like you to be more specific about who is going to fuck you in thirty seconds or so.”

My throat constricts. “Yes, Gabriel.”

It kills him a little, hearing his name.

A groan vibrates through his chest, and then I feel him shiver underneath me.

“Lennart,” he barks. “Stop crying, you fool; there’s nothing to be sad about.

We’re all having a great time here. This is going to be the fuck of a lifetime.

” And just like that, he shoves his cock deep inside.

There is no other word for it. It’s just a couple of hard, powerful thrusts, and then he’s almost in to the hilt.

My body contracts around his length, as if to clutch him tighter, draw him in farther.

“Look him in the eye, Sofia. Look Lennart in the eye while I get as deep inside you as is humanly— Fuck, yes. Fuck, this is good.”

It is. My nails leave scratches deep in his forearms. No one’s first time should be like this, in these circumstances, but the pleasure building inside me is so violent, I don’t know how to make peace with it.

“So fucking wet and tight. Ready for my knot already.”

He is so big, the root of him stretches me open obscenely, almost to the point of pain. Lennart thrashes weakly in the chair in front of us, as if to lunge at us and stop what we’re doing. “Stop,” he sobs, but I have no attention to spare for him.

“Lennart, be fucking serious.” There’s a tremor in Gabriel’s voice, an edge. His control may be about to snap. “Why would I stop fucking your mate when she feels so good? Her cunt is warm and hot and so fucking tight.”

Wails follow, but I cannot be bothered with them. They sound desperate but distant.

“She has this pretty indentation running down her spine. You can’t see it from there, so let me tell you about it. It’s made to touch. And made to fill with liquids. And you know what I’m referring to, don’t you?”

Lennart’s cries are quieting.

“But I’d have to knot outside her beautiful cunt for that, and I’m not sure that’s what I want.

You get that, don’t you?” Gabriel’s palm travels up my spine, fists my hair, and pulls at it so hard that my scalp tingles and my clit throbs.

“Legs stay open, sweetheart. You’re doing so well, but we’re giving him a show, aren’t we? ”

I nod. Try to chase the movements of his hips with mine, the slick sweat of my body sliding against his.

“Tell your mate how much you’re enjoying being fucked by me, Sofia.”

I cannot breathe. “I— Yes. Yes, I—”

“Say the words.”

“I enjoy being f-fucked.”

“By?”

“I enjoy being f-fucked by Gabriel, Lennart.”

Gabriel’s laughter is mean and affectionate. Triumphant.

“She’s close, Lennart. Your mate is so close.

Aren’t you happy for her?” He licks the base of my throat.

Presses his palm against my lower belly, shrinking the space he’s carved for himself inside me, making me feel even fuller.

“And I have even better news. I’m definitely going to let you live. Want to know why?”

It’s a rhetorical question, but Lennart is broken enough to stutter, “Y-yes?”

“Because Sofia is not your mate. She never was and never will be. She was always meant to be mine. And nothing makes me happier than knowing that for the rest of your miserable life, you’ll remember me ten inches deep inside her.

This Omega whom you profess to love but have hurt unspeakably.

And when she’s round with our children and swollen with my bite, I will parade her in front of you, and you will regret every single vile thing you—”

My release is a violent, full-bodied thing.

My thighs tremble, and I seize around Gabriel’s cock, overwhelmed by the pleasure that makes my spine dissolve and my muscles jerk.

I must lose consciousness because I don’t hear the rest of what he says.

In my next moment of awareness, I’m limp in his arms, empty, happy.

He cradles me lovingly, more so than I thought him capable of.

His knot pushes against the walls of my cunt, spreading me open, stuffing me full.

His come and mine trickle down our thighs, mixed together. Pools onto the floor. Gabriel’s release is not finished yet, but I can feel his grin unfurl against my throat. It’s more pleasure than I ever imagined.

“Mine,” he says. Then he pulls us down onto the bed and half flattens me underneath him, turning us away from Lennart and his near-silent, inconsequential weeping.

Aftershocks of my orgasm still twitch through me. “You’re serious about this,” I say.

It’s not a question, but he presses a kiss against my cheek. “Yes,” he says. Simple. To the point. I have no doubt that he means every word.

And suddenly, laughter bursts out of me.

“What?” he asks.

“Just…the children you mentioned.” I shake my head, but I can’t stop laughing.

Gabriel pulls me more closely into him. “Hmm?”

“When they ask about how their parents met, how are you going to explain any of this to them?”

He presses a small, amused kiss behind my ear. “We’ll think of something.” He sighs into my skin, and I let myself smile, too.