Page 25

I felt like I’d been hit by a semi. Love? The word didn’t feel adequate for the tsunami that was destroying my previous notions of the term. This wasn’t love, this was something else—an all encompassing melding of souls.

* * *

It was only later, much later, when the fuzzy haze dissipated, that reality crashed in hard.

Beyond my apartment window, daylight was rising, casting my room in shades of grey. It might as well have been a harsh spotlight and not the soft glow of approaching dawn.

The nest, what there was of it, was scattered to the floor, the covers screwed up and soaked with slick and cum, but my omega, the most precious thing in my world, was what stopped my heart before it kicked back into a sick, languid thud.

When you love someone, you care more about the other person’s feelings than your own.

I’d heard that but hadn’t expected it to be true, so when I looked at Sloane, my mate, my heart, my fucking everything, all I could feel was pain.

I knew what this was, I’d seen it before.

The bites, the smears of cum, the stringy hair, the marked skin.

Fuck, had I seen this on Ella…but this time, I was the perpetrator.

Forcing my weak legs to move, I eased from her arms, went to the bathroom, and turned the water on, waiting a few minutes to check the temperature before returning to the bedroom.

“Come on, baby,” I said, gathering her in my arms.

“What’s happening?” she mumbled, small hands clutching out of fear I would put her down. Through the bond, I felt her alarm that I might set her aside.

“It’s okay, baby, just going to get you cleaned up.”

I felt sickness roil in my gut. Sloane would be screaming and pushing me away in a moment when she realised what I’d done, what my beast had done to her.

Inside, the fucker was preening. He liked the marks and her languid state. To him, she was a well rutted and claimed omega wearing the evidence of his prowess. The man in me recoiled at everything he rejoiced over.

“Do you need to go?” I asked.

More mumbled protests and clinging followed when I tried to disentangle her. So with her still in my arms, I carried her to the toilet. She went, hissing and cursing me out the whole time because apparently, “it fucking stings.”

That, that was the first strike. I’d fucking hurt her, just like all alphas did.

Once done, I lifted her up again, carried her to the bath, and with her still clinging, stepped into the tub. She sighed, burying her nose in the crook of my throat as the warm water went to work.

My hands stroked over her body. I couldn’t fucking help myself.

This last moment, where she was still glowing with warmth and love, I wanted to gather it all up, ready for when she came down and ordered me away.

My beast growled at the thought of being pushed aside.

He had his own opinion on how to handle an omega who resisted, and it involved putting her on her hands and knees and rutting her into submission.

My fucking cock jerked, and my omega wiggled on my lap, arse rolling over my stiffening cock with a groan of delight.

Her teeth nipped at my throat, startling a low growl of pleasure from me, and she bit again, harder.

“Baby, look at me,” I said, lifting her chin, forcing her to meet my eyes. This was fucking torture, and I needed to skip to the part where she told me to fuck off because I fucking deserved it.

Then she did, and her eyes… I swear, I was drowning in her eyes and all the emotion there. “I can feel you,” she whispered, small hand pressing to her chest and then to mine. “Inside. I can feel you inside.”

I swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry, Sloane. I’m so fucking sorry.”

Her face fell, smile crumbling and brows puckering in confusion. Through the bond, I felt the first notes of discord. Her gaze lowered to my throat, eyes widening now, following a trail as she passed over the marks she’d put upon me.

“Jesus! I—” Her eyes dropped, as I knew they would, to her chest, her creamy tits littered with marks and…bites.

Then she did something I wasn’t expecting. She lifted her hand, fingers brushing over the nearest welt tentatively before she pressed firmly against the skin…and groaned.

She fucking groaned like she was in the throes of ecstasy.

Her fingers moved up, skimming over her collarbone all the way to her throat, pausing just below the mutilated flesh.

I swallowed, and our eyes locked, only hers weren’t filled with revulsion. They were filled with heat.

“I need to see,” she whispered.

I shook my head.

“Jace, I need to fucking see.”

“No,” I growled, letting out my alpha bark and stilling her instantly.

I’d told myself I was ready for her revulsion, that I would handle it, but I wouldn’t fucking handle it.

Seeing my marks on her, my claiming mark in particular, drove both the man and beast in me fucking nuts, only we were perfectly aligned in this because I loved seeing my mark on her and I wanted it to leave a scar.

“Will it scar?” she asked like she could read my mind.

I nodded once, slowly.

Her lips tugged up, like the cat that got the cream. “Good,” she said. “I want it to.”

I was supposed to be cleaning her up, but I was out of the tub with the slippery bundle of woman in my arms and striding off to the bed.

Here, I dumped her, sopping wet, upon the ruined nest and buried my nose between her thighs, filling my lungs with her scent.

Later, we would talk. Later, I would unpick the nuances of her reaction and work out what the fuck it meant, but now, I needed to soothe her poor, sore pussy with my mouth and tongue.

I needed her to come apart for me.

He wanted to remind her why I was her alpha.

He wanted to remind her of why she should stay.

“Nummnnnn.” Her mumbled cries of pleasure as I lapped at her soreness, her fingers tearing into my hair, told me this wasn’t unredeemable.

I needed to get her off, and I needed it hot and fast.

She did, wet pussy riding my face, gifting me her sweet slick in a great rush, and I was fucking greedy for it.

If I lived to be a hundred, I would never tire of this, and my beast agreed.

I got my tongue deep into her hot cunt as she rode out the last of her climax before I turned my attention to her clit and took her tumbling again.

I was a fucking addict, and I was getting my fix.

The third time, she screamed herself hoarse, and finally, her fingers ripping into my hair registered enough for me to come up for air.

I swiped a hand down my face, taking in the beautiful woman sprawled out on my bed, soapy in places, hair wet where it had dipped in the water.

Her body was still littered with the evidence of my possession, but her eyes were glazed with lust… and love.

“Jesus, Jace. Are you trying to kill me?” she murmured with a contented sigh.

Her reprimand lost its edge when she performed a lazy, catlike stretch.

“I want to be held. I need to scent you close. Then after, when I can think straight, you’re going to tell me what that bullshit in the bathroom was all about. ”

Like a good alpha, a slave to his omega mistress, I did exactly as she asked, climbing over her, gathering her in close, and letting her breathe in my scent as I purred for her.

The bond, I realised, didn’t just go one way.

I had some explaining to do.