Page 32 of Knot Letting Go (Knotty Streak Omegaverse #4)

I swallowed back another whimper as my heat pains ramped up once again. It was inevitable that they came back, but it couldn’t have been at a worse time. I couldn’t allow myself to wallow in my misery because I had to be strong for Lillianna.

She laid curled up on the bed next to me. I tenderly stroked her head as she slept. She usually didn’t take naps, but today was emotionally exhausting. If my heat wasn’t tormenting me and I wasn’t hyper alert for Lorenzo or any of his men, I would have conked out too.

I wiped at the tears that never seemed to dry up and stared out the window at the beach. When we couldn’t load onto the plane at the airport, Lorenzo was furious, and from the looks he’d been giving me, I thought it might be the end. This was where I ended up shot and tossed into the ocean.

Instead, we drove to a rental house where he’d been staying. It was a surprisingly modern and minimalist house on the beach. Of course it had all the luxuries a man of his stature would need, and most importantly, it was private. The nearest neighbors were just out of sight over a dune.

While I preferred a cozy seaside cottage with homely touches, I could imagine this place would be somewhere Quill and Konstantine would take us on a family vacation. We’d play and laugh on the beach, and Lillianna would have us all be mermaids.

My fantasy future had slipped between my fingers. No, it was viciously yanked away by a real life monster.

I gasped as another twisting cramp grabbed a hold of me. The sun was lowering to the horizon. In a few hours, my pain would be so bad, I wouldn’t be able to move. I’d be useless to Lillianna when she needed me the most.

Sucking back a sob, I slipped off the bed and leaned against the wall as I made my way to the bathroom on shaky legs.

Despite the danger of our situation, all I could think about was being knotted.

Quill’s playful and hot kisses with his hands everywhere, and Konstantin’s demanding touches and dominating manner.

Both their cocks in me. One in my mouth, sucking hard and thrusting down my throat, and the other pounding my pussy, stretching it to its limits with his knot.

Slick drenched my panties and made my inner thighs slippery. I made it to the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water. Wetting a washcloth, I dabbed it on my chest and over my stomach before lifting my skirt to try to combat the heat radiating off me there.

Instead, my hips tried to rock against my hand. I sobbed, muffling it with my arm. Nothing I could do would help. I needed Quill and Konstantin.

The door to the bedroom opened, and for one brief second, I thought God had answered my prayers. My pack was here. They’d come for us.

Yet reality hit me like a train when I caught the foul scent of tobacco and black pepper. Everything in me recoiled from it. The smell was so thick, bile bubbled up in my throat and I nearly vomited.

A massive figure stalked past the bathroom door to peer into the bedroom and whipped around to stand in the doorway. A wolfish grin split his face.

Lorenzo’s nephew. Matteo.

Not him. Please God, anyone other than him.

“There you are, pretty little Omega.” Matteo exhaled deeply as his eyes dilated. “I could smell you from across the house. Fucking ripe.”

I shook my head, as if it wasn’t true, and pressed my back against the far wall of the bathroom. There was nowhere to run. No one would come to save me. I couldn’t even scream or else I would frighten Lilllianna.

“Sweet like honey. Mm-mmm!” Matteo lazily shrugged off his suit jacket and hung it on the doorknob.

He was easily six and a half feet tall and wider than a fridge.

His suit might have been expensive, but there was nothing classy about the Alpha.

“Lorenzo said to let you be until we were back home, but you need my big cock, don’t you, Omega?

You need me to fuck you bloody and knot that tight little cunt. ”

“No. Please, no.” The words came out as tiny squeaks. I wrapped my arms around myself. I could scream and let Lorenzo know what was going on, but again, Lillianna. Tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped off my chin.

“I’ll have you begging for it, bitch. Soon you’ll want nothing other than my knot.” Matteo walked forward, undoing his shoulder gun holster and setting it on the sink.

“No!” I managed to get more volume and retreated into the corner with the toilet. I banged on the wall to the hallway outside the bedroom.

Someone please hear it. I don’t know if I could survive this!

Matteo’s hand struck out and snatched my arm, yanking me toward him. “You better be quiet, or you’ll wake the girl.” Seeing my alarm at that, he grinned. “Oh yeah, maybe I ought to go get her. She’s not too young to learn her place.”

What the fuck? This man was a sicko. He was worse than a thousand Lorenzos.

I wiggled and tried to break free, but it was like I was a fawn caught by a mountain lion. My struggles were barely an annoyance to him. I grabbed a towel and threw it at him, and when I took hold of another, he back-handed me across the face.

My world spun, black around the edges. I barely hung on to consciousness. A trickle of something warm slid down to my lips.

Blood.

“I like that you’re scared and yet you’re still fighting. It fucking makes me harder.” Matteo dragged me out of the corner, ripping my shirt’s sleeve. “I think I’m going to keep you. Put a Pacetti boy in your belly. It’ll be another reason Lorenzo will let me take over when he’s done.”

I was barely hanging on to my sanity. This was worse than hell. This was… His cell in his jacket beeped, confusing me with the discordant noise.

“You’re going to take everything I give you real quiet.” Matteo growled and leaned in, licking the blood from my mouth. I pounded at his chest with my fists, but he took no notice.

“Matteo!” A shout came from the hall.

He snarled and punched the tiled wall. “What?”

“Get your ass out here. Birk’s people are closing in!”

Rescue was coming! A sob coughed out of my throat.

“God fucking dammit!” Matteo released my arm and snatched a handful of my hair to drag me out of the bathroom.

Rescue was so close. I only had to last another few minutes.

Desperately, I snatched Matteo’s gun from the sink as he pulled me past it. I tried to get it out of the holster, but he hit me again, and I fell to the floor. My head pounded as nausea made me curl up on my side.

“Get up!” Matteo just wouldn’t let up. He squeezed my throat as he picked me up and brought me so close that our noses were almost touching.

“You’re mine now. I’m going to breed you, you little Omega bitch.

Once we take care of these American idiots, I’m going to fuck you so hard, my knot will rip you end to end. ”

I didn’t belong to him. I’d never belong to this bastard. Only Quill and Konstantin owned my heart. It didn’t matter how much he hurt me or if he bred me. He could never touch that sacred place inside of me where only my pack resided.

I spit in his face.

Matteo’s beady eyes bulged and he raised his fist again.

The door to the bedroom opened and the other suited man glared at us. “Stop fucking around, Matteo. Lorenzo wants you to hide the girls and guard the back.”

“Aubrielle! What’s going on?” Lillianna cried from the bedroom.

Everything in me suddenly became solely focused on Lillianna. I yanked myself free from Matteo, the sleeve of my shirt tearing off into his hand, and ran into the room to gather her in my arms. I rubbed her back and shushed her. The less fuss she made, the safer she'd be.

“It’s okay, sweetie. I’m here.”

Lillianna gently touched my cheek, and tears pooled in her eyes. “You’re hurt.”

“Get moving, you two.” Matteo pushed us toward the door. He gave me another shove as I picked up Lillianna. “Walk. I know just where to put you two.”

There was a cruel gleam in his eyes that made me cringe inside.

As long as I had Lillianna and we were out of the middle of whatever was going to happen, I could get us through this.

My head throbbed and my heat pains clawed at me from the inside out, but this little girl in my arms was all that mattered.

Matteo forced us on a staggering march through the house and out the back door onto the patio.

He led us off it and down under it where a large water cistern hummed, half buried under the ground.

It had to hold tens of thousands of gallons of collected rainwater.

Enough to keep the house supplied through weeks without rain.

He twisted a wheel and opened a hatch. Wait. He was going to put us in there?

“You can’t do this!” I darted toward the beach, and he hooked me around the middle, tossing me against the steel side of the cistern. I cradled Lillianna against me as she started to wail.

“Get inside or I’ll put you in.” Matteo didn’t have the cold calm of his boss. He was near feral, and that made him unpredictable. No one was supposed to hurt Lillianna, but I didn’t trust him. I had to do whatever it took to protect her.

I squatted with Lillianna and set her on the ground.

She flailed, trying to keep a hold of me, but I cupped her face and wiped at the tears.

“So this thing is like an underground pool. We’re going to swim for a bit while everyone here deals with their business.

It’ll be dark and scary at first, but we’re mermaids. Mermaids are fine in the water.”

Lillianna slowly quieted and stared at me with her big trusting eyes. God, what I would give to never have her afraid again in her life.

“Get the fuck in there!” Matteo had no patience and stepped toward me as if he was about to pick me up and stuff me into the cistern.

There was no ignoring him, but I didn’t acknowledge his command.

“I’ll go first, sweetie.” I stood and pulled myself up on top of the container.

Lowering myself inside, I had to let myself drop as there was nothing to hold onto.

There was about six feet of water. Enough that I couldn’t stand on the bottom, and crap, it was cold.

The shock of it did nothing to eliminate the pains from my heat, though.

“Okay, lower Lillianna down to me. Gently.”

If that bastard was rough with her in any way…

Lillianna whimpered as she was lowered into the portal and then unceremoniously dropped. I grabbed her immediately, hugging her to me as Matteo slammed the hatch shut. Lillianna coughed out water and clung to me, making it difficult for me to stay afloat.

There was a tiny green light at the far end of the cistern closest to the house, but that was the only light we had. It was dark and cold, a watery tomb.

I couldn’t let myself think like that. I had to make sure Lillianna got out of here. The pain in my head became a stabbing and my heat twisted my guts. I couldn’t keep us both afloat. I needed her not to be attached to me like a barnacle.

“Okay, sweetie. We’re safe in our underground pool.

I need you to be brave and do your best starfish.

Do you remember how to do that?” I kissed the top of her head, almost slipping beneath the surface of the water as I did so.

Goosebumps covered my skin, but at the same time, I was burning up from the inside-out.

“I don’t want to let go.” She sniffled and tightened her grip on me.

“Oh, my sweet girl, I know. But I can’t keep swimming forever.

I don’t have my mermaid tail on.” Not that would help in reality, but I had to play to her imagination and lessen the danger we were in.

“Mermaids are very good at swishing their tails, even when they’re asleep.

Have you ever seen a fish asleep in their aquarium? That’s exactly what they do.”

“Really?” Lillianna’s arms loosened a fraction.

“Yes, fish can absolutely swim in their sleep, and so can mermaids. I can’t without a tail, though. That’s why I need you to starfish for me. You were super good at it in the pool.” I assured her.

“But I’m cold and I have to pee.” She lowered her chin, embarrassed about it.

“It’s okay. If you need to pee, just do it.

This pool has a filtration system to clean it out.

I think that’s what the light over there is for.

I’m cold too, but we’ll get used to it, and hopefully we won’t be in here very long.

” I kissed her cheek and moved to float as much as I could on my back with her.

“My head will be right beside your head. We can hold hands too, if that helps.”

“Okay.” Lillianna slowly let me go and turned to float on her back with her arms and legs spread like a star. She kept one hand on mine, and she was so cold. Poor tiny thing. “I’m scared, Aubrielle.”

I gave her hand a squeeze. “It’s okay to be scared. Being brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means doing something even though you’re scared. We’ll be scared and brave together.”

There was a muffled gunshot from outside, and a few seconds later, there was a shout. The sound of the water in the metal cistern was weirdly loud, and the beat of my heart drummed in my ears.

A heat pain lanced through me, and I couldn’t stop myself from curling up. I dipped underwater and gasped as I fought against it, trying to keep my legs and arms straight so I could float. I refused to let go of Lillianna’s hand, but there was no hiding my struggle as I splashed around.

“Are you okay? What are those noises outside?” Lillianna’s voice hedged on panic.

“I’m okay. Don’t worry. I banged on the edge of the tank when I fell in here and it’s sore, but I can keep floating.

” God, I hoped I could. “Maybe those are fireworks outside. I don’t know, but we’ll be good mermaids and keep safe here.

Can you tell me a story about what sort of friends and treasure we’d find in a dark sea cave? I bet the fish would glow in the dark.”

Lillianna started slowly at first, but then her narrative picked up.

Hopefully it would distract her from our dire situation for a bit.

I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing back my cries at my increasing agony.

Of all the ways the Omegas were told that their heat could be the death of them, drowning inside a cistern was never one of them.

My world became an excruciating watery blur. Several times I slipped below the water, my body not wanting to straighten out.

I couldn’t die. Not yet. Lillianna needed me.

It was the only thing that allowed me to keep fighting.