Page 21

MARLOWE

“I don’t think goading them was very wise,”

Linda warned as she turned the heat on for me.

I was still in my tiny party dress, and my legs were shaking uncontrollably in the cold car.

“Whatever, they needed to be knocked down a peg or two,”

I grumbled, my teeth chattering. “Do you really have an Omega Sanctuary?”

“Well, kind of. I sent my husband to his mom’s house for the time being, so the Sanctuary is technically just my place. But I’ve invited some of my friends to stay with us and keep watch over you until the Rite.”

The Rite. Thank god Elias had known enough about old shifter laws to be able to invoke it, but it still angered the crap out of me that females could just be fought over and then forced to live and sleep with whoever won.

I had all the faith in the world in Julian, but my mind ran through so many what-ifs that I thought I might puke.

“Do you have any clothes I can borrow?”

I asked. “I really don’t want to be wearing this for the next three days.”

Linda smirked and turned down a familiar street. “I’ll do you one better.”

My heart raced as she pulled into the driveway at my dad’s place. “Let’s pack your own stuff.”

Before I could even get out of the car Cam had rushed out and was opening it for me, almost ripping it off completely to get to me. He picked me up and held me tightly. “Baby, are you alright? Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?”

“Hey!”

Linda barked. Her next words were loud and intentional, her eyes darting in the darkness. “I’m dropping Marlowe off so she can collect her things to bring back to the Sanctuary and look at that, it’s going to take her until eight a.m. tomorrow morning.”

She then lowered her voice and spoke to my pack, now all gathered outside. “I’m sorry, it’s the best I can do without tipping off the Conclave.”

Elias nodded his thanks. “We really appreciate this.”

Linda patted me on the head. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, okay? Have fun tonight.”

Tears—real tears, this time—sprang to the corners of my eyes. “Thank you so much, for rescuing me from those assholes and…”

“Shh,”

she said, smiling. “I already told you I’d protect you however I could. The police chief is shitting bricks, first over the Conclave co-opting most of the patrol officers and now me going against them, but it’ll work out. Right, boys?”

“Yes, ma’am,”

Cam replied, his voice muffled as he buried his whole face in my neck.

Linda reached over and gave me a reassuring pat on the head before she got back in her car, leaving us alone for the night.

Cam carried me wordlessly inside, not allowing me to say one word to the rest of the pack before going straight for one of the bedrooms. He kicked the door closed behind him and laid me on the bed.

“I know I can’t have you all to myself tonight like I planned,”

he said quietly, taking off his clothes. “But for now, you’re mine.”

I sat up and took off my dress, happy to have it off of me. I had bought it just for Cam, but now it stunk like the Conclave and all I wanted to do was burn it.

Once it was unceremoniously dumped on the floor, I reclined back on my elbows, tilting my head and biting my lip as I waited for him to finish taking off his suit.

His pupils dilated at the sight of me in my lacy bra and underwear, his chest rumbling as he ran his hands along my curves. I closed my eyes, reveling in the sound and vibration of it.

Now that was a purr.

He took off my lingerie and sighed, wetting his lips. “You’re so beautiful it hurts, baby.”

Cam lowered his face until we kissed, and then he pushed me all the way back, his mouth moving down my body. My nipples hardened as his tongue circled them, sucking gently at the peaks while he kneaded my breasts in his large, calloused hands.

He was warm everywhere, and I melted into his touch, surrendering to every one of his heavy, measured strokes.

“Cam,”

I sighed, my hips bucking slightly as a building need grew in my core. I erased the past few hours of this horrible night, and went back to the feeling of Cam’s body against mine on the dance floor, his sweat and alpha scent—cardamom and cedar—turning me on as he gyrated against me, his lingering fingertips skating across every inch of skin he could see.

The unspoken promises for a night full of passion, now cut short by the need to share my time.

I hated having to divide the remaining hours up into paltry offerings. My pack deserved more, and I wanted more, to be present and to enjoy every moment tonight.

But rage simmered beneath my skin. It didn’t make any sense to me that in this day and age, a grown, adult female couldn’t make her own decisions about who she wanted to spend her life with.

On the outside, shifters looked like modern humans, but on the inside, this society was so steeped in patriarchal bullshit that it was over a century behind where they should have been. Not that modern humanity was where they should be, either. Fuck, my mind was wandering when all I wanted to do was give Cam my full, undivided attention. I reached down and scratched his head, feeling an orgasm build just from his thorough work on my nipples. A question that had been weighing on my mind came to the forefront as he licked over his bond mark, sending bolts of pleasure-tinged lightning straight into every one of my nerve endings. “Wait!”

Cam stilled, his eyes lifting to mine as his tongue stuck out, prepared to taste my nipple again.

“I’m so sorry, I just… I need to ask you something.”

His tongue retreated and he sat up, chest slightly heaving. “What is it, babe?”

My vision blurred from unshed tears, and I closed my eyes, willing them not to spill. “You guys are winning this—there isn’t a doubt in my mind. But…”

Cam’s expression tightened, and his nostrils flared. “Babe, please…”

“I thought you said bonding was forever!”

I cried, ripping the Band-Aid off.

He sighed deeply, his fingers running gently over his mark on my breast. My skin pebbled from the sensation of his touch, and I shivered beneath him. With trembling lips, I turned my head to the side before I really began to sob. “How can they take me away from you if we’re bonded?”

Talk about a boner killer.

“Fuck, Archer’s probably the best one to ask…”

I grabbed Cam’s hand and held it against my chest. “Please,”

I begged. “I want to hear it from you.”

Yes, Archer was the intellectual, but Cam could explain things in layman’s terms, and at the moment I just needed a quick and easy answer, not a forty-minute lecture on the history and biology of pack bonds.

He nodded in resignation, moving to my side and laying down. He pulled me into his chest, took a deep breath, and started. “It all comes down to dominance and hierarchies. Alphas—we’re at the top, right? Then betas, then omegas.”

My annoyance dried my tears, and I huffed in protest. How fucking archaic.

He let out a weak chuckle, kissing my neck. “Sorry, I didn’t make the rules.”

His fingertips skated down my arm. “Where was I? Oh yeah, dominance.”

His cock began to harden again behind me, and he slowly thrust towards me. “When you submit to a bond, you’re submitting to another shifter’s dominance. That’s why I bonded each of our pack mates, but they didn’t bond to each other. Their ties all go through me because I’m the pack leader.”

His hand now slipped down my abdomen, and I let out a small gasp as he made his way to my sex, his nose grazing my ear as his fingers found exactly where I wanted them to go. “But… how…”

The alpha knew how to work a clit. He rubbed me with increasing pressure and tempo, my pulse racing as my climax neared. “How can you be taken by another pack?”

he asked, filling in all my blanks.

I nodded on a sharp intake of breath, whimpering an affirmative reply.

“Bonds can only be broken by death, or when you’re bitten by someone more dominant. If…”

he paused, ignoring my protests as he lifted his head slightly to make sure I could see his face. “…because it’s a big fucking hypothetical if…”

His fingers went back to work, and I lost myself in the exquisite skill of his ministrations once more. “…we lost the Rite, our ranking against that pack would change, and they would automatically become the more dominant alphas. If they bond you, it would override our connection.”

I was hurtling towards the cliff, but the words he was saying were like a dead weight dragging me down, and I surged in frustration. “I won’t allow my life to be decided by made-up rankings like this is a goddamn video game!”

“It won’t,”

Cam replied, his voice husky with need. “Because you belong to us, no matter what a bunch of washed-up old alphas say. You’re as much my omega as you are Nolan’s, Elias’s, Archer’s… and Julian’s, if you want to bond with him.”

He slipped a finger inside my pussy, his thumb going in tight, hard circles against my clit. I was so close. “Yes, yes, I want him too! But Cam… right now, I just want you…”

My panting grew more frantic, the scent of my aroused slick filling the room. Cam inhaled deeply and growled, moving to position himself back on top of me, but I struck first.

I pushed him on his back and straddled his hips, sliding onto his cock and grinding against him to chase the orgasm that had slipped from his fingers during our brief power struggle.

Pssh, dominance. I’d fucking show him dominance. I ripped his hands off my waist from where he’d placed them, freeing myself to gyrate and rotate in wild abandon without his direction. I leaned my palms against his chest for support, my fingers digging into his hard pecs and the slight dusting of hair as I arched my back and lost myself in the feeling of him filling me completely. My nails left cutting half moons in his skin, but Cam didn’t even seem to notice—he bit his lips, half-lidded eyes glazed with lust piercing mine, challenging me with a knowing smirk.

We were both going to come soon, I could feel his engorged knot slip further and further inside me with each revolution of my hips. “Take whatever you want, babe,”

Cam moaned. “I’m all yours. Forever and ever.”

Forever and ever.

He had moved his hands to my thighs, and I took one, bringing it to my face. He cocked an eyebrow in amusement, wondering what I was up to. Have him hold my cheek? Suck his fingers?

I grinned, my orgasm building inside me until I couldn’t stop it even if I’d tried. I dropped down over his knot as I came, Cam grunting as he locked in, spilling his release inside me. Then I opened my mouth and struck, biting sharply into his wrist.

His eyes shot open in shock, and he hissed slightly at the sting, but made no attempt to stop me.

I had absolutely no idea if I was doing this right, or if my “genetically weak and submissive”

role would even change anything, but I didn’t care.

Cam was mine, and I was claiming him for anyone to see.

I licked his wound, the coppery tang of his blood coating my tongue, then settled down into his chest, wiggling in post-knot happiness as a purr rumbled through him. He rubbed my back in lazy circles, the other kneading my ass.

“How does it feel to be owned by an omega?” I asked.

He chuckled. “What are you talking about, babe? You’ve already owned me this entire time.”